Birchcampers.com teardrop build

[dabend]

Hello, I'm building my first teardrop and decided to go with a Birchcampers.com kit and I'm posting this to help others who might be considering this kit. I'm well into the build and there are pros and cons but the deciding factor was just to get an easy start with CNC cut parts. As I gain more experience in this build I can tell you that I probably wouldn't do another one from a kit but it has helped with the learning experience and I think it will be a nice looking camper. Here is what the kit looks like once it's delivered (delivery isn't cheap ~$400). My goal is to finish the kit with solar power electric, a vent fan, a nice galley and all of the incidental items that make it a camper (mattress, kitchen items, tongue box, storage etc..). My initial estimate for building the camper was around $6000 but is looking more like about $7000 which is still a 1/3 of a nice commercially built camper. So, far it has turned out to be a bigger project than anticipated but I'm enjoying it immensely. Note: I don't think the posted 40 hour build time is feasible unless your doing a stock build, you have built one before and you don't include waiting for 4 coats of epoxy and varnish to dry.

The first thing I did was to start laying out parts, trying to figure out how everything goes together. You'll notice that I've already assembled the trailer and am using it for the build surface. The trailer is a Northern Tools aluminum UltraTow (again pros/cons and time will tell). The kit comes with 1/2 inch baltic birch for the floor but I decided to use OSB which is water resistant and I sealed the bottom with spar varnish and coated it with truck bed liner per the build instructions. I will bondo the top of the OSB to smooth it and plan to lay vinyl plank flooring. That gives me two large sheets of birch plywood to use for the galley and interior cabinets and it makes the floor thicker and I hope a little longer lasting. It did cause some extra work because I had to route the edges down to set on the frame as well as match the original floor thickness so the sides glue on correctly.

Since, I have never built a teardrop camper and I'm building a kit based on someone else's plan it took me a while to figure out how the parts go together and the best way to glue and assemble them. Jed from Birchcampers.com is very helpful and always responds to emails but the build guide could definitely use some better photos and more detail drawings. The first thing I really struggled with was how the front interior wall attaches to the exterior supports. The correct layout follows (note the corners touch and there should be a 3/16" gap for the skin). Per Jed: "bevel up- referencing the notch in the 1/4” sidewall". It makes perfect sense now but it was like trying to fit puzzle pieces together at first.

Since I don't have a big shop and I'm building it outside on the trailer bed, it was easiest for me to layout the exterior supports, put on the glue and then lay the inner wall on top and use a brad nailer with 5/8" brads (nailing down into the supports). This can cause issues because the tolerances on the support joints are loose, so you have to be careful that nothing moves around. I did wind up with a gap on one side that required some filler. Jed's build videos show nailing from the bottom up because they had enough room to move the side around and overhang the table. I used garden bricks as weight to help hold everything flat while drying.

Gluing was followed by filler and sanding.

Then gluing the interior supports (note the 1/2" gap from the bottom of the side. The side actually drops down over the edge of the flooring and sits on the trailer.

After the sides and doors have been glued up it's ready for sealing. I decided to use 2 coats of UV resistant 521 epoxy (4 hour cure) and 2 coats of Helmsman Spar varnish on all of the exterior surfaces. This was very time consuming waiting for each coat to set a day before doing the next. While I've used epoxy many times before I had not used it on this scale and found you really need to move fast with only 10 minutes of working time (less on a hot day). Not to mention going through a lot of stir sticks, cups, brushes and rollers. You can see on the side below where I was trying to roll out the epoxy on a really hot day and thought I had more time. Fortunately epoxy sands out well.

In the next post I show the sides going up and getting started on some modifications and the galley.

 

[dabend]

Since I wanted to use a clear epoxy and varnish to finish the flat side parts, they needed to be finished horizontally before assembly. Both the epoxy and especially the varnish are easier to set and sand while laying flat. In my experience varnish runs badly when applied to a vertical surface. So, once all of the finish was complete I built two 90 deg. jigs and screwed them to the floor using short deck screws so they wouldn't go through the floor. I glued the sides on with Gorilla glue. The build guide calls out for using a caulk gun and Loctite PL premium adhesive but I've never liked using construction adhesive and chose Gorilla glue and TiteBond Ultimate waterproof glue. As you can see in the photo the floor has a layer of bondo applied and sanded to smooth out the floor and it's ready for the vinyl plank flooring later.

