Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

For those of you who built stick walls, did you glue the styrofoam to the skins or did you just glue the skins to the frame and leave the styrofoam press fit in the voids?

I glued the styrofoam in place when I built the floor but it took a tremendous amount of glue. The floor along took almost a gallon of glue. If I don't need to glue all of the styrofoam in place it will save a LOT of glue.

Thanks

Dennis

Dennis,

I didn't do the glue thing. I just cut them slightly bigger than the space and pressed them in. It took about 40 min to do both walls. The roof was about another 25 min.

Plus, I don't want to haul the extra weight of all that glue.

Here's an example Pic:

i didn't glue mine it was such a snug fit didn't need to 3/4 foam on walls and 1 1/2 in floor and ceiling.

When I first started I was just filling the voids with the pink foam. Later, I started zipping off the plastic coating and gluing it in. I don't know if it makes any real difference or not, but I think the glued foam and skins, especially on the interior feel a lot more solid.

ToyTaco wrote:

When I first started I was just filling the voids with the pink foam. Later, I started zipping off the plastic coating and gluing it in. I don't know if it makes any real difference or not, but I think the glued foam and skins, especially on the interior feel a lot more solid.

I can attest to that! It does seem to make the wall feel a little more solid. I used a spray glue on the first wall; but, when I got to the second wall, it was late and I must've been tired because I forgot to spray the Styrofoam in place before I closed the wall up. You can't tell it when you look at it; but, if you know about it and feel one wall, followed by the other, you can feel the difference. (I can't even remember now which wall has the Styrofoam not spray-glued; but, I'm betting that, if I walked around the outside, checking the walls, I'd be able to find it again!)

When I build a standee, I will use pink foam and 1/8 walls... I will use wood glue to glue the foam in place. not a coat of glue, but a trail that covers a lot of the area, all around the edges and swirls in the middle.

That will help keep the walls flat and provide some structural strength... When the foam is put in, it will flatten out the glue trail and provide enough purchase between the foam and ply.

I didn't glue the foam in the Winter Warrior but I'm planning on using less frame and gluing the plywood to the foam with contact cement. It seems to make a stronger panel. I did an experiment with latex contact cement last fall. glued luan ply to 1" foam and let it float ply side down in a rain barrel. It took 6 weeks for the ply to delaminate and the contact cement still held. I could pull it off put it was still stuck.

Gary

I was think for my build a bead of glue (liquid nails or whatever) every 4-8 inches just to give some rigidity to structure....

Dale

sounds good.. I would go a bit closer than 8 inches, probably around 6, with glue all around the periphery.....

greekspeedoman wrote:I didn't do the glue thing. I just cut them slightly bigger than the space and pressed them in.

+1

Dale M. wrote:I was think for my build a bead of glue (liquid nails or whatever) every 4-8 inches just to give some rigidity to structure....

Dale

That's what I did too. Here's a picture of the roof skin going down.



I did use a j-roller to "squish out" the glue before I tacked the skin in place.

Thanks guys, and girls. I'm thinking I'll continue to glue the styrofoam in place, but more sparingly. Instead of a coat of glue over the whole thing, I'll probably just glue the perimeter and some in the middle. Try to shoot for the best of both worlds and hope I don't end up with the worst of both.

For anyone following my build, I should have more pics soon.

Dennis

I used a small 1/4" bead of liq. nails and pressed my styro. in. what weight?