Weekender vs. Benroy Design Questions

[crpngdth2001]

I am thinking of building a weekender, with some interior design cues from Woodbutcher's Club Car (dropped floor/basement w/ facing fold down benches to form a bed). One of my wife's criteria was that you could sit inside comfortably in inclement weather - and his design looks great.

I am adamant that we have a queen size fold-down bed, so something roughly around 56-58 inches wide (want to stay within 60" outside-to-outside on body), and roughly 80 inches long. From what I can tell, the 'standard' 114" weekender plan only looks like it would leave somewhere in the area of 65 inches or so for bed length factoring in the space the upright folding couch/bed needs. Is it feasible to stretch this design to closer to 132 inches long? I will be building with 5' high sidewalls. Or would I be better off sticking with a Benroy style design for this? To remain 60 inches wide, I realize I will have to have to build out over the wheels on a raised platform like Woodbutcher did on his Club Car to use my 48" wide HF trailer. I will be extending the trailer to 10' long with an additional set of cross braces I picked up, and relocating the axle.

I'm really open to either design (slight edge to the weekender), but not enough to make the build significantly more difficult if I can do it easier with one design vs. the other.

Any thoughts?

[tony.latham]

My teardrop is 57.5" wide inside. My 60" mattress (7" of foam and 2" of memory foam) fits just fine. Why 57.5? My walls are 1.25" thick, thus the outside is 60". It's 60" outside –and not inside– 'cause my plywood I used on the roof was 5' wide and my aluminum was the same. If you are going to build something that's 60" inside, it's going to give you all sorts of problems that will echo throughout your build do to material dimensions.

There's a thread or two here about 4' vs. 5' of height. The argurment against the 5' high camper is that the extra foot is a waste; you can't do anything in a 5' high that you can do in a 4' high. Do a search, there's arguments on both sides of the park but keep the dimensions of a standard sheet of plywood in mind.

As far as the Weekender design, I can't help you. If you go with a Benroy, or other traditional teardrop, I'd highly suggest getting a copy of Steve Fredrick's teardrop Build Manual. There's a pinned thread on it. It really helped me with both of my builds.

Tony

[citylights]

I stretched my benroy out to 10 feet long without issue. Mine fits a normal queen bed. Not sure about the weekender as I haven't done that, but I am still sure it could be done.

[crpngdth2001]

I'm also wondering if I couldn't save some space by doing a fixed 'half' bed on the footboard side ending at the edge of the drop floor (no headroom anyway due to cabinets inside), and then do the couch/bed only on the headboard side that would fold down and meet it.

I am only planning 60" outside, not inside. I'd like to stay in the 114" - 120" max OAL if I could sneak in maybe a 78" long bed, with at least the headboard side being a fold down couch/bed.

For 4' vs. 5' sidewalls, I'm not sure I'd be able to sit upright on the couch portion with a 4' sidewall and a shallow footwell to maintain ground clearance.

[Chuckles]

If I am following you correctly I think you are heading in the direction I went... but instead of splitting the bed I put the dropped floor at the foot of the bed.

Sidewalls are 53 inches above the floor but extend another 8 inches below the trailer frame as a skirt. I intended to build it 61 inches wide but I was thinking "walls resting on the trailer" and ended up holding them to the sides so my interior width is 63.5 inches. For the foam mattress 60 inches would have been sufficient. My trailer is about 13 feet long and I have lots of interior storage and a full galley. I can sit comfortably at the foot of the bed and, with a 5'-3" interior height I can slouch well enough to be comfortable moving about. At 5 nothin my wife can stand.

By holding the galley hatch in and framing the back straight up and down I was able to maximize the galley space while maintaining the angled sidewall in the back. I dropped the galley floor into the trailer frame to increase the size of the lower cabinets.

