Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I'm cutting out everything in the next few days and am playing with pre-gluing canvas on EVERYTHING before assembly (completely wrapping the plywood floor in canvas, walls, galley panels made out of foam). I'll be using Glidden Grabber for this, then painting with exterior latex after it's put together. The only thing that'll be canvassed after it's on the trailer will be the roof and hatch because of the curves.

Any thoughts (bad floor connections to plywood, etc) good or bad about this? I'll be taping all seams with at least one layer of fiberglass tape after everything's glued together to reinforce things. I'm hoping this will cut way down on the total assembly time.

I think it should be fine. The canvas will really be strong if you wrap it around the corners but since you're doing it on the flat, you wont be able to do that. The fiberglass tape should help lots. That's what I did and the trailer is really sturdy. Amazingly strong!!!

I'll issue a disclaimer first. I have never built a foamie so I don't know if what I'm about to say applies.

In woodworking an "unbalanced" panel can present problems. By unbalanced I mean a panel that has a core material and a skin on one side of the core only (as opposed to a balanced panel that has a core material with skins on both sides of the core). An unbalanced panel has a tendency to warp or cup over time.

With pre-applying the canvas, unless you apply the canvas to both sides, you may experience warping or cupping of the panel. This possible situation could further be exacerbated if you don't pre-shrink your canvas before applying it to the foam.

The above is food for thought. Your mileage may very.

What Aggie says !!! ^

Thing is you have a Little time to cover both sides , but don’t wait too long ... Putting the reinforcing strips on after works fine , and with Fiberglass fabric or tape assures great strength , especially at the floor to wall join ... even applied with the “Grabber” should work out , I used T2 to adhere my fiberglass tape reinforcing strips. No Problems ...

Ps. I didn’t pre-shrink my canvas either ... got a nice tight skin now ...

I'm planning to try and wrap both sides in one shot to help with the balancing issue. I'm going to have a few days where I can't do anything after glueing, so I was just going to have a monster day and wrap the side panels, floor, and shelves all in one shot and let them dry for a bit with that first coat of primer. I'll put a second coat on after assembly (will fiberglass tape at that time as well), then a couple coats of white exterior latex to finish things off. Most of this will be built off the trailer, then bolted on once the panels are assembled. Sound like a plan?

It won’t take that long to dry .... just cover one side , let it dry a bit (to the touch ) , flip it over and cover the other side ... be sure to cover your supports with some saran wrap or wax paper so you don’t have any “sticking “ ...

Johnny Swank wrote:I'm planning to try and wrap both sides in one shot to help with the balancing issue. I'm going to have a few days where I can't do anything after glueing, so I was just going to have a monster day and wrap the side panels, floor, and shelves all in one shot and let them dry for a bit with that first coat of primer. I'll put a second coat on after assembly (will fiberglass tape at that time as well), then a couple coats of white exterior latex to finish things off. Most of this will be built off the trailer, then bolted on once the panels are assembled. Sound like a plan?

Sounds like a good plan to me! I was going to sat the usual - take lots of pictures - but for this operation work steady and save the picture taking to the end.