Lance and Becky's Sagwagon

[Oldragbaggers]

I don't know how it took me all day to do this one task, but it did. Plenty of things seemed to trip me up, from drilled holes that didn't match up to the floor not being lined up correctly. But we finally got it right and it's on there for good.

First I bolted my 2x4's to the side of the frame.



They are attached with (5) 3/8" bolts on each side and Loctite PL Premium adhesive.





The asphalt emulsion I put on the back and bottom of them softened up in the sun today so it was a gooey mess to work with and my hands will probably be black for the next few days.

Then the floor was turned over and attached. It is bolted to the frame with (2) 3/8" bolts on the front and the back, and screwed into the 2x4's every 8". It addition I also put Loctite on the frame and the 2x4's where the floor meets it. I don't think it's going anywhere!!



That's it for today folks.

See you next week, and have a very Happy Thanksgiving!!

Becky

[S. Heisley]

Good job, Becky. Did you put the 2x4's on the sides of the chassis to hide the side metal or to give you a couple extra inches width or both?

[Oldragbaggers]

Thanks Sharon. My frame was 51" wide, the extra 3" from the 2x4's gave me exactly 54" for a full size mattress. The added benefit is that I can glue and screw the sidewalls to them. But the main reason was for the width.

[Oldragbaggers]

Fueled by a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, a good nights sleep and beautiful weather I got busy on my sidewalls this weekend. Friday I hauled out the template I had started awhile back. I marked my door opening, my cabinet locations, fender mount area and an area to install the water fill, grey water drain and electrical inlet. I cut away the rest to get my insulation spaces. Then I took pictures and spent a couple of hours staring at them on Friday night to see if I was satisfied with what I had done. I wasn't.



I was probably fretting for nothing but it looked flimsy to me. I am skinning inside and out with 1/8" ply fiberglassed on the exterior with one layer of cloth. I don't know how much that will really do structurally so I thought I would feel better if the frame had a little more meat to it. I changed the front to a 24" radius instead of the 19" specified in the Generic Benroy Plans. I like it a little softer around that front curve. I also thought I might want to widen the spaces I had left for attaching cabinetry to give myself some flexibility in case I wanted to move something an inch or so this way or that. I also thought of a couple of other things I wanted to attach to the walls and allowed some more wood for those. This is what I ended up with.



The door opening will be larger but I don't have my actual door yet to mark the exact cutout so I cut a smaller opening to get an idea of the weight. My measure of success hinged on whether or not I could lift it by myself when it was done, and I could. Each wall weighs about 38# without insulation, skin and door.



Got them beltsanded down even and ready to cut insulation. I think I'm done working on it for this weekend though. My house needs my attention tomorrow.

I made a HUGE pile of sawdust this weekend!!!

[Verna]

Very productive weekend

Patiently waiting for the end product....I know, I know, that will be a while away

Verna

[Oldragbaggers]

Thanks, Verna. I am thinking that the holidays are going to be commandeering most of my time for the next few weeks and then it will be so cold. brrrr. I am wondering how much more will really get done in the next few months.

[aggie79]

Becky -

The framing looks great! I know that is a great feeling to have that done. Now you can visualize your teardrop in 3-D.

I think you'll be happy leaving some extra framing material. Thank goodness I left extra framing material too, because my Aggie math in my sketches was off in several places and I had to improvise the location of the cabinets, doors, etc. The little bit of extra weight gives a lot of flexibility.

Take care,
Tom

[Shadow Catcher]

Looking great, I did go to the web site, good detail. Just out of curiosity have you checked the weight yet? Looking for frame vs what gets added to it

[Oldragbaggers]

Thanks Tom. I feel like it was a very productive weekend. I suspect I too will find my math to be lacking on occassion and I just know that extra wood will probably save my bacon from time to time.

