San Diego 5 x 8+ build

[adventurelad]

No updates this week as I have been engaged in an epic battle against my trailer lights.

To make a very long story short, I was simultaneouly dealing with a bad 5-to-4 wire controller in the tow vehicle, a bad bulb in the right turn / brake light, and a wire with a split cover that was grounding to the trailer (went through ~9 fuses tracking this one down )

As of last night, everything is working and I can move on with my life and teardrop building!

A few pics of the details of the wiring...


Grounding terminal


Chafe guard on the wires at the clips


Ground connections at the tongue

Some of the ordered parts are starting to arrive, which makes this much more 'real'...unfortunately the sink / stove combo unit (SMEV MO0911 from Panther RV products) got a bit dented in shipping. Hopefully FedEx will come good on this



So the trailer is just about ready to go to the DMV, and also to be used for getting the aluminum sheets...


First wall building this weekend!!

[pappaw]

Looking good!

Enjoy your build.

Cheers

[adventurelad]

Lots of progress this weekend, thanks to my helper (wife) I got more done than I expected. The goal for the weekend was to cut and frame-up one wall, and now both walls are nearly done, plus one door The story via



Jim (pohukai) gave some good advice on cutting the 1/8 lauan, find the non-orbital setting on your jigsaw. You can see the difference this makes (top was from two weeks ago on orbital , bottom is on non-orbital setting )



Setting up to join two sheets for the walls (our TD is a little longer than 8 ft, thus the need to join)



First join bonding



Tracing the profile from full size prints (one advantage to working in an office with a 36 inch plotter )



Profile traced out, ready to cut



First wall!! Also the first time you get a real feeling of what this thing is going to look like.



Working on framing for the first wall



First wall framing nearly done



Drawing the door cutout...my method for drawing radius corners (never underestimate what you can do with duct-tape!! )



Door cutout in first wall



Window cutout and dry fit...it fits!!



Final framing pieces around the door corners installed



And final door edge trim complete...ready for insulation



Insulation dry fit



Wall #2 framing in progress



Wall # 2 door cutout



Door insulation dry-fit



And wall #1 insulation being bonded in place.

What a weekend...I need to go back to work and rest Oh yeah, and order the rest of my parts!

Adventurelad

[Forrest747]

looks great I would add some more meat to your hinge area.

[adventurelad]

A bit of a shorter weekend of work...this sport called golf keeps getting in the way Took the always good advice from Forrest and added some reinforcing to the door where the lower hinge will attach (didn't have the hinges prior). So the main focus of the weekend was getting the cargo-hauler version of the trailer ready for its initial duties (and the DMV), finish framing the door that I didn't get to last weekend, and routing out the door latch pockets.


My wife got the camera...but I hid just in time


The basic state of progress, everything framed in an one side insulated


Routing out the latch pocket...I didn't go for the disassembly, rather I went for the 'keep taking little bits out until it just fits' method


Sucessfully installed!


And it is still 'clean' from the other side


Wood filler applied to all of the little blemishes on the plywood, plus the panel join...ready for sanding


And the cargo-hauler, boxed in...


...and ready for the DMV (which happened yesterday).

No work this coming weekend, but the pile of parts to be installed keeps growing

Adventurelad

[adventurelad]

Trailer building has slowed dramatically over the last few weeks, hopefully will pick up again soon!

Last weekend I 'painted' the walls and doors with West System epoxy. I used the ultra-slow hardener in the hope that it would allow some amount of penetration into the wood. Took about 36 hours to fully cure in San Diego heat (80 - 90 degrees). I didn't need to thin it at all, it brushed on with no problems, just a bit thicker than paint.




Pretty remarkable difference in wood tone between the sheets of plywood.




I also have now disassembled the 'cargo hauler' trailer and installed the tongue jack.

Had a friend come by and help me get the camper base onto the trailer, so now the assembly of parts can begin

Adventurelad

[Forrest747]

Looking great keep it up its almost a trailer.

[adventurelad]

OK, been awhile since I posted...been stealing an hour here and there, but got a full two days of work this weekend, and it is finally starting to really look like a ttt!!!



Peel-and-stick vinyl flooring on base, plus wall mounting rails installed. One week later and the flooring isn't sticking too well, may need to get some more glue under the more stubborn tiles.



Gluing the interior 1/8 birch plywood to the outer wall & insulation. My friend has termed this a 'gravity clamp'




I drilled holes through the birch from the outside to mark where I was going to cut so that I could...



...tape the other side. Cuts came out cleaner this way, but the jig-saw blade is only barely long enough for this method.



Door skin cutout, ready for gluing (this week sometime...I hope!)




Test fitting first wall. Used a bungy cord from the garage ceiling to hold it up Just needed a little sanding along the bottom edge to make sure the weight of the wall was on the 1 x 2s and not the plywood. This left a tiny gap for sealant on the final install.



