Framing plans for a first-time build

[yesdog]

Good morning! I have added a few pictures to my album. These are drawings of framing plans. Don't laugh. This is the first time I have built a camper (or anything else of substance). I would love to get your feedback – good, bad, or indifferent! [album]Joy's Drawings[/album]

Hope to start build as soon as it warms up a bit down here in Alabama.

[yesdog]

Oops. Apparently I don't know how to attach a picture album. (Off to a great start here!!) Anyway, if you click on the little camera icon below my avatar, you can see the drawings!

Thanks everyone!

[les45]

Framing looks OK, but you appear to have a problem with your trailer. It looks like it was built with the tongue on the wrong end. Not sure how much welding you have done but the axle needs to be moved way back or the tongue needs to be reassembled on the other end.

[angib]

Those look like scaled-down plans for framing a house - but at least it looks like you are using small framing pieces, not 2x4s! However I think you should aim to remove at least half the framing pieces you've drawn.

Don't bother with the diagonals - they do precisely nothing in a body with bonded plywood skins. Diagonals belong in house framing with weak or discontinuous skins, not trailer bodies.

Consider junking a lot of the smaller/shorter framing pieces and instead just continue some of the bigger pieces to the edge of the panels. For example, continue the verticals either side of the windows from roof to floor. Minimise the amount of framing at right angles and where possible just frame the panel in one direction, preferably the shortest direction. Those right-angle joints are not only a pain to make but they don't make the finished panel much stronger, whatever looks/tradition tells you.

[grantstew8]

This was the framing (or lack of it) in the donor caravan behind the 1/8 ply I ripped off the EPS. and the spars were not very thick. The both skins were stuck to the EPS and acted like a SIPs panel (google sips strength and go to images)
I can highly recommend building from the inside out rather than like a traditional house build from the outside in (take a look at my build log and you'll see what I mean)

[woodywrkng]

When you build, may I suggest you think of the walls backwards. Rather than thinking of building a frame, and covering it with the outer skin, like a house, I found it very easy to cut the outer skin (in my case 1/2" plywood) to the final size, and gluing strips of 3/4" plywood around the inner perimeter of the walls. I then filled in the empty space with insulation board, and added the interior wall of 1/4" tongue and groove pine.

With an outer wall of 1/2" plywood, you really don't need much in the way of framing. This way you make the 3/4" "framing" to fit the outer wall, which was made with a hardboard template so both sides match each other perfectly. An extra advantage to making your walls this way, is that the ceiling will simply lay on top of the edge of the inner wall without any gaps. I never took any photos of the walls while I made them, but maybe this picture of one of the wall's edges will help. The center 3/4" vertical plywood you see is only an inch wide.

[yesdog]

Hi Les45, Actually I have already moved the axle back towards the rear. The old photos of the HF photo in the album have not been updated with the new photos. Plus, the angle at which the trailer pics were taken make the axle/wheels look even closer to the tongue than they were in reality.

Angib, Grant and Woody, thanks for the good suggestions. I think you all agree that the framing I had planned is overkill! So be it… I'll go another route by building the camper from the outside in as suggested. Seems easier that way too.

Many thanks,
Joy