Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I am hoping to get up the courage to cut out my door and Skeletonize the wall. I am looking for best practices and things to consider when creating the cut plan. I assume the rim thickness needs to be wide enough for the 2 inch spar plus and inch or so for surface area to glue the skin. How wide are the verticals? It sounds like curved corners are best. I haven't bought any lights yet. I assume a precut circle will suffice. Anything else?

What else do you have for a plan?

I would have your components (doors, door hinges, door latches, lights, coat hooks, cup holders, anything that you might ever want to add) all picked out and in hand (if possible... if not very specific dimensions... but be careful, availability can change, vendors can change products in the time that it takes you to build). Have all of your cabinetry, hatch, hatch hinge, and roof attachment method figured out before you commit to your wall core.

... but that's just me. I don't like to make mistakes (there are enough of those along the way as it is anyway) and I hate working myself into a corner for lack of having a reasonably detailed 'to scale' plan.

Good luck.

I have a parts list in my head. Everything is off the shelf so I am not too worried about cutting myself into a corner on availability. You raised my Main concern regarding the galley. I don't have that laid out very well yet. Mostly because I am not sure about final countertop height since I haven't attached the axle and tires yet. I am waiting to get a good feel for weight distribution first. Might be a catch 22 since the weight wont be very firm until I cut the skeleton and get the galley lumber laid out. maybe. I put the saw a way for another week.

Thanks

Don:

I've built a 5x10, a 4x8, and am working on another 5x10. I've found that the first thing I do, that really helps me, is to build a pattern out of 1/4" plywood. It's got the door cutout, the bulkhead locations marked, the locations for any hard spots that will need internal support. And then draw the skeleton on it and mark the corners with 1/8" holes so I can transfer the skeleton plan to the plywood that I'm using for the internal structure. For me, that pattern is a great tool to have throughout the build process. (Yes, it's a bit of a pain in the butt to make a 4x10' piece of plywood for the pattern, but it's well worth the time and expense.)

I've used 3/4" pine for the skeleton, 3/4" AC plywood (I hate CDX), and 1/2" AC plywood. The plywood is quicker. You can clamp both sides together and "gang" cut them. Works fine. I probably over build keeping the structural width of the internals 2-3.5" depending on what it's purpose is.



There's two inches that will be cut off this wall since I use the Fredrick's hatch method, so you can (probably?) disregard the fact that there's 4" of structural material at the rear. This wall has supports for an extra shelf for a CPAP machine and and shore power:



I put the text on this pic for another post, but I think you can get the idea on how things are laid out to support the (mortised) bulkheads, doors, shelves etc.



Rule of thumb? I'll be curious to hear if there's a standard practise for this.

Tony

Hi Don, Tony you are the Man. Go with what he says. DO stack your walls and cut them at the same time. Even if they are wrong they will both be the same so who's to say right or wrong as long as they are the same. My plans said to cut the doors after assembling the cabin and I wish I would have cut them while stacked together. When planning your galley and cabin space consider your food cooling system first. Mine an ice chest. The height of the shelf is fine but almost not deep enough to close the hatch. An extra inch deeper in the galley on the bottom space would have been much better and there is plenty of room in the cabin. One inch can make a big difference so choose wisely. You can always do a remodel later, right?
Enjoy, Chris

ctstaas wrote:DO stack your walls and cut them at the same time. Even if they are wrong they will both be the same so who's to say right or wrong as long as they are the same.

A bit of caution on cutting both walls at the same time. If you use a jig saw the blade often drifts and the walls will not be the same.

To me the best way to repeat the cut, is to make a template as Tony said and use it to trace the cuts onto the plywood framing. Remove the template and rough cut with a jig saw. Re-apply the template and use a router with a template bit to finish cut to the template. Then do the same again for the other sidewall. Here are a few pics of this method:





I don't have a picture of the last step in routing to the template, but you get the idea.

ctstaas wrote: My plans said to cut the doors after assembling the cabin and I wish I would have cut them while stacked together.

When I cut the plywood framing, I also routed and cut the door framing. In the picture below, where the red marks are, I didn't route all the way through the plywood. These "tabs" kept the door framing in place until I applied the interior wood. Later, I used a jig saw to cut the door framing loose, and then routed away the tabs.

I agree what Tom said on the drift of the jigsaw. You can cut the outside within about 3/16" with a jigsaw and then use a trim router bit to follow the clamped pattern to make the outside and the door cuts perfect. A bit of drift to the interanl skeleton parts with the jigsaw is fine.

Here you can see two sheets of 1/2" AC plywood that's been skeletonized and flush cut with a trim bit and pattern.



They're clamped with a few grabber screws.

T

I would add that make sure that all of your holes for wires coming out of the wall are the right size. We didn't have our running and porch lights when we ran wires, so we drilled the hole the size of the wire. Much too small.... We should have made it about 3/4 to allow room for excess wire and the grommet on the light to set back into the wall. Not a huge deal, but I spent 2-3 hrs with the aluminum already on trying to make whe holes bigger while not cutting the wires. It's the details that kick your butt. Good luck and keep us posted.

Also drill all your wiring chases or runs before you add do anything with inner or outer skins. We did ours after the interior skins were on which was a bear. It's easy to do while the walls are open.

Cheers,

Dave