What to do with front top of V nose

Converting Cargo Trailers into TTTs

What to do with front top of V nose

Postby Jkirkendall » Tue Mar 14, 2023 9:52 pm

Hey guys, brand new to this and am looking for ideas. I have an H&H trailer I’m just doing a basic conversion on and the front top is fiberglass. No idea how to insulate this and frame it in as it slopes and nothing to screw into. Anyone deal with anything like this and have any ideas?
Jkirkendall
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Re: What to do with front top of V nose

Postby Grummy » Wed Mar 15, 2023 1:33 pm

Couple of things...
First, if you absolutely do not want to build an overhead cabinet there, you can just take layers (as many as you would like) of upholstery foam and splice /fit it in as neatly as possible, gluing it in with weldwood contact glue. (using most of your 3M type spray cans usually will droop or fall with the heat). You can put the weldwood in any old automotive spray gun and shoot both sides.

With foam in place, you can cover that with headliner materials that stretch in many directions, or sew up a boot shape that fits with attractive seams. You might even be able to make a neat looking finished project with trunk liner.

The other option for those areas is to turn it into storage. You still line the outer walls with foam like above for insulating reasons, but you run a wood lower edge across the trailer at wall height, then add a vertical "wall" that fits the ceiling contour and also a "floor" for the cabinet that fits the forward wall contours. Cut openings in the face wall of it and you have overhead storage without really having to make all those curves look perfect inside.

Realize too that the cross support does not have to be all that heavy duty as the attached vertical wall (I use nothing more than 1/4" Luan ply) will increase the bridge strength. The "Floor" portion can be reinforced by adding firing strips inside for and aft to add strength for whatever load is put in the cabinet.

Send us pictures when you get it figured out !
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Re: What to do with front top of V nose

Postby Jkirkendall » Mon Mar 20, 2023 9:21 am

Grummy wrote:Couple of things...
First, if you absolutely do not want to build an overhead cabinet there, you can just take layers (as many as you would like) of upholstery foam and splice /fit it in as neatly as possible, gluing it in with weldwood contact glue. (using most of your 3M type spray cans usually will droop or fall with the heat). You can put the weldwood in any old automotive spray gun and shoot both sides.

With foam in place, you can cover that with headliner materials that stretch in many directions, or sew up a boot shape that fits with attractive seams. You might even be able to make a neat looking finished project with trunk liner.

The other option for those areas is to turn it into storage. You still line the outer walls with foam like above for insulating reasons, but you run a wood lower edge across the trailer at wall height, then add a vertical "wall" that fits the ceiling contour and also a "floor" for the cabinet that fits the forward wall contours. Cut openings in the face wall of it and you have overhead storage without really having to make all those curves look perfect inside.

Realize too that the cross support does not have to be all that heavy duty as the attached vertical wall (I use nothing more than 1/4" Luan ply) will increase the bridge strength. The "Floor" portion can be reinforced by adding firing strips inside for and aft to add strength for whatever load is put in the cabinet.

Send us pictures when you get it figured out !


I’d love to build tip cabinet but no idea how to attach them with it being fiberglass and no support bars.
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Re: What to do with front top of V nose

Postby Grummy » Mon Mar 20, 2023 1:37 pm

>>> no idea how to attach them with it being fiberglass and no support bars.

That is the point with a cabinet. No need to attach to those areas.

Imagine this for a second.....

Run a simple firing strip ACROSS the front of the trailer... side to side... right wall to left wall. Attach it with an "L" bracket to whatever you have on each side wall of the trailer, be it a convenient vertical stud or a horizontal top plate. Once attached, you can easily see that if you hang on the middle of it, and it will easily flex downward, right ?

But the minute you put a FACE panel on that firing strip, a simple ply panel, be it 1/8" or 1/4", one that goes vertical, fitting the top contour of whatever shape is up there and sawing to shape, you just built a bridge. Once you glue, nail or staple that panel along the bottom edge of that firing strip, it is going to be very rigid. The top edge can actually be left to flop loosely until you get farther along. Once you have a wood panel there, additional wood can be glued to it in order to attach to the future ceiling. Again, get your holes for cabinet access cut into the face of that panel before you put a floor on it. You can decide if you just want open cubbies, sliding or opening doors on it down the road, easily adding wood strips behind the panel if you need a spot where hinge and latch screws will grab effectively.

Now, the FLOOR of this cabinet is the same concept. Cut a piece of lightweight panel that fits the front contour shape of the trailer, and cut the back edge so it ends up at the edge of that same firing strip. Once attached to the firing strip, it should be real clear as to how you can support, bracket, or screw the forward edge to something, and again, it might be that your front wall ends up holding it up.

For more support for this floor, you can glue fore/aft strips inside the cabinet on the floor of it.

The method above does not require any fasteners to be used in, around or near those curved areas. You can still insulate them with any flexible insulation, glued to the curved surfaces easy enough.
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