Benroy style dutchie (campable)

[teddy]

Hello guys and gals, it's been a day or two, but i'm building again. Financial and health problems kept me out of the shed for a while, but a few budgetary cuts here and there should make it feasible again, yay! The biggest change is swapping the sides to wood instead of alupanel, and a lot of small things add up aswel.

Anyway, my roof is waiting for me!
4mm (that's about 1/6") brushed aluminium panel.



The sides all measured and cut,


And primed.


I hope to take her out camping this year, so the plan is "campable" not finished. all things needed to make her roadworthy are ordered, not as fancy as i want, but cheap and quick to assemble (lights below the trailer instead of build in the hatch etc). All things i can easily change/upgrade in the future.

[teddy]

I slapped some paint on the walls.


Mounted them,


and added some trim. This took a lot of time, and i had to convince the aluminium with a hammer here and there.


Next it was finally time to cut the roof to size and strap it on.


And some trim around here too.


Ooh, shiny!


Next up, the hatch. Getting the locking mechanism together took some fiddling, it's a T-handle on the outside, an aluminium crosspiece on the inside, connecting to two 8mm (ca. 1/3") steel bars.


Yesterday i started skinning the hatch, so i can trim it to size this week, and re mount it with some sealant.

[teddy]

After skinning the hatch it was finally time to mount it!



I've made some wooden supports to hold up the hatch during use:



with little plates to prevent them from moving around. They are raised a bit from the counter top so i can slide a pin in the struts to prevent them from lifting, and its a lot easier to clean.


Up on top its just small hinges, but the hatch rests on the struts, no force should be applied to the hinges.


2 cupboard magnets hold the struts up when the hatch is lowered, as you can see i mounted the struts a bit staggered to ease the folding.

[KCStudly]

Looking good.

[teddy]

From here on out it's gonna be a bit of jumping around in time, i'll try to keep the story linear :-)

A few weeks ago you saw me adding a plate for the lock to the hatch, and drilling some elongated holes, here is the locking mechanism on the inside:

The iron bars slide in to holes i drilled in the sides, i marked the holes by dabbing a grease pencil (otherwise known as eyeliner) on the ends of the rods.

And nothing but the best Chinesium uncle Ali has to offer on the outside:


Now with the hatch done, it's time to make the hinge look pretty. The hinge itself is an ugly brown colour, and although it is waterproof, i'd want to make sure that nothing will reach it when driving or stationary with the hatch up. (it might leak in a bit when driving with the hatch up, but that would be quite a silly thing to do )


My solution: Adding a strip of rubber in a hook shape over the hinge, mounted with two pieces of offcut from the hatch. The material is EDPM, or pondliner as it was sold to me.



Next up, Doors! It is starting to get somewhere First order, making some aluminium trimpieces for the doorframe.



And presto! (times 2 ofcourse)



Next the door itself: (note my hardwood clue stick, sometimes the aluminium needs a clue to where to go)


The next image is redacted as it is me shouting and cursing because the door wouldn't fit the frame anymore due to me raising the doorstep a little. Long story short, removing the glued down trim piece and grinding off the stem of the T piece did the trick. Guess what happened on the other side? Nope, i remembered the doorstep, but the door was a little too wide, so, removing the glued down trim (i hate Sikaflex by now) sawing off a few mm (1/8") and slapping on some epoxy and paint and adding the trim again took some time.

Fits like a glove! Hinges added as well.



Time to give the Wiley windows a little drain. Drilling a hole from the the inside corner angling down and a small aluminium tube coated in epoxy work nicely. Adding some sawdust to the epoxy to patch up the hole in the watertrench inside fixed that aswel.



To finish it off i added the locking mechanism, a small stainless cover to hide the tube, and one on the venthole.



The other side wont get an outside lock, just 2 cams on the inside. I have made the holes for the lock, so if i want to add it later i can do that relatively easy. I also added 2 gutters to keep the doors (seals) a little out of the rain.



Four years ago when designing this tear i added an extra piece of wood in the sides to mount the fenders on, time to make some holes in it!



