Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I'm about to embark on building quick throw in pickup versions and have decided I'm going to use as my primary siding good old formica. I have a deal now with McCoys lumber that they can get me overnight literally around a 100 different color and pattern variations. This stuff is flexible hard inexpensive and easy to replace if needed. I'm going to slap it on with the 3M fastbond contact cement 30NF and will look good lighter than the aluminum I've been using and much cheaper. The retail pricing ranges from 40 to 70 for 4 x 8 sheets of it. Let me know your thoughts and for the sides and as durable as it is I don't think UV will be an issue for a long time. Sure be a lot easier and about the same cost as the canvas is after the time and money involved in getting it to adhere to the surface.

I had thought about formica for the inner walls of the foamie. Don't know how it would do as an exterior; I got a free piece last weekend and managed to put a small split in it getting it home. Still plenty for the chuck boxes I'm putting together. Interested to see other opinions.

Its durable for sure as its been on countertops in many houses since the 70s for 40 plus years and still holding strong. Someone had mentioned it before in the standard construction threads but nobody really pursued it and I couldn't find any when I was in the Austin area but have lots of it on tap here in Abilene.

True, but most countertops don't see highway speeds, and therefore don't flex. Tests would be needed first.

The problem I see is that the canvas provides the strength, essentually holding the trailer together, assuming your intent is to use foam for the construction. By wrapping the canvas over the corners onto the roof, and then from the roof onto the sides, the two surfaces are tied together. If you were making a more conventional plywood walled trailer, the laminate would be an interesting and seemingly very durable siding. You could always put it over canvas, but that would seem to defeat the purpose of replacing the canvas.

One other application for laminate I have considered is to use a 2' wide section along the front of my canvas exterior foamy as a rock guard, though I am not sure it would hold up to potential rock impacts at 60 mph very well without chipping.

Picking it up at the store the sheet is very flexible unless you sharply bend it and then it would split. FRP is brittle if it is bent too sharply as well and holds up just fine on the outside and is seriously heavy. Imagine if you have issues in several yrs you could simply buy new formica and laminate directly over the old stuff and have a new exterior. The 3M 30NF was actually developed 40 yrs ago for sticking formica down and does it very very well. On counters the issues have always been the edges coming loose where they are exposed to things always catching and hanging on them. My answer for that is to surround it all in moulding or aluminum angle screwed and glued on the corners so they can never have any catching and lifting. I've built 3 of these so far and 2 aluminum and one frp and after dealing with those 2 materials I know without a doubt the formica will work exceedingly well and the color and texture options are freaking amazing. I'll still use my diamond plate for the rock striking lower area of the front and will shave off another 100 pounds or so over the aluminum. Things are dropped on countertops all the time and very seldom does it ever chip unless you drop something big heavy with an edge on it.

Steve, now you really do have me thinking about it. I may test the idea on a scrap of foam. Hmmmm.

How about Filon?

Filon is a fancy name for UV treated frp so it falls exactly into the area of heavy heavy heavy and comes with a very high price premium.

What thickness are we talking on the Formica fellers ?

It seems around an 1/8"or slightly thinner.

I think you should put a piece of formica in the sun for a few days with half of it covered. This spring I left a table on my trailer for 3 days in the sun and where the rope went over the table there is a "shadow" so that means that the rest of the table must have faded a noticeable amount in only 3 days. Modern formica may be better (this table was from the 50"s) but I would test a piece before you invest too much into it. Also if that rope had not been over the table I would have never noticed that it faded.

Hillmann wrote:I think you should put a piece of formica in the sun for a few days with half of it covered. This spring I left a table on my trailer for 3 days in the sun and where the rope went over the table there is a "shadow" so that means that the rest of the table must have faded a noticeable amount in only 3 days. Modern formica may be better (this table was from the 50"s) but I would test a piece before you invest too much into it. Also if that rope had not been over the table I would have never noticed that it faded.

That is why Filon is UV treated. It is intended to be in an outdoor environment. Traditional Formica is not. Check out the outbackteardrop.com website. They covered their teardrop with Filon and it looks great.

So a 60 yr plus piece of formica should fade. But a testament to its longevity is how old it is. If it fades a bit I don't care because durable and light and cost matter more than it fading over time.

I've used lots of white formica on bulkheads in boats. It's typically a base-model standard, trimmed out with teak edging. It's tough enough to survive in a crew boat or a water taxi. It looks alright, but it always looks like you've formica for paneling...
JMHO though.