Windows in the front?

[Ranger Rod]

I really like the looks of the two TD shaped windows on the front of Camp -Inn teardrops. I have been thinking of putting them in the front of my soon to be constructed trailer.

Have any of you put windows int he front of yours or duplicated the Camp Inn design? How did you frame and trim them out? Did you use Lexan for the glass? Seems like tinted Lexan might be the way to go.

I can't quite figure out how to trim out the outside and inside. Would you use some sort of gasket trim? If so, what?

I'm the kind of person that builds things several hundred times in my head before actually starting. Just trying to think it through.
Thanks,
Rod

[Dave M]

Rod, Im in the same situation as you right now. Ive come up with my own fairly complete TD plans that are soemthing of a cross between the Camp Inn and the hunter shadow. I too have been laboring over ideas on how to incorporate Camp-Inn style windows. I even contacted Camp-Inn to see how they do it. They were very helpful but thier method is rather involved, definetly not for one off construction. If I can find the email I'll post it.

From my point of view, having a curved front TD, the hardest part would be creating the teardrop shaped part of the window since that would be a compund curve (curved in two directions). If I were to install rectangular windows it would be easy. The first part would be to frame a box in for the window with two of the roof frames. Then you just need two curved peices for either side of the window. These follow the cirve of the front and can be takedn from the side wall at the window elevation. All these peices would need to cut with a lip in them. You should be able to route that out on all the pieces, even the curved piece. I would glue down some rubber gastet material in the flatr spot of the routed out groove, lay the lexan or whatever over that with some sealant and then... well thats reall about as far as ive gotten. I know I need some other rubber gasket to go over the lexan but I cant find anything looks like it will work. I want it to be thick on one end to hold the lexan in place and have a lip on the other so it will go over the aluminum around the window. all would be sealed together with some high streagth 3m goop.

Thats one way anyway, and probably doesn't make much sense to read but is easy to understand when you see it.

By the way, I found the email from camp inn, they reccomend acrylic since lexan doesn't bend very well. i can email it to you if you like.

dave

[Arne]

I'd use lexan, put a removeable cleat behind it, mount the window, and a fixed cleat on top, sealed by some of the new, great sealants in a tube that are available... if it got broken, remove inside cleat and replace lexan...

I would probably leave the lexan flat, or mildly curved, but not to the point of stressing it a lot......

I don't see this as a big project, but I would forgo any type of gasket as a primary seal.... I'd go with silicon caulk.

Since I would use epoxy paint again, the outside cleats would disappear below a coat of white paint..... a big advantage of using a method like this is you could have almost any shape window you want, but only curved in one direction.

[Joanne]

I really like the looks of the two TD shaped windows on the front of Camp -Inn teardrops. I have been thinking of putting them in the front of my soon to be constructed trailer.

Have any of you put windows int he front of yours or duplicated the Camp Inn design? How did you frame and trim them out? Did you use Lexan for the glass? Seems like tinted Lexan might be the way to go.

I can't quite figure out how to trim out the outside and inside. Would you use some sort of gasket trim? If so, what?

I'm the kind of person that builds things several hundred times in my head before actually starting. Just trying to think it through.
Thanks,
Rod

Hi Rod,

I stumbled across this web page that talked about how they form their front windows. Scroll down the page to see a series of pictures. It's wayyyy beyond my abilities! Quite interesting though.

http://www.tinmantech.com/html/flow_forming_tools.html

Take care,
Joanne

[Ranger Rod]

Thanks for the ideas. I would like to see the email from Camp Inn if you don't mind. It's night that they aren't treating it as some kind of a "trade secret". I'm planning on having framed and insulated walls, so I have some thickness to play with. thanks for the link, I'll check that out.

I'm planning on epoxy paint too. Would you propose the exterior frame (cleat) to stand proud of the skin, or would you make it flush?
Rod

[Dave M]

I'd use lexan, put a removeable cleat behind it, mount the window, and a fixed cleat on top, sealed by some of the new, great sealants in a tube that are available... if it got broken, remove inside cleat and replace lexan...

I would probably leave the lexan flat, or mildly curved, but not to the point of stressing it a lot......

I don't see this as a big project, but I would forgo any type of gasket as a primary seal.... I'd go with silicon caulk.

Since I would use epoxy paint again, the outside cleats would disappear below a coat of white paint..... a big advantage of using a method like this is you could have almost any shape window you want, but only curved in one direction.

The gasket is not really meant to be the main seal here (some goop or other compound will serve for that). The seal i mention is more for asthetics. I dont want to see all that goop or to have a sharp edge to my window on the outside so the gasket would serve to round over the edge of of the body as it meets the window.

Like I said, a rectangular window would be easy, many ways to do it. The real issue is how to get that teardrop look the camp-inn windows have.

