Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Anyone have an idea as to whether or not it would be possible (read practical) to build a wood ttt shell with those rounded corners like the airstream. Possibly a stripper?

off hand, I think you could. build everything but the corners and then start laying strips down. The problem is losing the shape in the mid part so that when you get to the other side, it might not match up.

Also, when you get to the other side, you will have to taper the pieces to fit.

It won't be easy. At one time, I thought about blowing up one of those bouncing balls and creating rounded corners out of fiberglass on the ball,, but then I got lazy and gave it up..

Russ,

I think it could be done ok, but you might need to make the actual corners out of solid wood and run stips up to it as oppossed to trying to run the strips around/over it. That would be difficult at best as Arne pointed out above. A solid (buitup from multiple pieces most likely) wood corner to creat the compound shape would be easiest, in my opinion.

It has been done before, very possible to do. Probably a lot of work though.

http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?t=2846&highlight=strip+teardrop



Dan

I like Arne's beach ball idea. One could also cover it with ripped newspaper soaked in diluted wood glue, then after it dries cut it into 8 pieces. Or make friends with someone who has an english wheel and make the rounded corners out of metal... Either way(including wood/thin plywood strips) it will take a while...

If you've got shot bags, body hammers, and a lot of confidence you can even get away without an english wheel, just takes a LOT of patience. A form to check your shape helps, too

Does anybody have any links to "how to do it" stuff for producing these round corners, I have been losing my hair over this exact topic. I am having nightmares that include all the different ways it might be done. I'm not ready to get that build started so I haven't really done much research. Maybe now is the time

John

Although it's not wood strip construction you might look at these corners to see if they fit anyone's needs, several items down on the page:

http://www.humphreystrailerparts.com/exterior-wall-roof-trailer-components.htm

Redneck Trailer supply appears to have the same item but the prices aren't listed.

http://www.redneck-trailer.com/2009/H/H6-H9.pdf

http://home.hiwaay.net/~sbuc/canoe/log.htm
For some one that is into wood working this looks fairly straightforward and not horribly complex. I have seen some lovely wood stripper canoes. I tend to hit rocks alot so want Royalex nothing like class IV white water in a canoe.

My plans have a similar bending issue. The corners are not of the airstream type but similar in that it is a single bend direction over a sheet. My approach is going to be to use to two 1/8 sheets of ply/luan and laminate them together in the correct curve with fiberglass and epoxy and cut the panels to fit after they have set up. The reason I want to curve the pieces first is I to minimize any skeleton, maximize strength, and not have any deformations or flat spots develop.

- Beej

One could also build the walls and roof leaving the corners open. Then glue up styrofoam/polystyrene and shape the corners and then cover with fiberglass.......

I was thinking of doing it in a cold molded process. Take a look at a globe...make the pieces just like the longitude slices and the latitude slices and cross laminate them together. Do it in 1/8" ply in 2 directions. It would have to have a couple of internal ribs to hold the shape when you glue up the pieces on it. This method would only allow it to be a painted type project.

I think to do it in a strip fashion, it would be tough to do a fairly tight radius on a corner in a nice showy wood. I had played with it when I was looking to build a 'bread loaf" type trailer. Tony J had sent me a laminated up corner made out of rings of ply that were shaped so that's an alternative also. Doug

There is a fairly easy method. I built myself a 2 person kayak several years ago using plans a friend bought from England. It was wood construction interior and called for a fabric like a canvas for the exterior which then would be coated to make it waterproof. I had this idea and it worked very well. Picture a wooden skeleton, 1/4 plywood bulkheads every couple of feet and thin spruce stringers about 1/2 " square running the length of the kayak tied into a fin shaped piece at each end. All held together with brass screws and waterproof glue. Then I called up a local company that does spray foam work. I went to visit them to talk about their product and found as well as insulating commercial applications a large part of their business was for local movies/plays ,etc. Customers would bring in a form, they would spray foam it and it could then be easily carved with a serrated knife and also sanded. Then cover with fiberglass cloth and resin and done. So I stapled cardboard on the inside where I didn,t want any foam and dropped it off. I wound up with a 14 foot long block of foam with a cockpit which went onto a pair of sawhorses and was then carved with a knife to get the final shape. It was a bit heavy but our family used it for years before I gave it to a friend at work.
Basically this method could be used to make any shape of trailer, it would then be completley insulated and once covered waterproof. You could cover it with fiberglass or possibly have it covered with a line X type of coating. Any amount of strength could be achieved with the appropiate type of skeleton under the foam.

doug hodder wrote: Take a look at a globe...make the pieces just like the longitude slices and the latitude slices and cross laminate them together. Do it in 1/8" ply in 2 directions. It would have to have a couple of internal ribs to hold the shape when you glue up the pieces on it. This method would only allow it to be a painted type project.

Well, I'm going to be "trying" to do this on my current TTT build with 24" radius on sides to top and on the front to top. So I've been thinking about everything that has been mentioned here.

Guess I'll have to play around with this:

http://www.gma.org/surfing/imaging/globe.html

Either that or find a 48" diameter beach ball !

You know, I think this might work. I printed these out on paper, cut them out and have been playing with them. I think you could cut the quarter sphere out of 1/8" ply and leave the bottoms attached and back it up with a arc'd rib. Then bend the tops to a point.

It probably would be too hard to get the seams perfect but you could put a concave molding over them. Just thinking.

Probably be better to rework the geometry so that there are six sections per quarter instead of just three.