Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Love this forum! Huge resource for all things teardrop. But it's so huge it's hard to search for the grain of sand on the beach.

Here is what I need help with... I want to make my own doors to save the cost of paying $550 for a set of doors.

My situation:

- Would like a clean aluminum look for all edgers of door and jam inside and out (trailer has an aluminum outside skin)
- Wall thickness is 1.25" - .25" inner and outer skin with .75" framing wood.
- Needs to be watertight as I live and camp in Washington state.
- Door must lock with key.
- Not looking for anything fancy. Clean & simple is best.

I guess that's it. I have never made doors before. I have ready the generic instructions for a teardrop and this gets be part of the way.

Thanks

hi,

If you frame the openings for standard size doors, you will be in good shape.

Building your own doors may seem daunting now, but after building the rest of your trailer, you will know if it is something you want to tackle.
It isn't hard, once you understand the construction technique, which you will probably learn as you build the trailer.

I'm not aware of any step by step instructions, but as I could never follow directions...
So, there probably are some out there.

Another option might be to buy an old rotten RV door and take it apart, to see how to build one.

Rob

Im on with my doors now, nearly finished the build. After the hatch I found these to be the most daunting initially.

They have been hard but its my design fault, not the general door itself.

I went for this style door (not my td), but I made the bottom edge curved which has gave me a headache with UK T molding as its a bugger to bend round without snapping. (The general door curve was easy however) I have trimmed (leaded?) the edges however and it now fits.


(pic courtesy of Vintage Technologies)

Instead of the above, I did more of a curve at the bottom lock end like this



Whilst I think this looks nicer, its not worth the extra effort!

That aside, it still only took an hour to do the molding for 1 door, and im doing the other side tonight. If I had done the door like in the pic, without a bottom tight radius it would have been very easy.

I just put a plywood blank against my door opening with all the molding to the door frame fitted, drew round it with a pencil from inside, then jigsawed out and sanded to get the gaps right. (1/8 ply scraps are great to prop it in the gaps)

My doors in 3/4 ply plus window/alu/locks and trim probs cost about £50 each. (window being half the cost) If id bought the doors theyd be hundreds. Square doors dont look right on a teardrop anyway.

Im glad I did my own

brickmonkey,

I made my own doors, mainly because I was going for a certain look. Considering what I spent on hinges, windows, latches, trim (around the door and the door opening), and seals, I'm guessing I spent close to the $550 you were quoted for ready-to-install doors.

Here is how I made my doors: (This is a section through the door.)



Sincerely,
Tom

Here's a Foamie section thread on the topic:

http://tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=50524

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

Thanks guys. Very helpful.

Tom, your diagram is particularly helpful. I think I will use that approach for my doors.

May I ask where you got your hinges and tail lights. I love 'em!

brickmonkey wrote:May I ask where you got your hinges and tail lights. I love 'em!

I purchased the hinges from McMaster Carr: http://www.mcmaster.com/#strap-hinges/=lna85c. I used the smaller of the two hinges listed. At the time I bought them, almost five years ago, they were about 1/2 the price. I used three for the look I wanted, but two per door are more than sufficient. These particular hinges are stainless steel. I don't have a reference, but I have seen similar hinges made out of chrome plated cast zinc that are substantially less expensive but would be plenty strong for teardrop use.

If you are considering the door detail I used, I made a 1/8" thick spacer installed on the sidewall side of the hinge to space the door out 1/8" to leave room for the seal around the t-molding (and to leave room for the interior seal around the door casing. I haven't installed the inner seal because the outer one has worked so well.)

The tail lights are 38-39 Ford LED tail lights. I purchased them from: http://www.shiny-hiney.com/rodcustom30.html. Somewhat like the hinges, I originally only purchased one tail light per side. But, after seeing the two lights on several TDs, I thought two per side would look better.

Aggie, I can't thank you enough for the details on your door. I'm about to start my build, and have been fretting about my door for a while now. The drawings you posted really helped me visualize it. I've got them printed and stuffed into my construction binder.

