Little Red Vardo Build – Final steps

[Jgardner]

Hi all. New guy here.

Last fall my son and I built a vardo box to fit on top of our 4X8 utility trailer. The basic structure is complete but quite a few finishing touches need to be completed. These include:

Finishing the pull-out bed platform
Finishing the shelving
Building seat risers for the ledges on each side
Trim inside and out
Building a box for the front
Adding a porch roof
Rebuild the door

There will be additional items, I am sure.

This thread will pick up the build at this point.

John

[Jgardner]

Getting to this point

The box was built on top of a 4X8 trailer we have had for about 20 years. The frame was constructed on the trailer using 1”X1.5” actual strips ripped from 2X6 lumber. The skins were quarter inch Sureply and luan, outside and inside respectively. It was all glued with PL glue. The ceiling was made up of thin strips ripped from the 2X6's. The windows and door were fabricated out of milled down 2X6 pieces. The curved roof was produced by laminating strips (from the 2X6's) using a jig and PL glue.

There was nothing unique in the construction. The design was a mashup of many vardos I found across the internet. We had a simple Sketchup that showed that the bed would work crossway and the design would be 4X8 sheet frendly. (the sides and the two roof sheets were not cut at all)

The walls and roof are insulated, primarily with 1” foil-faced foam boards. We left air gaps to the outside and faced the foil out, since keeping heat out is more likely needed when we are camping. The air gap adds significantly to the R-value.

The roof seams and edges are fiberglass and epoxy. The expanse of the roof only got epoxy and paint.

We have not broken any new ground in this build. The only real challenges involved building the door and the windows. The sliding shutters are typical of English vardos seen on the web. The shutters should help seal up the windows in transit. Our fall two-day, snowy test of the camper went well. We were dry and toasty with an electric heater.

More to follow.

John

Bed platform slid in.

Bed slid out. Sorry about the sideways image, it was good when I uploaded it to the Gallery. The Gallery rotated it.)

Shelf brackets up but no shelf or fiddle (boat term for a batten to keep things on a surface.

[KCStudly]

Great start.

Welcome to the forums.

[Jgardner]

Back to it.

The weather finally improved in Rochester, NY. I have started in putting the finishing touches on the Little Red Vardo.

First off, I put trim on the slide-out bed platform.

Next, I put up the two small shelves high on the walls.

[Jgardner]

Lifting off the vardo box.

The next project was to lift off the vardo box to free the trailer and to work on the underside of the vardo. The first step was to build two substantial saw horses and two bar stands. The saw horses hold the vardo in storage and the stands hold a long enough bar to allow the trailer to roll out forward. Once this was complete I moved on to extracting the trailer. This involved using the tongue jack to alternatively raise and lower the ends of the trailer while placing blocking under the box. Starting with the rear saw horse, the jack was lowered to the max and the saw horse put in place. The jack was raised to the max and blocking placed as far forward as possible. Lower the jack and place blocking all the way forward. Increase the blocking height fore and aft by repeated insertion of higher blocking.

It sounds more complicated than it is. An old axle bar was the key to a wide opening to pull the trailer forward after the front end was lowered onto the bar supported by the two stands. The front end was lowered using the back end of the trailer as a lever. Keep lots of weight on the tongue and slowly lower the forward end of the vardo onto the saw horse to level the box.

Here are some pictures.

Rear saw horse.


Front stand to clear wheels.


Getting ready to lift the front of the vardo to switch to the saw horse and a level stance.


Forward saw horse in place.


Vardo down and secure.


Trailer free.

[Talia62]

Nice work, but isn't it very top-heavy on such a narrow wheelbase?

[Jgardner]

Talia,

Sorry for the late response. I have been having computer problems.

We built the floor heavy, with two layers of OSB with a frame between them. we also used two 2X12's for the ledges. That added a fair amount of extra weight low. Combine that with the loading of all camping gear on the floor in plastic tubs and I don't foresee a problem.

In addition the trailer is a lot more substantial than an HF version.

We will not add any storage high on the walls and will not load up the bed platform when towing.

It was a reasonable concern, however. The same design on an HF frame, with cabinets around the ceiling could be a real problem.

John

[Jgardner]

Update:

Completed tasks over the past few weeks:

Finished the pull-out bed platform
Finished the shelving
Added a porch roof
Rebuilt the door, actually just a repair for this season
Removed the vardo box and added angle iron stoppers to keep the box from sliding backward
Reset the vardo box

Removing and resetting the box is neither simple nor fast. Next one will likely not be removable barring a different plan.

Up next:
1. Building a tongue box for the front
2. Trim inside and out
3. Seat risers and cushions
4. Screens for the windows and door.

I would like to hear or see any suggestions for a tongue box (it would not sit on the tongue, it would be attached to the front of the vardo box). The tongue box should hold a small battery and the jackstands as well as some jackstand pads). It will not be waterproof, instead it will have a slatted bottom to stay well drained. I am thinking that to match the vardo theme the box should look like an old-time trunk of some sort. I am also thinking that it might be easier to use if the box had no lock, but instead had a ring to pull under the box to release the lid. That should be secure enough for the low-value things I plan to store there.

I would appreciate any thoughts, links or pics. I reviewed the tongue box thread just now.
John

[Jgardner]

Pictures:

The porch roof added.


The not-on-the-tongue tongue box goes above the two angle iron brackets (black).

[Jgardner]

Non-tongue tongue box

After much futzing around, the box for the front of the vardo is ready for paint.

I wanted something that looked a bit like a steamer trunk. I couldn't do the top as panels as that would collect water. Otherwise it came out much as I had hoped. Not all of the work is first rate, but it should suffice.

It will be mounted on two vertical boards low on the front of the vardo.

It has a latch that has a hidden ring at the bottom so that no lock is needed. The ring is held up by a small magnet so it is not at all visible from any reasonable angle. If a thief is determined no lock will suffice. If the thief is casual, this should do the trick.

The box will only hold the lawn tractor battery, the jack stands and related blocking, as well as waterproof odds and ends. Nothing of real value.

The box ready for paint.


Dry fit.


Gluing the lid down.


Open, showing latch but the fishing line down to the opening ring does not show up well.
It goes through a screw eye and through the bottom.


The latch ring released from its magnet.


click on pictures for better view.

John

[ELM]

Looks great and I like the latch it's very clever.

[Jgardner]

Thanks, we will see how it works longer-term. Right now I am happy with it.

John

[Woodbutcher]

Well done, you have a cool trailer there.

[Jgardner]

Thanks. It is progressing pretty well. It was originally meant to be version 1.0 and if we like it we do it again better.

John

[nhstt]

John,
Love the Little red.
Do you have any pictures of the early construction?
And what are your overall dimensions?
What is the width and height of your ledges?
I'm starting a build on a 4 by 8 this spring and need to keep it very lite.
My car is an older Forester.
Just lurking and gathering ideas at this point.
Karen and the Brooks Bunch