Father-Daughter Build 2013-14

[lfrazer98]

It was a long day, but we got our doors and windows cut out of the side walls. I CPES-ed the door opening and the underside of each wall. We used the pink foam as a barrier between the side wall and the trailer frame to close any gaps made by the welds we couldn't get off. I poly-ed some wood for the drawer boxes and divider wall (1/2" birch ply). Dad built a tongue rack yesterday. We dry fit the side walls and braced them to be screwed on tomorrow. We had a solid floor so we couldn't bolt the side walls and will have to screw them into the 2 x 4's in the floor. Only a few mistakes and mishaps today. Router wouldn't stay put and we had to readjust the bit height at least ten times today. I overlooked where the inner skins would join and the seam is visible in the galley. For some reason I thought it was going to join behind the dividing wall. It is an eye sore to me since the woods don't match, but what is done is done. Here are the pics from today and yesterday.

[DMcCam]

Hi Lauren,

You two are doing a great job on your teardrop; I like your design! What fun memories you'll be able to cherish in the future. Even professionals make mistakes, they just have found more ways to cover them. If there's something you can't quite figure out how to fix, just post a picture and ask for ideas. We all love to help each other here.

Again, Great Job,

Dave

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

Lauren, eyesores and flubs in the wood can easily be covered with a dash plaque from an event you attend, or a cool Teardropping sticker, or other decorative item. I speak from experience.....
Or just tell folks you planned for the seam to show.
It won't be long now....looks fantastic. Oops, just realized I logged in on the husband's computer/handle.
Joanie
TDN

[lfrazer98]

My Dad has made some progress the past three days while I was at work. I am still polyurethaning... It seems to never end... But he leveled the trailer, dry fit the galley counter area, started assembling spars, and made the frame for the ceiling vent. He also got the measurements for all my drawers planned out. Here are some pics.



Next is to build the front headboard area and put in my wall (still drying with poly- 3 coats on everything). We discussed the hinge spars today and I did some research on here and basically everyone doubles the spars for the hinge on both the roof side and the galley side. We are using 2x2" boards. He asked about placement of the spars. I told him that the roof spar should be right above the divider wall and that way the hinge can go between the roof spar and the hatch spar. I assume most people place their hinge here. I found a thread about everything hatches and hinges, etc., but many of the pics don't show up. Anyone have a drawing or a picture of their hatch/roof spar alignment? We are using an offset hinge so we don't have to cut down our walls, if that matters. I think I know how our hinge area will look, but won't know until we actually try.

Thanks for your help!

[KCStudly]

Hinge placement can have a big affect on where the bottom edge of the hatch ends up when in the raised position; whether or not it goes up high enough so you don't hit your head on it while also still providing shade and rain protection.

Someone suggested to me that my hinge should be further back over the rear edge of the top shelf so that I would never have to worry about closing the hatch on top of something that was too tall sitting on the shelf. Others suggest that it be closer to the bulkhead for the added stability that this provides. While still others suggest it be just behind the bulkhead so that if a leak should occur, at least it would be in the galley, and have less chance to run down the bulkhead.

The back of my hatch is fairly vertical, but is flatter on top. By putting my hinge just 3/4 inch behind the bulkhead I will get a good height and some shade with about 60 deg of opening. This also worked about right with the lifts that I will be using (another thing to consider).

So I would recommend that you go back to your profile sketch and use a compass to see what works for your profile and the struts you plan to use. Don't forget that your strut locations may be limited by your cabinetry, so it is a good idea to work that all out together.

[jameheuman]

Lauren and Dad,

I'm new to the forum (found it about a week ago), and came across your build. I just want to say Thank You for everything you have posted, I'm in the planning stages of my build and you have helped me with questions that I did not even now I needed to ask. Looking forward to reading on the remaining part of your build.

Thanks for Everything

Jame

[aggie79]

Hi Lauren,

KC's explanation of the hinge location considerations was excellent. One thing I would add is that the hinge spar must be radial to the profile. On my teardrop, the hinge spar is attached to and aft of the bulkhead/divider wall. The picture below shows the vertical framing of my bulkhead/divider wall. On the wall you can see a pencil line that shows the "wedge" shaped spar filler I had to add to make the hinge spar radial. The reason it has to be radial is that the two 90-degree sections of the hurricane hinge will not allow to hinge over-center much.



Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the finished hinge spar but you can get the idea from the picture.

I also would like to emphasize what KC said about the location of the struts if you intend to use them. Unfortunately, I am in the start building first then sketch/think about/dig yourself out of a hole later camp. As a result, I had to reduce the width of my upper galley cabinets and move them inboard to space for the struts when the hatch is in the closed position. It's not the end of the world, but I lost storage space would have been nice to have. (Another reason for this is because I have my struts in a reverse orientation as to how struts are typically installed. I did it this way because I have an extra long hatch and I was worried that in the traditional orientation the struts would have tried to lift the hatch at the hurricane hinge when in the closed position.)



