Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Shelly is looking at how to hang curtains from our Challenger doors. She'd like to hang them directly on the door so they are out of the way when we open the door. The question is how to do it.

Looks like the interior panel is a textured plastic, so screws may not hold well, and it's always a crap shoot to try epoxy or other glues on mystery plastic. When I went down to take these pictures, I noticed the window bezel is screwed on, so we may take that off and see if we can fabricate some sort of bracket to hang from it.

So, has anyone done something similar? As always, thank you for any ideas, suggestions, and/or experience!

Tom

I used an elastic band inside above the door. Can slide side to side or tuck back into the band.
Steve

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With our last teardrop, I built curtains using a sliding track system from Sail-Rite. They have various types of tracks (including aluminum) but it could certainly be attached with a good double-sided tape.

Here's one of their videos.



I think you'd want just one piece of track above the window.



Tony

In my M116A3 build, I used Velcro to attach the curtains and hold them in place. My wife made the curtains and sewed Velcro into the edges, and I attached the other side of the Velcro to the door. In my case I could staple it. In yours, I would think some 3M VHB tape would do the trick.



P.S. I took this photo to illustrate my winter window insulation to cut down on condensation. But it shows the Velcro quite nicely.

I used regular curtain rods for mounting mine. Long enough ones to extend from my overhead front shelf to my rear cabinets (about 4ft long) - they are mounted about 1inch from each side wall 'level/parallel' above each side door = going front to rear - there is a 1/4inch hole at each end in the facia boards of the cabinets/overhead shelve thus hiding the bolt-head on each end out of sight. I like this curtain mounting position being it makes for a great storage position for each curtain when not in use (can be slide either forward or to the rear 'totally out of the way' when not in use) The "main" reason I like this way of mounting is that whenever I have one of my doors open = "NO" curtain ever ends up out in the rain or wind !! These curtain rods that work the best for this type of mounting are the ones with a treaded nut 'encased' in each end of the rod (they are for mounting decorative end pieces that this type of rod usually comes with when bought) not the greatest pic 'but'.....................

In your case, if you don't want to use something that puts holes in the door or permanently attaches like VHB tape (which will tear holes if you try to remove it), you might try getting some of the smaller, wire Command hooks. Get a screen door spring and hook the ends over the command hooks. That should work okay and everything can be removed with no damage. I have used screen door springs on several doors and they work okay, so should work okay with Command hooks and, with the above solution, would take up the least amount of room in your teardrop. There are actually Command hooks made especially for curtains, too. Look here for ideas: https://www.amazon.com/command-hooks-cu ... r+curtains

that 3M stretchy double stick stuff. Can't think of the name. It holds up heavy pictures in my
home. Pulling the tab removes it with little residue.

pchast wrote:that 3M stretchy double stick stuff. Can't think of the name. It holds up heavy pictures in my
home. Pulling the tab removes it with little residue.

I believe you are referring to the 3M Command Adhesive.

https://www.command.com/3M/en_US/command/

Screw eyes, all thread & black out curtains above the doors for ours. They can be removed for cleaning, but we haven't had to yet. I added some snaps at the bottom 1/3 so they can be folded up & lifted for better air-flow at night with the fan running, but it's nice to have some privacy for camp grounds for dressing in the morning.

Attaching to the interior plastic skin of a door is pretty iffy. I think the best way would be to fasten from the outside, counter-bore from the inside & add a stand-off to keep from crushing the door itself with a block, tube or some type of insert which becomes part of the door & adds a compression member to hold things in place.

We used them in aircraft work when building with balsa-core or honeycomb panels for structural fastenings & assembly. Basically, drill a #30 pilot hole from the outside first, then counter-bore from the inside to make a hole for the compression insert (spool, tube, stand-off, threaded insert) & epoxy the insert in place. The curtain rod foot will cover the hole. It's a PITA for a simple trailer build, but it would be a nice permanent solution which is leak-proof & would look OK when it's finished.

Here's a better video on how the Sail-right system works.



I think VHB tape would do it.

Tony

Not hung directly on the door but very easy for in and out. I used a cloth shower curtain (the kind with grommets) cut to cover each door. They are hung from two cup hooks, one in each top corner and you simply lift the corner down during the day for easy access through the doors. Pull it back up at night after you are inside.

This is the only pic I could find but you get the idea when they are fully up.


One side dropped down and out of the way.

noseoil wrote:Attaching to the interior plastic skin of a door is pretty iffy. I think the best way would be to fasten from the outside, counter-bore from the inside & add a stand-off to keep from crushing the door itself with a block, tube or some type of insert which becomes part of the door & adds a compression member to hold things in place.

We used them in aircraft work when building with balsa-core or honeycomb panels for structural fastenings & assembly. Basically, drill a #30 pilot hole from the outside first, then counter-bore from the inside to make a hole for the compression insert (spool, tube, stand-off, threaded insert) & epoxy the insert in place. The curtain rod foot will cover the hole. It's a PITA for a simple trailer build, but it would be a nice permanent solution which is leak-proof & would look OK when it's finished.

There is a something similar done with cored boats when doing a thru hull, drill out the inside skin over sized by a little. Say a 1/2 inch hole for a 1/4 bolt. Then take a small allen key or wire bent at 90 degrees and put the long leg in a drill. Slip the short leg in to the hole and run the drill moving it in and out. This will eat up the core larger than just the hole and allow it to be vaced out, then coat with reg epoxy with a q tip, then fill with thickened epoxy. when its cured drill the 1/4 hole all the way thru the hull. this give you a solid slug of epoxy all the way thru the panel, so no way to compress it, and nothing that can rot can get wet. even if the bolt leaks, it just leaks all the way thru, not in to the core.

I have to do this for the rear hatch lifts I will take pics.

See this thread about doing it to boats, cut away pics are on page 2
https://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/sealing_the_deck

For curtains just stick a wood dowel epoxied in a drilled hole, if it ever needs to be replaced just drill out the old dowel and glue in another.

I will second using screen door springs. My Mom helped me put curtains in my new pickup cap 50 years ago and she had me install screen door springs as curtain rods. They worked great so I used them for my tiny camper. Note that there are two diameters of springs you can find.

Tt

Tomterrific wrote:I will second using screen door springs. My Mom helped me put curtains in my new pickup cap 50 years ago and she had me install screen door springs as curtain rods. They worked great so I used them for my tiny camper. Note that there are two diameters of springs you can find.

Tt

An alternate of using the elastic band I mentioned above. If something gets caught going in our out then nothing binds or breaks and it gives. I did blinds on previous build and the curtains on elastic were way better.
Steve

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Thank you all! Shelly is reviewing the ideas.

Tom