Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Posted: **Sun Feb 02, 2020 5:57 am**

My teardrop is going to be 2700mm, the metric equivalent of 9 feet, long. Axle placement about 65/35%.
So, I have plenty of room in front of my wheels to install my doors.

: door.JPG (51.09 KiB) Viewed 2695 times

These are new aluminium framed doors from Aussie teardrops.
They require a hole 900mm by 622mm.
That'd be a touch under 36" x a touch over 24"

I sat up on my bed at home, and measured the centre line of my body at about 900mm from the bedhead.
So, If i put the vertical centre line of the door at 900mm from the front, the leading edge of the frame will be about 600mm (24 inches) from the front of the camper.
I'd then aim to have the bottom edge of the frame about 2 -3 inches off the floor, soo when I'm sitting in the door on my 6 inch mattress the door frame doesn't dig in.\

Sound about right?

Posted: **Sun Feb 02, 2020 9:34 am**

I think you’ve got it. It should be right where you sit on your bed to get on it.

Tony

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Posted: **Sun Feb 02, 2020 11:54 am**

Yep, the door sill is about half your mattress thickness. That’s worked well for me.

Posted: **Sun Feb 02, 2020 4:08 pm**

Thanks guys.

Posted: **Sat Feb 08, 2020 9:19 pm**

A supplementary question or two, if I may:
Door fits nicely into a 35mm thick wall.
My walls are 17mm.
I have just cut out 3 collars from 17mm ply.

: collar.JPG (71.51 KiB) Viewed 2516 times

(Should have been two only, but when the bearing on the router bit falls apart mid-cut while using the first collar as a template to cut the second, things get ugly and you have do it again.
Insert cussin and grousing here.

)

Anyhow, I'm over that now. :roll:

So, I plan to screw a collar to the wall sheet, cut the door out, and end up with a reinforced 34mm door surround/frame.
But, I'd like that collar on the outside - nothing on the inside wall to foul the mattress with.
I'm not expecting any trouble getting a sealed joint on the outside.
Is this dumb?
Should I be putting it inside?
It's a little disconcerting that, while I think it won't hurt a thing, I can't find a single photograph on the internet to illustrate my intentions.

Posted: **Sat Feb 08, 2020 10:11 pm**

I'm not expecting any trouble getting a sealed joint on the outside.

I'd be concerned with the exposed plywood edges. But maybe you've got that figured out.

I had a similar challenge with my windows and this is how I handled it.

The door stops are 3/8" (9.5 mm) thick and don't get in the way.

:thinking:

Tony

Posted: **Sat Feb 08, 2020 11:14 pm**

tony.latham wrote:
I'm not expecting any trouble getting a sealed joint on the outside.

I'd be concerned with the exposed plywood edges. But maybe you've got that figured out.

Damn them pesky plywood edges.
I was thinking was that if I glued it fully, then drowned it all in marine grade polyurethane it would seal up, and then by the time I painted it, no problem.
But, it's Sunday afternoon, I got Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in the DVD player, some mighty fine wine, can't do much during the week as we have to go to the city 'coz the missus got tickets to Alice Cooper for Christmas, so I probably won't do anything except think about it until next weekend.
Decisions, decisions.

Thanks for the reply.