Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I ran across this flap trim molding while looking for window seals for making my own awning windows.


http://www.trimlok.com/prod/Co-Extruded ... 1_158.aspx
Grainger http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/TRIM-L ... eal-44M857 sells it in 25', and 100' lengths. At 100' you may be better off buying a whole box directly from Trim Lok. It is a bit expensive, but it fills the gap perfectly. With some creative routing of the wood around a window, it should be possible to have a well sealed flush openable awning window that has minimal air disturbance.

This is an initial thought for a double paned acrylic window. Brown is a routed wood frame, sealed/stained/painted/whatever. Magenta is a 0.1" thick piece of acrylic to serve as a spacer for the clear window acrylic sheets (1/8" thick), and in this it also serves to hold the edge trim flap seal. It could be clear or solid in color depending on aesthetic design. I rounded the edge of the outer clear acrylic sheet to help smooth air flow. Acrylic sheets are glued together to make a single unit. Vary the width of the spacer so hardware like hinges and latches have their holes go through the spacer, and not go through the insulating gap. The wavy rubber seal is there to provide the primary sealing, and set a depth for for closing the window. You could force the flap a bit more than I did for a more flush profile.


Now I just need to find appropriate hardware for hinging, latching, and holding the window open. I want to be able to use my TTT as a portable blind so the awning window needs to open to roughly 90 degrees. I have a unique limit in that no hardware can extend beyond the inside surface of the wall. So my window and all hardware will have to fit into a 1", 1.5", or 2" thick space depending on how thick I decide to make the insulation.

Screen will be in a grove routed around the inside edge, and will use tab in slot hardware like Pella Windows uses.

A smooth aerodynamic profile at the window would only be of aerodynamic benefit if you have smooth airflow over the side of your teardrop. That's very unlikely (OK, utterly impossible) with the typical teardrop shape, so it's not worth any effort to get them flush for that reason. Of course, you may want the look rather than the function, so that's a different reason.

The more we pay attention to aerodynamics elsewhere, the more it will help. I'm still looking at easy ways of making a 3d rounded nose area. That'll mean the airflow on the sides will be much smoother.

Bogo wrote:The more we pay attention to aerodynamics elsewhere, the more it will help. I'm still looking at easy ways of making a 3d rounded nose area. That'll mean the airflow on the sides will be much smoother.

It certainly won't do any harm, but if there is a tow vehicle in front of the trailer (I'm guessing there is....), smooth airflow may not be possible, at least up to the height of the tow vehicle.