Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I am making progress on my trailer design and I was wondering if you good folks could offer up some experience/suggestions on using cedar shingles on the sidewalls of the trailer. I realize that there will be an added weight factor, but the look will really fit the theme I have in mind.

I figure it should be ok if I use a good waterproof adhesive and glue the entire surface to the skin. A few staples here and there should do the trick. The leading edge of the trailer trim will be a bit higher than the shingles to prevent wind lift on the edge.

Hope to be closing the deal on an old popup this weekend, so construction may actually begin this year!

If you folks have any pics of such an installation, I would love to see them.

You can take this for what it's worth ( my 2 cents ) but cedar shingles are nailed to houses in such a manner to not only keep them from leaking but because the need to expand and contract a little with temperature and humidity changes. I've never built a teardrop but I do occasionally work with wood and I would think that gluing the whole surface of the shingle would lead to some problems. If someone has had success doing this then I stand corrected (just hate to see you do a lot of work and have it get ruined).
Larry

I would think they would have to be glued down really strong to the walls. The first time you hit 60 mph on the highway it would look like dandruff in the wind

closurdo wrote:You can take this for what it's worth ( my 2 cents ) but cedar shingles are nailed to houses in such a manner to not only keep them from leaking but because the need to expand and contract a little with temperature and humidity changes. I've never built a teardrop but I do occasionally work with wood and I would think that gluing the whole surface of the shingle would lead to some problems. If someone has had success doing this then I stand corrected (just hate to see you do a lot of work and have it get ruined).
Larry

I agree with the above opinion. Cedar is very easy to split as in "Split Cedar Shingles" Wood moves no matter how well it's glued or fastened. The wind turbulence on the shingles should impact your gas mileage. Danny

Hey-

What? Cedar on a TD... Must be a PA thing

I thought orginally shakes BUT used siding instead.

I too was concerned about the shakes blowing off. BUT with the siding you get 1pc full length for glue surface and nailing in on overlaps.

It'll be a Knoebels Grove Sept. 19 -21 if you wanna take a close up look.

Cheers,

Coop

Gee...here you guys go trying to suppress a guys creativity...

Ya know...I might consider shakes as an accent..not as a full covering. For a woody, I could definately see using ply over the top to get a good waterproof profile, adding nice wood edging, and cutting down some nice shakes to proportion to do an upper or lower half of the side to give character. I think you would be okay for most weekend trips and it could look really, really nice. Texture (like shakes as opposed to a smooth sides or painted color) is a wonderful attribute to work with to make something unique!!!

I would find a guy with a CNC machine... and have him machine the texture of cedar shakes into the wooden sides...

Mike...

mikeschn wrote:I would find a guy with a CNC machine... and have him machine the texture of cedar shakes into the wooden sides...

Mike...

Good idea!!! That woud be sweet!!!

You could always use cedar fence boards! Just kidding, I just love this one tho...

Vinyl house siding now adays has a lot of geometric figures on the face. I've seen u-drop shingle and offset-wood shingle layouts. Take this, cut, trim, overlap if they are small (available in 4x8 and x10 sheets), seal up the edges, and have it painted to the color of cedar with shadows to give it that depthness look.