TERRA6, Van cab and chassis 7*14, 4" Polystyrene

[GPW]

Interesting way to build a trailer from a tree… although a wee bit heavy … Maybe a Foam Tree… ?

[Terra6]

It's the definition of heavy duty.
Loved the name he gave it, Travel log.

And here's an interesting space efficient off roader which might give some design ideas for build configurations.
Very well done with pop top and slide outs.
https://youtu.be/9LS3BBdvnw8

[Terra6]

This month is Terra6's 2nd birthday.

My how time flies. It has performed as built and within the realities of its construction and cost, admirably. It's not everything that I wanted, but it's much more than I needed.

From dry, desert conditions to coastal winds and humidity for months on end. All the while, constantly exposed to southern sun. And not a problem with the box and shell.

My investment has been worthwhile and I feel, fulfilled at this point due to my low build cost. It took me about 2 weeks to build the box, and more unmeasured hours to do the interior as I went along.

It has served it's purpose of home on wheels while keeping the interior comfortable beyond outdoor temperature variations with little need for heating or cooling. Seeking the 70s helps as well. Well, tried to, but this summer was hot 85+, even at 7500ft.

Terra6 has traveled over 10000 miles and ascended over 10000 ft, exposed to constant southwest sun for 2 yrs, in temperatures from 20 to 110+F, with winds gusting over 45 mph in dry desert, elevated forest, to humid ocean coast. It has maintained inner temperatures from 45 to 90 but mostly between the 60s to the 80s, without assistance.

Due to covid, it has seen less travel this year, but constant exposure to the elements, mostly sunshine, without an issue. Multiple coats of paint help. Couldn't tell you how many as I've lost count. I've had lots of paint and a quick spruce up of the white was just as fast as scrubbing away road grime. Probably about a dozen.

The last year has seen allot of windy conditions from the plains, mountains, to the coast, and so far, so good. It keeps rocking the rig and all seems tight.

My overland light rig hasn't seen much in the way of hardcore offroading but then it's not designed to. The worst it's seen is, stuck on the beach up to the axles twice. Terra6 has raced incoming tides, climbed high mountain passes, danced and swayed in wind storms, might have survived a small hail storm (wasn't there at the time), baked incessantly in the sun, and all the while providing secure, comfortable lodging and respite, allowing me to explore new areas, and seek out new adventures.

In a world of Airstreams and Newmars, it doesn't impress or measure up. It's a first time, completely solo, hand crafted build on a tight budget and schedule, for which the sense of accomplishment alone, is priceless. Some have seen the beauty and appreciated it for what it is. Actually, a lady I showed it to, who was working on her own skoolie, was almost speechless. Actually, she just kept repeating, dude! Dude!! DUDE!!! It was so funny, still makes me chuckle.

Most just notice the finish flaws and move on. Which is fine by me, as it's value is in its functionality and utility, not to superficially impress.

In the end, it only has to make me happy and comfortable.
Mission accomplished Terra6. Happy 2nd Birthday.

[ghcoe]

Hard to believe it has been two years already...

[Terra6]

Yeah time flies when you're having fun.
Or building foamies.
Or just living.

So the latest update is that I'm busy PMFing.
Sounds like a dirty word.
And it is very dirty. Especially when using dark chocolate caca brown oops paint.
And laying up canvas on vertical walls.
Singlehandedly.
In windy conditions.

As my internet is very intermittent, going short posts.

[Terra6]

Due to many constraints, my choices during my builds have been less than ideal. Terra6 is holding up well.
My trailer not as well as i simply heavily painted my plywood with oops paint hoping for durability. Hasn't been the case.
Some of the sidewall sheets have started to blister in that the plywood itself is lifting, swelling and cracking. Paint adhesion is fine and swelling cracking only on maybe a third to half of the sheets. Appears that the top grain on some sheets is less durable or glued. Like it was from inconsistent wood grain plies is my guess. I chose normal interior, sheathing grade ply from Lowes IIRC since its less busy than HD mad house but I think their quality of ply isn't as good imho.
Would load pics but my internet has been sketchy for a month.
So I've looked at options and looks like PMF is the cheapest route and best suitable for my situation. Off to HD and HF I go!