Besides what i've shown here i did a lot of other little things, adding a D seal to the hatch, removed the interior lighting that decided to stop working in the last few years, cutting a million gaskets from the pond liner, adding more covers to more ventholes, etc...
It's been 2 weeks since my last update, but i finally get the idea i'm nearly finished. Next up, the driving lights, getting all the mains connected, and another gazillion small things.

[teddy]

Temporary drivinglights, check! I ordered a very cheap set of magnetic lights, removed the magnets and mounted them under the galley, along with the license plate.


With that done, it was finally time to get her out of the shed, first daylight in 4 years! First stop, the weigh station.


420 kilograms, 30 less than expected (thats about 925 lbs) with a max rated weight of 850 kg (almost 1900 lbs) i can stuff her up with loads of crap!


A friend of mine connected the mains socket to the breaker and i did some last 12V stuff (mounted a fan to give the fridge some fresh air, added a USB socket).

What do you call this cabinet? in dutch houses its called metercloset as the power, water and gas meters are located here.



The wheels got a good scrub with a wire brush on the old angle grinder, some coats of rust converter,


and a few rounds of wheelpaint to finish it off.


In 96 hours i'm off to some campgrounds, so i have a few more days to cross some more items off my list.

[tiiiiii85]

Really really nice one!! Where are you going with this beauty? Any chances you are heading towards Luxembourg?
I would love to see it in real life.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

[teddy]

Really really nice one!! Where are you going with this beauty? Any chances you are heading towards Luxembourg?

Nope, sorry, i'm staying close to home (northern part of the Netherlands) this time, about 20 kms, still a bit wary about it's performance.

[guymi]

Bonjour et félicitation beaucoup de similitude dans ma construction mais plus modeste encore une foi bravo
Cordialement Michel

[guymi]

Hello and congratulations a lot of similarity in my construction but more modest: thumbsup: still a faith bravo
Sincerely Michel

[tiiiiii85]

Really really nice one!! Where are you going with this beauty? Any chances you are heading towards Luxembourg?

Nope, sorry, i'm staying close to home (northern part of the Netherlands) this time, about 20 kms, still a bit wary about it's performance.

Next time maybe! Luxembourg in summer speaks mostly Dutch.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

[Staryder61]

Teddy,

I just read through your complete build. Beautiful shape and designed tear. Very well built. Your craftsmanship is beyond words, along with your attention to all detail.. The detailed posts with the pictures, can and will help others like myself for years to come.
Amazing camper. Just Beautiful..

Here's hoping you enjoy using it as much as building it..

[teddy]

Bonjour et félicitation beaucoup de similitude dans ma construction mais plus modeste encore une foi bravo
Cordialement Michel

Mercí bien! (that's about all my french) You are nearly finished? Looking good!

Next time maybe! Luxembourg in summer speaks mostly Dutch.

maybe indeed! i've seen some nice campgrounds over there, and with your gas prices (almost 45ct/liter less) ...lovely! (for y'all across the pond, thats about 2 dollars per gallon cheaper, yesterday i payed about $7.79/gallon here)

I just read through your complete build. Beautiful shape and designed tear. Very well built. Your craftsmanship is beyond words, along with your attention to all detail.. The detailed posts with the pictures, can and will help others like myself for years to come.

Here's hoping you enjoy using it as much as building it..

Cheers! Just dont look too up close, not everything came out of my fingers as good as it worked in my head ;-) I love your taillights though, thats something i need to do in the future.

[Staryder61]

Cheers! Just dont look too up close, not everything came out of my fingers as good as it worked in my head ;-) I love your taillights though, thats something i need to do in the future.

It came out great, as for up close, I've learned, "What you don't point out, most never see". Others will be amazed by total camper and that you made it. My taillights added a little extra weight to the hatch because of the framing, but I like them. Can't wait til I get it skinned all the way and see them finished..

[guymi]

Bonjour ici détails de ma construction pardonnez moi pour la langue trop tard pour moi pour aprendre 70 ans
http://teardrops.forumgratuit.org/t178-larme-trailer