Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Need a new solution. Putting in extra framing made a boo boo real apparent. I have one rib that is 3/8ths smaller than the others, mostly in this area. Any way to fix this without cutting another?

Keep in mind I have no easy way to carry a 5x5 sheet of plywood home.

Is just short on one end?
If so, I would "sister" a section of material along side the offending rib.
If it involves the radius..can you add a thin strip (3/8") to that side?

Auntie...anyway to attach a spacer to the rib...is it an internal rib or one on the outside edge...worse case scenario...put a really fat bead of urethane adhesive onit(stuff is supposed to bridge a 3/8th gap), attach skin to rest of ribs and go with it...if it is an outside edge rib, you really need to have a spacer or new rib....
madjack

Sorry I was so distressed I forgot to add the picture. The offending rib is #3 from the right out of 6. They span a 74" wide hatch.
I put a board across to be sure. It is that much off for at least 9" along the rib.


the hatch

...and it's all glued up isn't it, so taking it apart isn't an option? I was new to the game, but you could build your area up with epoxy. If you are just going to be "covering" the area you can get some fairing strips that they use behind sheetrock, glue them down and then proceed...they're just 2" wide thin pieces of cardboard about 3-4' long - but you're covering anyway and the skin screws would hold everythig in place.

trickytrickytricky...how about cutting a spacer 3/4 wide by 9 long by appropriate thinkness, install on rib and fill rest of area with urethane contruction adhesive...before you start any repair, make sure of exactly where the boo-boo is located and what effect it may have on other items...the epoxy filler would work but you would haveta have the epoxy and know or be willing to experiment to learn the right techniques...
madjack

Thank you guys. Those are some good ideas. No Keith it isn't glued. It is screwed to death.

MJ it is 9" inches on both sides tapering from curve to curve The side striping has pocket screws and I did glue them but that isn't an issue.
I think the only critical thing is the skin comes together there. The strips are to give it something to glue to.

It sounds bad when I say that. Better find a truck and do that over.

Auntie, Is this gap along the whole length of Spar #3, in otherwords if you slid that board down the length do you have the same gap? If so I would add a 3/8" piece on top of the spar to increase the width, another option though very messy and tricky is to fill the space with Bondo or other body filler, the only down side I think to using bondo is you might have difficulty in using screws.

Miriam... From your picture it looks like it would be fairly easy to glue (and clamp until dry) a strip of wood in place thick enough to fill the gap. Then plane or sand it to fit... Same goes to the spar that T's into it at a right angle. Not hard to do... just a bit of hassle sanding it down till straight across. I think this would be better than just filling the gap with construction adhesive. At least, this is how I would do it.

friend ~ Brick

Miriam C. wrote:Need a new solution. Putting in extra framing made a boo boo real apparent. I have one rib that is 3/8ths smaller than the others, mostly in this area. Any way to fix this without cutting another?

Got band saw? Looks to me like you have a whole stack of rib material right there.

Last year at the Adirondack Museum I was watching a young lady build a most exquisite Adirondack guide boat. I asked her if she was using plywood to make the ribs. She said, "Nope. Spruce knees." I knew that's how the originals were made, so I asked where she got them. She pointed to a corner where they were stacked up. "First, you find a spruce..."

Joseph

Yikes!!!That doith suckith!!!

Ya gonna have ta listen to the boys on this one... Although, I might try doing like brick said. Glue some wood to it and sand the hell out of it!!!

Mk

No band saw but I might as well try gluing a wood strip to it. My sister in law is coming out with a truck tomorrow so if it doesn't work I can still cut another. It will make a better pattern anyway. I have it removed and can't figure out how the heck I did that since I thought I sanded all of them clamped to each other. Maybe left one out.

Thank you so much for all the help.

Miriam...why dont' you counter sink some scews into your wood strip and hatch, then sand...if you don't like it at least it's not GLUED and you could try another approach..if it does work, scribe a "set" line, unscrew and apply some glue to make it perm....just a thought before you commit to glue.

Keith B wrote:Miriam...why dont' you counter sink some scews into your wood strip and hatch, then sand...if you don't like it at least it's not GLUED and you could try another approach..if it does work, scribe a "set" line, unscrew and apply some glue to make it perm....just a thought before you commit to glue.

Good idea that would give me a depth marker too. Now what did I do with those counter sink bits.

Steve Frederick wrote:Is just short on one end?
If so, I would "sister" a section of material along side the offending rib.
If it involves the radius..can you add a thin strip (3/8") to that side?

When you are born terminally CRS these things happen. Thank you Steve. I reread these over and decided to check cause Murphy loves me.

I am at a total loss how one of the ribs got so much shorter than the others. A full inch translating it's self to the problem. Crisis over and sister on the way. As soon as it stops raining so I can use my saw.