After both walls are up and clamped to the 90 deg. jigs, the cross members are glued on.

At this point it's time to test fit the galley parts to figure out the next steps. This led to my first modification. I didn't like how short the galley counter is and since I now have spare 1/2 inch birch plywood (from using OSB for the floor) cut a 4 inch strip and biscuit joined it to the original counter to bring it closer to the galley edge. That gives more room for cabinets on the top and underneath.

The vertical galley walls are glued in and the next step is to assemble the galley door. I've been waffling on whether to use a 12v cooler/freezer or a decent seven day cooler and felt that I should purchase it before gluing up the galley to make sure everything fit. I finally decided on the Walmart Lifetime 7 day cooler. I knew it would barely fit and tried to find a similar cooler from other manufacturers but they were all about the same size. So, this leads to the 2nd modification. Jed designed the Big Sprig to fit a queen mattress, so that only left 18 inches for the galley. To make room for the big cooler to fit I had to cut one of the galley supports and move the bottom piece over and put additional thinner supports across the bottom. The nice thing about Jed's crating was that he used several scrap pieces of 1/4" baltic birch for the crate sides. I just glued 4 of those together and was able to cut three 1" thick supports out using the original for a pattern. I plan to reinforce those with additional gussets after the skin is on.

Now it's time for the third modification which is to add framing for a standard 11" vent. The optional vent that is sold for the Birchcamper kits is just a small aluminum vent with no fan. I knew from the start that I would be doing something different because here in Missouri it gets very hot and humid. And while my rule is never to camp in Missouri during the summer (spring and fall are OK - but I head for Mountains in the summer) I still didn't want a big rolling sauna. I used this opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. I cut the center support at the top cross member and duplicated the trailing piece. By doing that I have two center supports from the fan to the galley that I can use for the sides of the fan opening and I plan to make a 1/8" birch cover and use it as a wiring access run for the dome light, fan and possibly solar panels. I'm not sure about the solar panels and think it may be better to go with a folding panel that I can sit out away from the camper so it can be parked in the shade.

I added additional framing to make the walls of the opening 1-1/2" thick to match the fan flange and have a surface for it to screw into. I'll fill sand and round the corners to match the flange and make it look nicer.

That about brings me up to date. I'm working on the galley cabinetry now and will plan to get the skin put on next.

 

[Tony Latham]

...is to add framing for a standard 11" vent.

The standard vent fan opening is 14". (Fantastic, Maxxair etc.)



Tony

 

[dabend]

I'm sure you're correct since they seem to be more common but when I was searching for fan vents I found a lot of links for both 11" and 14" vents. I assumed the 11" was standard for smaller RVs. Has to be more common that the weird little aluminum vent that was an option for the kit (at least I've never see one like it).

 

[dabend]

I forgot to mention that I also put four of those telescoping stabilizer jacks on also. I wanted to get them added before I put the vinyl plank flooring in so that I could screw through the floor into some 2x6" treated angles. I made sure the angles were under the trailer beam and not just the floor. The jacks work really well for as cheap as they are and I wish I had put them on sooner because it makes the trailer much easier to work on. In the first picture you can also see the truck bed liner on the bottom of the floor. I replaced the small screws that came with the jacks with 5/16" lag screws and they are solid.

 

[Capebuild]

Has to be more common that the weird little aluminum vent that was an option for the kit (at least I've never see one like it).

I put two of those "weird little aluminum vents" in my trailer just above the bed level. I'll tell you when you have the ceiling fan on, and those vents are open, the fan pulls a large quantity of air through those vents and quite nicely helps to ventilate the cabin. I put some bug screening on the interior of the vent's punched holes to prevent small bugs from being pulled in. Very glad I put those vents into the build. Shown in the attached image (in closed position) front of the door below the marker light.

 

[dabend]

Interesting, that definitely looks more like how they should be used and they look good on the side of your camper. I never considered them for air intakes.

