And The Teardrop God Said Let There Be Doors and It was good

[sandman]

Yep, After screwing up several times, I finally got my doors cut out on my Teardrop/Cycle Hauler. I took my time and measured everything like 5 times before making the first cut with with the jigsaw. After verifying the first door was perfect, I laid out the other wall and used the already cut out wall as the template for routing. After getting the doors sanded smooth, I installed two 1x3 Poplar Select lower cleats on each wall. Now I am just waiting for the Gorilla Glue to dry on the walls and I can FINALLY install them on the floor for the first time for dry fitting.


Here's both walls with the freshly cut door openings.


A little bit closer...not too exciting but the figuring on the oak plywood is beautiful.

Stay tuned for more pics as I progress....

[asianflava]

How tall is the door sill where the floor meets the sidewall?

You don't want the sill to be too tall or you won't be able to sit on the bed with your legs hanging outside. The rough rule (not written in stone or anything) is to have your sill half the height of the mattress.

[sandman]

The specs on the door are 24x30 set 10 1/8" from the bottom just like in Steve's Cowper plans. The bottom of the door will be about 7" from the floor but I will have a 4" thick mattress in the camper so I shouldn't have any problems hanging my legs out of it.

[bledsoe3]

Your legs will fall asleep. With a 4" mattress, your door should be 2" off the floor. The mattress will compress and the door opening will cut into the back of your legs. I would reconsider. But that's just me.

[Ira]

Sandman, you're going to have to get in and out like your crawling into a cocoon. It's not gonna be a very comfortable experience entering and exiting. And when exiting, I see a lot of spills in your future. You and your loved ones are gonna kill themselves trying to lift that leg the 7 inches, then way down to the ground on the outside.

And remember that you have testicles--which you want to keep in working condition.

I know it's not something you want to hear, but I agree with what was said above--lower those sills to around 2, maybe 3 inches. But there's a little silver lining to this:

You don't have to do this NOW, so this shouldn't stop or slow you down at all for the moment. Put the walls up and do everything ELSE first--then make that final door decision. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure the vast majority of us here do the doors (and hatch) as the very, very last things anyway.

Hey, at least it isn't as bad as what I did:

I didn't run any ground wires for my electrical, and this was pointed out to me AFTER the wires were already set into the framed walls!

Boy--was THAT fun adding the ground leads after the fact!

[fornesto]

On the other hand, I never sit in my doorway. I'd bang my head, scratch my arms on the screw heads, and have to sit very sloutched. Getting in and out is a strange experience anyway and we keep a step stool for the little one. I wouldn't loose much sleep over it.