Shadow Catcher, checking online I saw 75# as an average weight for a sheet of 4x8 3/4" birch ply (about .78 lb per inch). My walls are actually 9'2" long so I had to splice on an extra 14". , I would estimate each wall weighed about 86# before I lightened it up. It weighed 38# after I was done. I will add back about 20# to each wall for the skin (based on figures I am finding on the internet for 1/8" Okoume plywood, 8# per sheet) , a little for the insulation and fiberglass too. that brings the wall back up to 60-65# (my very rough estimate) . The only unanswered question is what does the door weigh, and I don't know the answer to that one. (If anyone does, please chime in. I am getting my door from Frank Bear at Vintage Technologies and it's the 26x36")

I may end up only saving a few pounds per wall by the time it is all said and done. Was it worth it? In our case, I think so for the benefits of the insulation. We'll see if I change my opinion after we've been out camping in it for awhile. We were interested not only in weight, but also in sound insulation and condensation control.

[Oldragbaggers]

Finally some temps high enough to do some epoxy work and I couldn't get the teardrop out of the garage fast enough on Saturday.

I started with the passenger side wall.

First I got my insulation cut for all the cavities.



Then I cut my skins, both interior and exterior and traced in pencil all the areas of solid wood in the frame so that once the skins were on I would know with certainty where they were located when I started attaching things to the walls. On the outside the markings will just stay, covered with glass and eventually painted over. On the inside, I only marked the essential ones lightly and they will be sanded off after my attachments are made.

Then I spread epoxy thickened with adhesive filler all over the exterior side of the frame.



I laid the skin on, put sheets of plywood on top of it and piled every thing I had in the garage on top of it praying for a good solid bond.

Sunday, after unloading all the crap I was using to weight it down, I used my new laminate trim bit to clean up the skin and the cutout for the door. I had never used one of those bits before and it was love at first rout. (Thanks to you guys, I had never heard of one before, learned about it on this forum.)



After I had that done I mixed up more thickened epoxy, applied a nice thick coat in the insulation cavities, put the insulation in there, more sheets of plywood and heavy stuff on top, and that's it for this weekend.



Not a lot, but I'm moving on it again and it's a good good thing.

Have a great week all. Hopefully I will have more to report next weekend.

[aggie79]

Very nice Becky!

It's almost time to have a wall-standing party. That's when things really start to take shape.

BTW, for us epoxy newbies, can you say what you used to thicken the epoxy so it could be an adhesive?

Take care,
Tom

[Oldragbaggers]

Very nice Becky!

It's almost time to have a wall-standing party. That's when things really start to take shape.

BTW, for us epoxy newbies, can you say what you used to thicken the epoxy so it could be an adhesive?

Take care,
Tom

Hi Tom,
I use the West System 404 High Density Adhesive Filler.

So you're starting another build, huh. You just couldn't help yourself, could you?!?

[GuyllFyre]

Looking incredible so far!
I was hoping to have started on mine by now but the house takes priority to get it done, so lots of work has been done on that, plus the car needs more work, plus I'm out of money and waiting for my refinance to come through on the mortgage to consolidate my debt and finish the house.

Been a bit since I've been here to read. No time since I've been hustling since October on house construction.

Blew the motor in my table saw ripping moldings, so had to replace that and work has had some major server and network upgrade projects that has been taking the rest of my time.

Hopefully by summer things will have calmed down and I can put a few hours into building my 4x8 Genroy GuyllFyre MKI.

[Oldragbaggers]

GuyllFyre, I hope you're able to find a way to get started on your build soon. I know about needy houses. Mine is 90 years old and it is a bottomless well of need, but unless I see a wall starting to buckle I'm just going to finish the teardrop and resume work on the house later.


But, you can always use this time to plan and design. Something I could have done more of before I started. I'm definitely flying by the seat of my pants most of the time here. Thanks for your nice comments. Much appreciated.

[GuyllFyre]

I've already got most of the plans either drawn out or waiting for testing.
I'm working on some "alternative" ideas for support members, skins, and other bits of construction to hopefully keep the weight down.
I won't know until I've got extra time and money, neither of which are currently available.

Once I start, I probably won't post until the thing is nearly done, then post plans, information, and pros and cons.
The design isn't radical but some of the ideas haven't yet been tested, so I need to see how it works out before I let everyone know what I'm doing.