Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Any thoughts on which should go in first: inside finish walls or inside ceiling?

I had planned on doing the walls first. But the more I think, it makes more sense to install the ceiling first. THe main issue is joint where the ceiling and wall meet. If I install the ceiling first I don't have to notch the walls (1/4" Luan) to fit the roof spars.

I think you'll want to install your finish walls first. Once the ceiling is installed, you have no way to get the walls in!!!



Mike...

Mike,

Actually they would fit through my extra wide door. I would physically try this before doing the ceiling first.

Thanks,
Dave

Of course, one of the beauties of building your own is that you get to do it the way you want to do it. But I felt that it would be better to build the walls first. That way I could put little nailer blocks on my paneling to give my interior ceiling a little something extra to help support the curvature. Here are the pics that are supposed to be worth so many thousand words. Blah Blah:

Mike and David,

Thanks for the pictures. Seeing snow on the ground makes me feel right at home. I'm outside building my tear here in Alaska in 35 degree weather!

I like your nailer block idea, David. How did you cut the notches in your inside finish walls? Seems like it would be hard to measure those exactly. Although you could clamp it to the outside wall and then mark the roof spar notches.

Thanks again.

The notches on the inside walls are really loose. They don't need to be an exact fit but I think they should be close enough to overlap the insulation and provide a shoulder for the nailer blocks. BTW, I glued the nailer blocks as well.

Keep in mind that this trailer is based on the "Trailer For Two" in the 1947 Mechanix Illustrated magazine. There's a grid in that mag showing the placement of the cross supports. So it was easy to transfer those to the interior panels. But at first, I cut them exactly and when I went to put them in, they wouldn't go. So I had to start wittling them bigger and bigger until I got it right.

Here's a URL that shows the Trailer for Two from that magazine article:

http://www.oldwoodies.com/shoptalk-trailer1.htm

Somewhere I found the magazine article on a free PDF file and when I found it, I immediately DLed it and printed it up. I cannot for the life of me remember where I got that PDF file. If I ever find it, I promise to post the link.

I plan on building another trailer and I'll have learned all the tough lessons on this one. The next one is going to be a breeze but I have to admit, there have been a LOT of problems needing solving here. I bought Kevin Hauser's CD-ROM from www.kuffelcreek.com. I think that Kevin's book is money well spent. However, this far into my build, I have to say that even Kevin's book does NOT cover all the bases. But that's what this forum is for.



So really, I've gleaned a virtually everything from a combination of the original article, Kuffelcreek and this forum. If I had left anyone of them out, I'd have been in deeper trouble.

Ok, guess what?!

I found the URL where I printed up the PDF file that showed the Mechanix Illustrated's "Trailer for Two." Here it is:

http://www.jpjennings.com/home/Teardrop ... forTwo.htm

Enjoy