Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hey Laura...

Great to see the progress. Although it's sometimes hard to not get caught up in the small problems that occur along the way, enjoy the build. I am now on my third season of camping with the Road Foamie and I miss not having something to work on. There are a number of small projects that need my attention but there's nothing like being involved in the build. Have fun. I admire your resourcefulness to this point and think you'll do fine. Keep on building!!!!

Looks good, looking forward to more!

Sunday a friend came over and helped me cut out my sides.
Last night I flipped the deck back up right and put it back on the trailer. It dropped right into place. YAY! It's not screwed down yet.

But nobody can resist the next thing that happened right?

“Looking Good !!!! “

cant wait for next week when I can do that.. set the sides up and see the profile. Start adding the PVC frame pipes for the door cabana's and the plywood shelving for the galley.. so much to do and so impatient

I remember that step. That's a cool one!

Really helps you “visualize” the space... Second side up , makes you realize how small it is ...

So today was sort of a wash at working on the teardrop (dog training, laundry, a nap and a date but no trailer). But.. I did get a few minutes in just now. Right before I threw the last load in the washer.. what better time to attack foam with a surform plane!

I stood both sides up on the trailer floor, and clamped them together at the perfectly straight spots in the trailer profile. in my case, the center of the top, the center of the front wall and the bottom four inches of the back. Those all lined up fine. I then set about planing down the difference in the curves I had cut with the jig saw. At the worst points I was 1/4 inch out. So not too bad. And everywhere I wobbled I wobbled OUTSIDE the intended curve (which is what I was trying to do)
I had a small metal square along. I'd just shave down the high spots until they matched the spot on the other side. Then check to make sure the whole edge of the 2 in foam was level across all 4 inches of combined width.

I did move the clamps around a bit to make sure the area I was working in was well stabilized on a few occasions. All in all it didn't take long.

Tomorrow I'm going to go out with some tape and lay out my windows and shelves and dividers and things. If that goes well I'll probably glue the sides to the floor. I will have to think on how to clamp that down, since gorilla glue likes to move.

You could make some little “pins” out of dowels or chopsticks , with matching holes in the foam and floor (simple) then it wouldn’t shift when glued .. it would be “shiftless" ...

I use coarse thread drywall screws as alignment dowels, they work just as well in foam as in wood. just run them in and out at low speed to avoid stripping out the hole and when removing them, use as little pressure on the drill as possible.

JMHO, although we like Row’s idea of screws , we feel (opinion) that the dowel/bamboo pins , glued in would add a little extra strength to the floor wall join .... every little bit helps eh ! ... A Foamie is really a “bag of tricks" where each little part/joiner adds to the overall strength of the structure. Ten little things makes a Big thing ...

Easy to do (with a helper) ... one person holds the foam wall in perfect alignment , the other person crawls on the floor under the trailer and drill upward through the floor into the foam , where the pin is to be placed... several of those along each side should work great ... Put the glue on , put the wall on , pop the pins through , and Bob’s your ...

Dowels or screws. What a great idea. I was thinking about dowel rod for door jamb installation. I used drywall screws as clamps on the roof of the bike drop.

I have on hand a pound of 3.5" long drywall screws. But they will probably rust. I also have a bunch of thin (3/16this maybe) dowel rod. I probably want something more substantial though.

3/16” is a little skinny ... 1/4” might be better ... but if you used Enough of the smaller ones, that would work .... only alignment pins/or screws really ...

And one thing we found out if you use regular drywall screws , the TB2 will cause some rust/corrosion , and they do make exterior screws...

I was thinking I might get 5/16" 3/8". They're pretty sturdy and it us easy to find longish drill bits in those sizes.

Three inches into the wall? That seems pretty good.

I'm the mean time I went out with some blue tape abd started thinking about internal structure. I wonder if my giant window isn't too giant. Pictures of that soon