Summertime Benroy Build- Finally named: The "Towster"!

...ask your questions in the appropriate forums BUT document your build here...preferably in a single thread...dates for updates, are appreciated....

Re: Summertime Benroy! - Aluminum and Trim Installed

Postby Babartlett » Wed Jan 28, 2015 11:51 pm

Well I've got some more updates for ya! I am getting pretty close to being done! for now.. We are actually taking the camper to a nearby state park this weekend for a test camp. There will still have a few things that wont be done by then but it should be sleep able!

Getting the trim on the hatch! I decided to "sharpen" the side pieces to allow them to just slide underneath the hurricane hinge. Hopefully this will be a more water tight approach.
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I did learn one thing the hard way. When using the extra wide T molding for the hatch , be sure to pre-bend the molding before drilling out the mounting holes on the perpendicular section. Because I drilled first, the molding wanted to bend sharper where the holes reduced the section area. This led to the slight ripples every few inches that you can see in the picture. I learned my lesson on the first side and overall it is not to noticeable.
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Gotta keep that sealant warm! That stuff gets really hard to squeeze out when its cold!
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Time to roll it out and get some pictures! Could have asked for a sunnier day though
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Finally made some rain diverters that I was happy with and here they are!
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Finally working on the cabin drawers! His and hers or course.. Though we havent decided who gets what side yet. Some simple pocket screws and a routed groove for the bottom. I actually accidentally built them backwards and had to take them apart and redo them! Only side affect was some extra pocket screw holes being visible.
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Finishing up some wiring in galley electrical nook. All of the wires on the hatch connect to the terminal block on the left for easy removal.
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Adding some more accent lighting in the galley. Installed some light strip over the sink then some under the counter for when I need to fiddle with something down there at night. These light strips work really well! They are very bright and can easily be cut to size and soldered. I was also able to find some in 4000K which is the color temperature that I used for the rest of the lighting.
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I have many more pictures to get to but I am losing focus so I will get back to it tomorrow!
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Re: Summertime Benroy! - Aluminum and Trim Installed

Postby Sheddie » Thu Jan 29, 2015 2:35 am

That has all come out a really nice looking unit. :beautiful: You should be feeling pretty proud of yourself :applause:
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Re: Summertime Benroy! - Aluminum and Trim Installed

Postby Babartlett » Thu Jan 29, 2015 9:11 am

Alright I'm back to post the rest of the pictures!

Some more pictures of the hatch that I missed earlier! I am happy with how well it seals up! I ended up cutting into the t molding on the bottom of the hatch to fit the slam latches.
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So I have spent some time working on the door seals. If you remember, I have an inner door seal and then an outer one on the T molding. Previously I had only the inner seal installed and it worked well. Once I added the outer seal, the door started to get harder to close and I had to make some modifications. First I purchased a smaller seal and moved out the striker plate a little. That didn't help much so I increased the hinge spacers 1/16" to 1/4". This definitely helped but now the smaller outer seal is too small. So I went back to the bigger seal and I seem to have reached an appropriate closing force. The one thing that I could not get to work was to have all of both seals in contact at the same time. Because of the door jam molding the outer seal has about 1/8" less room than the inside, I was not able to get the door to make contact with the inner seal on the latch side without having to apply excessive force on the door. You can see in the picture where there is a small gap that starts to form away from the hinge. This bothered me for a while but I have accepted it after it passed a thorough water test with the hose! The way it is now, the outer seal makes great contact and if any water does happen to get in, it cant get around the door and the second seal, leaving the inside nice and dry! In fact it seals so good that when you close the second door you can feel the increase in air pressure and hear the air rushing out of the rain vent on the window.
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In a couple places where the outer seal was not making good contact, I took a clamp and was able to slightly roll the edge of the molding towards the door jamb. This worked great!
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"Rain Test"! Outer seal did a great job of stopping the water
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Now I see why they say to leave a little hanging off the hinge!
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Added a stopper and catch for the door
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Installed everything on the galley electrical panel. Well almost, and until I take it apart again!
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Because a 50 quart cooler can weigh upwards of 80 lbs full, I deemed it necessary to add a latch on the front to prevent it from sliding into the hatch while I am driving. I also added a barrel bolt on the back end of the tray to lock in in place when extended, if desired.
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The wife doing her evening inspection of the daily work!
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Getting the Yakima roof rack tracks installed! What is great about this system is that you can snap the control towers and bars on and off within a few seconds. This will make it easy to travel without the bars when I don't need them. The tracks also seam like a great place to mount door canopies which I see myself making after a few outings!
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Working on the alignment of the sink and water tanks. I plan to use two of these 5 gallon tanks. One for fresh water and one for grey water.
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Time to install some carpet in the foot well. I used carpet adhesive on the entire bed level but I don't want to be adding any more VOCs in the small space. For the sides of the foot well I simply stapled it on. This definitely didnt smell and will allow me to easily replace the carpet it it gets nasty. For the bottom of the foot well (which should see a lot of dirt) I decided to leave it loose so that It can be shaken out our easily replaced. Right now it has some rubber drawer liner underneath it and I am going to add snaps into each corner to keep it in place. I implemented a little trick that I learned from being bored in middle school. It turns out that staples can easily be colored with a marker! I used a black sharpie to darken my staples so they would not show up so easily on the carpet!
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I finally built up the courage to start on the speaker boxes on the hatch! My CAD software quit working for some reason and I could not figure out how much clearance I had in the area that I wanted. After some serious head scratching, I had a great idea! Basically I wanted to know where the corner of the cabinet it and at what angle. So I screwed on a piece of scrap ply wood near the hinge on the hatch with one screw so that it could rotate yet stick. I then closed the hatch and when it opened, it stayed right at the angle that it hit the cabinet! Ta-da! I then wanted to know where on the wood the cabinet hit. So I added a little masking tape that over hung over the edge of my sophisticated measuring stick, and then closed again. When I reopened there was a nice crease right where the corner of the cabinet was in relation to the closed hatch! This was definitely a game changer.
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Starting to build the speaker boxes! I used a combination of bonding techniques to get these build in the right order. I ended up having to drill some of the pocket holes at an angle so that i could reach them with the drill.
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After some tweeking they actually fit! It will look better when I actually get to skinning the inside of the hatch hah. For those of you that are interested, I installed two 6.5" polk db series shallow mount coaxial speakers. They are great speakers for the price and are rated for marine use! Having to use smaller sealed boxes, the low end of the range isn't very prevalent but everything else sounds great! The boxes actually have a very warm natural tone and will sound good with some bluegrass!
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Re: Summertime Benroy! - The final stretch!