[Joseph]

I thought about putting a window in the front but then I realized there really isn't much point in having a window behind my head. Put the reading lights there instead - much more useful!

Joseph

[Cary Winch]

Heh Dave,

Good to see you still have that email. You can send it to Rod if you want. It will give him some ideas too. By the way, we changed the thickness of our windows awhile back from 1/8" to 3/16" so it would fit in the gasket better. Recently in a search to find the "right" tint we tried some Lexan in 3/16". Being a bit stiffer we don't seem to have the wavy problem we did with 1/8" Lexan. So, we have switched to Lexan type material. Life is good.

Joanne,

That was a great find on Kent Whites website. I haven't heard of anyone spotting that quote of mine there yet.

By the way for all. If you ever get a chance to see Kent White do a aluminum forming demonstration, by all means make sure you do. I try to make it to his tent at Oshgosh every year just to be humbled.

Rod,

As a suggestion. It is a suggestion I made to Dave in the email he has. A guy I know did a oval window in the front of one. He simply cut out the shape in the aluminum. Then he used the lip edge rubber window gasket often found on truck and tractor cabs (old campers too). He slipped it on the edge of the aluminum and cut a piece of plexi to match the hole and popped it into the gasket. Real simple but causes a few problems. One is the plexi will try to bow out the aluminum being attached to it. You could preform the plexi by heating it and pushing it over a form (vacuum formed would be the best). Then it would be in shape to start with. The other problem would be trimming the inside would be a little trickier but not impossible.

The other suggestion I made to Dave was to install the window like a airplane (at least the airplanes I am used to). That would be to make a plexi window bigger than the cutout in the aluminum. Then make a aluminum backer with an inner cutout the same as the tears skin cutout and the outer profile the same as the plexi. Then drill rivet holes through all, clecoing it in place as you go to get proper hole registration. Then dissassemble the window, apply silicone sealant to all the contact areas (thin bead). Cleco it back in place and rivet in all together. Now, I wouldn't rivet it with a pop riveter, but rather use a aircraft rivets and a air hammer them in place. Even cooler would be to use flush aircraft rivets. With this method you have the same two problems as the other suggestion.

Cary

[angib]

I will add another similar solution to Cary's last one - it's something I posted a while ago, but I guess repeating myself is the least of my worries at being more than ten years older than Shrug.....

A drawing is posted as Window Clamp Ring in my personal gallery.

The drawing on the left shows the arrangement in a cheap boat my family had and it didn't leak when waves broke over it! The (blue) acrylic was clamped into the recess in the (red) fibreglass cabin by the (green) aluminum ring - about an inch wide, maybe .080" thick and held in place with pop-rivets (maybe 2" spacing). The acrylic was a looser fit than shown, which left space for a generous bead of silicone (though it's long enough ago that it might be putty!).

The drawing on the right shows a possible arrangement using an aluminum outer ring, a plywood inner ring and screws joining the two.

Andrew

[Ranger Rod]

Thanks for all the info. I'm thinking like Dave in that the gasket would be more for aesthetics than anything. Cary, thank you for your input you guys make beautiful trailers. I looked at the forming link & that looks pretty complicated. I'm thinking frame it out in wood and try to find some kind of "gasket" for trim. At this point I'm not planning an AL skin. I think I'll go with epoxy paint.
Rod

[TRAIL-OF-TEARS]

Rod,
I am building a Camp-Inn clone. I am using the profile of my tear as the shape of the windows. I am planing on installing them like these poeple did with their boats. http://www.sailingsource.com/s279/pages ... INDOWS.HTM
I hope this helps.

[mexican tear]

Andrew

What is the program that is used to change the name of the URL's? (Window Clamp Ring) like you used here.

I had it once and now can not find it.

Thanks
kai

[mikeschn]

Are you thinking of

http://www.tinyurl.com

?

Mike...

[Guy]

Dear Kai,

What do the Flamineta's cost in Mexico?

[angib]

What is the program that is used to change the name of the URL's? (Window Clamp Ring) like you used here.

It's just part of the features of phpBB (which this board is written in). Let's see if this will work - you'll have to ignore the *'s as they allow the board language to be seen:

[*url]http://www.tnttt.com/gallery/image.php?image_id=722[/url]
is the result of clicking on the URL button then pasting the URL then clicking the URL button again. This displays as:
http://www.tnttt.com/gallery/image.php?image_id=722

[*url=http://www.tnttt.com/gallery/image.php?image_id=722]Window Clamp Ring[/url]
is the result of clicking the URL button, but then pasting the URL inside the brackets after a '=', then typing the desired text after the brackets, then clicking the URL button again. This display as:
Window Clamp Ring

You don't have to remember this - it's displayed just above the text box you type in, if you hover your mouse pointer over the URL button.

Andrew