My Simple Benroy

[goramsey]

That is looking very good.

[Rigsby]

Very neat, keep the pictures coming

[johnthom81]

It's pretty basic and simple. For the electrical, I think I'm just gonna do 12v LED lighting for the galley and cabin. We decided against TV and radio, opting for campfire and friends over electronics. The Ipod Touch and headphones will take care of noisy neighbors at bedtime. I'll run all the wiring within the next week, but may do the light installation after the first trip. Battery operated lanterns should be ok. We're pretty excited that we're getting this close to using the trailer.

[grizz]

It's pretty basic and simple. For the electrical, I think I'm just gonna do 12v LED lighting for the galley and cabin. We decided against TV and radio, opting for campfire and friends over electronics. The Ipod Touch and headphones will take care of noisy neighbors at bedtime. I'll run all the wiring within the next week, but may do the light installation after the first trip. Battery operated lanterns should be ok. We're pretty excited that we're getting this close to using the trailer.

I do like your thinking.

I even got a small telly off Freecycle here, thinking it could go into the cabin, or galley, but then realised it is not in line with the use we plan for the trailer.
I am also going for battery operated LED's and will have a basic 230v hookup for the 3 way fridge and an extension cord to run a charger for the 12v battery.

Basic is actually very good.

[2bits]

Planning out the cut sheets in advance is a wise thing to do!

My frame was a little off too after welding on the axle mounts, I made some shims as well to cure it.

It looks very nice!

[mandy]

Hello Neighbor to the north. Your building in record time. I just love your windows their very cool. Have you looked into going to the Cloudcroft gathering in July? http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?t=34520 Or if that is too far away you could go to the Last Gasp of Summer gathering in September in Colorado. Hope to meet ya in the future.

[johnthom81]

Got some more done over the weekend. I'll be using the "Richard Flake" galley hatch method (http://www.richardflake.com/galleyhatch.htm). Looks like it will be strong and pretty fool-proof for a rookie like me. Also got the rest of the spars glued and screwed.

[johnthom81]

Busy weekend. I installed the headline, 1/8" PVC board. It came in 4x8 sheets that I cut to 4x5'. The panels were joined using contact cement and another strip of PVC board 4" wide on the back of the panels. Tried contact cement to glue them to the spars. Didn't work so well, so I found some 3/4" wood molding for screen doors at the lumber yard to attach the panels to the spars. They came in 10' pieces, so I got 2 per stick with very little waste. Kinda gave it a nice look.

[johnthom81]

Sometimes you use what you've got. My insulation was just regular fiberglass home insulation. Sealing the edges of the headliner should keep the itchy stuff out of the cabin. Such a busy weekend, I didn't take as many pics as I wanted to for the album. The wiring you see was all soldered, no crimp connections. Takes a little longer, but worth the effort in reliability. Tail lights are mounted in the galley hatch, rear side marker light wiring came in through the headliner into the cabin rear shelf, angle drilled into the lower galley cabinets to the lights.

[johnthom81]

The roof skin (29 gauge prepainted steel for utility trailers) was all I could find locally until I find a reasonably priced 60"x129" one-piece .040 or .063 aluminum skin. We polyurethaned the outside walls until I get back to Albuquerque to get the aluminum skin, so it's a temporary woody. After 2 1/2 hours at DMV, I now have a title and registration that cost $67.45 for a 640 lb. trailer with receipts showing just under $970.00 in material costs. The choices for registration were 1 yr, 2 yr or lifetime. I won't have to pay for registration again until 1/31/2050. I'll be 86 years old when it needs tags again.

I'll have better pics as I get the finishing touches on. Thanks to Grant at Lil' Bear for the fast shipping on the hinges and stuff. It's not finished, but we reached our goal and will be camping in it for Memorial Weekend.

[Billy K]

Nicely done, and quick too!!
Thanx for the inspiration.

[mandy]

Very nice work John.

Whats your source for Aluminum in ABQ? Did the MVD give you any problems when you registered the trailer?

[Boanerges4]

John, I have windows that look exactly like yours, they came out of a leisure van . Mine have a slight corve in the middle, I was wondering if yours did and what you did about mounting them? Did you have to shim them or did they mount flat once you screwed them down? Thanks Dennis

[johnthom81]

Mandy, I'm looking everywhere for my notes on the aluminum supplier in Albuquerque. I remember it took me 4 or 5 phone calls, each referring me to someone else, but finally got a quote of $76 for a 4x12 sheet of .040. I'll keep looking and get it posted soon.

Boanerges4, I was looking for conversion van windows when I found these and I worried about the curve they might have. These windows came from a shuttle bus with the small sliding window on top. I scratched my head over shimming them for a couple of weeks, then drilled holes in the edge in line with the wall. Screws went into the 3/4" edge of the window opening rather than the face of the wall. I'm at work, trailer's at home. I'll try to get you a pic. But here's what they came out of (no curve, just flat windows).

[johnthom81]

Boanerges4, Here is a pic of the window installation. The screws run into the plywood parallel to the glass rather than into the face. I didn't use the original retainers because they would have to be shimmed 3/4". This worked very well.


There's still a lot to be done, but we camped in Taos Ski Valley for Memorial Weekend as planned. Still need to get the fenders on and more. We kept a running list of additions and changes we need to make, but what a great little camper.