Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I think I may have screwed up, or at least not planned things the most efficient way.

I'm trying to figure out how to make my last spar, floor, and rollpan (will be underneath, but not there yet) meet up.

I need to cut the side pieces out soon as we are doing this Steve Frederick style. Just want to make sure I am on the right track before I make that irreversible cut.



Thoughts, suggestions ?

Thanks,

I'm assuming that your hatch ribs will fit inside of your side walls rather than sitting up on top of what is shown.

I don't have a roll pan, but my lowest hatch spar will be ripped on an angle and the edge will be rounded over with a 3/4 round over bit. I figured it was best to have the hatch close against the rear face of the floor, rather than on top of it (or a roll pan). That way any water trying to run down the outside of the seal will fall away rather than collect and sit on top of the floor edge (or roll pan). The other advantage to this is that there is less floor extending behind the galley counter, so less chance of knocking shins on the edge of the floor.

From the picture it looks like you are set up to have the roll pan extend under the rear edge of the hatch. I suppose you could have the seal running across the top of the roll pan, but it might take very special care to be sure that the rear edge of the floor doesn't disagree with the amount of seal compression that is required. I'm not a big fan of that method; depending on the profile and hinge location this could result in the seal sweeping (wear and tear) across the mating surface rather than merely compressing. Maybe if the top of the roll pan was in a direct line with the hinge it would shed water better and not drag at the seal.

The other option I see is to end the roll pan flush to the rear edge of the floor and shape the hatch ribs further down below where your inner wall ends, kind of pointy like. You don't want them so pointy that the become fragile, so perhaps a shaped spar that they can dive into (if that makes any sense at all). Let me see if I can find a pic of my model and I'll post it up; might help make sense of what I am trying to say.

Here's the cross section showing how I plan to do the bottom of my hatch. Note that mine is a little different due to the foamie hybrid construction. The ribs are exposed under the inner plywood skin with foam on top, but the geometry is the thing that matters.

My original plan was to have the last spar sit on top of the roll pan, and up next to the end of the floor. After I look at it now though, and since you mentioned it, it does look like that would cause water to run back down into the roll pan and the end of the floor

Hummm.... gonna have to think about it a bit more. This is one of those small details that I fretted over when working out my design. I got to the point where I decided "I will work that out when I get to it".. now it's bittng me in the butt.

I guess I could extend the floor out to meet the end of the roll pan. It would be supported by the roll pan, which will be screwed up through the end of the floor.. The last spar could then rest on the top of that?

How about something like this?

If in your drawing, the pencil line is an outline of the deeper inner spar ala Steve Frederick, then I would leave the floor as is. The hatch to floor seal would be at the vertical end of the floor. On the corresponding side of the spar, you will need to trim back the vertical section to allow for the thickness of the weather seal plus the thickness of the transverse board uses to connect the two inner spars. This board forms the flat for the seal. (On my hatched I used two p-shaped seals - one on the end of the floor and one one the hatch. One side was flipped so the Ps interlocked.)

At the bottom of your floor you would extend out to the curved profile. This forms an ell with the flat. It could be sloped slightly so it drains. That extension would be the top of your roll pan.

KCStudly wrote:How about something like this?

Yes! I think the solution is just to sweep the roll pan up a little more Than I had originally thought. Looks easy now that you put it that way. I can figure out a way to add some material to the end of the hatch (the horizonal cut that is currently there) so that it meets down to where the angle of the rollpan comes up.

aggie79 wrote:If in your drawing, the pencil line is an outline of the deeper inner spar ala Steve Frederick, then I would leave the floor as is. The hatch to floor seal would be at the vertical end of the floor. On the corresponding side of the spar, you will need to trim back the vertical section to allow for the thickness of the weather seal plus the thickness of the transverse board uses to connect the two inner spars. This board forms the flat for the seal. (On my hatched I used two p-shaped seals - one on the end of the floor and one one the hatch. One side was flipped so the Ps interlocked.)

At the bottom of your floor you would extend out to the curved profile. This forms an ell with the flat. It could be sloped slightly so it drains. That extension would be the top of your roll pan.

Is the pic from KC what you are saying Tom? I think..it is....I think this is what I'm shooting for? I have been looking at your P seals, think I am going to go that route as well, looks to be the simplest thing.

Now that y'all show it to me this way it seems obvious... Guess I have just stared at it too much.

What I had in mind is very similar to KC's sketch. I had the "step" more horizontal - than the sketch and had the seals at the end of the floor rather than on the mating surface of the hatch and roll pan. This seal needs to be inboard relative to the hatch / sidewall seals so any water that comes down this joint is not trapped at the bottom and can drain out.


You're doing good to work it out on paper. The lower hatch design was the hardest part of the build for me to figure out.

aggie79 wrote:What I had in mind is very similar to KC's sketch. I had the "step" more horizontal - than the sketch and had the seals at the end of the floor rather than on the mating surface of the hatch and roll pan. This seal needs to be inboard relative to the hatch / sidewall seals so any water that comes down this joint is not trapped at the bottom and can drain out.


You're doing good to work it out on paper. The lower hatch design was the hardest part of the build for me to figure out.

Ah... gotcha. So I was thinking about this backwards.. I was concerned about the water that might make its way in from the bottom side, rather than letting it get out without puddling up at the floor level.

I will mock something up on a small piece before I build the whole thing.

Thanks to all for the help,

Brian