Well, it's been a while since I last did anything like actually work on Learning Curve. That's not to say I haven't been busy. While on a family vacation over Christmas and New Years I managed to damage my 25' travel trailer by cutting a corner a little too closely - okay, way too closely - in the dark and hitting a thick wooden post. The apparent damage was all cosmetic. Wrong! About 100 miles west of Phoenix the lead tire on that side blew. Apparently the axle had been tweeked just enough to cause the tire to be out of alignment enough to overheat. I put on the spare and then limped into the nearest town and left the trailer with a mechanic we found and drove on home in the TV.
3 weeks and $1700 poorer I got the trailer home with a new axle and new tire. 6 weeks after that I had repaired most of the damage caused by the blown tire - wheel well liner and a lot of very thin plywood interior to trailer. I sure could have used the repair money for building Learning Curve - oh, well!
While all that was going on my neighbor welded up Learning Curve's frame modification so now I have the foundation complete.
I have also been purchasing materials for the tear's body - two doors from Challenger Door,
http://challengerdoor.com/, baltic birch plywood and poplar framing lumber from Fine Lumber,
http://www.finelumber.com/ in Austin, and fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin from Raka,
http://www.raka.com/.
Learning Curve went thru a bit of a redesign also. Instead of a traditional tear with a mattress taking up the entire cabin floor and then a bulkhead separating it from a galley with a large hatch it now will feature a full cabin with floor space in the front and a raised bed platform reaching all the way to the rear of the teardrop. A smaller hatch will open in the back and a kitchen counter will pull out from under the bed platform.I'll post a design drawing after I work out a few more details.
Today I actually worked on the build! I laid a couple 2x4's down on the frame and the laid out the bottom of the floor panel and the framing for the foam sandwich.
Now it is off to spend some more money and get the XPS foam insulation and really get going on this thing.
One thing I learned today is NEVER go to Fine Lumber and Plywood with a credit card. Get a quote for what you NEED and bring cash or a check. It is WAY too easy to find a whole bunch of other great wood that wants to follow you home.