A tiny trailer for 3

[green1]

now with the walls on the galley it was time to get the trailer aligned properly, centred on the frame width, and just to the back of the galley:

We can see here the back of the metal frame with a 1x3 screwed to it and screwed to the side walls of the galley. I then bolted the frame down through a 2x2 that spans the trailer under the double bed, and the 2x3 along the front edge of the trailer:


The whole thing is pretty sturdy, but I do figure that if I ever needed to, I could probably separate frame and box again if I really wanted to.

[green1]

So earlier I showed that I only had a floor in the "foyer" and nothing under the beds. While great for weight savings, it's less than ideal for keeping creatures/dust out, and keeping our possessions in. So the next step was to work on the area under the smaller bed.
I started by putting down a thinner piece of plywood I had lying around (it might be 1/2", but I think it's even less). This doesn't need to support nearly as much weight as the lobby that has to hold my increasingly less lightweight self. Then I added the 2x2s as dividers between the bins, and then I put up a thin wall of plywood and a 1x2 along the front of the bins. With the material thickness between the plywoods (plus the flooring material once I get there) the bins need to be lifted and pulled to remove, so they tend to stay put while travelling, and with the dividers and back wall they aren't moving around. The low wall also partitions off a small tunnel at the front of the trailer for future storage (stay tuned!)

I bought these bins at Ikea, there are 3 of them, and that means one each for all our clothes and such. I had measured the height I needed for them under the bed, and then I second guessed myself and made the space taller. I didn't need to, there would have been plenty of room. Oh well, Mrs Green1 now has room to bring even more shoes!
You can also see in this picture the inside front wall (another scrap chunk of quite thin plywood I had lying around, (probably 1/4"?)
Under the larger bed I wasn't as fancy, the floor here is just corrugated plastic, just enough to keep dust/critters out. I do plan to have drawers here, but as they will be on proper drawer slides they won't be sitting on that flooring and it doesn't need to be weight bearing.

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Yup, it's that time, time to prep for paint.... Have I mentioned how much I dislike painting?
That's ok, That's what child labour is for!

well, actually she did a handful of strokes, decided it was boring, and went off to play
Here's the result of the first couple of rough coats, touchups to come later!

[green1]

It's amazing how things start to fall into place.

2 hinges later and the piece I cut out of the passenger side is back in there as if nothing ever happened!

I also ran wiring for a ceiling fan, ceiling light, galley lights, tail/brake/turn lamps, USB plugs (beside the beds and in the galley), and side marker lights, and cut access hatches into that front storage tunnel I mentioned earlier when I built the bin storage under the front bed.
All the wiring terminates in the front driver's side corner and I have a fuse block there. I don't have a battery in the trailer, but I have a second trailer connector from the car providing 12v power, in addition to the normal flat 4 connector for the trailer lights.

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And here we have a ceiling. I used corrugated plastic screwed to the ceiling joists here. You can see the hole where the ceiling vent will be.

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Ok, and now what everyone's been asking me about. The slideouts. Hopefully I can do this justice so that people can actually understand what's going on, I'll admit it took me a fair amount of studying the old one before I fully understood all the intricacies.
When the slideouts are in, we have handles on the outside to help with the sliding, the gaps will be covered with a trim later, but for now we just see them sitting flush.

Inside we have the slideouts sitting on the rails we had previously shown. note the frames around the slideouts. These need to be well attached, as near as I can tell, the weight of the slideouts hangs on this frame against the wall of the trailer. Looks questionable, feels rock solid. Note also the cutouts at the bottom of the frame against the inner rail to accommodate the rail itself.

We can see this whole setup again when the slides are out:


For the moment there is no floor, but that will come with the bed slats.

[green1]

Now we get to the bed slats. seems I only have photos for under the kids bed, the the larger bed is the same idea:
bed slats for the inner section sit on the plywood end rails at each side of the trailer. critically, they must not extend to the second piece of plywood that is the wall of the trailer as the bottom of the slideout sits there when closed.
the bed slats for the outer section are screwed to the underside of a cross piece at the foot of the slideout (they can't sit on top of anything or they'll block the slideout from closing completely) and they have to extend past the edge and overlap into the trailer. There is a wood bar underneath the slats that is screwed to the outer slats but not the inner slats, it moves and slides with the outer slats (I thought that piece shouldn't be required, until I tried without it and the slats suck up into the mattress! ) Note that in the outer section I skipped every second slat, as there's going to be a floor out there, they weren't really needed for structure under the mattress.

And a closeup look where the slats overlap.

After this I took a really thin piece of wood panelling I had lying around and used it as a floor on top of the outer slats and screwed it down to those slats to keep critters out, note that this can't extend in too close to the end of the slats as when you slide the thing in you lift it a bit so that the bar under the slats goes down, if this extends past the frame, it will bind on the slats when you do.

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To keep the slideouts in when in transit, I added these latch bolts to the inner frame:

When the slideout is out, they're not used, but when the slideout is in, they drop into holes drilled in the top of the bed rail and with them in place I've never had the slideouts move while driving. (key words: "with them in place", it seems I have a knack for forgetting to put them down )

Now was also the time for other miscellaneous hardware:

Side marker lights, reflectors, windows, cargo hatches and stabilizer jacks


Tongue jack, hitch coupler, spirit level, safety chains, the electrical connections to the car. (yes, I know the tongue jack looks like it's sitting a bit weird, but it's not really designed for this application, so there's really no way to line up the third bolt hole, but I do really like this style of tongue jack.)

