1/4 Plywood for Roof

[stu_stumble]

Hello all. I am working on building a Rimple style trailer. I am using 3/4" for floor and walls and 2x2's for Spars. I live in Nebraska and I have Lowes, Home Depot and Menards around to get wood from. I hear everyone talking about 1/8 inch luan. Not sure what that is as I am a welder not a woodworker.

So my question is can I just go to the store and buy 4x8 sheets of 1/4 plywood to use for my roof external skin or do I need a special kind of plywood. They have this nice stuff called tiger something that is 1/4 underlayment for floors would this work. I have 24 inch radius on both ends of side walls just like the dimensions for the Rimple states. Will it be to difficult to bend the 1/4 around this size of radius or not. Also, what do I use to seal this once I have it together. House Paint, Epoxy?? Im just making a woodie and not going to skin it since this will be my first camper build. Thanks for the help. I know this is a noob questions but we all have to start somewhere.

[parnold]

My roof is made of 5mm underlayment, also called luan. If you look at my trailer, I was able to get it to bend around a pretty tight radius by being patient (partially bending and leaving it for a day) and the application of a hot towel. It splintered a little, but sanded right off and did not crack. 5mm is less than 1/4 inch.

[stu_stumble]

Thanks Parnold. I appreciate the help. I love the thought of using an RV hatch fo the galley hatch. I was thinking about doing this on mine. Now that I see it can be done I think I will.

[stu_stumble]

Parnold. I see that you are From NJ. AS am I originally. I was born in Paterson and lived in Lincoln Park as a child. Use to go to Wayne and ride the train to Hoboken alot.

[parnold]

I grew up in Pequannock! I work in Paterson. I don't know what it was like back then, but it is pretty terrible now.

One thing I found with the hatch, I had to add a couple locks to it, so that it held down tight enough to keep out the water. This may have been a result of my framework being slightly off flat, I don't know. The hatch had a tendency for me to bow up in the middle, so I added a couple locks to it to hold the middle down tight. I also had to drill weep holes to drain the water that collects in it, that was easy peasy though.

[stu_stumble]

Parnold, I use to go to Peaquannock with my grandparents to watch the fire works every year. I was born in 79. So, Paterson was not that great then either. I know its not nice know. My father grew up in Paterson and Lincoln Park and went to school in Booton. I have lived in Nebraska for a long time now. I go back home every year to visit family and friends back in Jersey. Some family still lives in Lincoln park, some in Booton, and some in Butler. My grandfather use to driver for Leisure Line and Coach bus lines taking people down to Atlantic City to the casino for like 20 some years. Never liked our stops in East Orange. HA HA. But thats another story.

I have a question for you. When I get the body of the camper done do I use CPES to coat the whole thing including the roof and then what do I use as a primer and paint for this. Do I just use regular primer and house paint. What do ya think. I am new to this so I could use all the help I could get. Thanks.

[parnold]

CPES is to keep water from getting into the wood, and you can't put it in too many places!

That said.. I didn't use it at all because my entire tear is covered with polyester resin and automotive paint. In theory, the water will never get to my wood.

Many have used household paint, and many have used an equipment enamel like you would buy at tractor supply. My own personal feeling, if I were going to do it, would be to choose the equipment enamel over house paint, but I don't have any scientific reason, or personal experience to base that on. I just think that the equipment enamel will provide a longer duty cycle between re-coats, but this is pure speculation on my part.

[stu_stumble]

Parnold. If I coated the entire trailer in CPES would house paint or as you suggested tractor/implament paint stick. I assume I would need to sand it afterwards before putting on the primmer for it to adhere. Or could I just CPES the whole thing and then sand and then use automotive primer and automotive paint to cover it. I ask this as I have a compressor and some paint guns for shooting pain on autos as I did paint a 88 GT mustang once. Was a 20 footer but not bad for my first time. Or would you suggest rolling the paint on.

Also, I know that you used 5mm luan to skin your roof. But I cant find that here and can only get 1/4 plywood, well technically it is underlayment. Will I be able to bend this around a radius of 24 inches. I am using the Rimpkle design and this is the radius for front and back. Dont want to break the plywood. I could search for luann but I have read alot of threads that say that luann is no good and will delaminate. I will have to store my camper outised all year. I will cover it with a tarp and such but want it to last.

Thanks for all of the help.

[parnold]

To be safe I would allow the CPES to thoroughly dry, and give the entire trailer a scuff coat to give the paint something to bite into. You may want to use your spraying equipment to apply the CPES. I sprayed the interior of my teardrop with sparthane. Much, much faster than a brush!

