Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

When I was ready to start building my tear drop in the spring I wanted to use Aluminum Composite and Coroplast for the walls, roof and flooring. I looked everywhere and could not find any information on building a TD with these materials. So I decided to just go ahead and do it. Since then a couple of people have posted questions about the material on here, but those threads have a lot of other talk in them. I would like this thread to be a informational guide to using Aluminum Composite and Coroplast as a material in your TD. If you have experience using either of these materials please post any information about it here. Also post any pictures of what you have done.

Tank You
Brian

I built a TD in the spring. I used both Aluminum Composite and Coroplast for all of the sheet material.

I have wood 2x2's for a minimal framing material and the hatch lid is framed with mostly aluminum tubing of the same size. My two side walls, floor and roof are all Aluminum Composite (AC). The front wall of the trailer and the hatch are 6mm coroplast. For those interested 3-4 mm coroplast is the typical thickness of the political signs that you see. I also used the coroplast for the wall between the kitchen galley and the sleeping area.

Here is some bullet points about the materials:
Aluminum Composite 3mm thick:
-Two super thin aluminum sheets sandwiching a sheet of a plastic material.
-As light weight as a 1/4 thick plywood sheet but a whole lot stronger.
-Very strong material but very flexible.
-Bendable but be careful. I would say that a 30-45 degree angle is easily doable. You need leverage to bend it. I also heated up my bend line with a heat gun to make the plastic core more maliable. If you try and bend it close to the end you will de-laminate the material. You can also use a roller set up to bend it as that is how the pros put a curve into it.
-You can cut it with a normal saw blade. I found that better than trying to use a cut off wheel. You will need to take a file and sandpaper to the edge to make a clean edge. You can even cut it with a hand saw.
-I used pan head screws to screw it into the wood and aluminum frame. Don't over tighten or you will compress the material.
-Both exterior sides of it are white. You can paint it or plasti dip it.
-It comes in 4x8 sheets and I got it from a company that sells materials to the people that make signs. The 4x8 sheets were priced similar to a decent quality sheet of 1/2 plywood. However my TD is a little bigger so I got 5x10 sheets so that I wouldn't have any seems in the middle of a wall or roof. While they seemed expensive as they cost about twice as much as a 4x8 sheet when I considered that I would have to take two 4x8 sheets to cover the same area and I would never have to worry about a seam leaking, it was more than worth it.
-While online you can find it in other colors, with a corogated core, with a foam core, etc, I found that the local sign shops only carried the 3mm in 4x8 & 5x10. If they could get any of the others the shipping charges just made it not worth it to me.

This stuff is great. Rather easy to work with. Very strong and durable. I never have to worry about it rotting. Price is similar to wood. I even used it for my kitchen shelf in the galley and a shelf on the inside of the trailer for our clothing bags. I have used my trailer about 5 times this summer and every time I went over rough forest roads. Some were very rough. I have a very stiff suspension that I need to get softened up, but this summer it beat up the trailer going over the bumpy road. The AC handled it without any problems.

COROPLAST 6mm:
I used 6mm thick coroplast instead of the 3-4 mm stuff that is used for political signs. This is much stiffer than the thinner stuff. I used it as the exterior of my hatch, the wall between my galley and the main area, as well as a couple of smaller shelves both in the galley and the main area. I will be using the thinner stuff for the inside walls once I put in insulation.
-I used pan head screws to attach it to the frame. Don't tighten too much or it will crush the material.
-Cut it with a sharp knife.
-Easy to bend on the lines, but possible to bend across the groves, just more difficult.
-You don't have to worry about it rotting. Coroplast does hold up to UV rays. I have signs made from it that have been out in the Phoenix sun non stop for a few years and they are not destroyed. However if you are going to sit your TD made out of coroplast out in the sun for storage I would cover it just like I would with any other material to protect it still.
-Coroplast can be painted easily.
-It does let some light thru. If you don't insulate the roof, you could put a piece of it on the roof as it would work there. When the sun comes up and hits your roof and you are inside you will notice that it lights up.

Coroplast works very well. However I am not certain how it would handle the torsional stresses of being a main exterior material for the main walls. You can pull smaller screw heads thru the material. You don't need to pre-drill the screw holes. It is strong enough to put screws into it and to hang stuff from it. Just not heavy stuff.

Brian

Here are a few pics. Also my harsh stealth fighter lines instead of the normal smooth stealth bomber lines are due to my original design plans and the frame shape, not the material used. Originally I was going to make it so that the top would pop up another foot or two, but after my first trip in it, before that part was done, I decided not to do the pop up part.







One of the vertical support pieces is just over 2ft apart and the big one in the middle is a 2.5 ft gap. So as you can see, not a lot of frame weight.





I still need to add insulation and the interior skin, plus redo the side boxes, find and add side windows, paint some graphics on the sides, etc. Now that the weather is starting to get to be less than 100 and I am not camping every other weekend, it will happen.

That's great to see. I've been looking at suppliers of the same stuff here in the uk for if I eventually build.

There's some good info on sign makers forums. Apparently if you want to fold a right angle bend in it, you use a router to cut a little v joint in the inside face, then it folds cleanly.

Found this great source of info on how to work with Dibond (probably the brand leader in this type of panel).
Covers folding, and even rolling a curve by clamping a tube to a bench. Also useful sections on compatible adhesives etc.

http://www.advancedpanelmaterials.com/download.html?u=dl49e3b944e7db9&t=d