Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Good morning new friends!

I'm hoping to have large portholes on the sides of my foamie next to my bed. Two-foot-squared.

Could I glue the wiley window frame directly to the inside of my foamie? The walls are 1.5"

Should I make some framing, or reinforce a larger section of the foamie with plywood, around the window?

PS. To get this in before people ask: I'm planning on making the outside of the frame shorter so I can still pull the glass out without it getting stopped by the ceiling.

Did you see canned ham foamie build? The window frames were glued in the foam, no other reinforcement, except PMF. BTW, I did two Wiley like windows in my build, except I completely omited the sides and only had a step at the bottom for water to escape. The trailer was outside the whole season with rain and strong winds, no leaks. I am thinking of doing such design going forward, just need to figure out a minimalist window stay device.

OP827 wrote:Did you see canned ham foamie build? The window frames were glued in the foam, no other reinforcement, except PMF. BTW, I did two Wiley like windows in my build, except I completely omited the sides and only had a step at the bottom for water to escape. The trailer was outside the whole season with rain and strong winds, no leaks. I am thinking of doing such design going forward, just need to figure out a minimalist window stay device.

Thanks for the info! do you think this would still work with a 1.5" wall? I meant to buy 2", but whoops. Should I try to do an exchange for 2" before I build my walls?

I built with 1.5" XPS, but it is not a teardrop and I used fiberglass cloth with epoxy. 1.5" wall thickness should be sufficient for a teardrop I think (JMHO).
As for the roof it depends on the roof span and spars reinforcement. What are you building?
I have 1/8" Baltic birch plywood on the inside of lower walls which created a rigid and strong sandwich wall. Folding walls and lifting roof parts (with spars @ 1'OC in a flattened forward area only) are 1.5" thick with just one layer of 6oz fiberglass on both sides. My build is not designed to stay outside under wet snow and if it does that, then I will have to either put some roof supports inside or clear the roof from snow each time.

OP827 wrote:I built with 1.5" XPS, but it is not a teardrop and I used fiberglass cloth with epoxy. 1.5" wall thickness should be sufficient for a teardrop I think (JMHO).
As for the roof it depends on the roof span and spars reinforcement. What are you building?
I have 1/8" Baltic birch plywood on the inside of lower walls which created a rigid and strong sandwich wall. Folding walls and lifting roof parts (with spars @ 1'OC in a flattened forward area only) are 1.5" thick with just one layer of 6oz fiberglass on both sides. My build is not designed to stay outside under wet snow and if it does that, then I will have to either put some roof supports inside or clear the roof from snow each time.

this is heartening. here's a pic of my intentions. I don't have all of the measurements here, but you can get a sense of it. I'm going to have 2x12 as a perimeter to glue the walls to. There will be breaks for the wheelwells and door, ofc.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4k16ik9616y2p8k/2020-12-13-192329_1031x583_scrot.png?dl=0

there will also be 2x lumber to receive hasps on the door and next to it. really hoping that the foam/canvas will support that.

also, I'll be doing tightbond, not resin. :/

thanks so much for your wisdom!

I could not find an overall height and width of the teardrop on your drawing to get the structure idea, but it looks like 1.4-1.5m high? What is the teardrop width?
I believe 2"x12" board on the lower perimeter is an overkill. 1"x2" should suffice to attach the wall to the floor unless you plan to place some some specific loads on that board to avoid overloading foam walls. If you are looking for a strong wall structure then you could glue 1/8 plywood to the inside with hard points embedded in foam under the plywood for certain loads like your bed frame etc., or you could simply glue the 1"x1.5" framing to plywood inside and that would take a substantial load. I was surprised to see the very light frames of 1"x1.5" spruce/pine/fir glued to inner wall 1/8" plywood in my build. I could jump on those light frames all I want and they would stay intact and attached. I see many people here are overbuilding the inner structures using 2x2/4 etc. I would have some test sections built and check it for rigidity and strength before you start overbuilding out of a dimensional lumber just to add weight to tow around. I tried to build the trailer like an airplane to put structural strength and rigidity were it is needed. I thought that the whole purpose of building a "foamie" is to build everything (not just walls and roof of a foam) inside and out lighter than conventional stick build. Even then if you look at the old design trailers in the vintage library or Compact 3 design by Andrew G. here you could find that the structures there are mostly out of 1"x1.5" soft wood framing. My advice is take your time and do your own research, make a plan and drawings. That would save the build time and funds. Just sharing my experience here based on my mistakes and lessons learned. Cheers and good luck!

I may be too late here, but I made my frames from 1x3 (so 3/4" x 2.5") pine and used a hot-wire jig to inlay them into the 2" foam so that they were flush with the outside.

I used a pocket-hole jig/screws to hold them together.

From there I built the Wiley frames.

I was interested in the Wiley windows because I hadn't heard of them until I found them here and thought that being able to leave them open in wet weather was cool, but they're kind of a pain in reality. Without screens, the wedges are in danger of falling out when messing with them, and it's quite a process to open and shut them, but I'll probably add another to the trolley top in the rear anyway.

My build folding walls front windows design is inspired by Wiley windows but greatly simplified and it still works in rain. It is simply a bug screen frame outside that prevent acrylic pane inside from falling to outside. I am thinking of fixing some thin para cord to control opening angle towards inside. So far I tested with opening the windows in rain and it still works to not let water inside when slightly open since the bug screen outside mostly stops the rain drops. I want to develop this design since it is very simple and practical and it works great, I was surprised.

Hmmmm, this has me thinking about my current project.

Like what you did OP with the screen being a rain break.
Opening up to the inside can take up space and be in the way on a small camper already with interior space at a premium.

This mornings brain storm as a result of this discussion.
Surface mount and top hinge the window on the exterior and add a flex seal over the top edge. Place screen underneath stapled to the outside and edge with weatherstrip to seal.
I'm using a plexi sheet to keep it flat.

Just solved that important little detail on what I was going to to.
Thx all for the inspiration.

When I look at those huge wedges inside I cannot escape the thought that you'd need a hurricane type horizontal rain to have those rain drops get over the upper window edge, which of course is a good feature. But in our practical reality only a half of the wedge or less height is needed to keep the inside dry. So the Wiley window is probably more at home with a yacht design where a wave can potentially hit it. For trailer application these side wedges could be drastically reduced to look nicer, let more light in and provide more space inside.. /thinking.../

i think anyone not using one is just wrong no alum.to be stolen, lighter , can replace glass window with something hard when storing .
something I have found .where the glass sets have the front lip lower than the back . If holes plug up are hard rain can run over front edge

StanDahl wrote:I was interested in the Wiley windows because I hadn't heard of them until I found them here and thought that being able to leave them open in wet weather was cool, but they're kind of a pain in reality. Without screens, the wedges are in danger of falling out when messing with them, and it's quite a process to open and shut them, but I'll probably add another to the trolley top in the rear anyway.

Excellent points!
Anything without a screen is a no go for me, bugs love the taste of my flesh, too much :-)