Hello from Milwaukee, WI...

[greekspeedoman]

Hi MKE,

Welcome to the forum. You've come to the right place. There are many people here who have helped me with my first build. I look forward to watching yours grow.

Cheers!

[tearhead]

How much creative control does the cat have?

[MKE_Tear]

How much creative control does the cat have?

Ha! Very little!

Looks like I might make it (4-5 inches) longer. There's room on the tongue side & thinking that "extra" space might become a big deal in the end. I'll split it up (somehow) between the sleeping & galley areas.

Tarred the underside this morning and received the leveling jack. Now, off to bed.

[MKE_Tear]

Ok, so I'm guessing (or in a weird, warped way maybe hoping?) that like others, my design has been all over the place. I had been going back and forth between the Weekender, Grasshopper, a pop-up teardrop I was designing and a few other "modded" designs when I finally landed on "it" last week. I'm going for a grasshopper.

The profile:



and the front view (from the tongue):




My original drawing (which was posted) will help in the layout (and "my" understanding of how the construction will go) but this new design will be longer than the original 8' (now coming in at 9' to 9'2" from tip to tip).

I've drawn the doors (full glass, like the Little Guy), windows and roof vent to size. The dashed lines towards the rear are the dividing wall and countertop in the galley. Not shown is the 19" x 13" window in the dividing wall, so when the hatch is up light (and air flow) can come through. (FWIW: The bed of the trailer sits 19" off the ground.) Hopefully you can tell that I'm going for more windows than you generally see in these types of campers. I'm debating whether or not to add a fixed (non-sliding) window to the front (roof) slope to give it an open/sunroof view from above/inside

Some of the materials I already have, and some are on the way, hence the reason I've been able to draw them in. Believe it or not, I couldn't find a three wing cutter for the router anywhere locally (to stretch the plywood), whether in the big box stores or the mom & pop hardware stores. The online purchase from last weekend, however, was delivered yesterday so I hope to do a mock wall before starting the real thing this weekend.

Speaking of last weekend, I primed the bed (two coats), sealed the holes from the removed tie-downs, etc. with Elmer's Carpenter's Wood Filler and painted the frame (covering the Rust Bullet). Oh yeah, and the leveling jack officially went on.

[MKE_Tear]

Well, I had my first go at a router this past weekend, and it was great! Stretched out an old 3/4" sheet of treated plywood I had sitting around in the garage for a mocked-up side (not what I'm going to use when I build) bec. I wanted to get an idea of what was ahead of me.

I'm going to (I think) cut out the holes for the door & window and tape off where the dividing wall and galley counter will be. Once done, and I make any necessary changes, then I'll be on my way.

Will post up pics soon.


Thanks, Mark (Greekspeedoman), for the welcome...

And thanks to Auntie M (Miriam) for the suggestion on the Elmer's Carpenter stuff that I read somewhere and to Doug Hodder (and all the others who contributed in that thread!) on stretching plywood. I can only hope that I can contribute something worthwhile for someone.

[MKE_Tear]

Photo update...


Right as the asphalt emulsion was going on the underside:




After it was tarred...




(If you pay close enough attention you'll see where I put it on really thick towards the front and it slid down. Ideally, you should lay these things flat but we didn't have that ability. I guess the same thing would happen if you had a roof that steep. )



The bed was primed and the holes filled (manila splotches towards the front):



Look -- I made sawdust!


Of course the rains came the day I started the mock-up...



(Pretend you don't see the kitty litter bucket. )


And here you see the mocked-up side with the plywood stretched and the door & window holes cut:



(The black tape divides the sleeping area from the galley, and I have the countertop taped in, too.)

I'm about ready to begin this daunting task! If I haven't said it yet here, this is definitely the biggest project I have undertaken. I've been involved with things at work, and had stuff done at my house, but I have never taken on anything like this, myself.

[godskid]

Looks good to me!

[parnold]

You're off to a good start. It's really not that daunting, or at least it won't seem so when you're done.

[bobhenry]

Just a dumb question measuring from the ground to the counter top what is the actual height ?

Maybe the torsion axle lets you set extra low but it eyeballs to me at about 42 inches if your deck height is 17 inches.

Probably just me

I sat mine at 34" Ol' what's her name is only 5'4" so a little shorter counter was in order. If your sight runs up hill your counter get higher and higher.

[MKE_Tear]

Thanks, godskid & parnold!

Hi Bob: Thanks for the comment! Ground to counter top is 40 inches (deck height is at 19 and then there are 21 inches in between). I think we landed on that number by (standing next to it and) imagining a comfortable working height off the top of the trailer. You bring up a great point though so I'll take a closer look at that. Thanks!

Our cooler is 18" tall so we could bring it down. Just need to make sure there is enough room for the lip of the counter top which hangs down below the height it is mounted at. I hope that makes sense. (We decided on going with an actual counter top rather than a straight table top or shelf-like, flat surface. Not that there is anything wrong with doing it that way -- we just wanted the counter top look.)

[MKE_Tear]

I played around with the mock side this morning. Generally I can see "through" something (imagining a final product) but something just wasn't right. It was difficult to see through the uneven joints where I glued the plywood pieces together and esp. with the knots in the very front (they looked like eyes). Plus, I needed to make sure there was enough room in the front. So, I had to fill in the knots and prime to make it all look the same.

Well, as it turned out, anybody need some 21" x 14" windows? I'm going to move the doors down (to the middle?) by 9 inches and am going to do away with the windows. I'll just have the doors on the sides (all glass) but I guess, if there's a positive here, that's less work (and less crawling to have do when getting in and out). Maybe in the future I'll get some smaller windows to go there? Anybody want to trade? I have both 1/2" and 3/4" trim rings. If those sizes don't work, they can be ordered (as a set) for $20 from where I got them.

[MKE_Tear]

Well, I'm (finally!) back and decided to move the updates to an official thread. If you'd like to visit, and please do, here it is:


http://tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?t=39247

[BigAl]

A belated welcome to the forum.

You are off to a good start! I hope the recent flooding didn't affect you too much?

[MKE_Tear]

A belated welcome to the forum.

You are off to a good start! I hope the recent flooding didn't affect you too much?

Thanks!

Relatively speaking, we were VERY lucky! (About 8 inches of rain fell in 2 hours.) We had more rain in our garage than in the basement (the sump pump couldn't keep up with the initial surge so we got just a bit of rainwater (no sewage) near the pump), but that's where my big concern was bec. I'm building the camper in the garage and we, on occasion, have had water after heavy rains bec. the garage is built into the side of the hill. After finally finding a way to get home that night (roads flooded everywhere) I parked in the driveway and saw water flowing out from the sides of the garage door. I was afraid to open the door, like in the movies where a wave of water comes out. Fortunately, it was an inch or so of rain but I had everything propped up on paving stones and other stuff bec. I had previously seen the floor sweat due to heavy/high humidity. It was a scary few hours though bec. the walls were done but not on the trailer yet. Use of the shop vac and fans did help things dry out faster.

[BigAl]

You got off lucky with a few inches from what happened in Shorewood. :)

I'm about ready to begin this daunting task! If I haven't said it yet here, this is definitely the biggest project I have undertaken. I've been involved with things at work, and had stuff done at my house, but I have never taken on anything like this, myself.

I was in this same situation. It was daunting for me also but you are building this with several thousand others. So I am confident, particularly from the work you have already completed that you will build something functional, beautiful and desirable.

I will follow your build progress with interest.