G&M's 'Drop

[GarthB]

Spent the late afternoon and evening working on getting roof spars glued and screwed. I started with the rear-most spar first so that it would be a somewhat out of sight practice run with stapling the interior headliner to the spars. Both of my first two staples missed the spar and I quickly threw the stapler aside. I had a good LED light setting on the outside to help identify the spar from the inside, but I think it was too sunny of a day for it to work well.

Before I had bought the stapler, I planned on using some 3/4" long painted finish screws that I had leftover from a previous project. I reverted back to this option. In order to hit each of the spars, I used a chalk line to layout where all of the spars would sit on my headliner. I then measured out equal spacing for five screws per spar and drilled tiny pilot holes from exterior to interior. Once each spar was installed, I could drive the screw in through the pilot hole from the inside of the cabin. It well and I'm happy with the looks of it.





As a follow up to the concerns I posed earlier today about the 2-1/4" vs 2-1/8", I think it'll all work out just fine now that I've got the majority of the spars mounted. At least half of the headliner was set about 1/16" proud above the wall shelf due to the PL premium expanding, so much of my roof is pretty close to a 2" void as it is. I will likely use a combination of small 1/8" shims and thick beads of PL Premium under the roof blocking as needed in order to get a flush edge with the exterior wall sheeting.

I ended the day by getting the sliding doors installed now that they've received several coats of poly. The 1/4" birch is definitely a lot lighter in color than the rest of the interior. I was pretty surprised by the contrast. Maybe someday I will replace them with something a little fancier if I get bored.



Reminding myself that there is in fact a light at the end of this teardrop tunnel. Not sure whether my mid-July completion date is still attainable, but we're going to try our best to make it happen.



Tomorrow I'll be finishing out the framing for the roof fan, installing roof blocking and start on wiring.

[GarthB]

Checking off odds and ends while I wait for my 12 AWG zip cord to arrive so that I can begin wiring. I had ordered the wire well in advance, but when I finally got around to opening the box the other day, I found that I was sent 16AWG rather than the 12AWG that I had ordered.

As for the roof work, I got the roof blocking glued and screwed over the weekend and was pleasantly surprised that the blocking eliminated any remaining waviness in my 1/4" lip. Once the blocking was complete, I cut the hole in the headliner for our roof vent fan and test fitted it.




I was glad that I took the time to test fit it because it made me realize I needed to add two more pieces of poplar along either side of the framing in order for the mounting screws in the flange of the fan to have something to bite into. Finding this out at the very end of the project when permanently mounting the fan would've been a major bummer.

All of the blocking for the lights and fuse block has now been cut and prepped as well. My wire will (hopefully) be arriving tomorrow.

In my spare time, I've been brainstorming a solution for the remaining 1/8" gap that I need to fill in the roof void. Since the void is 2-1/8", the 2" insulation wouldn't provide any structural rigidity to the roof if left unaddressed. I've been debating between spray foam and finding a way to plane down thinner sheets of foam board in order to avoid a boat load of sanding. Building an extra long hot wire cutter at this stage in the game isn't a rabbit hole I feel like going down. The spray foam wasn't giving me a good feeling either. Luckily, I ended up stumbling across a product made by Dow called Sill Seal Foam Gasket at Lowes. It is 1/8" thick closed cell foam and comes in a 7-1/2"x50' roll. I purchased some of it and test fitted it between the headliner and a piece of 2" foam board. It closed up the 1/8" gap perfectly, so I am planning to use it.

[tony.latham]

It closed up the 1/8" gap perfectly, so I am planning to use it.

I liked your comment about, "in my spare time."

Tony

[GarthB]

I liked your comment about, "in my spare time."

Tony

Spare time is certainly hard to come by in the midst of a build. My golf clubs have collected a lot of dust so far this summer...

[GarthB]

Got all of the cabin wiring ran tonight. I ended up using 16AWG for all of the lighting and 12AWG for the roof vent fan and the power outlet bank that I'm mounting to the headboard shelf.



I made a last minute decision to place my fuse box in the galley rather than at the headboard in the cabin. Part of my reasoning was that I felt that putting it here was more of a central location and would result in fewer lineal feet of wire throughout the roof. The other part of my reasoning was that I would like the option to wire in additional LED light strips and a fridge in the galley in the future without needing to run the wires now. I will likely enclose the fuse box in the same location that Tony placed his solar controller, however it won't be on display. I plan to cover it up with a small hinged or sliding access door.



As for a solar controller, we will likely purchase suitcase solar panels with the controllers integrated in them. We camp in fairly wooded areas and will need flexibility when it comes to solar panel placement.

Next, I plan to connect all of the wiring and get the few remaining items squared away for roof insulation.

[tony.latham]

I made a last minute decision to place my fuse box in the galley rather than at the headboard in the cabin.

It's sure a fine-looking build.

Tony

[GarthB]

All tied-in to the fuse box. I won't be quitting my day job to become an electrician anytime soon, however it was pretty satisfying to see my test light light up at the end of each run without any hiccups. I'll add an inline fuse between the battery and fuse box, a multimeter, tow vehicle cutoff switch and work on the galley electrical once I've framed the hatch.