I originally designed it as a benroy style but changed it last minute because I thought it looked better with the cedar planking and ash trim...kinda of a post-and-beam look

There are more pics in my gallery gallery/search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&display=popup&search_id=usersearch&username=Chuckles&user_id=13964

[Breytie]

Stretching in length is no real issue, just make sure the panel joins fall in a spot where it will have the smallest efect on overall strength and be as simple as possible to do properly and neatly.
Changing width beyond that of a standard sheet, that is a problem! Unless you can live with wasting 40% or more of your raw material or otherwise go trolly-top or something similar.

[Kharn]

I'm in the middle of painting my Weekender at the moment, with the lid removed from my storage box I can sit on the floor of my tear comfortably. Pic of the box in my build thread to give you an idea of size So you could cut your mattress at the rear edge of the box, and just lift up the head half and slide it over the foot half when you want to hang out in the trailer on a rainy day. Or just cut a hole in the mattress corresponding to the storage door and remove that plug so you can sit on the mattress for a little padding. I've had both feet on the bottom of the box and it supported my 300lbs without issue.

Stretching in length is no real issue, just make sure the panel joins fall in a spot where it will have the smallest efect on overall strength and be as simple as possible to do properly and neatly.
Changing width beyond that of a standard sheet, that is a problem! Unless you can live with wasting 40% or more of your raw material or otherwise go trolly-top or something similar.

You just have to be smart about planning. My 62" wide tear produced a ton of 48x34" scraps, which are the basis for all of my cabinets.

[crpngdth2001]

Thanks for all of the tips, and links to some great builds either completed or in progress. I only hope mine comes out half as well as some I have have seen here.

On the rear end of the weekender in the 'galley' area, many use a removeable or hingeable counter section to gain access to the under-counter storage. How large of an area is there under there, it's hard to visualize from the plans? Is that portion of the side profile covering that area large enough to put an access door and slide out for a cooler, for example?

[Kharn]

With the severe bevel at the lower rear, you would be very restricted in what you could fit down there, anything tall would have to be narrow, or anything wide would need to be short. I chose to go with a more conventional hatch, as I wanted to put my camp oven in the galley.

[Breytie]

How large of an area is there under there, it's hard to visualize from the plans?

There is a lot of space. as much as any other design.
But making all or most of it usable is the problem. I am working (struggling) at making a clam-shell rear end: flat hatch opening upward and a separate vertical section opening downward and off to form the top for a side table. Hopefully I can get the bottom angled piece to hinge down and out of the way, otherwise that too will have to slide or hinge off. If I can get it to work, I will have a "normal" galley layout with maximum usable space.

Other options may be dust and waterproofed doors or drawers with a "cranked" bottom end.

If you are stretching the whole thing anyway and making a longer floor, why not drop that bottom angled piece and carry the line straight down to the floor?

Good luck!

[crpngdth2001]

If you are stretching the whole thing anyway and making a longer floor, why not drop that bottom angled piece and carry the line straight down to the floor?

Good luck!

I am considering something like that. If I simply get rid of the bottom angled piece, could I make a 1 piece hatch that comes straight down to the floor (or a two piece with the bottom piece dropping down) - I'm just not sure if I like the "look" or not. Something in my mind tells me that if I decide on a 1 piece hatch that drops straight down, maybe I should switch to a Benroy design, and buy some plans instead of "winging" it. If I had CAD skills I'd start drafting things - but I'll break out some grid paper, and a pencil and ruler and see what I can come up with

[Kharn]

ZapJ's album

ZapJ built a weekender with a vertical hatch and no bevel.

[Breytie]

ZapJ's album

ZapJ built a weekender with a vertical hatch and no bevel.

Thanks for the link!
That looks quite good, better than I expected. Definitely an option for a new build.

[absolutsnwbrdr]

If you can build "around" the trailer frame rather than just on it, the bottom bevel can close against the back end of the trailer instead of down on top of the deck. I wanted to maximize storage, but didnt want a plain back end, so I kept the bevel but made it pretty minimal. Best picture I have handy....