Livin' the Dream Too

[KCStudly]

1. Absolutely you should install the planking in the flat. It will be much easier to install and trim the edges that way. I completely finished my wall interiors before erecting them, and it worked out really well. One thing you may need to factor in, though, is as the weight of the wall goes up, you may need help maneuvering them. (Mine having minimum framing and no outside skin, only weighed 45 lbs with the door... but w/o the window unit).

2. The wood fibers are strong along their long axis, but weaker at the joins between fibers. Since they are long and stringing in the direction of growth they resist bending in that direction, so we all usually bend our plywood with the direction of the outer plies. Paint alone does not do a good job of binding the wood fibers and preventing them from splitting or checking, especially the stressed fibers of bent plywood; so over a short time the wood opens up and takes the paint with it, allowing water in; the wood swells and it gets worse.

Have you considered gluing canvas or fabric over and painting that? This method is discussed at length in the foamie forum and has been used very successfully over plywood and directly over foam. It's actually an old boat building technique. The unidirectional orientation of the woven cloth fibers bound to the ply using wood glue reinforce the wood fibers in their weak direction, offering a more stable substrate for primer and paint. Worth consideration.

[ragincajun309]

KC,

I appreciate the reply and help. As far as the canvas you bring up a good point. I seriously considered building a foamie due to the low weight, but to be honest the idea of stretching canvas spooked me back to more conventional construction. I really appreciate the explanation about the wood grain and why more than paint is necessary.

I think I'll go with an aluminum skin, for sure on the roof. I've seen some really good jobs of lap joining on this site so I'll restudy those when I get to that point or find a supplier of wider aluminum sheet.

And thanks for the reassurance on the walls, sometimes this build keeps me up at night going over all the little details in my mind. Is that the fun part?!?!

[ragincajun309]

Well I have been on a close to two month hitch at work so I've been unable to get anything done on the camper, but I know that spring will be here soon and along with that camping season!

I framed up, insulated and applied the cedar planking on one side, hope to finish framing up the other side today. I feel I may have used too wide of poplar framing for the door and added some weight but I was concerned that the door would have to most stresses on it so I went overboard. Total weight of the side with door and window comes in at 70 lbs, how does that fall in line with other builders weights?

The insulation went in well, a nice tight fit with only one bad measurement near the door.

The cedar planking was super easy to put in. It was fairly cheap at $15/package and I used two so $30. Biggest benefit is I don't have to do any staining, painting, etc so much less work, plus I can use the camper as a cedar closet when not camping...guess I better buy that fur coat my wife's been asking for!

My next decision is on the interior ceiling. I planned on using the plank cedar tongue and groove but it comes in 8' lengths and my width is 52" so I'd have to put in spars or end up with a lot of waste cedar. Does anyone have any advice on ceiling spars? I was thinking one on side 2' in from the outside so that I would be able to use the left over cut but I'm not sure if it would be difficult. I was thinking of using plywood similar to how I've seen some make their back hatches. Then I was thinking of using canvas to make a headliner of sorts. I was thinking of ripping the cedar planks down to run along my roof joices to hold the canvas up. I'm afraid the canvas would sag, anyone ever make a canvas headliner? I plan on using 1"x2" stood on end as my joices with the space between filled with foam board insulation.

Thanks for reading if you got this far!

[ragincajun309]

I coated the underside of my deck with the black oopy goopy stuff and it wasn't as nasty as I expected it to be. After drying, I permanently attached the deck to the trailer which was straight forward and easy enough.

I finished the two walls and raised them up. They were held in place with the horizontal piece of plywood that will serve as my son's bunk bed. I then began to add 1"x2" spars every 12" on centers, I still have 7 or 8 left to put into place but the walls are secured. The structure even without the plywood roof seems really secure.

Next up, to finish the spars and then begin to apply the 1/8" plywood interior roof.