Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

A few week back I discovered my seam in the front of my trailer was coming apart. So last week I was able to get my garage cleaned up enough to dive into the repair. At first I thought all I need to do was trim a little wood back & put some fiberglass tape & epoxy over it. Well I was wrong.



This part of the roof delamininated only a little bit.

I cut this section out thinking this was all I need to patch.

I cut this patch & fit it in. As the trailer dried, more wood began to delaminate as seen on the lower left.

I am now replacing the entire front of the trailer. The plywood was all damp. The spars are wet also but they should dry out in a few days.


When I get he repairs done, I will be putting an aluminum roof on the entire trailer.

Jeremy

I do think the snow had a big part of it . I knew building it the seam was a weak spot. The snow piled up on my tongue box and sat on the front for weeks. I noticed when the snow melted that the seam had opened up a little.

I was able to pull the top layer of insulation off & the spars are only wet 1/4 of the way thru. No moisture in the interior wood. I have a heater drying t now. I will see how it looks in a few days & decide from there what to do next.

BTW. You are making good progress on trailer # 3. When did you start it?

Jeremy

rainjer wrote:BTW. You are making good progress on trailer # 3. When did you start it?

Jeremy

Jeremy, I started welding the chassis in December. Haven't worked on it for two weeks as I'm making new cabinets for our rental house. We gutted the 28 yr old house, will put it up for sale when were done. Hope to get back to #3 in April. I'd recommend using 1/8" Baltic Birch on the repair, much better than Luan. Danny

After several weeks of work, I am beginning to see progress. The weather has been not cooperating so I have been doing as much as possible in the garage. We did have a break in the weather last Friday & Saturday so I was able to go pick up wood & the aluminum.

On Friday I was able to get the wood replaced on the front & get the inside of my galley hatch skinned.

Saturday I was able to get all for the repair seams epoxied with cloth & I also skim coated the rest of the wood I replaced. I let it bake in the sun for a couple hours before I put it back in the garage with the heat on. By

Sunday morning it was ready to sand. I decided to fit my galley hatch back on Sunday afternoon & discovered had move after I skinned the inside & it would no longer close. It had "flattened out" 3/16 in length & was hitting on the floor.

So after lots of head scratching I came up with the solution while at work Monday. So Monday evening I decided to trim some material off the top edge of the hatch. No problem! Well it took 45 minutes to get the hatch hinge off without any damage. (good caulk) I set up a straight edge & with my trusty Skill saw I trimmed the hatch. I screwed the hinge back on (without caulk) and put the hatch back on the trailer for a fit. It closed great. I then noticed the the gap between the hatch & the side wall was not even over the entire length of the hatch. More head scratching.

Yesterday evening I decided to scribed the profile of the hatch on the sidewall & use my belt sander to "revise" the profile on the wall. After about a hour of sanding & fitting I now have a even gap.

Tonight the weather was great so I rolled the trailer out an glued the roof on.

A couple more week & I should be done with all my repairs & modifications.

Here are a couple pictures.

Looks good, all that head scratching paid off!!! The aluminum ought to work well.

Nice little trailer. It looks like a bit of moisture got in there. One thing I’d like to mention that I’ve seen on a few trailers is that sometimes people put the seams in highly curved areas. This puts a lot of stress on the joint. IMO if that is absolutely unavoidable; I would scarf join the two pieces together before I wrapped the trailer with it, then I’d button that down. Otherwise, I would put the joint in an area of low curvature which will reduce the stress in the joint and it will be less likely to want to pop off.

I am making good progress even though I have been fighting a cold. I have all of the roof trim fit & screwed down. I still need to do some touch-up painting and then I can put sealant on and put them down permanently. I also started my 3rd galley remodel.

The canvas is now blank again.


This is my current plan.


I need to finish painting the rest of galley and then I can put it back together.

Jeremy

More progress. I got my new shelves built & sanded.



Here is the waffle iron shelf & the stove storage. As you can see, I made a recessed area for the stove to drop into to prevent the stove from sliding around.


I am still trying to figure out the center doors.

Jeremy

Looks great Jeremy!!!...got all the important stuff in there...a 500, waffle iron, coleman lantern and a 2 burner....Gonna have it done in time for the Dam? See ya there!!! We can set up an abbreviated "Gas pressure appliance museum"! Doug

I am not sure if I will be 100% done but it will be water tight. I have a little sanding to do & I can get a coat of paint on the the shelves tomorrow.

Jeremy

rainjer,
where did you get your 'boomerang' laminate countertop? I've been thinking about one of the colors of that style when I get to counters but I don't know the best place to get it.



Brian

It is Formica brand #6959. You should be able to order it from Lowe's or Home Depot.

Jeremy

Jeremy it is looking good.

On the bright side you get to add all the extras that you didn't have before.

Waffle Iron, I never thought of that, mmmmm

A little more progress. One more drawer to build & it is down to sanding and painting & the galley will be "done".

I got my slide out tray above cooler done. It has the same Formica as the counter top.It will hod my dish drainer & cutting mats.


I also plan in making a knife block on the left side of the pull out shelf. Some thing like this one but smaller.


Jeremy