"Hypno-Toad's Command Post." Door and windows in!

[jeff0520]

Hey everybody,
We have chosen a name for our trailer. Actually we had the name from the beginning, but it requires the story behind it to make sense. The story is REALLY dark, so I hesitated to tell it. I have now checked with all involved parties, and they all agree it's ok to tell it. Some friends of ours started having marital troubles. The male half of the couple had always been a casual recreational drug user. He never did any of the hard stuff, and he was responsible about it, so we ignored it.
Well, it didn't stay that way. He got this crazy vaporizer machine to concentrate the pot smoke, and mixed it with double and triple doses of anti-depressants and alcohol. My wife, Laurie is a biologist, and she was saying that the mixture involved will do physical damage to the brain. To make a long and terrible story very short, he went violently nuts. His wife ended up having to take her children and run, first to an urgent care facility to have her injuries treated, then to a secure domestic violence shelter. Laurie and I provided transportation to get her out, and helped pay for an attorney for her.
Her soon-to-be ex-husband responded to this by calling the police and claiming that Laurie and I had kidnapped his wife and children because we were the leaders of a sex cult, and we were opening a child brothel. (You just can't make up this level of crazy.) The police in our town get an intake report from the domestic violence shelter every time a woman arrives there, so they KNEW where the woman and her children were, but they have to go through to motions when a complaint is filed anyhow. Two very amused cops showed up at our house and told us what had been alleged. Laurie invited them in to look around and see if there were any children present. The police declined. Then my inner smart-ass simply couldn't be contained any longer. I said "I admit it...I AM a Charles Manson-like cult leader, and I learned everything I know from hypno-toad on Futurama." The cops both cracked up, and told us to have a nice day. For that reason, our camper trailer is HYPNO-TOAD'S COMMAND POST.

[parnold]

Wow!

It's a good thing you can keep a sense of humor about something so tragic. I think?

[jeff0520]

Wow!

It's a good thing you can keep a sense of humor about something so tragic. I think?

It was one of this times when you have to choose between finding the humor, or surrendering to the horror. We have never been people to surrender

[jeff0520]

Finally made it home after a couple weeks on the road for work. I got out to the build shop and got my wheel well skins glued permanently in place, and got the mounting holes drilled on one side for the steel fender. I would have done more, but I'm exhausted from this trip, and every mosquito in Alabama smelled a meal and was coming for the buffet.
More to come...AND PICTURES tomorrow

[jeff0520]

Ok, while paint is drying, and metal from the chop saw is cooling, it's time to update the build journal. The first thing I needed to do was decide how to attach my wood floor structure to my chassis. For that, I turned to good old tractor supply. I got a piece of plate steel 1\8th x 6" x 18". I laid it out like this:


After cutting the plates out, they looked like this:


Then I drilled the holes, painted them and installed them:




The over spray on the second picture is where I sprayed a top coat of paint on after installation.
I ended up using a total of 6 mounting plates, 2 on the front and rear corners, and one in the middle on each side. I'm pretty sure that will never move again without power tools being involved.
I also finished up my wheel well structures:




The rest of the day is going to be spent on the tongue extension.

[Forrest747]

ok crunched the numbers on your brackets. you will need 16,459 children from your brothel and 1,603 lbs of sugar pops to get teh floor pushed off the frame with those brackets give a pound or two of supar pops.

[jeff0520]

ok crunched the numbers on your brackets. you will need 16,459 children from your brothel and 1,603 lbs of sugar pops to get teh floor pushed off the frame with those brackets give a pound or two of supar pops.

I wont argue with your figures. I've never been good at that sort of HIGHLY abstract math

[jeff0520]

Tongue extension is DONE!!!






BTW, Here's a tip, Get a couple of the old style farmer's lanterns like you see in the picture. Fill them with citronella oil, and light them in the evenings. The smell keeps the mosquitoes from eating you alive, and when you inevitably trip on a cord and unplug your light, you can still see enough to plug it back in

[jeff0520]

Well, I measured what I have so far, and compared with my plans. It seems the command post is going to come out with a cabin length of 13 feet and a width of 6 feet 2 inches. This is going to be REALLY nice to camp with

[campmaster-k]

Good progress, great stories now you just need to throw in a few good meals and your camping!

[jeff0520]

Thanks! We always do a fall camping trip in September. I'm really hoping to have the Command Post ready to roll out by then.
That would really make the trip memorable

[jeff0520]

Laurie just told me money worked out better than she expected. I now have $150 more in the build budget for this week.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I feel the need for some 1/8 inch plywood. Time to start laying out the walls

[jeff0520]

Beginning negotiations with the wife on interior design now that wall layout and framing time is here. The 1/8th hardwood plywood we bought for the outer skin has such a pretty face on it, that we are thinking about using that for the inner skin as well, and just sealing it up with a nice urethane to make it waterproof. What I'm wondering is this, How important to the structural strength is the inner skin? The reason I ask this is that I came up with an idea to make the inner skin easier to install, and very pretty as well. I'm considering cutting little panels that mirror the frame underneath, and sealing them with urethane, then putting the pieces over each frame section. Then taking 1 1/2" x 1/8" lattice strips, and staining them a few shades darker, and covering all those seams sort of like batten boards. I think it will be a very attractive, natural look. This will also allow individual interior panels to be removed to do repair work or modifications later.
The downside to this idea is that if the interior skin is a major part of the structural strength of the wall, I might be compromising the structure too much by installing the interior skin in roughly 14" by 14" pieces. Opinions anyone?

[michaelinnc84]

Looking good so far! Watching this build.

[jeff0520]

Looking good so far! Watching this build.

Thanks! I'll try to make it worth watching