Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Here's a question for some of you experienced builders. I used 1/8" ply for my tear skin then overlayed it with 1/8" polyvinyl to cover unsightly screw countersink holes after putty. I plan to put .40 Alum. skin over this. Overkill? Have you tried this yet? The polyvinyl was very easy to work with and covered any and all flaws (and there are plenty of 'em). Any advise or experiences with this would be appricieated .Thanks Mitch

I used one layer of luan and put my .0385 aluminum over that. I didn't even bother to fill holes or seams and it looks fine to me. Actually I can't imagine using thicker aluminum as it was hard enough to work with. It did come in a coil though and if I had to do it over I'd would definitely buy sheet aluminum. It kept wanting to roll up on me and made installation a pain.


Lucas

Thanks for the response Lucas. I've never had any experience with Alum.or sheet metal. Maybe I'll consider a thinner guage.

I haven't built my TD yet and will not be using aluminum on it, but from my background in aircraft design..... even 0.04" thick is extremely strong depending on the alloy and temper used. Aluminum has been the holy grail of materials in the aircraft industry for the past 60-70 years, and every ounce of weight that is not needed in the aircraft is attacked vigorously.

If you are just floating the aluminum skin on, go with a 2000 series (2024 for example) or a 6000 series clad aluminum in the "O" (untempered) condition and get it nice and thin (0.025 or 0.032). A 7000 series alloy would work great too, but that's overkill for a TD. If you are going to glue the sheet to the wood or fasten the edges of the aluminum to the wood with a trim piece, 0.04 in a mild temper (T4 or T6) would be best. Thinner aluminum will wrinkle in the sunshine (thermal expansion is greater than the wood it's attached to, so a loose inner section that is trapped around the edges will try to expand...can't...and will buckle at a certain stress level....which can be related to a temperature).

Can you tell I do this for a living?
Dirk

QuietOutdoorsman wrote:
Can you tell I do this for a living?
Dirk

yep! I'm printing this thead out to put in my book of ideas.

I'm building my TTT ..Walls/Roof/Frame work (excluding trailer chassis/subfloor/decking ) completely out of PVC.I have more than a little experience building PVC pipe furniture and thought this is the way to go!! Extremely strong and light weight as compared to wood plus no issues with staining/painting* or waterproofing later (except chassis etc).Once the framework is completed ,attaching the skins (6 mm PVC panels)will involve little more than a line of screws attached to the floor/chassis and plenty of PVC solvent-weld cement applied between the framework and the panels.My estimated completion date(exterior shell) is mid July.I'll be posting additional photos as I go along ...For you wood workers out there ,the only sawdust I'm creating is white ...sorry....




*color is molded in at factory

Hey daddiozz, That sounds like an interesting concept. I haven't seen one like that posted yet. Look forward to seeing yours. I had just used a sheet to cover rough spots. A very simple,lightweight,inexpensive,andeasy to work with material.

at first glance the framework appears very flimsy....and in fact dry ..without "glue joints" it is ...add solvent-weld cement to the fittings though and the entire framework becomes very rigid with only the slightest bit of give to it ....I built a smaller scale model (not the kinex one shown) to test its strength with skins and all and had great difficulty damaging/destroying it ...each time I kicked it for instance it just "bounced"around the yard ....sitting on it with my considerable bulk deformed it only a little bit ...I believe it will stand up to the rigors of the road and regular usuage wth ease .

I'm looking forward too seeing more pictures too.

I like your new camera... but when you resize the photos, can you make them 640x480?

Thanks,

mike...

daddiozz wrote:I'm building my TTT ..Walls/Roof/Frame work (excluding trailer chassis/subfloor/decking ) completely out of PVC.I have more than a little experience building PVC pipe furniture and thought this is the way to go!! Extremely strong and light weight as compared to wood plus no issues with staining/painting* or waterproofing later (except chassis etc).Once the framework is completed ,attaching the skins (6 mm PVC panels)will involve little more than a line of screws attached to the floor/chassis and plenty of PVC solvent-weld cement applied between the framework and the panels.My estimated completion date(exterior shell) is mid July.I'll be posting additional photos as I go along ...For you wood workers out there ,the only sawdust I'm creating is white ...sorry....




*color is molded in at factory

mikeschn wrote:I'm looking forward too seeing more pictures too.

I like your new camera... but when you resize the photos, can you make them 640x480?

Thanks,

mike...

...I'm still "playing" with photoshop...haven't mastered it yet ,but when i do i'll convert all over to that format.

Its not my intention to"hi-jack " this thread...at the same time however ,my build intro started here ,and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me to start a new thread just to inform anyone thats interested in /of my progress .So if there are no objections I'd like to "adopt" this thread for that purpose...