Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Can anyone point me in the direction of some canvas skinned builds please?
Thanks

Look into the foamie build section

I painted the canvas on an old faded directors chair. I think it came out great. The fabric seems more substantial and a bit like leather. I have thought about using painted canvas over a frame work for some sort of structure. It seems one could make curves and folding shapes easily and light weight. You may want to look at skin on frame boats for construction hints. Sorry, I know of no homemade campers using this method.

Tt

Im assuming you mean teardrop builds... click on my signature threads (first and third build have some canvas (PMF) details. One is canvas on ply, the other is a work in progress canvas on foam.

Pmullen503 and ghcoe among others are experienced goalie builders and have a lot of useful PMF advice.

Tim

TimC wrote:Im assuming you mean teardrop builds... click on my signature threads (first and third build have some canvas (PMF) details. One is canvas on ply, the other is a work in progress canvas on foam.

Pmullen503 and ghcoe among others are experienced goalie builders and have a lot of useful PMF advice.

Tim

Great looking builds- being a wood and metalworker the foam thing has seemed a bit out of my comfort zone, i have to say though, seeing builds like yours is inspiring me to have a go. I think you are making it look easy though when it clearly isn't! Im not sure the foam I'm looking at in the UK is quite the same, all ours seems to have foil coatings ( kingspan ) ?? maybe i am being stupid.... Like how smooth that canvas is on the first build

Tomterrific wrote:I painted the canvas on an old faded directors chair. I think it came out great. The fabric seems more substantial and a bit like leather. I have thought about using painted canvas over a frame work for some sort of structure. It seems one could make curves and folding shapes easily and light weight. You may want to look at skin on frame boats for construction hints. Sorry, I know of no homemade campers using this method.

Tt

canvas over a frame is what i was getting at in my original post - i have been looking at some canoe builds and agree with you -it looks like an interesting build method . Maybe an ash frame with the curves formed in a steamer (much as they do with the canoes). It would be light i'm sure. Would be surprised if no-one has done it before.

For use in the cold, could (get a pro to) spray-foam from the inside, maybe upside down before attaching to the (rigid) floor.

Not just for thermal insulation,

no thermal bridging, tight vapour barrier envelope (all ventilation closely controlled)

But would add a lot of overall structural strength, resistance to travel/wind forces.

Very easy to patch & fix any dings.

If you were able to do a double-wall, then could use as the mold for **pourable** PU boat foam, very precise business that, just small layers / sections at a time to keep the expansion forces which get very high, under control.

No design limitations, free-form compound curves, super lightweight added strength. . .

Somewhere around here, I've got a nascent "wigwam / organic shapes trailer" thread

As a mind experiment for a quick useful idea, I thought of a camper cover for protection with outdoor storage.
My camper sits outside in brutal Ohio weather. I keep it tarped but just wrapping the roof was not the best. Now I have a tarp stretched between a square frame of PVC pipe. This works well but doesn't look the best. I could use painted canvas that fit and matched the camper. PVC is bendable for a pretty curved storage roof. Yet another project.

Tt

John61CT wrote:For use in the cold, could (get a pro to) spray-foam from the inside, maybe upside down before attaching to the (rigid) floor.

Not just for thermal insulation,

no thermal bridging, tight vapour barrier envelope (all ventilation closely controlled)

But would add a lot of overall structural strength, resistance to travel/wind forces.

Very easy to patch & fix any dings.

If you were able to do a double-wall, then could use as the mold for **pourable** PU boat foam, very precise business that, just small layers / sections at a time to keep the expansion forces which get very high, under control.

No design limitations, free-form compound curves, super lightweight added strength. . .

Somewhere around here, I've got a nascent "wigwam / organic shapes trailer" thread

as you say , i think the liquid foam may push the canvas away from the frame, but i do like the idea. Ideally the canvas would only be fixed to the frame in as few as possible places i would think? Maybe if the expanding foam didnt work then mineral wool or similar could be used, not ideal if it got damp though. Spray foam would work, is it possible to 'mask' the spars in order to fit the inside skin afterwards?

I have a design with a lifting roof that's skin on frame that I'm going to start this spring. It will not be insulated save for a layer of Reflectix to reduce solar gain.

I plan to use dacron to cover it so I can shrink the fabric around the curved walls and roof. It is designed to be towable with a Prius so I shooting for under 500lbs.

I suppose one could spray insulation on the fabric and then upholster the inside to get a nice finished look.

Whether sprayed or poured or brushed on

the foam needs a place to expand freely, fast

Worst case you need to scrape / cut after curing to clean up excess bits but yes that's a messy process

best to control the apllication in the first place

If only a single path with small relative surface area then do in layers, small amounts at a time.

With cloth, painted first to fix the shape, would give some rigidity to resist the pushing.

_______
Found that thread

Rolling wigwam /organic vardo/geodesic http://tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=71343&start=15

i think a few practise runs might be needed with the foam.

Pmullen503 wrote:I have a design with a lifting roof that's skin on frame that I'm going to start this spring. It will not be insulated save for a layer of Reflectix to reduce solar gain.

I plan to use dacron to cover it so I can shrink the fabric around the curved walls and roof. It is designed to be towable with a Prius so I shooting for under 500lbs.

I suppose one could spray insulation on the fabric and then upholster the inside to get a nice finished look.

is that going to push in one piece?- not like vw van bellows type?

Tomterrific wrote:As a mind experiment for a quick useful idea, I thought of a camper cover for protection with outdoor storage.
My camper sits outside in brutal Ohio weather. I keep it tarped but just wrapping the roof was not the best. Now I have a tarp stretched between a square frame of PVC pipe. This works well but doesn't look the best. I could use painted canvas that fit and matched the camper. PVC is bendable for a pretty curved storage roof. Yet another project.

Tt

my sons goals in the garden are made from pvc pipe , makes a pretty good frame. Especially handy if you're a plumber

I really don't need insulation. We have the top vent cracked all the time. At night, when we are in the camper, there is no sun and vents are open. Besides, bright white paint seemed to block the suns heat as much as the insulation. In cooler weather we have an electric blanket that we need to keep on low or off. I do have the ceiling insulated with foam panels but question if they are necessary for summer camping. Then there was this one time when the temp dropped, the wind blew and we were in a non electric camp site last January.

I think insulation goes well with a different design than fabric over frame. One of the coolest design elements is seeing the frame inside.

Tt

Tomterrific wrote:I really don't need insulation. We have the top vent cracked all the time. At night, when we are in the camper, there is no sun and vents are open. Besides, bright white paint seemed to block the suns heat as much as the insulation. In cooler weather we have an electric blanket that we need to keep on low or off. I do have the ceiling insulated with foam panels but question if they are necessary for summer camping. Then there was this one time when the temp dropped, the wind blew and we were in a non electric camp site last January.

I think insulation goes well with a different design than fabric over frame. One of the coolest design elements is seeing the frame inside.

Tt

yes ,i think you're right,the insulation is a step too far- the frame needs to be a feature