[JoeGrz]

Mid-July completion date? I can't see where you have any spare time. Your craftsmanship is outstanding and its moving along so quickly. Your pictures definitely show what it should look like. I'm coming up on 13 months on my build and hoping for a mid-July completion as well. Keep up the good work

[GarthB]

Mid-July completion date? I can't see where you have any spare time. Your craftsmanship is outstanding and its moving along so quickly. Your pictures definitely show what it should look like. I'm coming up on 13 months on my build and hoping for a mid-July completion as well. Keep up the good work

Thanks Joe! Spare time is definitely hard to come by these days. The desire to use it while our Northern Michigan summer is still in a cooperative mood is what's fueling us.

[GarthB]

Checked some boxes today. We spent last night and this morning cutting and fitting 2" foam board for our roof insulation.

As we had to make a few angled cuts across our foam board to account for less than perfect spar spacing, it had me thinking, if I were ever to build another, I would cut the foam board to size during spar installation and use it as a guide for spar spacing.

After all of the foam was installed, my wife sanded a few high spots that we had and we were ready for the exterior roof sheathing.



We installed the exterior sheathing by laying a bead of PL premium on the top of each spar and the roof blocking. Then, we set the birch down and stapled it in place. For a little extra insurance, we added five 1" screws spaced evenly across each spar. We didn't have any major surprises during the installation process, but it definitely got a little wild at a few different moments along the way. I lost a couple years off of my life when I thought I shot a staple into our roof wiring at one point. Luckily, it was a dry fire from the stapler and all of our wires still worked when I tested them at the end of the day.




In the end, we had a few small wavy spots from the glue expanding. All things considered though, we're chalking the day up as a success.

[GarthB]

Continuing to make progress, just nothing overly photo worthy. Got the overhead lights in the cabin installed, wired the logic controller/third brake light into the existing trailer wiring, added a tow vehicle charging line, and continuing to chip away at filling screw holes and other defects with thickened epoxy.

My wife and I also got the mattress ordered. We chose to go with a 6" Milliard tri-fold mattress so that we could fold it out of the way in order to gain storage space. I also like the idea of being able to easily check the floor more often in case a leak were ever to occur.

Hoping to get the third brake light mounting block finished tomorrow so that the roof can be fiberglassed over the weekend.

[GarthB]

In an effort to maximize efficiency, I decided to wait to fiberglass the roof until the hatch is complete so that we can fiberglass both the roof and the hatch at the same time. Instead, I spent yesterday evening working on the hatch side templates. These were a fairly easy task. Trace the cutoff hatch sides that have been hidden in a safe place and modify the template as needed. I used 1/4" ply for these. If we didn't live in a time where plywood was so expensive, I would've preferred to have used 3/8" or 1/2" instead so that the template was more rigid. Without enough clamps, it's pretty easy to deflect such a narrow 1/4" template with the top bearing router bit as you are operating the router.

Once the templates were complete, I got the 1/2" spacers, 1/2" gussets, and the 1/2" roof blocking cut out using marine grade ply. My countertop is a little bit deeper than the plans called for, so the gusset had to be cut slightly shallower than plan. I settled with a 2-3/4" depth in the area that needs to clear the counter. Hopefully I don't regret these choices later.



My impatience persuaded me to glue up all three pieces of the hatch sides at the same time rather than gluing on one piece at a time. As long as I don't discover any hiccups when I pull the clamps off tomorrow, it all still went pretty smoothly.



While waiting on the glue for the hatch sides to set, I began working on the slide out tray for the cooler. It's nearly complete aside from a few small pieces of jatoba edge banding that blew out when I was flush cutting them with the router. I think sanding the edge banding down instead of routing it would've been the wiser option.

I also got the overhead lights in the cabin installed.



The reading lights still need to be installed, but I'm dragging my feet on those since I haven't yet come up with a good way to glue an additional 1/8" piece of blocking to the wall face. I forgot to include material in my skeleton in this area, so I plan to have an 1/8" spacer glued to the wall between the inside face of the wall and the light base. I have Titebond polyurethane compatible glue and was considering adding glue and then just taping the spacer to the wall while the glue dries. However, my suspicion is that the expansion of the glue will exceed the strength of the painters tape. If anyone has any recommendations, I'd appreciate it!

[tony.latham]

...anyone has any recommendations...

PL Premium will work.

Tony

[GarthB]

...anyone has any recommendations...

PL Premium will work.

Tony

Thanks Tony. It got the job done.

[GarthB]

Started the day out by sanding and touching up the completed hatch sides. Thankfully, there were no surprises and they fit on both sides of the galley according to plan.




The forecast predicted morning rain followed by afternoon clouds. Instead, it rained all day long. I was close to giving up hope that I could get the 'drop down the road to the wood shop and was scratching my head as to whether I could squeeze it inside. Determined to make progress, I shifted a few things around and when there was a brief break in the weather, I got it crammed into the shop. The exhilaration that was felt racing to get it inside before it started raining again was even greater than the nerves I felt just before cutting the hatch sides off of the walls. Luckily, no rain drops landed on the teardrop.

Once inside, I got the blocking for the lower strut attachment point cut out and began ripping down poplar to 2" wide. From there, I worked from top to bottom and got the hatch framed out. I took my time on this, making sure that both sides were spaced evenly. "Measure twice, cut once," was blaring in my head today after discovering that the cooler slide out tray that I rushed to get together last night was too wide for the bay.

All said and done, the framing went well. I still need to build the final spar that seals the hatch to the edge of the floor. I decided to hold off on it for today in order to do a little bit of brainstorming.



The clamping configurations that are made in order to get a perfect fit always humor me. Today, the fender bracket and a long bar clamp came in handy in order to ensure that the hatch side was just right.