[Terra6]

HF canvas is $15 per 9x12 sheet which is the most economical. Use the 20% off coupon brings it down to $13.09 with tax. Yep, discount only for one item, but I'm only 5 miles away and great excuse for a moto ride.
The quality is mostly good but now all appear to have a seam right down the middle of the 9 ft side. Sewn 4.5ft widths to get 9 ft. So i ripped the seams apart which will give a slimmer overlap upon the vertical. Choice was one fatter sewn seam along the entire horizontal length or slimmer vertical seams every 4.5 ft which is what I did.

[Terra6]

Ok, now how to lay it up. Or press it on since it was a vertical surface much taller than I. With Terra6, layup was easy as I did it ahead of time laid flat horizontally. Went great.
With a vertical overhead surface, definitely going to be some cussing and messing going on.
George does this neat roll up and unroll from the top thing with a setup he built. Nice. With mine, the top being over 8 ft high, thought maybe be tricky so what else was possible.

So tried using gravity as my friend and worked from the bottom up. Glue and staple bottom so it's flush and level. Used liquid nails as I had leftover. Painted surface and cloth section, pressed together and stapled at the edges. Continued up the wall and it worked well enough. Stretching or pulling not recommended as it distorts the fabric pulling it out of square. Just lay flat. But of course, alignment and straight edge never comes out as fabric isn't square. Remove tacking staples, square the side and bottom, few staples to hold. Pull fabric gently to remove creases, smooth flat with plastic putty spreader and staple to hold.
Lay another top coat over and let dry. Work quickly and out of the sun to ensure paint doesn't dry during application and ensures a single, solid coat throughout for adhesion and impermability.
Allow to dry and admire your work the next day if all goes well.

Repeat to complete.
Celebrate your latest achievement.

[Terra6]

But wait a minute, not done.
Never mind, take any excuse to appreciate and celebrate.
Life's too short.

So I've got 1 sidewall done in 2 afternoons with 5 panels applied.
Going easier and faster as I progress.
The 2nd panel had a whole lot of cussing going on.
Why? Because....
The first panel squared to the bottom worked well so I repeated.
Glue and staple..
Oh no. What worked yesterday may not work today.
Bottom wouldn't square with the side and had a gap.
What do you mean the trailer isn't square?
I don't own a trailer square. .
Or a square trailer.
Hmmm, can I get a HD refund for my trailer materials for that?

Need to develop another approach for subsequent panels.
Tried a couple with much cussing. The paint is drying quickly, the afternoon wind had picked up and was flapping canvas all about. Paint smushing and rubbing all over me as the canvas flapped in the wind. Staple and set.
Doesn't line up on the side.
Cuss.

Pull, staple and reset.
Doesn't line up on the bottom.
More cussin ensues.

Pull, tack and reset. Seam edge not straight.
Some more cussin.

Pull, tack and reset. Wrinkles.
A wholotta cussin.

Pull, tack and reset. Doesn't cover the bottom.
Cuss

Get slapped in the face by flapping, wet paint covered sheet.
Cuss.

Pull, tack and reset. Paint surface is drying.
Cuss.

Apply more paint and hope it dissolves dry paint and dries uniformly solid.


So what finally worked was lining up the side edge from top to bottom, aligning the seam and tacking into place first with extra length on the bottom to be cut off later. Then pull the sheet back over the previous sheet and tack hold with the back side exposed. Paint cloth, then paint the wall surface, assemble and press cloth to wall, gently laying cloth and press/pull wrinkles. Staple once fully smooth and apply paint overcoat.
In 5 minutes or less.
Don't want to cut into and waste appreciation and celebration time.

After this on the job, learning experience, next 2 panels went fairly well. Except my first tack up was always too short and didn't reach the bottom since my top tack was too high. Damn.
Sum cussin.
Note to self, get a helper or buy that miracle grow extras arms supplement that they sell on late night tv. Works well with the ladies too they say.

[Terra6]

Paint. Hard to beat oops paint at $30 for 5 gallon bucket.
Unless it's $2 gal or free from Craigslist.
Except it's not 5 gal but 4 point something now.

But you have no choice in color. And what's available, that's it. When available. Even if it's dark chocolate caca brown in this case. You know why they're weird colors? Because they tint them unattractive colors on the return so that the guy who returned the mistint doesn't come back and buy at a discount. Just found out at HD. Other places may not fyi.