 

[dabend]

I made good progress in the last couple of weeks. I'm working on lots of little details, trim and filler. I've been focusing on finishing the lower galley so that I can complete the modification for the galley hinge. I didn't pay attention when I ordered the kit that it comes with a piano hinge for the galley hatch. I don't like the idea of that, so I've ordered a hurricane hinge and need to do some modifications to the mating surfaces. But before I start modifying anything I want to make sure that I know how it all fits together.

After looking through tons of galley images on google I decided I liked the cooler slide-out and shelves for plastic totes. I also added a storage shelf for a camp stove and added a bracket for a side table that is lower than the galley counter (I think my wife will appreciate that). I trimmed and finished everything and laid down the vinyl planks. I won't finish the upper galley until I get the galley hatch fitted and the skin on. I'm still undecided on the opening on the left. I had planned to make it a cabinet but think it might be handy to have some open storage and a place where I could put a five gallon bucket if I wanted to.

Here's the cooler slide-out being test fitted. Again searching google images was very helpful and I liked this design using aluminum angle.

The kit doesn't come with any kind of trim other than the main supports and rails. So, I made 1/2" x 1/2" cavetto moulding out of strips of the birch plywood and added trim just about everywhere. In some cases to hide newbie mistakes or just for extra glue surface but also because I liked the looks of it.

Here's a bonus photo of a little moth that decided that the birch plywood would be a good place to hang out. Amazing natural camouflage!

Next week I hope to finish up the galley hinge modification

 

[dabend]

I had a productive couple of weekends although the weather didn't fully cooperate and I had to work around some rain. The first thing I did was to finish up the cooler slide out. It worked out nice and the lid opens vertically (barely).

The next thing I wanted to do was get the galley door hinge surface modification done. Since the kit comes with a piano hinge the mating pieces are cut at an angle instead of a perpendicular 90 degrees. I used a Rockwell trim saw to cut off the angled piece from the galley door and glued and nailed it to the galley wall to create the 90 degree surfaces needed for the hurricane hinge. I didn't really like doing that but in my experience a joint with Titebond glue is stronger than the wood itself so I'm not worried about it. I did wind up cutting off a little more on the galley door side because the hurricane hinge requires about a 5/16" gap.

Next, I put the skin on the galley door and then spent some time fitting and adjusting the door to make sure the new hinge worked properly and that the aluminum overhang was still going to seal when closed.

Now that the skin is on it was time to reinforce the galley door with gussets. I added large gussets to the hinge side since I did make the top piece narrower by cutting it back for the hurricane hinge. The bottom of the door got small gussets on every corner to make sure the narrower ribs are good and solid.

All of that was followed by sanding, sanding and more sanding. At this point I wanted to get all of the interior cabin nail holes filled and sanded before I put the cabin skin on, so that I had plenty of light to see any little gazitneys. Again followed by sanding, sanding and more sanding. I finally figured out what one short curved piece of wood that came with the kit was for by looking at the build guide and spotting it in a picture. It was a reinforcement for the center support which was milled in two parts. It was a 1/2 thick part that was to be glued on the side of the center support, but I have issues with a lack of symmetry and cut the part in half on my band saw, so that it was glued on both sides of the center support. I also avoid the modern art room at the Nelson-Atkins Museum (https://www.nelson-atkins.org/).

Finally, it was time to put the cabin skin on. I was pretty excited to get to this point 4 months of weekends later. I clamped the skin pieces on to verify how the pieces would line up and then pestered my beautiful wife assistant to help me hold up the skin while tacking it on. She informed me that I couldn't yell at her (I think she was thinking it would be like the episode of friends where Ross and Chandler are trying to get the couch down the stairwell). Anyhow, it actually went on fairly easily and I was very happy with the result. The stressful part was trying to get all of the glue on quickly so it wouldn't dry before the skin went on. One of the reasons I like Titebond III Ultimate is it has a longer working time.

The next exciting part was to finally put the doors on! I followed the build guide and had pre-marked the hinge placement months ago, so it was just a matter of using the provided 1/4" spacers to fit the door and then screwing the hinges on. I do like the hinges that the kit comes with, they're all heavy gauge stainless and they slide up so that you can take the doors off. I also put the upper and lower latches on the door. It was nice to finally start using some of the hardware that came with the kit, and I like how all of the small hardware comes in a nice organizer.

