Lifting roof XPStream - making improvements

[OP827]

Just some pictures from this weekend. Door installed. Painted folding walls interior and fitted with upper door half. Made pictures of roof down and up with the door installed. I like it how it fits and looks. Enjoyed lazy Sunday with nice weather. Happy building!

[greygoos]

Have been following the build since the beginning. Great job !!! I wish you and your family the best in your camping adventures.

[OP827]

Have been following the build since the beginning. Great job !!! I wish you and your family the best in your camping adventures.

Thanks Jim. There is still work to do before we go camping with this trailer, but I can definitely see that the camping time cannot be too far away.
I wish you and your family all the best and great camping trips too.
Oleg

[Atomic77]

I'm excited to see your progress! Always top shelf work my friend. Let me know how you do with your parts from Ali Express. Keep up the good work Brotherman

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[tony.latham]

I've been working on my latest teardrop since the first of May and marveling at how much work goes into a 'drop.

But... you're project is 10X mine. Looking superb.

Tony

[OP827]

I've been working on my latest teardrop since the first of May and marveling at how much work goes into a 'drop.

But... you're project is 10X mine. Looking superb.

Tony

Tony, thanks for your kind words, appreciate your words of support and encouragement.

I may be repeating myself here, but I had no idea of effort this build would take when I started. Or rather I was certainly underestimating the effort and overestimating my skills, mental and physical productivity. It is good that the build puts me down to earth and makes me appreciate my effort and your guys effort to build projects like we see on this forum here. There is still a few technical questions left to resolve in this build, for example the curved front window: do not know how I will make the curved acrylic, preform or force to stay in that shape or make some jig... It's part of fun to learn new things, have technical challenges and find solutions that work. I admire your skills and refinement of building techniques with Baltic birch plywood, I'm following your #4 build with great interest. Similar to you, I really like 1/8" Baltic Birch as a building material for its appearance, strength and lightness. BTW, I have a lighter and smaller trailer with lifting roof in my mind, but that idea will have to wait until I finish this build first.
And as a lesson learned from this build I promised to myself not to start a new build without first finalising all (OK, most of) the design details .

Happy building and again I am following your build with interest, make more pictures and videos!

Oleg

[OP827]

I'm excited to see your progress! Always top shelf work my friend. Let me know how you do with your parts from Ali Express. Keep up the good work Brotherman

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Michael, thank you kindly for continuous support. I will never be able to match the finish and level of refined detail that you have on Astroliner. Your build is special and the only one like that out there. Will let you know how I like the window stays parts when I get them. So far my experience with Ali Express orders was positive, just need to do some research before placing any order. Since last year their delivery times really improved. My negative experience with online purchases was actually first with Ebay and it was on me for not taking time to do my homework and then not raising claim on time. The material damage was really negligible, so I take it as a cheap lesson received.

[Atomic77]

I would make a jig, then heat it in a paint booth oven. This is an example of a bubble, but same idea. You warm the acrylic then bend it.

https://youtu.be/lNFV2BTG2kc

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[OP827]

I would make a jig, then heat it in a paint booth oven. This is an example of a bubble, but same idea. You warm the acrylic then bend it.

https://youtu.be/lNFV2BTG2kc

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I am thinking of making a simple drape mold out of thin plywood and some ribs to keep the shape. Now I wonder what kind of cloth do they use here?



Could be some natural fabric like cotton not to melt and stick to acrylic, do you know by chance?

EDIT: found the answer to my question; the fabric used is mentioned in this online Plexiglas forming manual
" Surfaces of Forms:
The surfaces of forms should be free of waves and other
variations in contour that might cause optical distortions in
the finished part. Surfaces of drape or snapback forms are usually
covered with soft cotton flannel cloth, flannelette, velvet, or billiard
felt. The nap of these cloths helps prevent mark-off which might
otherwise result from small dirt particles or irregularities in the
surface of the mold. For covering three-dimension forms use suede
rubber or flocked rubber sheeting which can be stretched to the
contour of the form"

[Atomic77]

Yes. That's what I'm talking about. Single positive mold and let heat and gravity do the work

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[OP827]

All windows except on the door and two upfront were fit and fixed with hinges today. Waiting window stays to come in mail and thinking of locking mechanism. Moving along... the build is taking shape.