Managed to get exterior masonry and stucco paint which is guaranteed for 20 years or the first wind that blows. My logic says if it's made to be extra sticky to adhere to stone, should be great for cotton canvas, Yes?
Used this stuff before and found it good for wood, plywood, self tattoos and messy spills on the landlords asphalt.

In theory, don't need exterior grade for the glue and impregnate parts of PMF as it's underneath. So can get away with interior paint for that and only more expensive exterior for the final top coat. Used this when painting my house. Oops bottom suck up paint layers then topped with exterior coat. Also could be used on an exterior north facing wall? Just don't mention it to whomever your selling the house to... Or so I've heard...

Tip of the day from a good friend of mine.
How to reduce the cost of painting your house? Buy oops paint in the tone of color that you're looking for. Don't have to match. Get enough quantity to paint the house and mix them all in a Rubbermaid tote to get one uniform color. May take awhile tho but the cost savings can be huge. $4000 house paint job done for less than $400 sound good to you?

Tip #2. Contractors will combine leftover paint colors to get a drab grey and offer that on low bids. If you're not picky on color.

[Terra6]

So for my final PMF topcoat, am considering my options.
Thinking about using a roof coat.
Walmart has a nicely priced rustoleum acrylic product for $21 a gallon which I've used for the current roof of the trailer and is doing well. Wondering if it will stick well to PMF and give a nice looking durable finish. Suppose I should get up on the roof and look.
In terms of straight up paint, latest I've read is to go with a 100%acrylic paint and that the Behr Premium Plus was top rated price wise.
Being a top coat, should roll on pretty well and not absorb much, requiring much less. Figure it will take just over a gallon.

Hmmm, now white again or a new color and design?

[Terra6]

Up date stats.
32 linear ft covered in PMF for approx 200ft2 took 5 gallons of paint brushing 3 coats ( wall and each side of canvas).
Covered 600ft2. Another 5 gal to coat remaining 150ft2 and some top coat. Figure 2 gal should be sufficient for top finish coat.
PMF costs.
4 9x12 HF drop cloth $52, $0.14ft2
2 5 gal oops paint $66
2 gal top coat $60.
$180 for 350 ft2 or approx. $0.50 ft2

[GPW]

Re: Oops paint … If we get a color we don’t like “caca brown “, you can add White paint to it and make a nice pastel Tan color ….

[Terra6]

Good point GPW, was just thinking the same thing.
Adding white is the easiest thing to make a paler shade.
And along those lines, could color change as well if one remembers their color wheel. Blue to green, etc...
And other color blends to lighten, darken or change.
Only the final top coat is going to show anyway so not necessary unless your color is desirable for final finish.

[Terra6]

Current PMF experience and comments.

Finished painting, laying cloth and coating the last 150ft2 of 350ft2 total.
Total 3 coats so far. Canvas absorbs paint readily.
Prepaint wall as adhesive while painting back side of cloth to ensure sufficient bonding of canvas to wall.

After gentle canvas layup and creases pulled, staple in place and quickly spread a top coat to ideally create a homogenous acrylic paint layer with an inner canvas reinforcement.
Cut off some excess in spots and overlapsto straighten edges and got decent surface adhesion. Yay!

After drying for a day or more, did a 4th coat to ensure impermeability. Canvas still absorbing well and retaining its coarse weave and noticeable texture. My thought is to add further coats to fill weave, reduce gaps, and dirt adhesion while maximizing waterproofing and weather tite. Theoretically.
Realistically? How the hell do I know? Tell you in a couple years.
Application skills play a large part here.

Seems to me reading others on here, 2 top coats was minimal and common?
I've rolled a 4th coat with the weave still noticeable.
Trying to cover the HF carbon fiber.

As i went back for the other 5 gal of brown stucco and masonry paint, it was sold of course. Been there for weeks. No mistint at HD so went across the street to Lowe's and got a 5 gal of apricot interior semi gloss. Should roll smoother and take less, right?
No, seems to have used more and I ran out of paint before laying all of my cloth. Had to dip into my safety reserves of leftovers to finish the paint job. Giving rain tomorrow so important to finish today. Quarts of brown and white mixed into the bottom of the bucket apricot gave me just enough. Phew, was the end of the day with no time to run to the store for more.

If I'm going white again, the less dirt affinity the better.
Still contemplating top coat, color and design, if changed.