Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

How have you fitted the spars to the sides without nailing or screwing? I want a woody look on the sides and don't want filled holes everywhere. Do you glue small pieces of timber to the sides then screw the spars into them? Or pocket screws? Thanks in advance

I used a Kreg pocket screw kit for doing mine. Worked great, no visible holes when finished. I used poplar for the spars and they've held the screw heads perfectly. No splitting! I think the usual way of doing it is to have the head of the screw and the pocket hole in the spar, not your plywood wall. I don't think it would work out so well the other way. One thing I would recommend is that you use a clamp that will hold the spar in place while you're driving the screws. Since you're pushing at an angle when you're driving the screw you can move the spar out of alignment. I used a 6' long pipe clamp. They're pretty cheap to put together. Good luck!

Hi Bantom,

Ray's got the right idea there. The screws just hold it all together until the glue sets anyway. Good clamps, tight joints, glue and screws for good measure.

Cheers,

Dave

OzarkRay wrote:I used a Kreg pocket screw kit for doing mine. Worked great, no visible holes when finished. I used poplar for the spars and they've held the screw heads perfectly. No splitting! I think the usual way of doing it is to have the head of the screw and the pocket hole in the spar, not your plywood wall. I don't think it would work out so well the other way. One thing I would recommend is that you use a clamp that will hold the spar in place while you're driving the screws. Since you're pushing at an angle when you're driving the screw you can move the spar out of alignment. I used a 6' long pipe clamp. They're pretty cheap to put together. Good luck!

Same here. Poplar 1x2 spars into 5/8in. marine ply. Worked great.

Biscuit joints would not show and give you a really strong joint. The only screws in my build hold on my aluminum skin and I have over 22,000 miles without any issues. You could also use blind dowels if you have the skills to measure and drill the holes to match.

Are you just using solid wood walls? I made my walls with a 1"x2" and 1"x3" pine frame laying flat with 3/4 foam insulation in them middle and 1/8" Baltic Birch inside and out.

I used Steve Frederick's s build method and he routers a ledge for the spars to screw into the wall.

You can see it in this pictures of my build.

This picture is a trial run assembly without the headliner. I installed the 1/8 headliner which sets on the same ledge before permanently gluing and screwing in the spars.

If you are using solid walls I would just use some small nails or clamps, or small pieces of wood on the inside (depends on how you are finishing the inside) until the glue dries

Dan

Thanks for that. I have found a supplier of titebond glue in New Zealand, so will pick some up. Think I will use the pocket screw method. Forgot to say it's 1/2" ply sides so will be careful. Also the aluminium L capping on the roof might hide a few well placed brads.

I used well placed screw locations to end up under my well placed trim and stripes!

I used well placed screw locations to end up under my well placed trim and stripes!

I'm doing it pretty much like KayakDik described. I have inside wall and outside wall, with framing & insulation between. I then routed pockets into the framing to accept the spars:


So that it looks like this with spars in the pockets"


Here's another view:


The spars will be glued then screwed into the framing, but I'm not to the point in my build where I can G&S yet. Don't forget to countersink the screw heads.

An alternate way of doing this would be: instead of routing the pockets, glue/screw down the spars and glue in a filler block between spars for added strength.

Routing the spar pockets accurately will require a template or (like me) a CNC machine. The filler block method should be doable for mere mortals.

Good luck with your build!