Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

All,

I would like to begin planning for the renovation to my teardrop. It's a 1947 tourette. It is all aluminum inside and out; the outside is going to have the edge molding replaced and a bumper added as well as a full polish.

The interior is quite cold. I'd like to add blue styrofoam insulation (possible two layers of 3/4 inch) and then a 'skin' of light plywood (possibly birch because I love the light wood.)

What I could use some advice for is how to adhere the insulation to the aluminum and then how best to marry the foam and the 'skin'. I'm a very visual learner so if you have any images of this in process, that would be most helpful.

What is the best way to handle the 'gaps' where two panels meet (up along the top and sides of the interior)?

Lastly, once I have a skin and insulation in place, should I be able to anchor into these to 'build' cabinets into the frame?

I sincerely appreciate your help.

Todd Burleson

My interior of my 1947 teardrop was "naked" aluminum when I got it 2 years ago and one of the first major projects was adding insulation. I used 3M Fastbond 30NF contact adhesive to glue the foam to the metal. Most common contact adhesives fail at high temps and because the skin of my UPS brown teardrop can reach 140F in the summer sun, I needed an adhesive rated for high temperature use.

Fastbond 30NF is easy to use, has very low VoC (so there's no solvent smell later), and is water soluble when wet (so you can clean up with water). It's also not cheap at ~$50 per quart. I used more than 1/2 quart insulating the interior of my 4 X 10 tear.

I covered the 1" white styrofoam insulation with Hull Liner from these guys http://www.yourautotrim.com/sigrmahu.html. It soaked up a lot of glue, so I ended up hot-glueing it to the interior of the foam.

Here's a photo of the original interior


And here's after installation of insulation, hull liner, and the forward bulkhead, which hides the spare tire, battery, tools and supports the electrical panel and WFCO converter.


The metal interior walls are a problem in cool weather because at night, your breath condenses in the interior and it becomes very wet inside the trailer. I had a bag of clothes in the storage locker and discovered they were all wet in the morning ;-(

<Chas>

If you sleep with a window and or a vent open, you won't have any condensation problems. At least I haven't and I've camped in 15deg temps

GuitarPhotog wrote:I had a bag of clothes in the storage locker and discovered they were all wet in the morning ;-(
<Chas>

Was your storage locker insulated?

Was your storage locker insulated?

Not at the time. The exterior temp was in the high 30's to low 40's with relative humidity in the 60-70% range (i.e., wet Northern Calif. winter).

My trailer has barely adequate vents near the ceiling on the sides. I installed a computer fan as an exhaust fan behind one of them, and they are fine now the trailer is insulated but were totally inadequate when it was just an aluminum shell.

<Chas>

Guitarphotog,

Thanks for the details and pix

I really appreciate you sharing

Did you have to adjust your door locks, etc?

Why did you choose the hull liner over wood?

Would you do it differently now?

Thanks
Todd

Can you share a few more pix?

What model 1947 do you have?

T

The trailer is covered for now and won't be uncovered until I can bring it into the garage for the annual spring improvement session, beginning about mid-Feb. so no more pix beyond what's in my gallery or on my blog (link below sig).

I chose hull liner over wood because I'm not a wood worker and couldn't imagine how to get pieces of wood big enough to make the ceiling look good through the 30" wide door opening.

Because the trailer is still so structurally sound (mostly because of the way it's built), I didn't want to make any serious modifications, such as cutting a big enough hole for a larger fan, or installing a 2nd door. So I limited my renovation to work I could do with my simple tools and crude skills without making too many holes in the skin.

No one knows who built my trailer, and the only real evidence that it was built in 1947 is that the basic layout and many of the features are identical to a set of plans published in 1946 (which you can download from this site). But the "oral history" passed from owner to owner says that it was built in 1947, spent 17 years stored in a barn (which accounts for it's condition), and that it was painted the odd metallic "root beer" brown to match a 1953 Mercury tow vehicle some time in the past.

You can see more photos on my blog, and read more about my efforts to make a classic trailer comfortable and modestly modern.

<Chas>

GuitarPhotog wrote:Because the trailer is still so structurally sound (mostly because of the way it's built), I didn't want to make any serious modifications, such as cutting a big enough hole for a larger fan, or installing a 2nd door. So I limited my renovation to work I could do with my simple tools and crude skills without making too many holes in the skin.
<Chas>

So tell me Chas, did you happen to think about maybe going through the galley to get a hole large enough for sheets of ply for the interior? Just a thought.
Chas's teardrop


PS: Are you going to make it to the Dam Gathering?

I never even thought of the practicality of getting the sheet goods into the interior! Duh. That will be a challenge.

Anyone have suggestions on the best ways to do this?

Todd

Cedar stripping is one way. Other ideas are appreciated.

How hard would it be to separate the cabin from the chassis?

Then I could replace the floor and access the interior with sheet goods

Can a novice teardrop builder do this separation ?

Thanks
Todd

Chas,
I really like your Teardrop Blog.
You've inspired me. I will create my 'electronic' scrapbook and journal for my teardrop. Hope you don't mind, but I'm going to follow your lead and document the whole process from the start.
Sincerely,
TB

@Gage, the galley, like all the other features in my teardrop, is riveted in place, through both side walls. I even had to cut the insulation into strips so they would fit through the door.

The reason my tear is so "original" is that no one has been willing/able to drill out hundreds of aircraft-style rivets to move any interior features.

As for separating the body from the chassis, it might have been doable years ago before all the bolts rusted solid (65 years of exposure to the road hasn't been kind to either of us). When my TD was built, they started with a 4' X 10' sheet of 3/4" plywood. The set it on the frame (which connects the tongue to the axle) and bolted stuff in place. Then they built a body frame of 1" angle iron on the plywood, covered it all with 0.050" thick aircraft aluminum, and started riveting it all together. Sixty five years later, it's still intact and on the road.

Gage, I'm planning to attend the DAM gathering, I'll probably be there Tuesday. I'm looking forward to meeting you.

<Chas>

Can anyone give me some insight about how adding insulation and a wood skin impacts foot locks inside the cabin? How have those of you who have done this worked around this issue? Images are most helpful. If there is a better forum area to ask this ? Please suggest it.

Thank you

T

Darn auto correct

That is to read door not foot

T