Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I have a novice question. After building the floor and the proper insulation, what is the best way to anchor the side walls. Do you screw into the floor? If you are going with wood sides, what is the best way to hide the screwheads?


Just wondering and planning.

Hi Greg,

Welcome to T&TTT. You've come to the right place to ask questions!

First of all, there are many ways to secure walls to the floor. The method I use is to set the wall on the trailer frame, and then run screws thru the wall into the subfloor.

You can get the idea looking at this photo..


If you are going to build a woodie, we've got several fantastic woodies here too. Take a look at the tears built by Steve Fredrick, Ross Wade and Joseph Ruckman.

Steve, for example, put in a groove with his router and a flat bit, so he could glue in a strip of wood after the screws were in!
http://www.steve-frederick.com/index3.html

Here's Ross's photo albums...
http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/dovetail28643

Here's Joseph's photo albums
http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/bc/malruc ... rdrop+Page

There's lots more photo albums... just clikc on memberlist (above) and look for "websites".

BTW, what size teardrop are you building? You may get some ideas looking at my 4x8 construction photos...
http://www.mikenchell.com/teardrop/4x8_ ... index.html

Mike...

Hey Greg,

Welcome aboard. I am still a newbe of sorts, just learning as I go. I anchored my side walls to the floor, we wanted to keep the full 48" width. I installed a piece of aluminum angle to the floor so the side walls would have something to rest on. Then ran 2 1/2" stainless steel screws through the side walls into to floor. These will then be covered be another piece of aluminum trim.

Maybe Joseph will chime in and discribe the way he secured his side walls. Have fun and don't hesitate to ask questions.

Ross

Ross Wade wrote:Maybe Joseph will chime in and discribe the way he secured his side walls. Have fun and don't hesitate to ask questions.

I did mine pretty much the way Mike did his. My sidewalls are 1" thick so I built my my floor 46" wide. Then I screwed and glued the walls to the outside edge of the floor, so the final width is exactly 48". That way the sides rest on the frame, rather than have them hanging over. There are surviving original tears where the screws have rusted away and the sides start slipping off. This is generally considered a bad thing...

The screw heads are countersunk and covered with wood putty.

Joseph

Thanks for the relpies. Everyone here seems very helpful and I think I found a home. I have been wanting to build a tear for a few months after someone on my canoe list mentioned it.

My wife was dragging her feet saying we had too much work to do on the house.

Last week end we were tent camping by the Boundary Waters in Northern Minnesota. We tent camp a lot and this night there were bear warnings and it got down to 35 degrees.. I heard a deer by the tent. Linda's eyes got big worried it was a bear and I reassured ger it was a deer, but in a shivering voice she said. " Either build the stupid trailer are just plain leave me home on you dumb canoe forays!"


So I took this to be a go ahead, even if was under duress. Thanks Guys

Hey Bigwoods, you're good! Smooth too! :laughing8:

Mike...

thanks again for all the suggestions. many great ideas. I will keep it simple. I think I will stay with a 4X8 and keep the kitchen area simple too.
I am intrigued by Steve Freeman's stripper, as I am planning a wood strip canoe next winter..


The wife says "no" on that project too, but after 35 years of marriage, I have learned to hear only what I want to hear.. I am making headway there too. We had to portage the canoe the last trip and she helped some. I kept telling her it was 10 lbs heavier this year. We need a lighter wood stripper.

I see how that goes.

Thanks Again

I am sitting here LMAO,,,,bigwoods after 35 years of marriage havent ya learned ya aint gonna win less its her idea,,,ya aint making progress,,,,but sure sounds like ya boss is getting you almost house broken,,hang in there,,there are a lot of us in the same perverbal wood stripped canoe,,, ya'll keep em straight

chip