Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hello, new to the forum here and wanted to let you know what we are doing and maybe get some advice. My wife is a massage therapist and we go to bike rallies where she wanted to set up shop. We found a used 7x14 trailer and we are going to convert it so she can do massages in it and we could camp in it. We bought the trailer Friday the 15th, and have to have it ready for use on the 25th, so we are in a little bit of a time crunch right now. I have read through several post here and gotten some good ideas so here goes.

We started by pulling up the vinyl tile squares so we could put down a padded floor. We think we are going to go with those puzzle piece foam tiles you can get at lowes. I took down all of the luan board that was on the inside walls and put foam insulation sheets throughout the walls and ceiling. I then put up 3/8 plywood for a little more sturdiness.

We bought some E tracks for the walls to put up bunk beds like I saw somewhere on this site. We bought a fold out RV step which I will install tomorrow and a RV style door handle. We ordered some indoor outdoor carpet for the walls for a little more sound proofing. We have not decided if we are going to buy cabinets for the front end of the trailer or build some so we can customize them the way we like. I like the one that Don and Christi built on here. We are going to go with a portable room air conditioner to start with but may add roof top air later. This is what it looked like when we bought it, we are still scraping off the stickers.

A couple more pictures, it does not look like we got much done but it is June in Texas so you have to work for an hour, drink a gallon of water, rest for 30 minutes then get back to work. That and I am not as young as I use to be.

The stickers are a PIA to get off, we have been using razor blades to get them started then peel about an inch before they break and we have to start again.


The inside walls are done, I kept the one in front because of the HD image.


The pink insulation is R4, the blue is R3.

Welcome to the forum! Lots of good info on here

Those stickers will come off alot easier with a heat gun, or a hair dryer. I took off the landscaping decals on a 20 trailer like that. Both sides, one day. It still took a while, but it was MUCH easier. One tip that I didn't get to try was using a block of wood with the heat. The heat softens the paint, and I was using a metal scraper, which left gouges that needed repair. I hear the wood doesn't do that, ymmv.

As far as the AC thing, have you read some of the AC topics one here? I haven't tried the dual hose portable AC, but there are some that say it works just fine. The problem is with the single hose systems, especially in Texas. I'm in Florida, I didn't bother. I got a roof top unit and never looked back. You'll want your roof to be as white as it can get too. Those black sides won't help much. I've got 2" of insulation in my roof and 3" in the walls. The Florida heat puts a beatin' on my trailer, but with that much insulation, and a 13.5K rooftop, it keeps up fine in August, and it's Ice-box worthy in the fall.

Welcome to the forum.

You can make the inside of that trailer nice and quiet and comfortable and cool, not too bright in there... add a built in sound system where you can play dvd's of the ocean and the birds!!! Then swing by Lake Orion and I'll test it out for you!

Good idea. It should work!!!

Mike...

Smiddyt,

Welcome to the forum!

For what you'll need initially your deadline date sounds doable if you keep it fairly simple. It sounds like you'll need 110v ac power inside for simple light, to run the AC unit, and maybe a CD player so a simple penetration like the one shown below is quick and easy and that way you don't have to worry about running a cord through the door (I suspect your wife will want to be able to close the doors for the customer's privacy). I bought the electrical penetration at Camping World for $5. I bought the short three outlet cord at Home Depot for about $10, maybe $15.

Keep us posted on your progress.

Don

Lowes has everything you need to finish your trailer as nice as you want.
I was going for a man/cave look for my trailer and I put carpet on the walls I think it looks great,it was discounted at lowes and was cheaper than useing the 38.00 a sheet nice paneling I have on the ceiling.
I also bought a stock 4ft counter top from lowes they had the matching formica sheets but I didn't really have the proper tools to work with but it would have looked better if I had used that also.
I recently bought a nice small cabinet from lowes that is made to go over a bathroom toilet for about 60.00.
A couple things I liked about this cabinet is that it's only about 5-6 inches deep so it dosen't stick out very far from the wall and the doors are finished nice plus and it has a open space below the the 2 doors to put things,all I had to do was take it out of the box and screw it to the wall.
I am going to buy another one the next time I go into lowes,they also have some great kitchen storage products some are a little expensive but look good and save alot of space.

Today I put the RV style door handle in and my wife worked on scraping stickers. The hair dryer idea was a good one, thanks. We then went to find someone who could weld a piece of plate metal under the door to bolt the steps to. I have a wire feed welder but all I can do is mud dob so my wife said we needed to find a professional. That was difficult to do and took us several hours, most thought the job was too small to deal with or wanted me to leave the trailer until they got time. Finally found a guy who did it for $20. Went in town to get the luan board for the ceiling and foam tiles for the floor. will probably install that tomorrow. I could go back to work but I dont want to

The stickers are off, still got to get rid of the glue though.


The step is on


The door handle is on, I scratched a paint a little but we plan on painting the whole thing white in the near future


The walls and ceiling are installed, just waiting on the carpet to come in to put on the walls


Started putting down the flooring

I used that kind of floor pads. Bought mine at Wally World.
are you going to semi-permanent mount your massage table/chair? Curious as I do reflexology for spare change at campgrounds often.
It's nice and builds great discussion times about our interests... camping.

No we are not going to permantly mount the table because we want to be able to use the trailer for camping too. I am going to mount E Track on the walls so I can put in a bed when camping.

there is a product called goo-be-gone. It can be found at most hardware stores and will help get rid of the glue. We use it all the time to get rid of stickers on store shelves.

Charcoal lighter fluid also does a nice job of cleaning adhesive.

WARNING - DO NOT USE AROUND OPEN FLAME

Firearms solvent , most brands, are good for glue removal too.

I am a glassman and we use Coleman fuel at work. Works very well.




Randy

Well got the floor done, and the carpet on the walls and back. I have hung 2 of the Etrack rails


Closer shot


Now it is off to lowes to get the air conditioner and some lumber to start building the cabinets.