I think I am going to use Jeep door hinges, or maybe windshield hinges, along with a pair of Jeep tail lights to play of of some of the styling on my TV.

stanimal wrote:I think I am going to use Jeep door hinges, or maybe windshield hinges, along with a pair of Jeep tail lights to play of of some of the styling on my TV.

Jeep hinges should work fine. One thing I forgot to mention in the earlier post is that if you plan to use t-molding on the hinge side of the door, the hinge centerline must be offset to the outside of the outer edge of the t-molding. If not the t-molding along the hinge side will not allow the door to open. If the hinge is offset, then the outer edge of the t-molding lifts away as the door is opened. Here's a rough sketch of what I'm trying to put in words.




I look forward to your build. Incorporating elements of your tow vehicle, particularly the off-road looks of a Jeep, should look fantastic!

One bit of advice which I didn't learn until last night

It your using t-moulding, make sure you pre judge where your door handle is going. (Or at least make sure you have a steady hand and a good dremel cut off tool.

I fitted and bonded on all my mouldings then realised this. Luckily I got away with it and just went very carefully with a brand new angle grinder blade as I had no dremel bits left.



I suppose you could always fit a spacer behind the rest of the handle mount, but I think the above looks cleaner

I pretty much just routed the door out around a template with a guide bushing and a 1/4" bit. The cut out fits perfectly of course, and the grain will match. I am going to go back and slice off about another 1/8 on the hinge side. Otherwise I'm planning on doing T-molding in the conventional way, and may try to bring in some box store aluminum angle for cost control. I'm doing solid walls so there isn't much complexity to the cut-out.

Thank you for this thread, it's made ordering Aluminium moldings really easy.

....EDIT....

I've been pricing moldings this is my new idea. The door is brown and the wall white. The door and wall thickness is 31mm is about 1 1/4". This is turning into on hell-ova sketchup drawing
Feel free to comment.

aggie79 wrote:

stanimal wrote:I think I am going to use Jeep door hinges, or maybe windshield hinges, along with a pair of Jeep tail lights to play of of some of the styling on my TV.

Jeep hinges should work fine. One thing I forgot to mention in the earlier post is that if you plan to use t-molding on the hinge side of the door, the hinge centerline must be offset to the outside of the outer edge of the t-molding. If not the t-molding along the hinge side will not allow the door to open. If the hinge is offset, then the outer edge of the t-molding lifts away as the door is opened. Here's a rough sketch of what I'm trying to put in words.




I look forward to your build. Incorporating elements of your tow vehicle, particularly the off-road looks of a Jeep, should look fantastic!

Thank you for this drawing. It finally makes sense to me how to build the door and make it water tight!
Amy

I know that most of this thread is kind of old but in reading it and then researching the information I found this site.. and this page and it is pretty great to show how to make a door.. not too bad..
Amy
http://teardroptrailerparts.com/Offset_Piano_Hinge.html

dstydream wrote:I know that most of this thread is kind of old but in reading it and then researching the information I found this site.. and this page and it is pretty great to show how to make a door.. not too bad..
Amy
http://teardroptrailerparts.com/Offset_Piano_Hinge.html

Well, Amy ...

... (and this has nothing to do with you or your research) ... it would really be nice if "Frank" would quit using my pictures of my products to sell his stuff ... ...! While his diagrams are mostly correct, there are a couple of significant differences between our hinges ... there is no gap that needs to be sealed on my hinges (though you can put a piece of felt in there if you feel it is necessary) and it looks like he is making the offset 1/4" ... my offset (unless otherwise ordered) is 1/8", which is adequate for the clearance needed for the Door Seal. He also doesn't mention needed clearances before moldings go on, so I can't tell you what he recommends, but with mine I recommend 3/8" on the hinge side and 1/4" on the non-hinge sides.

And, if you would like to see my drawings (that happen to show a lot more detail), just drop me an e-mail at [email protected] and I'll be happy to send them along.

How ever you choose to build & trim your door(s), continued Good Luck, and as always ...

CHEERS!