Take care,
Tom

[lfrazer98]

Thank you so much! The explanations were excellent and now we can tackle the hatch part of our build. I would reply more, but I have water boiling on the stove. I will be back on tomorrow to post pictures and probably ask more questions. Looking forward to the long weekend so we can get a lot done!!

Jame- Thank you! I really didn't know what words to use or what to ask and only a couple of pages ago did I start to put everything together. We are basically building this in one month, so I had to do a lot of prep work! Heck, I still say divider wall, and I am pretty sure the guys were nice enough to just slip in bulkhead as the correct term I am stumped every day and learning every day, but cheers to starting your build! It is exciting!

[DMcCam]

Hi Lauren,

Tom's instructions are dead on. Here you can just see the angle of my aft roof spar in this shot.


My hinge is attached just like Tom's to a double spar over the aft bulkhead for strength and is angled to match the radius of the wall curve too.

Best,

Dave

[lfrazer98]

Perfect, Dave! Thanks for another picture. We have our double spar installed directly above the bulkhead and it is angled to be perpendicular to the top edge. I will be taking pictures today!!

Got one question for you all.... We bought our interior ceiling/roof ply cut to the width of my trailer (60 1/2") and I brought it down to poly. Then I thought about it and was thinking the poly might make it harder to bend (2-3 coats, but thinned with spirits).
Did you poly your interior roof skins before or after you installed them??
For me, it would be easier for me to poly first, then install later... We are not installing the roof skin and spars off the build since our roof spars are already in, so I would be polyurethaning over my head. That might clear a couple things up before you reply.

Thanks, everyone!

[KCStudly]

I plan to stain and poly my inner roof skin before installing. I worked on my front wall skin some more today; 2nd coat of poly flat on the bench.

Don't forget to mask off any areas that need to be glued at installation.

[lfrazer98]

Thanks, KC. I did do one coat already today just to get a jump start. Had a friend's husband stop over since he is an electrician. We had some good conversation about my shore power set up. I poly-ed my interior maple cabinet pieces (face frames and doors are done). All my slides are in for my drawers. Bulkhead finished drying over night and is in the garage and ready to install. We got most of the drawer boxes cut. I still need to poly the rest, but we ran out of poly today. Here are a few pics.

Rainbow after a quick shower. My tear is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.


Left upper grill slide and lower storage slide. 3 center drawer slides.


Cooler slide. Not installed yet and a little out of focus.



Headboard is only partially installed. We still need horizontal support for the open shelf above it and will probably need to place a spar in the back. Didn't plan that one too well. Still trying to figure out a vertical support in the middle somewhere.

More to come tomorrow!

[KCStudly]

Good progress!

[Shadow Catcher]

Your trailer is looking very good Lauren, one day I hope to see the finished tear at one of the gatherings.

[lfrazer98]

The photos first....









Now for the commentary. First of all, our frame is crooked and the floor sags in the middle. Because of that we have been having a little bit of a hard time getting everything square. We did get the wall cut for my headboard, but what we didn't show is it cut into pieces for my 3 doors that will be in my headboard that will open for storage. They are currently in the basement being poly-ed along with my sheets of ply for my inner roof skin. We got the bulkhead in, but have a little gap at the top (more in the middle) that we will have to cover with trim. All the drawers have been installed, but we need to adjust the bottom left and bottom right for more clearance for the galley hatch latches (we need just about a 1/4" more) and we need to straighten out one or two anyway. We got the upper cabinets squared, nailed and sitting on the counter. Once in place, we starting trying to figure out strut placement. Figured we would have to go with manual supports for my first outting. I saw some in a pic somewhere and they are like 2 long supports on each side of the galley and they swing up and attach to the underside of the hatch. And finally, my inner storage cabinet in the bulkhead. Although we measured many times, for some reason there is a 1/4" offset. Either we measured wrong or measured from a side that wasn't cut exactly straight. Either way, I have a storage door/opening that looks crooked. Since it is inset/flush with the rest of the wall, I will need something to keep it flush, like a stopper or the likes. I figured I could fix the appearance of the door and keep it flush by adding a thin trim to the top horizontal side that will over lap the wall. This will keep the door from falling into the opening and convince the eye that it is, in fact, straight. I can also attach a latch to this trim, as well. Hope I explained everything well. Tomorrow I am rafting all day and will be taking a short teardrop break until tomorrow night. I will post tomorrow's progress then.

Thanks for reading, everyone! Hopefully we can fix all our mistakes! Cabinet and drawer fronts on tomorrow, inside cabinet face frame will be made and we will be starting our wiring. I KNOW I will have questions about that!

Night all!