You certainly could spray the whole thing, but bear in mind that sprayed thickness of paint is way thinner than rolled on. Due to the fact that you are painting a surface that is so uneven (on a microscopic level) I would plan on 4 coats of primer, and 4 coats of paint. That would probably still be less mils that one coat each applied with a roller. Automotive enamel would be acrylic for the most part, and equipment enamel would be synthetic for the most part. The main difference for our purposes is cost, synthetic is cheaper. In the real world (on an automobile) synthetic will never be as shiny as acrylic (which requires a glass smooth surface to notice) . If there is an option for a hardener, you most likely won't need it. In automotive paints, the hardener is primarily for chemical resistance, and gloss enhancement.

If you have the trailer all prepped and taped up, there is no reason you could not apply 4 coats of primer, and 4 coats of paint in one day. Most primers have a recoat time of 15 minutes to half an hour, and the paint would also fall into this timeframe. Given time for gun cleanup between paints, and time to paint, you should easily be able to do this in half a day, finishing before the worst heat of the day sets in.

I store my trailer under a walmart car cover outdoors. It's been outside for two years so far with no issues at all.

[parnold]

In reference to your radius question, I would think with time, and some coaxing, you should be ok. Remember you can always cut kerfs if necessary. I put my ply in place over the sharpest bend, and strapped it fairly tight to "pre-bend" it before installation. I'm guessing my radii were half what you're talking. Sorry I don't have my sketchup here to check my radii.

[NathanL]

If you are going to bend 1/4" ply to a 24" radius it will have to laid across the teardrop instead of the long ways or you'll never make it. Also if you are going to coat it with epoxy/CPES you'll have to do it after you bend it, it stiffens it up quite a bit and would make it that much more difficult. 24" is the listed minimum for 1/4" plywood so you might have to work at it and you might break a piece but it's definetly do-able.

If you do coat it with epoxy or CPES you will have to rougen it up just a bit before you paint it to get the blush off of it, even if it is listed as non-blushing epoxy. A scotchbrite pad is plenty, you don't have to really sand it.

[DMcCam]

Hi Stu,

Boy 1/4" plywood is really stiff to bend at all. It has a middle ply that runs counter to the other laminates so it doesn't have a bending grain. If you need to have that stiff a roof, I'd use 2 sheets of 1/8" Baltic birch. Glue and staple one down and let it dry then fill and sand it. Then laminate the second one over the other using glue and straps or such to clamp it in place while the glue sets. I've got one layer of 1/8" over my spars and rigid insulation and it's plenty solid but I added aluminum sheathing. There are a lot of threads about the pros and cons of luan mostly cons. Have fun and success with your build sir.

All the Best,

Dave

[stu_stumble]

First off I would like to say thank you to all of the responses. This forum is a wealth of knowledge and I cant tell you all how much I appreciate it. Everyone here is so nice.

So, 1/8 inch Baltic Birch seems to be the route to go? Or basically would any 1/8 plywood work? Would 1/8 Marine grade plywood be the best. I am going to insulate between the ceiling and outside roof skin but I am going to just make the walls out of 3/4 plywood. I plan on carpeting the walls and the floor of the interior. Just going to use nice looking wood paneling to skin the interior ceiling. Do you all think the floor needs to be 3/4 inch as well or will 1/2 work framed with 2x2's. Also, I am going to use 2x2's for roof spars will this be sturdy enough? I plan on buying the prefab doors so installation will be easy. I will get one for each side. Also, will buy a fantastic fan so I dont roast in the thing. Mainly will be camping in spring and fall.

Oh, what size bolts should I use to bolt the bottom deck to the frame and then the outer walls to the floor. I will be setting the walls on the trailer frame for support and bolting through the 2x2s of the floor that will be bolted to the frame. Dont want the thing ripping apart as I tow it down the highway.

I am going for a fast and cheap (Cheap cost not cheaply or poorly built) cost as this is my first ever attempt at building a small camper. I will be using a HF 4x8 trailer and the camper will be 4x8. Does anyone know what size of mattress will fit in this t hing? (Single, Full, Queen?).

Again, I appreciate all of the help from everyone.

[nevadatear]

We just several coats of epoxy followed by spar urethane on our woody.

[parnold]

Just to clarify, when the op said he was making a "woody" I assumed from context that he was referring to solid walls, not necessarily a wood grained exterior. The fact that he is asking about automotive paint also indicates this.

For a wood grained finish, I would bow out of the discussion other than to recommend automotive clear coat for uv protection.