I found today that I will not need to do the drape mold. It was easy to bend the 1/8" acrylic on the curve without any heating. Will put aluminium flat bar with stainless steel screws on the perimeter every 2-1/2" with some sealant tape. The window curve radius is more than 200 x the acrylic thickness, so it aligns with the manual recommendations.

What kind of tape can be used to seal this fixed curve window, butyl or something else? I want to make it non-permanent and replaceable... ?

[OP827]

About forced air ventilation. I am thinking of placing this fan on the folding side wall behind kitchen area.Any comments?
It should vent all warm air while cooking or while cooling is needed. I do not think I really need to make a hole in the roof, it is not a huge trailer, this fan should be more than enough and it has 4 speeds. Reviews say the slowest speed is almost no noise.
https://www.amazon.ca/Maxxair-Corp-00A04301K-Maxxfan-Manual/dp/B06Y3KL5P5/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

[Atomic77]

I really don't have a comment on this fan because I don't know anything about them. They look much like the Fan-Tastic fans that I have, which I have two. Mine are 3 speeds which I rarely use, are very powerful, and easy to clean. I've had nothing but good luck with these and would definitely buy them again. Very good quality and well made. Sorry I can't help with the other brand.

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[OP827]

Do you have a reversible flow option on your fans and use it or not?

The only reason I looked at maxair is that it has 4th speed that is reportedly very low noise that could probably be used during sleeping time. Fantastic fan has 3 speeds and I had if in my other trailer and it was quite good. I am just looking at options for ventilation at this moment. Still considering a bank of 120mm or 140mm PC fans with a remote light and speed controller, but not really sure about them due to low flow rate. Other option was a radiator fan, but it must be noisy, does not look nice and will require a slow down PWM regulator. RV fans like fan-tastic or maxair seems to be straight forward to install, all functions inside and designed for the purpose, so I am leaning towards that option for now.

I recently realised that having folding walls has advantages for things that do not get used while storing or towing like the exhaust fan, windows, it is good to be able to hide various openings and penetrations. Could be something else that I did not think of that could be located on the folding walls, a porch light seems logical. This project is a design as I go, no thorough plan was ever done, only a vision, but we are slowly getting there.

[Atomic77]

Do you have a reversible flow option on your fans and use it or not?

The only reason I looked at maxair is that it has 4th speed that is reportedly very low noise that could probably be used during sleeping time. Fantastic fan has 3 speeds and I had if in my other trailer and it was quite good. I am just looking at options for ventilation at this moment. Still considering a bank of 120mm or 140mm PC fans with a remote light and speed controller, but not really sure about them due to low flow rate. Other option was a radiator fan, but it must be noisy, does not look nice and will require a slow down PWM regulator. RV fans like fan-tastic or maxair seems to be straight forward to install, all functions inside and designed for the purpose, so I am leaning towards that option for now.

I recently realised that having folding walls has advantages for things that do not get used while storing or towing like the exhaust fan, windows, it is good to be able to hide various openings and penetrations. Could be something else that I did not think of that could be located on the folding walls, a porch light seems logical. This project is a design as I go, no thorough plan was ever done, only a vision, but we are slowly getting there.

I didn't get the reversible fans. The Fan-Tastic fans I got were in the $125 range. I really haven't seen a need yet to suck air in I guess. Usually I am using them to draw air through the other windows. Or evacuating cooking smells, etc. Otherwise I have the AC on. In the lowest setting its quiet enough that it doesn't bother me and I'm a light sleeper. I have a window next to the bed and on nice evenings I turn on the fan to draw a breeze through the bedroom window which is really nice.

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