Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

looking at your photos of the electrical installation, it looks like there are no bushings in the steel studs you drilled and routed your cable through.....i would strongly suggest adding them....a couple years down the road, the vibration is going to cut through your 12/3 cord insulation....no fun to have a fire inside the walls or ceiling.......or even the remote possibility of the trailer frame/skin becoming energized without tripping a breaker....

I second capt4903 suggestion on the bushings in the frame. Precautions are safer and they are small change priced..

Thats a great looking trailer you got there. Look foward to seeing your build!

Yes, I appreciate the thoughts on putting some type of bushing in the holes where the wires run through the frame.

I did take the time to double check for any burrs or sharp edges with a rat-tail file. And I have to be careful not to drill away to much of the metal to install an over sized bushing and weaken the metal, that would not be good.
I'll go shopping tomorrow and see what I can find.

I wonder if I could even make some type of plastic sleeve cut from something like a plastic milk jug, and wrap it around the wire and slide it back into the hole I drilled? It would still protect the wire from a possible cut, but not take up a lot of extra space.

Gadget Man

you might try the auto parts stores for some black rubber grommets....get some the same inside diameter as the outer diameter of the jacket of your cord.....the hole will only be slightly larger into the studs, lessening the chance of weakening them.....

looks like a quality build with some great craftsmanship....looking forward to your finished product...

of course i dont think we ever finish them.....always something to add!.....

I too was going to suggest using rubber grommets.
electrical supply, even radio shack may have a size you can use.
nice build so far, maybe you can use the extra sheets under thr trailer?

pete

No time to shop for grommets today, hopefully tomorrow.
I think I will have 4 sheets of 1" foam left over. Using them for the floor is a great idea. I haven't given insulating the floor much thought...
I did pack 1.5 inches of foam in the floor of my Weekender Tiny Trailer when I built that, I think with the mattress being right on the floor it was needed. Not that we ever used it in real cold weather.

How have you guys been sticking foam to the underside of the floor in a cargo trailer?

I could cut it to fit between the frame rails and glue it to the underside of the floor and use some type of metal strips screwed to the frame rails to hold it up. It would have to be tight to the floor in order for it to do any good.

Gadget Man

I found some nice compact grommets to guard against any possible cuts where my 120 volt wires run through the metal frame. So I finished that then continued on with the rest of the pink foam.

I finished all the foam today and started to replace all the white inside walls. Things are going fine. It's going back up faster than I thought it would.
I did have to cut out for all my new outlets and a few extra wires for things like the furnace.

I did return 6 sheets of foam, so I got a credit back from Home Depot for $60.00.
I then found a nice rubber mat at Menards, it's a black "coin" mat made to go under a car in your garage. It's amazing that it's 7 x 14 foot. and my trailer is 7 x 14. it was a bit spendy at $169.00 but with returning the pink foam I decided to spring for this for the floor.
I actually went looking for sheet vinyl and then found this rubber.
I'll get it installed tomorrow and up load more pictures .













Gadget Man

That's a nice looking utility trailer.
coin mat should work great for the floor.
I thought about your gromet issue when I was away from the computer for a couple days
I remembered I once used rubber hose inserted in the holes of a tube
some I had to split length ways and some I remembered to install as I was installing the electric wires I held them in place with some silicon.
using gromets like you did is best more professional looking I think.
your trailer is looking great and well thought out keep up the good work.
pete

Gadget Man, and idea of the right side measurement from the rear of the side door frame to the rear????

(mission creep!)

I'm toying with an idea of a Twin XL bed mounted sideways about 8" from the rear door frame. I'd then build a wall and have a small workshop in the back half of the trailer using double doors instead of the ramp door.

brainstorming is bad at times.

Floor Mat installed.

Well, today I finished the putting the inside walls back up, then installed the new "coin" pattern rubber floor and the base trim.

I laid the rubber mat out on the garage floor, measured 37 times and cut once. It fit perfectly the first time, I love it when that happens.

Here are a few pictures of the finished insides. Now I can finally start on the cabinets. It's a lot of work to get to this point, but I feel the fun starts now.
The insulation and wiring are sort of like laying the foundation, now I can start actually building my Adventure Trailer.

Crttaz:
I'll get you some measurements Tomorrow.







Gadget Man

Love it Gadget Man. Will be fun to watch the progress.

Love it Gadget Man. Will be fun to watch the progress.

Thanks campndual,
I can see from your profile picture you ride a KLR. Nice bike.

Today I worked on gathering up all the fittings for the water tanks, sink and drains. I have (2) ten gallon tanks, one will be fresh and one grey water.
They will both drain down through the floor to empty. The sink will have a by-pass so I can drain the sink straight to the ground via a 3-way valve.
So if the sink is full of clean water i can drain it away and not fill my grey tank.

Gadget Man

Cabinet Frame-out
Now it's starting to look like something.
But, I can not tell a lie, I did not build these cabinets, I have a friend that builds custom cabinets on the side. I asked him to help me put something together. He can draw them out in CAD at work then build from that.
Here is a shot of my furnace/refrigerator/microwave cabinet.

Then a picture of the bathroom and the corner cabinet.

The front counter has the power converter way down in the bottom right side. Then a deep drawer and a top silverware drawer.
There will be a shelf over the top of the water tanks and still leave room for the bar-sized sink.
There will be an additional overhead triangle shaped cabinet over the top.
The counter top will be some color of laminate.