Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I've found that in my area I am only able to get your typical RV roll aluminum 36" or 49" wide or the seamless roof that is 98" ish wide. It's sold by the SQft. My roof is about 63" wide so I will either have to buy 98 and cut it down with a fair bit of waste or use narrower sizes and put a seam down the centre of the roof from front to back. I prefer the look of the seamless roof but I'm really fighting the cost difference. Metal suppliers here are expensive. About 440$ in aluminum for the 98" wide 0.030 or I'm estimating around the 200$ mark if I put a seam in the roof along the centre line. I've found a guy selling the narrower widths at huge discount.

What do you folks think? Anyone done a long centre seam on the roof? How would I seal such a thing?

Thanks for any advice you can give!!

I bought 97" long sheets and cut them down to fit the width of my camper. My seam is side to side. You're going to have waste either way you go - if you do put the seam lengthwise, be sure to center it just right or it might look funny.

Woods...how far are you away from from Michigan? Frank Bear over at vintage technologies can supply you with a roof cut to your dimensions and quite a few colors. Take a look at this pic...the seam in the roof , between the name decal and drip rail, is where 2 sheets are permanently crimped together for a leakproof seam. You have this seam every 4 ft across the roof and can be exactly your width. I use him exclusively for my roofs if a painted roof is needed. Come with a PVC wrap for protection in shipping. I took a scrap piece, pushed it in a bowl shape, and let it sit for 6 months with water sitting on it, 24/7, for a leak test. Completely dry underneath.

That's a really nice seam... I am up in Saskatchewan, Canada and so Michigan is a bit out of reach... 20 hours or so by road and shipping something that far and across the border is likely going to cost and arm and a leg for me. Cost for aluminum varies so much from One RV dealer to another and most of the aluminum is quite thin - 0.024 is really common for me. Sure would be nice if there was a Canadian teardrop supplier for us northern folks. Best I've come up with so far is to order trim parts from the guys at Teardrop fixit shop in Montana and ship it to the nearest border crossing and drive over to pick it up. Ironically it's looking like it will cost about the same including the fuel to do that versus buying RV insert molding from the RV shop 45min from my house. Plus the trim from fixit shop looks so much better IMO. I may try to see about getting aluminum from the US the same way as the trim parts but it might be tough unless anyone knows of a good source for aluminum in the north eastern part of Montana.

Your original post sounds as if you can get the 49" wide aluminum in 'roll' form. If so you can cut it in 63" lengths & make your seams crosswise (each seam over a roof spar). Depending on length of your TD/roof you shouldn't need more than 3 or 4 pieces. Easy to secure & seal & each seam can 'over-lap' in whichever direction will provide correct water down flow without allowing any leakage or water entry into the TD. Lots of builders here have done that. Check my album for pix of example...

Did you try big rig truck repair shops? You must have one of those within a reasonable distance and they usually stock the large rolls for box trailer repairs. Should be less money than anything with RV associated with it.

With a 5-foot wide teardrop and 4' x 10' aluminum I had three transverse seams - two on the teardrop and one on the hatch.

At the seams, I overlapped the aluminum. I first installed the bottom layer. Then, on the top layer, I pre-drilled holes for screws that would fasten through the two sheets into the spar. I used a drilling jig made of scrap MDF as a guide for spacing the holes. Then I temporarily fitted the top sheet and drilled holes throught the bottom sheet and into the spares. I peeled back the top layer and added sealant at the overlap of the seams. Then I placed the top sheet back into position and installed temporary screws until the sealant had set. Then I removed the temporary screws, injected sealant into each pilot hole, and installed permanent stainless steel screws.

Here are few pics of the process:











This is a pic of the hurricane hinge getting ready to be installed, but it shows the method and type of syringe I used to inject the sealant into the screw holes.



This is the best picture of the finished seam that I have. Please note that in the picture below, I had not removed the sealant "squeeze out" that happened when I installed the permanent stainless steel screws.



Take care,
Tom

@Tom. Thanks for the nice photos and details of your build. How much of that 3m sealant /adhesive did you use? I will like use sikaflex 221 which seems to be similar but easy for me to get locally. I just have no idea how much I'd probably need.

inthewoods wrote:@Tom. Thanks for the nice photos and details of your build. How much of that 3m sealant /adhesive did you use? I will like use sikaflex 221 which seems to be similar but easy for me to get locally. I just have no idea how much I'd probably need.

Sikaflex 221 is a great product and will work fine. I used a bunch of sealant and probably too much. I'm pretty sure Sikaflex will have a brochure that will give you an estimate of linear feet of sealant per tube for a certain bead size.

I believe the 221 is a moisture-cure product like the 3M 4200. If so, make sure you have enough work ready to seal when you open a tube because you probably will not be able to save any remainder for application at a later date.

Hi, I got my aluminium from LonePine RV in Airdrie. Im in Calgary. I think they charge $20 foot for 8' wide for roof aluminium. Long story about what happened with mine, but im really pleased with the outcome. Im almost finished building so will be posting pics etc soon.

Paul

Tom,

Very nice detail work!

Details take most of the build time, but make all the difference.

Rob

Check sign companies for larger aluminum sheets.