[green1]

Insulation:

In the roof I have GPS insulation which is R10 at just over 2" thick, and in the front wall where the supports are only 2x2 instead of 1x3 I went with a thinner foamboard at ?R5? both were leftovers from other projects.
Next I went to work on the Galley. First I put down some scrap 1/4" plywood, and mounted the cooler:

The cooler is an actual 12v refrigerator/freezer, this thing is amazing, way better than the old power cooler I had before, though (and that's without going brand name!)
I mounted the drawer slides directly to the cooler itself, and ran 12v power up from the floor, left some slack for future, and then out along the rail to the cooler.
This picture also gives you a decent view of the wood splinting I used to join the galley walls to the main walls of the trailer, note the cutout in them for a counter... that I mismeasured so it doesn't actually go in that slot
You can also see the USB outlet for the kitchen hanging in the corner, that will be mounted over the counter.

[green1]

I'm back! and I didn't wait a year or more this time!

Some more trim pieces came next:

Aluminum flat bar as trim around the slideouts

Pretty up the door some, metal trim around the door, and around the frame. Turns out my original saw blade was way too thin, so I had to remove a fair amount of material to get this to fit.

Here's a closeup of the door handle. and the metal trim on the door edge, And the magnetic door hold-open.

[green1]

Now the roof, I measured the outside of the trailer to be exactly 4 ft wide, this made roofing material MUCH easier to find.
To start I put down a layer of "rubberply" plywood. super flexible lengthwise, but not widthwise. Ive debated back and forth as to if the wood is needed at all honestly, the metal skin might be all that's needed, but I decided not to risk it.

And then followed it up with an aluminum skin.


The skin is "floating", only held on only by the screws going through the trim pieces along the edges. You can also see in these pictures the roof vent, and the hurricane hinge for the rear hatch, as well as the t-handle, tail lights, and reflectors.

Here you can see what's going on inside that galley hatch. Note the extra plywood reinforcing around the latch, the black metal bits are also screwed to the crossbrace to reinforce that area further. You can also see the top of the gas struts, turns out that attachment method wasn't sturdy enough, so I beefed it up later.

[green1]

Now let's re-visit the interior. I added some coat hooks, the ceiling vent, and an LED puck light. and of course, mattresses!

You can see it both folded, and unfolded.
The larger mattress is an ikea double, it's the thinnest one they sell, but then I added a 2" memory foam topper to it. keeps it all flexible for folding, but gives enough comfort too. The smaller mattress is an "RV Bunk" size, but we custom made it with leftover open cell foam we had from another project. It's 3 layers of 2" foam.
If you look closely at the edge of the image you can also see the interior door trim that I added, it's just thin plywood cut in 2 inch strips.

We also put down vinyl plank flooring (this is leftover from our bathroom and mudroom renovations at home )
And I built some drawers for under the large bed.


Now apparently 8 year olds need something called "privacy"? So I added a curtain across her bed.


The curtain rod is an old mop handle which I sanded the red paint off of, and the brackets are chunks of plywood cut with a hole saw and jigsaw and then nailed to the wall.
You can also see the roof edging here, it's a peel and stick flexible moulding.
On the right side of the picture you can see a better view of the door trim, a car thermometer above the door (probe is under the trailer) and you can just see the edge of another hook sticking out from behind the curtain, I put hooks at each side of both beds.

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Now for some kitchen work!

Hand sanitizer mount on one side, stove lighter on the other! You can also see the metal trim on the edge of the side walls.

Here we use the space between the fridge and the exterior wall to store a griddle. The metal is leftover from the roof material. At the right side you can also see the piece of "L" metal that holds the door latch rod when closed (I've since changed it to one with more metal sticking into the trailer)

I ran a string under the edge of a roof slat to use as a towel rack. I also beefed up the metal where the end of the gas strut attaches to the roof. This is important! Before I did this the plywood was being pulled inwards and on it's way to permanent damage in less than a month of use! In my previous trailer I through bolted this piece, and I'm now having to replace the whole piece of plywood due to the damage from the force of the strut.
And some drawers:


Put it all together, and you get:

The stove is a 2 burner coleman white gas version. It's bolted to the countertop.
On the fridge you can see I had to remove the plastic factory handles, and replace with webbing, there just wasn't enough room in the galley otherwise.
The washbins are hanging from L shaped brackets under the counter and slide out like drawers.
There's a hole at the back of the counter with a garbage bag hanging from a frame beneath it
The empty spot between the drawers and the fridge is exactly the width of our local supermarket re-usable plastic tote, and we put all our dry goods in there. (metal on the bottom stops it from hitting the garbage bag, and allows a spot to store our recycling)

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When camping, we like to have our bikes with us, but there just isn't enough room in the car to carry them. Wouldn't it be great if they could mount to the trailer?

So the metal is the same tubing used in the trailer frame (I had lots left!) that I cut lengthwise in half. The quick release brackets were given to me by my neighbour. Turns out that the cross brakets are needed to stop the steel from twisting too much when the bikes are mounted and to make it all solid.
The space I had here is pretty tight, so it's a bit of a jigsaw puzzle to get the pedals and handlebars all lined up on the bikes, but it is so worth it!

[KCStudly]

I like the hanging/sliding double wash tub/drawer solution. Is it rigid enough to take some weight... say your typical utensil drawer items... and not flex out of the tracks while bouncing down the road? If so, brilliant multi-tasking.