Here's a photo of the inside after the roof skin is on:

Next weekend I hope to get the epoxy and varnish done on the cabin skin and after that it will be back to the galley and the shelves for the inside. I'm getting close to the point of purchasing a tongue box and starting my electric and wiring plan.

 

[dabend]

I had another couple of good weeks working on the camper and the weather has been fantastic here in Missouri. I spent most of last weekend building the top frame for the vent fan and rolling on epoxy. The fan frame took a lot longer than I expected because it was a convoluted piece with arcs and angles and I used 1/4" birch plywood as a veneer on 1-1/2" pine so the fan had something to screw in to. Here is is with the fan being test fit.

The weather wasn't great for epoxy and was much cooler than it had been and was super windy. I got two coats of epoxy on the camper but gave up because so much crud was blowing out of the trees, and had to wait until the next weekend to do the 2nd coat on the galley door. I finished up the epoxy on the galley door first thing the following weekend and started on the spar varnish. Since the varnish takes a day to dry for each coat I worked on finishing the door hardware and windows.

When I started installing the window and screen I found that I had missed gluing on a piece that raises the hinge to accommodate the screen. The piece was milled out of birch plywood but left a gap on each side of the window frame that I didn't like and had to fill in. Once that was done, I installed the windows per the build guide but found that all of the pop rivets were causing both the screen and the window to have gaps and not lay flat. There was nothing in the build guide about that, so I went ahead and drilled some relief holes int the window frame so the screen would lay flat when the thumb screws were tightened. The window hinge also had some big pop-rivets in it that kept the window from laying flat, so I drilled to oversized holes so that it would lay down flat also. That made me feel better but I think the window will leak in heavy rain storm, so I'm scheming how to make the window waterproof, or put some kind of storm window on the outside that can be removed.

Here's a photo of the window from the inside. I haven't figured out what holds the window closed yet. The build guide is light on details and none of the remaining hardware looks like it would help. Maybe I'll 3d print a catch or something that fits under the thumb screw.

Next up is the door handle and lock. There is also a latch on the inside that I still need to put on since you can't lock it from the inside.

After the spar varnish dried it was time to attach all of the aluminum trim that comes with the kit. The aluminum is just flat stock that has to be drilled and glued on with silicone to seal it. I started with the front trim that covers the joint where the floor is angled to mate with the front of the camper.

Next up were the drip rails at the top of each door. I don't like how the drip rail starts after the rounded door corner and ends early before the hinge, so once again I think I'll be 3d printing some pieces to finish the ends. I already have some silver PETG plastic that will work well, and I'm sure it will take a few prototypes and some wasted plastic to make it match up right. That will be one my winter projects since I'll probably only have a few more weeks of nice weather.

Finally it's time to do the galley door trim. I put the bottom trim on first and then one of the sides with a few screws for a test and fortunately everything lined up pretty nicely. About that time I figured out I'd better put the handle on because I had a hard time getting the door back off. I had to stop again because the build guide shows the handle at the very bottom, drilled through the aluminum trim. I don't want the handle that low because I plan to put a wood bumper on the back of the trailer. The bumper will mostly be to hold the license plate because I really don't like it on the plastic mount under the brake like like the trailer instructions show. So, I cut some 1/2" birch back pieces and glued them about 8" above the bottom.

The last thing I squeezed into the weekend was test fitting the fan dome light. I drill holes through the back of the frame to run the wires out into the wiring channel.

 

[dabend]

I just spotted a fuzzy photo of the window on the Birchcamper.com gallery that helps me to understand how the window is intended to work. I've enjoyed this kit build but the build guide could use some work because you really have to dig for details outside of it. Anyhow, the photo shows that there is a strip of closed cell weather stripping on the window frame (or maybe on the window itself), and that the thumb screws are used to hold the window down. I assume that for this to work the screen would have to be removed to seal the window for bad weather. I probably didn't need to add the relief holes since the weather stripping would take care of the gap.

 

[orourkmw]

It’s really looking good. It’s amazing how many little details all have to be worked through. I don’t know if you’re still considering a 5 gal bucket in the galley, but a collapsible 2.5 gal bucket works well in our truck camper.