Postby KCStudly » Thu Jan 29, 2015 10:07 am

Nice! :thumbsup:
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Re: Summertime Benroy! - The final stretch!

Postby Lynn Coleman » Fri Jan 30, 2015 12:16 am

Nice job! :applause:
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Re: Summertime Benroy! - The final stretch!

Postby Gunguy05 » Fri Jan 30, 2015 10:44 am

Everything about you build looks fantasic! From the cabinets, to the Al, to the trim work. It all looks top notch! Something that you can be proud of and camp in happily when you are done.

You seem to have flown through things by you posts (not to say you did shoddy work, but you got a lot accomplished quickly). :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

How much working time do you think you have in it? Did you work weekends, weekday nights or just weekends ?

Looks great and keep up the good work! I'm taking notes, as my next build might be a benroy of sorts :roll: :roll:
Brian


Checkout my buildThe Regal Eagle Bow front for 4
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Re: Summertime Benroy! - The final stretch!

Postby Babartlett » Fri Jan 30, 2015 10:55 am

Thanks!

That's a great question. I have actually been logging hours for the build for future referance. It looks like I am closing in on 500 hours of hands on construction. Many more hours early on for design.

I started my build last may and being a college student and only working part time I was able to get around 40 hours in a week last summer. During the fall semester I got almost nothing done.. last hard semester of engineering school. Put more long weeks in during the Christmas break. Now that I am on my victory lap semester with only 3 days of class each week I have had ample time to get things wrapped up!

I am very confident that my next build will go much faster because how much I have learned on this one. Still I am afraid of a future work pace after I start work full time this may.

Here soon I plan on sharing my logged build hours and expenses to help other folks in the planning stages.
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Re: Summertime Benroy! - The final stretch!

Postby Redneck Teepee » Wed Feb 04, 2015 9:26 pm

Brian, I just went thru your whole build thread and can say I admire your skills and paying attention to detail. You have built one helluva teardrop young man and you can be proud to show it off when ever where ever. Nice Job! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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Re: Summertime Benroy! - The final stretch!

Postby PubUltraStar » Fri Feb 20, 2015 3:23 pm

I also have a Yeti and plan to do a drawer like this. Smart putting the latch to stop the drawer slide from moving. Awesome build.

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Re: Summertime Benroy! - The final stretch!

Postby Oldragbaggers » Fri Feb 20, 2015 6:57 pm

Beautiful build, excellent work, amazing attention to detail.

Congratulations on a really quality teardrop. You will no doubt get many years of fun from it.

:applause: :applause: :applause:
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Sail...camp....bike...repeat
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Re: Summertime Benroy! - The final stretch!

Postby 39Ratrod » Sat Feb 21, 2015 1:00 pm

Beautiful build, excellent quality.
The biggest difference between a dreamer and a doer is the follow through.
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Re: Summertime Benroy! - The final stretch!

Postby Gunguy05 » Tue Apr 28, 2015 5:46 pm

Any updates? Things were almost done last time you posted. Looks outstanding!
Brian


Checkout my buildThe Regal Eagle Bow front for 4
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Re: Summertime Benroy! - The final stretch!

Postby noseoil » Thu Apr 30, 2015 7:25 am

Way to go on the build! Sounds like finals are getting in the way of building, but congrats on a job well done. I'm looking forward to your hours log. 500 seems about right to me. Planning hours are probably twice that! Where's the victory lap trip going to be?
Build log: viewtopic.php?f=50&t=60248
The time you spend planning is more important than the time you spend building.........

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Re: Summertime Benroy! - The final stretch!

Postby lfhoward » Thu Apr 30, 2015 12:47 pm

This is a beautiful trailer build. I just browsed through the entire thing and am super impressed! The engineering of the under floor storage and the craftsmanship involved in the wood working and aluminum skinning are awesome. Nice work! :thumbsup:
My off-road camper build on an M116A3 military chassis:
http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=62581
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Re: Summertime Benroy! - The final stretch!

Postby rebapuck » Fri May 01, 2015 2:53 pm

I like your barrel bolt on the cooler drawer, but it looks like it barely catches. Lift that drawer and see if it comes loose. It will bounce around on the road.
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