Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I like the look of a diamond plate rock guard, and it should go well with DP fenders and tongue box. Just a few questions.

1. How tall did you make it?

2. How did you attach it?

3. How did you trim it?

If it helps, I have a Benroy profile.

dh

I wondered how tall to make mine too so I went for a drive on a gravel road. I found that most of the pock marks were about 18" up. I made my guard a bit taller just in case. Here's my info:

Height: 24"
Attached: Sheet metal screws to the already sealed outside (silicone behind each screw). Extra silicone to help it adhere.
Trim: Tucked it right up under my edge trim. Silicone bead across the top.

Good luck with your project!

dh wrote:
1. How tall did you make it?

Since you pretty much have a flat front I would go as high as you wanted.

2. How did you attach it?

Predrill and use polished stainless steel screws for shiny-effect.

3. How did you trim it?

Trim??? Not sure what you mean. I would just cut it to the proper size and screw it on.

If it helps, I have a Benroy profile.

Yes, it helped. If it was a Cub profile, you would need to have it rolled to match the profile. Yours is actually pretty simple.

Just a fyi. I was at an auction last Thursday. It was a small trailer/fish house manufacturing business. 3 sheets of 4' x 10' aluminum diamond plate sold for $500.00 Try to find a business that may have "drops" available. You're not going to need the whole sheet.

I agree with the previous two replies for the first two questions and have nothing to add for those. I do have a idea for the trim question though... I have not yet tried this approach, so it's outcome is theoretical, but it should work well enough: How about placing some "gimping / welting" behind the diamond plate at the top edge, with just the small bulb protruding. The leg would be between the dp and the roof material. This would form a decent seal between the two surfaces and the bulb portion would make a nice division as well as mask minor imperfections in the cut. Just place your screws at the top edge so that they fasten all three surfaces: dp, welting/gimping, and roof.
Just an idea.

Exactly what I was looking for

greekspeedoman wrote:dh

I wondered how tall to make mine too so I went for a drive on a gravel road. I found that most of the pock marks were about 18" up. I made my guard a bit taller just in case. Here's my info:

Height: 24"
Attached: Sheet metal screws to the already sealed outside (silicone behind each screw). Extra silicone to help it adhere.
Trim: Tucked it right up under my edge trim. Silicone bead across the top.

Good luck with your project!

My front is curved but I used diamond plate also.

1. How tall did you make it? I made it tall enough to overlap where my roof aluminum ended. That was the sole determining factor.

2. How did you attach it? I attached it with staples on the sides and top where the trim would cover it. I used SS screws along the bottom where it would show.

3. How did you trim it? Used the same insert trim on the sides as I did for the whole roof and used a flat insert trim for the top edge.

Thanks mark, I hadn't thought about insert trim.

dh wrote:Thanks mark, I hadn't thought about insert trim.

I just think it just dresses up the edge.

I was looking at cargo trailers at Lows the other day for this same reason. The trailers had this really thin diamond plate, really sheet metal thickness, so it formed around the beds well. It was screwed on. However the trim part I thought was quite nice and easy and probably cheap. Here is what they did:

The black rubber/plastic door guards you can get for your car doors at NAPA or the like. The stuff that you form to the door then pull off an adhisive strip to bond to the door edge. Well they used that stuff but must be able to get it by the spool because it was all one piece.

All in all I thought the thin stock looked cheap and it was very wavy from over tightining the screws but I like the trim and I liked the workabilty of the thin material.

I want to do a Gruman profile so I am thinking I need something that will bend.

I used .063" diamond plate on front & bottom sides of my TD. Mainly for 'trim' & to finish out area that wasn't covered by the 4' wide .040" mill finish aluminum skin. Bending the diamond plate for the front was a real bear as I didn't/don't have any kind of metal working equipment. I just cut it to size & used heavy cardboard as protection & 2x4's to raise/lower the ends while 'rolling' it with a very heavy (3/8" walls) piece of 14" dia fiberglass pipe. Took a while but it worked. Like Mark, I used insert trim after installation. It looks pretty good & no problems or leaks for 5yrs & more'n 12K miles -

Harvey, Mark, anybody else using the insert trim, did you put the top piece of trim over the diamond plate, or next to it? I'm having a hard time envisioning how it goes on. I understand the edges where the leg covers the edge of the plate and a bit of the wall, but how does the top cover the edge of the dp?

dh wrote:Harvey, Mark, anybody else using the insert trim, did you put the top piece of trim over the diamond plate, or next to it? I'm having a hard time envisioning how it goes on. I understand the edges where the leg covers the edge of the plate and a bit of the wall, but how does the top cover the edge of the dp?

For the top run I used FLAT insert trim. I just placed it over the junction where the diamond plate overlapped the aluminum roof. The junction was sealed well before hand.



Insert trim with lip used on edges:

Flat insert trim used on the top edge:

Then I used insert trim end caps to finish off the ends:

About how far apart and how close to the edge should the screws be when attaching the diamond plate? I'm getting close to that point.

A few things I'v learned and want to share. I looked at some high end trailers (Featherlight) and thier DP is heavy gage and some have a 6'' x 6' piece held on by 3 bolts, and was not trimmed out. I look at the Lowes trailers (Carry On) and thier rock guards are thin. I believe they are trimmed to prevent cuts the metal is so thin. They have a row of screws every 12'', and the screws in each row are 3'' apart.