(The Puffin) New Tiny Trailer

[steve wolverton]

Sorry for all the thread crapping Steve..


So you say you are going to remove the top outer spar? are you going to replace it with anything inside or is it not needed?

No worries.

I'm going to remove the exterior spar and take a router to the seam of the plywood about 1/8" deep and fill it in with epoxy to join the two pieces. I'll then lay a strip of fiberglass tape across the top. This way the top will be smooth so that when/if I put filon or aluminum on it, I won't have to mess with that goofy exposed spar.

[Donutboy]

Hey Steve, orn your HF trailer did you leave the axle below the leaf springs or move it above?

And thanks for the gas mileage info. When I build one, hopefully my Element will get mileage somewhat comparable to yours.

[steve wolverton]

Hey Steve, orn your HF trailer did you leave the axle below the leaf springs or move it above?

The axle is in the original position. I couldn't lower the trailer frame anymore without having to notch the floor for the tires.

[NoNeck]

Steve did you register your trailer before or after your build?

[steve wolverton]

NoNeck - I registered it before I built the camper. It started its life as my bicycle hauler.

[NoNeck]

You mean thats not a space ship hauler!!!

[NoNeck]

Ok that was a stupid post. I cant promise it wont happen again!

[steve wolverton]

[steve wolverton]

Ok, here is the picture of the exterior spar on the roof. I put this up here as a butt block for the 1/4" roof plywood. I'm about to remove it (there will be much cursing in this step) and fill the gap with epoxy/wood flour, and then fiberglass tape so that it's a smooth seam. After this cures, I'll install my headliner (black vinyl) inside. I want to get rid of the spar now so I can complete the interior, and it pools water if the camper isn't sitting perfectly level at the campsite. That's just a bonus of 45+ days of rain in the Houston area. It's hot, it's sunny, I'm going for it!

[steve wolverton]

Ok, I've got the spar off now. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be because I epoxied the edges of the spar to the roof, but didn't epoxy under the spar when I put it on there.



I still had some wood tear away with the spar, but that'll be patched with the epoxy/woodflour. I'm about to break out my big daddy WMD grinder (to hell with the sander - it's way too hot for that right now) and grind down all the leftover epoxy. I'm going to then support the roof from inside the camper to keep the roof panels lined up, and then I'll seal it up.

[steve wolverton]

I've been working with epoxy for about 7 or 8 years now, and I just realized that I've been doing my sanding all wrong.

I brought out my big daddy WMD grinder (AEG Grinder) and knocked out my sanding of the epoxy remnants in less than 5 minutes - that would have taken an hour + with 50 grit and my belt sander.


Scary machine! Sometimes I felt like I was holding onto the grinder for my life rather than using it. It ate up that epoxy like nobody's business though!

Now to place some duct tape on the ceiling so that no epoxy will drip through and start my epoxy/woodflour filling.

[steve wolverton]

Seam and screw holes have now been filled with epoxy/woodflour. I'm about to install the fiberglass tape on top of that.


It doesn't look like it in the photo, but it's really smooth. I always place my mixed epoxy on a scrap piece of wood and scoop it off of there. This keeps the epoxy from getting to hot in the mixing container and gives me more working time with it.

[pauld3]

Awesome Possum!!!!

Lynn

[steve wolverton]

:applause:
Awesome Possum!!!!

Awesome Possum indeed.


I've laid the fiberglass tape across the seam and I'm about to wet it out with epoxy.

[steve wolverton]

You can see that 1/2 of the fiberglass tape has been wetted out with epoxy. It turns invisible when wetted out, well almost invisible.

I moved my ladder to the other side and finished it up.


All of the tape wetted out now. After this hardens (I used a medium/fast hardener so it should only be a few hours since it's so hot outside) I'll mix the last coat of epoxy with some glass bubbles and that will be all of the epoxy work. A couple coats of latex paint and you'll never know it's where two pieces of plywood meet for the roof.

All of this epoxy, woodflour, tape, epoxy + balloons, and two coats of paint is probably overkill for this project, but I wanted it done right, and this is (in my opinion) the most important seam on the camper. This is the roof, and the flattest part on my camper.

This project turned out to be a lot easier than I thought it would. I was worried about getting that spar off, I'm really glad I hadn't attached the bottom of the spar with epoxy or I'd would have still been outside trying to get it off.

Don't let fiberglass/epoxy work scare any of you guys off from using it. It is not difficult to do - it can just be a little messy/sticky.