 

[dabend]

orourkmw wrote:
I don’t know if you’re still considering a 5 gal bucket in the galley, but a collapsible 2.5 gal bucket works well in our truck camper.

I am still considering the bucket since it seems practical to have a place just to stash all of the odds and ends for camping. I personally like the collapsible bucket idea and I've been scheming on tubs and other items I've seen, but for some reason my wife really doesn't like them. So, it's always fun for me to point out collapsible containers and tell her we need them. I think she'll be more understanding for this application though since space is so limited.

BTW, I seriously like the wood strip exterior on your build. Building a strip canoe is on my bucket list.

 

[dabend]

I struggled to get much done this weekend and spent most of my time on the galley door testing and tweaking the seal trim and struts. I started out trying to assemble the struts and pucks that hold up the galley door and just had one stupid moment after another.

The first try I assembled the struts so they would swing back towards the hinge and glued the pucks on the side walls. The build guide shows that the struts can be assembled to swing either direction. However, I wasn't paying attention and glued the pucks too close to the edge so that the door couldn't close all the way.

For the second try I removed the puck from the sidewall (not pretty), and reversed the strut direction only to find out that I didn't leave quite enough space between the wall and the slide out cooler. The door still wouldn't close.

After mulling the door strut issue around a while the only thing I can come up with is to switch to using a strut and pin type where the strut ends just sit in pin holes and are removable instead of being attached to the galley door and swinging out of the way when closing. The struts are on hold since I need to buy some parts.

I switched to testing the Galley seal. I was concerned about how the seal is going to work because the galley door profile doesn't match the side walls and both ends of the aluminum trim pinch the side wall leaving a gap in the center. I wasn't originally going to use the provided seal 1/4" thick seal tape but the the gap was wide enough that I thought it might work. Unfortunately, the thick seal tape didn't work because the because it just lifted the door and left the center gap. After doing some testing removing trim screws and adjusting the trim away from the galley door surface, I could get the gap fairly even. I've decided the easiest course of action is to 3D print some shims for the ends of the trim to even out the seal surface. I came up with a quick shim design in https://openscad.org/ and printed one to test. The shim did seem to do the trick, so I'll print the rest and get the trim adjusted. I don't think it will be noticeable after I get the silicone back on.

I printed the shim in three sections because it was 21" long - going from 1mm to 3mm

I also printed a prototype of the door corner but didn't quite get the angle right, so I'll get that adjusted and try again. Note: It will look better once it has a coat of epoxy on it.

Here's the revised version and I added a side rail which I meant to do the first time.

 

[Tony Latham]

I just spotted a fuzzy photo of the window...

What holds the windows open? Could you snap a photo? Thanks.

Tony

 

[Dan [Sac]]

Beautiful kit and work.

 

[dabend]

Thanks Dan, It's been a fun build and I wish I could have finished it before it got cold but now the project has to wait until spring. I still need to finish the galley and electric and hope to get that done by next June.

 

[dabend]

I just spotted a fuzzy photo of the window...

What holds the windows open? Could you snap a photo? Thanks.

Tony

Tony, I'll get a photo this weekend. The window just basically folds down on the hinge so it's completely open or completely closed. There's no way to just crack it open. I'm not wild about how the thumb screws hold it closed and may print some hold-downs but I figure I give it a try and see what works. I followed Capebuild's cross country trip and found it interesting that he said he found several things that he wanted to change on his camper, so I figure they're always just a work in progress.

 

[Tony Latham]

so I figure they're always just a work in progress.

True words.

Thanks,

Tony

 

[dabend]

I just spotted a fuzzy photo of the window...

What holds the windows open? Could you snap a photo? Thanks.

Tony

Here are the photos of the windows. I think the screen will work fine but as you can see there are no thumbscrews at the bottom and when I was taking the photos I noticed a slight gap at the bottom because the hinge holds the plastic away from the seal. I'll have to take it apart and plane off the hinge standoff but I'm still not convinced it will seal very well with only 3 thumbscrews. Hopefully I won't be camping anywhere where it rains for days like here in Missouri (Monsoon-like in the spring - out of the West). I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now, but I think I'll be scheming on how to improve or replace the windows later on. And having to find a place to store the screen when not in use kind of irritates me.