Why cut the trailer to 58 inches for the Benroy plan?

[Twister]

I am trying to figure out why it is necessary to cut 2 inches off the width of the trailer for the Benroy plan. If it is left at 60 inches a Queen bed would fit in it. What am I missing as to why the trailer is cut? It is still wider than a 4 foot sheet, so that's not it.. It's a great plan though, and once I figure it all out I want to get started on building one. I don't want to leave the trailer at 60 inches and find out later that I made a big mistake over something I didn't understand.

[Thawley]

If you use 5' wide panels, everything needs to fit inside that.

[DMcCam]

Howdy Twister,

Welcome to the forum! I haven't looked at the plans for a while but it's likely the width of sheet material. You can get most plywood in 60" or 5' widths for skinning. A 5' x 5' birch sheet will bend to the radius in one direction well. Regular 4'x8' plywood has a cross grain layer in the middle that makes bending much harder. To make construction materials work out best your outside dimension needs to be 60". The 2" barely gives you room for the 2 walls and most plywood sheets are not perfectly square or true. You won't notice the loss of the 2" on the inside and it will save you a ton of headaches during construction. Most trim down their mattress a bit or order a custom one to fit. In a teardrop, you have the full use of the bed right to the edges. I hope this makes sense.

All the Best,

Dave

[Twister]

Thanks, Dave, what I didn't think about was that plywood would only easily bend in one direction, but that makes sense. Time to go take a look around HD, if I can get a picture of what materials are readily available I will be able to figure it all out better before I begin.