M116A3 Build

[lfhoward]

November 1 was a beautiful 70* day! I got the trailer almost completely winterized, and the rear door repaired and sealed!

Getting started:


My weapon of choice:


T-moldings back on and caulked and sealed:


All the way across and around.


Next, add some foam tape. This tape is 7/16" tall, just about the 1/2" in I measured for the gap. Fingers crossed.


Flip and seal the other side:


Now, around back...


Remove threshold screws, squirt in Sikaflex, reinstall.


Getting ready to re-hang the door.


New hinge spacers work great. They are bright white plastic and not a dull yellow as they appear here. I was running out of daylight.


Door back on. I had to wait 2 hours for the caulk to dry, but it seals great with the foam tape!


Between all the steps above, I removed all of the exterior screws (more than 100!), squirted caulk in the holes, and reinstalled. I also caulked places where the aluminum panels came together, and where they met the fenders. The trailer is ready for the big rainstorm that is supposed to move in tomorrow, and for winter in general.

Now ready to go camping again!

[lfhoward]

A couple of short updates.

1. The leaves on the black gum tree above my trailer have fallen, so solar charging works much better! I angled the solar panel to take advantage of the winter sun. The trailer faces east-southeast so morning sun is the best.



Wow is the roof dirty! Those leaves don’t take long to decompose, do they?


2. The fun thing I got to do today was to install drip caps over the side windows. I think they look good.


I used Sikaflex to waterproof the screw holes and the seams where the caps meet the trailer walls.

[lfhoward]

That big back door sometimes catches the wind like a sail and swings open or closed hard. Here is how I aim to control it. I got two of these, one for the top of the door and one for the bottom.



They not only act as protective doorstops, but they’ll hold the door open against the wind.

[lfhoward]

Today I made a burst of progress on my trailer's interior thanks to Parker at Moonshot Camper Vans in Philly. I rented Parker's garage space for the day and worked from 9 AM to 8 PM. Here are the photos of today's progress.

Here is an earlier photo showing that the cedar planking on the interior was only in the rear half of the trailer. Styrofoam insulation and exposed plywood is what you see around and behind the bed.


First I made my plan and measured multiple times.


You can see exposed wires in the forward corners from this photo at the beginning of the day.


My first task was to create raceways to hide the wires.


Next I paneled the headboard area with 1/4" tongue and groove cedar planks.


The triangular areas on the sides were challenging to measure and cut.


Before:


After:


What things looked like at the end of the workday:


I'm glad how well it turned out. Little details like how the compartment lid fit snugly around the wire raceway made me happy. I added grab handles for opening those forward compartments.


I have another garage day scheduled for Wednesday, and hope to show you a completed interior ceiling after another day in the shop. The goal is to have a completed interior for winter camping next weekend!

[featherliteCT1]

Beautiful!

[saywhatthat]

Great looking build

[redbicycle]

That looks great!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[lfhoward]

Thanks everyone!!

The cedar smells as good as it looks!. Plus it’s really light weight wood compared to pine or plywood. I’m very happy I went with it for the interior.

Planning for my next shop day on Wednesday. Here is the to-do list in order of importance:
- finish cedar planks on front wall around windows
- install birch plywood ceiling
- install aluminum vent grilles on electronics cabinet doors
- cut gym mats to fit floor, 2 mats deep for winter insulation
- install white strips in exterior aluminum edge moldings

If I have time, or do later:
- swap out old trailer to vehicle electrical cable for new one (old one still works but is deteriorating)
- check and top off batteries
- install rear door stop/catches
- repair cracked wooden trim ring for right front window

And long term:
- 2 new AGM batteries, move inverter to tongue box & install cutoff switch
- install front utility doors
- rear and right side awnings
- figure out how to mount spare tire underneath
- led exterior light swap all around

[S. Heisley]

Lookin' Good!

[lfhoward]

Day 2 shop day:

I got about 12 hours of work in today and made a ton of progress on the interior.

Where it started:


The cedar planks installed above the dashboard:


Beginning to install the ceiling:


Ceiling panels tacked into place.


Fantastic Fan molding installed and ceiling panels screwed into beams.


Finally, I put pine strips over the screws to hide them.


I'm really happy with the way the wood grain pops.


Finally, here are the vent grilles I installed over the electronics cabinets.

[lfhoward]

Finally, I'd like to plug Moonshot Camper Vans in the Manayunk neighborhood of Philly. The owner, Parker, rented me his heated garage space today and last Friday for a very reasonable price, which covered 10-12 hours of work each day and access to all kinds of tools. If anyone needs to work on a trailer project here in Philly in the winter and you don't have a garage of your own, contact Parker.

Moonshot Camper Vans is at https://moonshotcampervans.com.

[lfhoward]

Winter camping! We went to Ole Bull State Park, which is one of only 4 state parks open for camping (with electricity) in PA at this time of year. It was wonderful! There were only a few other people around and mostly we had it all to ourselves. It's up in the north woods west and north of Williamsport. The weather up on the Allegheny Front was cold and clear, under 10 degrees F at night and probably around 32 during the day. The camper's electric heater kept us toasty warm without the need for electric blankets. Here are some photos from the trip.



Cozy warm inside.


Driving around on Saturday produced some gorgeous views.


This whole area was logged using narrow gauge railroads about 100 years ago. The railroad grades still exist.


We drove about 8 miles of forest roads and took in the scenery. Here the road was unplowed but frozen and snowed over.


Thick woods in the area were called the black forest.


After emerging on the other side of the woods, we found this roadside pavilion made by the CCC in the 1930's.




Someone had left a fire burning, and the warmth was a welcome treat.




We love the area and hope to go back soon!

[S. Heisley]

Thanks for the great pictures. It is a beautiful area. I see you still have your Jeep Liberty. Me too. I love mine and don't have any plans to replace it in the near future. Jeeps have been known to last over 25 years.

[mattiker]

I recently picked up an old military trailer similar to the one that you used, I'll be using this post as inspiration!

[lfhoward]

I recently picked up an old military trailer similar to the one that you used, I'll be using this post as inspiration!

That’s exciting! What model? I’ll look forward to reading your build thread.