Both walls dry-fitted and squared up!





It finally takes shape!!
So my method was to dry-fit and stand up both walls, then put the galley bulkhead in place, and screw it to the floor. This gave me a vertical reference for making sure the walls went back on straight. Then took off one wall at a time, applied sealant and wood glue along the bottom, then replace the wall and screwed it in place. Then repeat with the other wall. Then finally pocket-screw the walls and bulkhead together.



I used the off-cut from the door window openings as a template for the galley cupboard openings...recycling at its finest!



Inside cupboards starting to go in...a bit of a jig-saw puzzle.



Galley cupboard openings cut...time to call it quits for the weekend!!

Adventurelad

[adventurelad]

Big focus this weekend was completing the interior cabinets and starting the ceiling / roof. The update, in :



A shot of the mostly-completed cabinets. A bit of a brain-bender to try to hide all of the finish nails and screws. The best I came up with was a few visible along the center...but that meant that I could split the cabinet face in the center as well (using smaller pieces of plywood), and then I'll make a decorative 'feature' to cover the centerline split and screws.



Close-up. And yes, I used the same door-window piece as a template to cut these as well...consistent shaped openings everywhere!

I built the entire cabinet except the visible front face, then started on the ceiling. In retrospect, might have been easier to do the back-end ceiling first, but it made getting in and out of the camper easier (I am 6' 2"!). But it meant that I could install the bottom part of the cabinet first, then drop the shelves and dividers in from the top, and they would be supported while screwing / nailing, etc.



This is an end-of-weekend pic, but I only put the framing in for the back-end ceiling, then installed the 1/8 birch. Lots more room to maneuver the big flexible sheet. I was almost ready for the front end by the end of Sunday, thus the installed front-end framing.




Once you have that nice piece of birch paneling installed, you immediately cut a hole in it!



Just a detail of the wiring routing up to the ceiling fan and lights. I drilled through the floor and into the wiring conduit, then pulled a string through using the vacuum technique, and then pulled the wires through. Nice and tidy!



A view of the cabinets from the galley side. We decided to offset the shelf from center as you will inevitably have 'tall' items and 'short' items. My engineering brain was going to just center them, but my far-more-logical wife convinced me otherwise

Adventurelad

[Forrest747]

Looking great. I did the same thing with my seams is i put a piece of poplar to hide it.
Its almost done for sure.

[adventurelad]

Had plans for Saturday (63 mile bike ride) so only got half a weekend of work this week. Deadline is rapidly approaching, so going to have to resort to after-work hours again

First up was to install the forward half of the ceiling. My helper / wife had to work this weekend, so a little ingenuity was required to hold the roof beams in place while I drove the screws from the inside. Yet another use for ratchet straps!





Seems like this will be handy when doing the roof and roof insulation.



Finished product, from the inside. I bought some tiny quarter-round molding to cover the ceiling-to-wall gaps, but it is so small I am now wondering how to attach it? Any suggestions??

Next big task was sorting out the galley. I built a sliding shelf for the cooler(s) (we have designed for a plug-in 12V and regular one so that we have options), then placed the center divider, which gave me enough parts to finally visualize how it is all going to look:



Decided, after that, that the water tank would be better standing up vertically instead of horizontally...

Next was the front panel on the left side...and suddenly you realize how tight everything is going to be



All of that, and the water pump still needs to go in there! Sink is going to drain into a grey water tank constructed from PVC piping under the floor of the camper body between the steel cross-beams of the trailer.

Next up, drilled a hole for the water tap, then marked out the sink / stove combo cutout...twice First layout was too far to the right, so had to crowd it over to the left as close to the water tap as possible. Measure twice, cut once!



And to finish the day, a scary task...cut a big hole in the side of the camper for the water gravity feed and vent panel





19 days 'till the first outing

[KCStudly]

I bought some tiny quarter-round molding to cover the ceiling-to-wall gaps, but it is so small I am now wondering how to attach it? Any suggestions??

Glue? PL or hot glue gun? Wood glue temporarily tape in place with blue tape or propped with spring boards? Pre-drill in strategic locations for tiny brads, glue and tack?

[adventurelad]

Thanks for the suggestions KC...hot melt glue gun might be the best bet, then a few micro-brads. Was looking for something that would set up faster than regular wood glue. Thanks!

Pulled my wiring through to the rear of the camper last night...4 pairs (8 wires) of 12 ga is all you can realistically fit in a 3/4 in. O.D. flex conduit. The last two were a bear!!

Adventurelad

[Forrest747]

my doors and hatch were duct taped on the first trip and the same on the second one you will get there and looking good for sure.

[jbyrd]

Your trailer is coming along nicely!! If you don't mind can I ask where you got that sink stove combo from? I love it and want it for my next build!!!