1st camping trip!!! Mendocino National Forrest

[urban5]

Ok everyone, finally got a chance to take the camper on it's shake down camping trip. The camper only has a few things left to finish, but they are all small things. Hope you enjoy.

This is a simple utilitarian design. It only has one door, and sleeping for 4 in a 4'x8' trailer. Yes it has a bunk bed . There is no galley, as I have a camp kitchen box and like to do all my cooking, and food preparation outdoors.

The trip was a 122 mile journey each direction from my house. Trailer held up just fine, but got quite a few rubber neckers. So I am not sure if it just looks cool, or if it is that grotesque, LOL.

[Woodbutcher]

Looks good! Nothing better then getting out and enjoying your work. As for the rubber neckers, people are always curious about things that are different. When you drive past an RV place , look, they are all the same.

[BILLYL]

Great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can see why you got a lot of looks. Nicely done.

Just remember - your Td will never be done. After over 3+ years "DA MOOSE" has always something else to add - change - or eliminate......

Right now I'm working through a shoe storage....

Any ideas?

Thanks for sharing

Bill

[TENNJIM]

Looks good! Teardrops are always changing to meet our changing needs and therefore never done. Enjoy your creation and hope to see you down the road somewhere.

Jim B / Utah

[Woodstramp]

What Woodbutcher said about Rubberneckers! Most were probably thinking "I need one of those."

I envy that you have yours campable. Neet looking rig. Goes right with the looks of your Jeep.

[urban5]

Thanks for the kind words, and replies everyone.

Like I said the inside isn't finished yet, I mainly wanted to make sure the design worked. I was actually amazed at how well my heat dissipation idea worked. The wife through a couple of hersheys bars in the back for smores. I drove the 2+ hours to the area we would be camping and stopped at a wally world to get some ice and such. Came back out a half hour later, loaded the kids in the Jeep (which was an oven), opened the back of the camper put the ice in a cooler. It's then that I saw the chocolate bars, and decided to throw them in the cooler so that they could harden back up for the smores we were going to make that night. Too my absolute surprise the candy bars were cool to the touch, and hard like they just came off the shelf. It was 87 degrees outside, inside the camper was 73 degrees according to the thermo. in the trailer. That is 4 degrees hotter than it was when we left our house that morning. (the thermo had said 69 that morning) I was impressed to say the least.

Now I will be working on storage solutions for the inside. I am using Uni-strut ran parrellel to the side frame rails running the length of the trailer. Using Rigid pipe unistrut straps I will be attaching a 4" piece of PVC run across the bottom of the trailer to hold my rod and reels. (got that idea from Slowcowboy last year.

[kirkman]

Looks great! How are you keeping it cool inside?

[urban5]

Instead of using one continuous sheet of alum. for the sides I did it in overlapping parallel strips. This is then painted black as you see in the pics. Same idea as the dull side, and shiny side of aluminum foil. One side absorbs heat and the other reflects. The rood is a double layer. There is a skin of aluminum (again in strips), unpainted. On top of this I cut a tennis ball in half and siliconed it to the center of my aluminum roof, then placed UV resistant FRP on the top. This gives the FRP a domed shape before having all the sides caulked and then screwed down giving it an air tight seal. This gives me a layer of insulating air. The white top reflects the sunlight and heat causing rays. So in a way the trailer is much like a radiator. The roof keeps the area with the most surface (that is towards the sun) from getting hot, and causing a heat transference through the ceiling. The black sides absorb some heat, but the shiny side reflects the coolness. So essentially the cool air has no where to go, so it warms up very gradually.

I got in the trailer and opened the windows after getting to the site, and watched the temp rise to the same temp as outside in a matter of minutes.

Whats funny is I thought very hard about all of this, and it never occured to me that the only time I would be in the trailer was at night, when it didn't really matter anyway. Plus I am no engineer, so writing all of this out it may sound and seem like total B.S. (Which it may be). It really comes down to anything with a white roof is going to stay cooler longer.

Now if they only made white shingles.

[Ron Dickey]

I see you have a chuck box. nice unit we also do not have a Galley ours has 3 doors his hers and the hatch in the back.

We finally found a screened canopy to for protection from the rain, shade in the summer and keep the insects out as food is ready. We got a Colman canopy that folds down as quick as it putts up, about 2 min.


like the sleep area for the kids too.

Ron

[eaglesdare]

not an eye sore at all. the kids looked like they enjoyed it. congrats and continue having fun!

so which is it, shiny side in or shinny side out?

[goramsey]

Looks good! Nothing better then getting out and enjoying your work. As for the rubber neckers, people are always curious about things that are different. When you drive past an RV place , look, they are all the same.

Yes, all the same looking with no character at all. There are a lot of Americans that just love to be the same. Dare to be different! Yikes, that would scare the &*it out of them. They have to have those ugly giants to tow with great big gas hog trucks.

Keep it up. I would love to see it when you have it closer to being finished.

[urban5]

Shiny side in

[WayneW]

Nice build, and I like the bunk. I hope you don't regret not making the trailer a little wider (kids tend to get less short over time ). I suppose this could be an advantage as it gives you an excuse to push them out into a tent when they get old enough. You will be left with some nice storage space when that happens.

I am designing two removable bunks into mine as well. My wife is not comfortable putting the girls out in a tent, so I will make my trailer a little wider. Thanks for posting the pics. It's nice to "see" how it will affect my head room (seeing a life-size model is much better than looking at it on paper).

I'm no engineer either, but I see two factors that help with the temperature control. First, white reflects heat, and second, the air space between layers gives you insulation. I wonder what the difference in the RF factor would be between simple air space and foam-type insulation.

[urban5]

No idea to be honest but I figured it works well on double pane windows. The trailer will be retired to just a hunting/fishing camper in a couple of years. I plan on building a much bigger standy for pulling behind my big truck.