Carbon Fiber/Aluminum build for a family of 5

[StrongFeather]

Here's a working copy of my electrical schematic, not including the AC side, which will be very basic...

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Wiring Diagrams to follow...

[StrongFeather]

...and the Wiring Diagrams. Sorry they're so big. They may be hard to view on a phone, but making them smaller made the words difficult to read.

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Steve

[John61CT]

Logical - layout schematics ignoring physical location make things easier to grok. Wiring length and max current can be labeled along with #AWG guage.

[StrongFeather]

One of the more nerve-racking things thus far was cutting the tail light holes in the rear wall panel.
Here's a picture of the wall panel laying flat on the trailer floor with the locations of the lights marked in tape.

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And a close-up of the marks for where to drill the 2-1/8" holes with the hole saw. <gulp>

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And the finished hole with the light sitting loosely in its permanent home. The plan is to epoxy them in place - hoping that they never need to be replaced

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Steve

[greygoos]

One of the more nerve-racking things thus far was cutting the tail light holes in the rear wall panel.
Here's a picture of the wall panel laying flat on the trailer floor with the locations of the lights marked in tape.

IMG_3462.JPG

And a close-up of the marks for where to drill the 2-1/8" holes with the hole saw. <gulp>

IMG_3464.JPG

And the finished hole with the light sitting loosely in its permanent home. The plan is to epoxy them in place - hoping that they never need to be replaced

IMG_3469.JPG

Steve

Dont know your whole plan for your lights but play devils advocate suppose the lights get smashed or broken at some point as trailer lighting often does

[StrongFeather]

The main issue that I've had with the panels is that the edges don't always come out square (see picture). Long-story-short, but this problem was caused by resin sneaking between the glass and aluminum mold frame. This is by far one of the worst examples.

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The plan to fix the blemishes was to use some 10cc syringes filled with clear coat and inject the crevices (where 2 panels are joined together) with clear to build them up flush with the panel surface.

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But, I also had to fix some edges/corners where 2 panels are not joined together. So, I put some mold release wax on some of the aluminum mold frame pieces and clamped them to the side of the panel.

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I wasn't real happy with the first try last night because a lot of clear, way too much for my liking, ended up on the flat/good surface of the panel. I thought it was going to be a blotchy, bumpy mess that would be difficult to sand smooth without sanding through the good clear that came flat out of the mold. Luckily, when I checked on it today, it looked good.


Steve

[StrongFeather]

Dont know your whole plan for your lights but play devils advocate suppose the lights get smashed or broken at some point as trailer lighting often does

Yep, heavily considered that, as well as faults/malfunctions, etc... I'm banking on them being well-built, sealed LED units that will be able to take a beating and work for many, many years. With that said, I've positioned them in a place that I will have easy access to via the rear storage area. IF something should happen, I will be able to remove the old light(s) using the same hole saw, oscillating cutter and file that I used to cut these holes. Then, assuming I can find one the same size/shape, I'll be able to epoxy a new one in and be ready to roll.

BTW, I think I mentioned this earlier, but the reason I decided to mount them like this is because I really didn't like the look of the lights sitting proud on the surface of the camper skin. For now, I'm very happy with this decision - hoping that it won't bite me ITA down the road.


Steve

[John61CT]

Rather than epoxy, try 3M 4200, UV version.

Should hold well enough, but can be undone when needed.

[StrongFeather]

Thanks for the tip, John. I’ll look into it.


If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.
~Red Green

[StrongFeather]

IMG_3478.JPG

The plan to fix the blemishes was to use some 10cc syringes filled with clear coat and inject the crevices (where 2 panels are joined together) with clear to build them up flush with the panel surface.

IMG_3481.JPG

Allow me to quote... myself.

It turns out fixing the edges is pretty easy. Fixing the crevasses where 2 panels are joined- not so much. Critical error on my part. I should have fixed all of the edges before affixing the panels to each other. It’s hard, but I’m almost at that point where I have to tell myself that it’s not perfect and by trying to make it better, I could actually make it worse.

Steve


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Atomic77]

If I had a dollar...

It's all part of it man. We learn as we go.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[StrongFeather]

You know it, Michael. It’s all about the journey as much as the destination.

I spent some time working those crevasses today - because I just couldn’t leave them looking like they did - and they turned out a lot better. I had to use a flat file to take out the high spots, then wet sand, then wipe on some clear coat, then more sanding... and so on until the crevasse was level and the gouges from the file were gone.

Another delay and another lesson learned, but it’s all good. I’m still enjoying this crazy little experiment.

Cheers and Happy Cinco de Mayo.
Steve


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[low277]

Logical - layout schematics ignoring physical location make things easier to grok. Wiring length and max current can be labeled along with #AWG guage.

Grok!! Sorry, I had to do it.

[StrongFeather]

Time for a quickie update. I've been busy assembling the walls, including insulation, window bucks and wiring. Here's some pictures...

Window bucks under construction. The trailer will have 3 windows; one in each cabin door and one in the rear wall.

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Here's a picture of the rear wall with the insulation and window buck installed.

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And the driver's side wall with about half of the insulation and all of the wiring installed. I thought I got a good picture of the wires running in the channels that I routed into the foam, but I guess not. Maybe I'll take a better picture later. You can see it in this picture, but not very well.

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Steve

[StrongFeather]

More wall construction...

I nearly forgot a critical part of the wall construction - adding the T-nuts that will accept the 1/4-20 x 4" machine screws that will hold the walls to the trailer frame.

Here's a picture of the wall laying flat on the floor with the machine screw and T-nut in place. You can see the hole in the frame that the 1/4-20's will go through.

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Eventually, the T-nuts will be inside the wall panel, which will be totally sealed. For that reason, they simply HAVE to stay put. So, I gooped some (very) thickened epoxy to keep them where I want them.

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Here's a picture of the driver's side wall panel in place (so I could mark the holes for the above mentioned screws). I haven't weighed it with the foam and wires, but it's still very easy for one person to lift/carry/move.

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Steve