Generic Benroy design question

[Lonnie Gillette]

Howdy ya'll,

I've have not built a teardrop yet but am gearing up to take a crack at it. I've been studying the Generic Benroy plans on the forum to get an idea of the methods used in the construction of these little gems. I think I'm beginning to get the hang of it. I hope I'm not making a mountain out of a mole hill here but a question came to me as I was looking at the plans. On pg. 15 of the Generic Benroy plans, where it's describing the framing for the floor, it states that the floor should overhang the trailer by 1/4" on each side. It specifically instructs you to cut the plywood sheets to accomodate this 1/4" overhang. Why does one want this 1/4" overhang and once the sidewalls are on do you fill this 1/4" gap on the bottom of the trailer with something? I was expecting to see the floor dimensions match the trailer dimensions exactly in width. Can anyone shed any light on this for me?

Thanks Much!

[Mary K]

Well lets see if I can answer some.

What was the question? HA!

You over hang the floor to miss the bolt heads that hold the trailer together. That is, if you are using a bolt together trailer.

The bottom of the side walls that overhang, should get a good coating of the roofing tar, like the underside of the floor too protect it from moisture.

I managed to not have a 1/4" overhang by mistake, so I pulled out the chisel and hammer and chiseled out the bottom edge of the side wall where the bolt heads and spring bracket protruded. Then I coated with tar and installed. I can not find a pictures of it. This is the best I have


Have fun!

Mk

[madjack]

Lonnie, this is answer not specific to your question but it is what we do...we build the floor 1/4" overall wider than the frame (1/8th per side)...we found that building it the EXACT same dimensions as the steel frame led to some problems on assembly...there is enough variance in the steel frame to cause problems with the wall being held off of the floor by this variance so we built in a little wiggle room..when we build the wall, we make sure the bottom 2.5"s is VERY well sealed and when installing the wall, we slather a generous amount of sealant onto the frame/wall/floor juncture to help seal up this area
madjack

[Mary K]

AH, well there ya go...I thought it was to miss the bolt heads. Duh, no wonder I had to chisel them out.

[jeepr]

left that gap there in case of inaccuracies in the chassis. And when bolting up a trailer, that kind of stuff can happen.

You could bolt it up tight against the chassis. The wood that touches the chassis should be protected anyways, with either tar or CPES.

Mike...

[Chaotica]

I build my floor one inch smaller than the frame. I wanted to have my sidewalls land on the frame and I didn't want to lose the 4 1/2" of headroom that would happen if the sidewalls covered the frame.

[Lonnie Gillette]

Thanks for all those replies everyone. I knew I'd get the right answer .

[T's Neighbor]

Caotica - Is your TD compleated, my friend has bought a HF 4x8 trailer and some of of the wood to start. I had planned on using ideas form Cowper and Benroy Plans to build.

Do you see any problem with moisture getting between frame and bottom edge of side.

What plans did you use?

[T's Neighbor]

Chaotica sorry this is the first time I posted and I was confused by format, and didn't double check my spelling.

[Chaotica]

Caotica - Is your TD compleated, my friend has bought a HF 4x8 trailer and some of of the wood to start. I had planned on using ideas form Cowper and Benroy Plans to build.

Do you see any problem with moisture getting between frame and bottom edge of side.

What plans did you use?

No, I'm still working on it and yes, there will be an issue with moisture on the bottom of the walls. I plan to seal it with epoxy and maybe a strip of glass.

I used the Benroy plans from this site with a few modifications of my own. Here is my thread that shows some techniques I used.

http://tnttt.com/viewto ... highlight=