Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Okay I saw a video of a guy who built his own trailer, not tear drop type but travel. He used a product called AluPOLY for his skin, it is use for signs, and kiosk type stuff. It is a panel with 2 Al skins and polyethylene foam board in the middle, the AL skins are pre painted and they offer many colors. The thickness is 2 mm , 3mm, and 6mm I called the place not too far from me for a price, its 78 bucks a sheet for the 1/8 ( 2mm i guess ). They make it with thicker skins as well. https://www.piedmontplastics.com/products/acm

This stuff might be very interesting for skins, they do sell it 62 wide. I would think in the thicker 3mm and 6mm versions it might be a great skin for teardrops as it is semi structural on its own so the bond to a frame would not need to be perfect and still not oil can. Also it can be bent around a curve, or even bent 90 degrees if you route out the rear skin. I am picturing in my head a great way to seal corners for roofs. Basically roof make the roof panel 2 inches wider, then rout out the rear skin of the roof panel where it meets the side way, then bend the 1 inch on each side over the side wall and fix with sealant and some rivets.

Due to the core, it might even be seamable by digging out the foam core for a 1/2 inch on each panel and gluing in a AL strip of the right thickness. Or even fancier doing a lap seam where the skins are offset by a half inch and digging the core out a half inch and using a 2 inch strip to fill it. This would spread the stress of the seam out.

Cost is obviously more than luan, but by the time you had in finishing luan its probably cheaper, and its definitely cheaper than filon.

Basically roof make the roof panel 2 inches wider, then rout out the rear skin of the roof panel where it meets the side way, then bend the 1 inch on each side over the side wall and fix with sealant and some rivets.

Because of the curve of a teardrop, woudn't you have to cut gussets out to avoid the 1" strip of aluminum from rippling? I can see how that may work for a box assuming the paint wouldn't crack at the bend.

Good to see your inovative thinking.



Tony

tony.latham wrote:

Basically roof make the roof panel 2 inches wider, then rout out the rear skin of the roof panel where it meets the side way, then bend the 1 inch on each side over the side wall and fix with sealant and some rivets.

Because of the curve of a teardrop, woudn't you have to cut gussets out to avoid the 1" strip of aluminum from rippling? I can see how that may work for a box assuming the paint wouldn't crack at the bend.

Good to see your inovative thinking.



Tony

No I would not try to seam a curve, but if you had a flat section you could plan seams there and they have a standard length of 196" available which would cover a 4x8x4 tear drop in one piece front the rear. As for cracking the paint they rate it for a bend radius of 15 times thickness or tight bend if you rout the rear skin off, sounds like they have the paint cracking issue covered.

No I would not try to seam a curve,

T

Well it turns out this stuff is known here, just read a build thread using it. But I guess this thread will just be a bump to make the stuff visible. The other threads just call it aluminum composite material, and none of the threads title call it out as a skin material. so maybe this will help get it seen.

Hi saltydawg
I have transformed a trailer in cargo using such parts, this is not a teardrop.
I tried to fold roof panel to glue on the front, it looks easy, but you have to be very precise to achieve this.
Have a look: viewtopic.php?f=40&t=62745&p=1266447#p1135613

Overnuts wrote:Hi saltydawg
I have transformed a trailer in cargo using such parts, this is not a teardrop.
I tried to fold roof panel to glue on the front, it looks easy, but you have to be very precise to achieve this.
Have a look: viewtopic.php?f=40&t=62745&p=1266447#p1135613

Yeah I saw the spec, basically you need to remove the rear skin and all the core in a V shape to get it do a tight bend.