Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hi all,

My husband and I finally decided to pull the trigger and build our first foamie. We've been reading this forum and watching videos for a long time, built a small model with cuts and angles figured out and all we had left to do was start.


This was just one of our drawings, we changed this multiple times, even from this design. A lot of talking and head scratching and determining where we wanted things to go.


Our little model made with foam board, again, we talked this over for awhile. The door is now on the opposite side from this photo, going in the other direction though still in front of the wheels.


All of our cuts have been made and everything checked to ensure it will fit together tightly.


The OSB has been cut and glued together, 2x2's secured down.

And now for the big goof.....


I asphalted the bottom of the floor first. I didn't think!! I know the canvas edges have to be glued under here and now I don't really know what we're going to do since I doubt the TBII is going to adhere to the rubber asphalt. Genius alert.
Any ideas on how to proceed once we start canvasing the exterior? I know there are a couple other people that have done this and are in the same boat, but I haven't seen their build results yet. Hoping this isn't too difficult to fix.

Thanks everyone!

You could mechanically screw a drip edge to the floor and glue canvas to that edge, maybe?

We thought about screwing 1x3's around the outer edge all the way around so the glue had wood to adhere too, then just asphalting over that once dry. We want to put drip edges on anyway since we've read that this is such a good idea...so maybe that would eliminate the need for the 1x's?

Toss the osb get some light plywood like Luan and sandwich foam. Strong light and insulated and Luan isn't that big a cost. Just glue all the interior foam to Luan surface to get the incredibly high sheer strength. Some kind of foam safe polyurethane glue is cheapest and easy to find. Much lighter than osb and better if any water ever hits it. Lots of posts about using the waterproof mix so you avoid the black goop issue.
Steve

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Thank you for your input linuxmanxxx. We thought about scrapping it and going with something else or just getting new OSB, but we don't want to waste it - we want to try to salvage the mistake. I know it's not the most popular route to to go with some, but for the majority of the builds we read about and watched, this was what they used. Now we're in a pickle. We went this route, and we want to try to make it work somehow. Sigh.

Learning how to fix mistakes is part of building process, everyone makes mistakes, especially me. My advice is think about solution and you will find it. No mistakes, just happy opportunities to learn.
Drip edge is a good idea.

[quote="lanne485".......

I asphalted the bottom of the floor first. I didn't think!! I know the canvas edges have to be glued under here and now I don't really know what we're going to do since I doubt the TBII is going to adhere to the rubber asphalt. Genius alert.
Any ideas on how to proceed once we start canvasing the exterior? I know there are a couple other people that have done this and are in the same boat, but I haven't seen their build results yet. Hoping this isn't too difficult to fix.

Thanks everyone![/quote]

Try adhering some canvas to the OSB with your asphalt paint. Glue the canvas to the foam as usual but leave the bottom edge dry and use the asphalt to adhere it. It might work.

That.....that might not be a bad idea......

The asphalt should hold the canvas well , but it think ( JMHO ) either the canvas should be “sized” ( thinned TB2 ) before tarring it up … And I’d highly suggest a simple Drip edge … That really protects everything !!!…

GPW wrote:The asphalt should hold the canvas well , but it think ( JMHO ) either the canvas should be “sized” ( thinned TB2 ) before tarring it up … And I’d highly suggest a simple Drip edge … That really protects everything !!!…

GPW - I've been "stalking" this forum for a long time, and I remember reading how the drip edge saved your trailer, we are DEFINITELY going to be adding one of those! I think the solution that my husband and I came up with last night after sitting in the garage staring at the big black goo monstrosity is that we are going to run the canvas underneath with the TBII like normal, but we are going to run 1x3's over top of the canvas edge and screw them into the bottom. Watching George Coe's videos, he recommends getting the canvas up off the trailer frame anyway to prevent rubbing, so this will eliminate that problem too. We are going to use a "z" shaped drip edge along the bottom so it sticks off the 1x3's and pulls the water off the OSB. To use a regular drip edge we'd have to put additional lifts underneath to make room, but by using the "z" flashing, we won't have to do that. Hopefully this accomplishes what we need - salvaging my big goof up. *finger crossed*

Just a thought … you might want to coat the OSB floor with ”the Mix” , making it waterproof … it really makes a difference …
George has had some really Brilliant ideas … His drip edge ( sheetrock corner moulding) , worked very well for me !!!