ris 8.5 X 18 new trailer build 11/1/17

[ris]

Well we now have a utility closet wall at the rear of the trailer. The center opening, near the top of the wall is for a window. The opening to the upper right is the A/C opening. I designed it large with filler blocks in case the 5000 btu window unit is not big enough, it is large enough for an 8000 btu when the filler blocks are removed. If they change the size of the units we have extra room without tearing up the wall to get it. The studs are 20" apart so large plastic storage boxes will fit between the studs and the bottom 2x4 will hold them from sliding. There will be a 2x4 ledger board at 32" from the floor which is the height of the bed. The bed will extend out 5' from the wall toward the front. A queen size bed is 5' wide.


We next insulated over the interior wheel well. We put insulation over the top, sides and ends then built a 1/2" wood cover to hold the insulation in place. This building of the 2, two sided boxes with the ends took a long time. We did glue and screw it together. We took a lunch break and came back an hour later after gluing the 3/4 x3/4 nail board to the plywood and had it on the wrong side. After pulling the screws I hit it 2 times with a 20 once hammer to knock it loose. It tore loose part of the plywood so I had to make a new end. That gorilla wood glue is amazing. If you look you can see the small board on the floor and the larger one on top of the box. These are there to secure the covers in place. And the top one will allow for a place to screw the finished wall paneling.

Richard

[ris]

We finally installed the horizontal 1/2 inch thick by 2 inch wide strips over the trailer center section. They run from the utility room wall to the bath wall at the front.We then put a 1/2 inch layer of insulation between the strips. This makes the wall insulation 1.5 inches thick. We next put up the 4' X 6'4" piece of inside 3/8" plywood right over the section where the window goes. The plywood screws to the 1/2 inch by 2 inch wide strips. We wanted to get the windows in so we did the section where the studs form the window opening. Once the plywood was screwed on in the inside we went outside and drilled holes in the plywood that lined up with the sides and bottom of the window opening. If you look close from inside you can see the small holes I drilled so we could line up the window trim ring with the holes so we could draw the corners on the inside of the plywood.


We then cut out the plywood from the inside.


Time to install the window! Put the window in from the outside while wife held it in, I went inside put the trim ring in and the screws were too short or I ordered the wrong trim ring. I did, I did order the wrong trim ring. So no window install until new trim rings come in. We will continue to put up the rest of the wall plywood and install the 12 volt wiring to the wall lights. For those of you who used windows with a rubber seal on the outside did you did you also caulk around the windows with elastameric caulk after it was installed? Or did you use butyl tape under the rubber seal? Thanks for your help.

Richard

[CoventryKid]

For those of you who used windows with a rubber seal on the outside did you did you also caulk around the windows with elastameric caulk after it was installed? Or did you use butyl tape under the rubber seal

I ordered my 3 windows from Sunview Industries in the Okanagan Valley (BC). They came with 1/2" sticky back foam tape. I put the foam tape around the perimeter of each window and then installed the windows. I thought of, but did not, caulk around the outside of each window only because I knew it would be really easy to mess up the caulking.

I've had no leaks in 3 years.

Hope this helps.

[ris]

Thanks Coventrykid for the info.
Today we put in our water fill box. We are using a 30 gal. abs tank for water. It will be over the driver side axles right against the wheel well. Right at the back of our wheel well were two studs about 6.5 inches apart. As the water fill box is 5.5 inches, it gave us an easy area to fill in with wood to give us something into which the box could be screwed. We cut out the insulation (1.5 inches), then added wood to the backside of the bottom 1x2 that runs the length of the trailer as this was the bottom of the box. Added another wood strip 4.5 inches up and screwed it to the metal studs. This gave us the top and bottom of the box. We used the metal stud toward the rear as one side then added a piece of wood 5.5 inches forward of the back stud. We now had our opening framed.


Next putting a bit in the drill we drilled a hole in each corner of the box from the inside.


Next go outside draw lines to the outside edge of the holes you drill. Put tape 1/8 inch outside the lines so you do not scratch up the trailer metal as you make your cuts with a saber saw.




Then install the box. We used butyl tape and we will caulk any crack left after we tighten the screws again in a couple of days.


Here is the inside view of the fill box with the tank in the foreground.


Certainly glad the labor on this project is free. We have more time than money and like stuff built well which is why we are doing this. We tried to keep the hours but we spend a lot of time thinking before we do stuff and we just lost track of the hours. We are keeping a good track of the money we are spending. Should have used sanded plywood for the walls but got a little impatient and used BC ply wood instead. It is not as smooth but same strength as AC or sanded plywood.

