Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

OK, I'm going to throw this out here and see what ideas are out there.

I've read about stretching plywood and searched for 5X10 plywood. I'm looking at @ 5x9 foor area.

I'm thinking of 54-58" inch walls. The walls will be attached to the side of the trailer. If, I stay with 1" walls; I'd have 60" outside to outside. Sandwich walls or solid wall ideas are welcome.

What method and or ideas do some of you have for suppliers or splicing methods?

I'll throw out the 2 I've come up with for the height...

1) Frame the walls, skin and use trim to cover the joints.

2) Use 3/4"x4x8 ply, spline on a 6-10" piece.

Those work for the height. Still need to work out a 9 or 10 foot length too...

I'm open for thoughts and ideas on length and height options.

ps: may be a few days before I get back online...delivering LARGE tonka toys keeps me in the sticks. Thanx in advance .....

I built my TD to a size very similar to what you are contemplating. 5x9 floor, 9 feet long. The walls are also 5 feet high. I used 5x5 sheets of Baltic Birch (1/2" for the floor and 1/4" for the exterior skins) and you can see how I built the floor and sandwich style walls and doors in my album. As far as the exterior is concerned I used epoxy "Fill-It" from the Rot Doctor to fill the joints and feathered and sanded it smooth. I think it all worked pretty well.

Good Luck,
Mike

Toytaco2 wrote:I built my TD to a size very similar to what you are contemplating. 5x9 floor, 9 feet long. The walls are also 5 feet high. I used 5x5 sheets of Baltic Birch (1/2" for the floor and 1/4" for the exterior skins) and you can see how I built the floor and sandwich style walls and doors in my album. As far as the exterior is concerned I used epoxy "Fill-It" from the Rot Doctor to fill the joints and feathered and sanded it smooth. I think it all worked pretty well.

Good Luck,
Mike

Same here! Used 3/8" Baltic Birch and a butt joint with a 1/4" backing at the seam...Worked great!

We used 3/4" ply on out 6'X12' TD ... standard sheets just butted together with battens on the inside and outside , which became part of the structure , and a good place to hang an awning from too, or other accessories...

I used a butt joint with 1-1/2" dowels. I had to do quite a bit of filling and sanding once it was dry, but it worked for me.

If you get Steve Fredericks Shop Manual he has a technique described in it to allow the butt joining of 2 sheets of 1/4" thick plywood using fibreglass & epoxy.

My Tear is a 5x8 and my walls are only 4' high but I used this technique to mix 2 different species of wood together for the walls.

The 1st step was to cut a pattern to make the cut.....



I then used a 1/8" inlay bit I got from MLCS to make the cuts. I made the cut on the 1st sheet then kept the pattern in place and made the cut on the 2nd sheet.

I then joined the 2 sheets together tacking them in 5-6 different spots w/ superglue...... 1 side is Cherry, the other Birch.



I then layed a seal coat w/ epoxy, layed down the fibreglass and put down approx 6 additional coats of epoxy to give me a finished panel.....



This is a pic of the side after assembly.....



There was 1 benefit to doing it this way, I was able to use the waste sections of each species to skin the interior with......



Good Luck!

Bruce

My walls are about 52" high and about 11' from rounded end to rounded end. Using 5x5 baltic birch, I had to splice 2 1/2 sheet per side. I used Titebond III and biscuits and filled in any gaps with epoxy filler. So far so good.

I am using 3/4' 4x10 Birch. But I want a 5' high side. I got a tongue and groove bit set for my router and added a one foot piece on the whole 10 ft edge. Clamped it over night and you can't tell its a second piece. Just take a micrometer with you or be sure the 3 pieces you need came from the same unit as you want the thickness to be the same. All plywood is not created equal.

Well, here I am in Gaylord,MI.....

Lots of good thoughts here.

Since I'm waiting for tax time and just planning it's about to drive me nuts...

Woodbutcher: where did you find the 4x10??? Since I'm attaching to the frame sides(not sitting on), would you add to the top or bottom of the wall?

Pizzaguy: That's an idea...offset two sheets of luan and stain them different colors and get some extra height.

any others??

I've seen 3/4" plywood with tongue on one side and groove on the other. For your purposes, if you can find that, it might work quite easily and well for you.

Billy,

As tears go, mine is big. Body is 12' long and 5' tall. I used 5 pieces to make a side.



Top & bottom front, top and bottom back and a piece over the door.
Being a Woody, oak trim hid all the seams. That way the seams did not have to be real tight, they are all under cover.



Wolfgang

you could always use a scraf joint as well -- that way you could even splice 1/8 inch plywood and could easily do a sandwich structure, which would be much lighter...

<img src="http://w48rob.wik.is/@api/deki/files/242/=SAVE5.jpg">



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kennyrayandersen wrote:you could always use a scraf joint as well -- that way you could even splice 1/8 inch plywood and could easily do a sandwich structure, which would be much lighter...

Kenny,
I think just a butt joint with epoxy/ fiberglass is all thats needed. Scarfing is difficult to keep straight. I built a Pygmy kayak kit 15 years ago that uses butt joints with 4MM Okume plywood.

Also I remember some scientific testing that was done on scarfing vs butt joints in boat building. It was a controlled test of various thickness plywoods.
The result was plywood under 1/2" was stronger with properly done a butt joints ( glass both sides), than a scarf joint.

I know that can bring a lot of arguments as it did on the boat building forum. However, from my personal experience, using thin ply, I think the butt joint is the way to go.

Here's butt joints being used to make long panels for a S&G kayak:




Larry C.

Larry C wrote:

kennyrayandersen wrote:you could always use a scraf joint as well -- that way you could even splice 1/8 inch plywood and could easily do a sandwich structure, which would be much lighter...

Kenny,
I think just a butt joint with epoxy/ fiberglass is all thats needed. Scarfing is difficult to keep straight. I built a Pygmy kayak kit 15 years ago that uses butt joints with 4MM Okume plywood.

Also I remember some scientific testing that was done on scarfing vs butt joints in boat building. It was a controlled test of various thickness plywoods.
The result was plywood under 1/2" was stronger with properly done a butt joints ( glass both sides), than a scarf joint.

I know that can bring a lot of arguments as it did on the boat building forum. However, from my personal experience, using thin ply, I think the butt joint is the way to go.

Here's butt joints being used to make long panels for a S&G kayak:




Larry C.

Sure, if you are going to glass both sides!! Tear walls aren't going to see much bending though, and if you were to scarf them, then bond them to foam and then glass over the outside... I'm guessing that would do as well. I was thinking to do a good scarf joint you'd have to make a router jig, but it wouldn't be that hard. In composited we use a 20/1 scarf -- I'm guessing that would work in plywood as well. Do you remember what the scraf ratio was in the test you read about? I'm guessing it's perhaps less than 20/1.

A butt joint with fiberglass fabric on either side would no doubt be robust enough.