Richard

[PigTrail]

Thanks for the detailed pics on your exterior cuts and procedure. I'm about to install an outdoor shower connection and water filler, so will be cutting metal soon.

[ris]

Pig Trail if you use a jig saw use a quality metal cutting blade made for thin metal. The teeth should be very small and run the saw wide open but move real slow. Also make sure you are not close to exterior screw heads if your metal skin is screwed on. Good luck

[ris]

We connected our ceiling light wires with adhesive lined, shrink wrap butt connectors. Then did as CoventryKid suggested and just used a piece of the ceiling plywood cut to 5 inches to cover the opening where we ran the 16 gauge wire down the center of the ceiling. We are putting four, 4 inch touch controlled led lights in the ceiling. Until we paint the final coat of ceiling paint we just have the wires hanging down as you can see. We also left the wall plywood 1/2 inch from the ceiling so we have a wire channel along the ceiling. We have 3 reading lights and the trailer running light wires in this channel. We will paint and install a 1 1/4 wide crown molding to cover the wall/ceiling opening where the wires run. If you look in the left corner you will see the 12 gallon gray tank for the bath and kitchen sink. It is the only holding tank on the trailer. Coming out of the wall over the tank is the drain line from the bathroom sink. (sink not yet installed) You can see our composting toilet behind the stud wall in the center. It is a natures head composting toilet. We will move it between the trailer and our boat depending on which we are using. It takes about 10 minutes to move from one to the other.


This is passenger side of trailer.


Hope you enjoy and feel free to ask questions.

Richard

[McDave]

Wow. She's gettin' close now. That is a good way to run the wiring. Concealed but still accessible.
Nice job you guys.

McDave

[flboy]

Really looking great. You do nice work! Exciting to see the walls come together.

[dmrogers]

Thanks for the detailed information on your build.
Looking good!

[ris]

Thanks for the comments! It seems you do a lot of prep work and nothing gets finished then all of a sudden you finish something. We had to order new trim rings as our wall was thicker then we originally intended. They came in this week from Vintage Technologies. So we finally have all our windows installed. Even tho the windows have a rubber seal we did put some good butyl tape around the window opening before installing the window. We will most likely caulk with butyl caulk until it is flush with the edge of the window.
Driver side of trailer


Passenger side of trailer


We next put the four touch LED lights up in the ceiling. It is really bright with all four on high. Most likely just run 2 on low most of the time. You just touch them to turn them on, keep your finger on them and they get brighter until full brightness or they stop getting brighter when you remove your finger. Touch them again and they get dimmer until full dimness is reached. Tap them and they turn on or off. There are not the super white light but have the slight yellow of a incandescent bulb. They have a softer light then the bright white LEDs. All four on full brightness.


And last we have the shower walls up. We need to install the shower head and water piping. We are also going to put FRP on the walls and down into the pan for a 1/2 inch. We chose a small shower 24" wide X 27" long. If we get toooo large we can just soap the walls and turn in a circle to bath. We did not want to use a lot of space for something you use for 15 minutes a day. Simply our preference. If we boondock we will open the barn doors and stand between them to shower.


Next will be running electrical, 120 volt and 12 volt along the walls and getting the plumbing lines in. Then will be the bed and cabinets.

Richard

[norgewizard]

Looking very nice............could you send me some of your nice weather???? PLEASEEEEEEEE!!!

Maybe then I could crawl underneath and finish my plumbing hookups.

Tim

[ris]

I almost hate to tell you it was 82 today the 22 of Jan. Shorts and and a short sleeve shirt.

[7sparky7]

Awesome workmanship!!!
I’m very interested in your choice of overhead lighting. Do you have a link to where we could find more information about them and possibly purchase?

[ris]

Here is the link to amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06ZZ ... UTF8&psc=1
They are a bit pricey at about $25. We like the fact that you do not have to wire switches. Our other option was to buy lights with a switch right on the light. We did that on our boat. But we wanted the ability to dim the lights and we wanted the "yellow" or soft led not the sterile bright white. They are called warm white. They are the same tone or color as the old filament bulbs.
We also bought these 12 volt reading lights that are touch operated and dimmable. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074R ... UTF8&psc=1
We plan to use this trailer until we quit camping or just up and die. So we are thinking long term. Hope this helps.

Richard