New 6 x 10 travel trailer build under way

[KCStudly]

I'm in the process of building my own doors for TPCE.

Here's where I started building the framework that became one of the walls, and further down I get into the actual doors themselves. They have not been skinned yet because I plan on doing the interrior skin altogether with the wall, so that the grain matches, but I have not gotten to that stage yet.

[razzer]

I'm not trying to steer you in any one direction , but if you're interested the roll aluminum it comes pre-painted too . Good luck with your build .

[mezmo]

It isn't that hard to build a door, just very detailed and time
consuming. Do a lot of research too as there are many ways to
approach it. I rebuilt one of my former mobile home's factory-built doors
[not a 'standard' house-like door like they use on them now-a-days]
many many years ago, and just replaced the rotted wood with new.
I know you aren't doing that, but the upshot is to try to be as precise
as you can when cutting all the wooden components. I would also
recommend that you join all the pieces like finer furniture - use
mortise and tenon -or a floating tenon - or dowels to join the frame
pieces together and glue them together with waterproof/resisitant glue
then glue on the wooden skins. This is just one approach, but it'd
give you a soild door.

Here a thread from the Foamie section RE: Doors :
http://tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=50524


Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

[WhitneyK]

$1500 or less is pretty optimistic unless you are the worlds best scrounger or you are planning on something that is ultra minimalistic with no power or cooking facilities. .....but I think you need to double, if not triple, your estimate. Other experienced builders will chime in, I'm sure.

Don't listen to him Irving!

I built mine for $1400! (I know, some will say it looks it too! )
Dig around for the bargains, use what you've got, and good luck!
It depends on how fast you want to build it. Good (& cheap) things come to those who wait.

[KCStudly]

There's a saying,

You can have it: Good, Fast, Cheap.

Pick two.

[WhitneyK]

There's a saying,

You can have it: Good, Fast, Cheap.

Pick two.

Wow! Pick 2? That's more options than I started with

[Irving]

$1500 or less is pretty optimistic unless you are the worlds best scrounger or you are planning on something that is ultra minimalistic with no power or cooking facilities. .....but I think you need to double, if not triple, your estimate. Other experienced builders will chime in, I'm sure.

Don't listen to him Irving!

I built mine for $1400! (I know, some will say it looks it too! )
Dig around for the bargains, use what you've got, and good luck!
It depends on how fast you want to build it. Good (& cheap) things come to those who wait.

Just looking at some of the pics of your rig. Looks good to me! Did the aluminum take up a lot of your budget?

[WhitneyK]

Just looking at some of the pics of your rig. Looks good to me! Did the aluminum take up a lot of your budget?

Thanks Irving , and yes, the aluminum did hurt the most It was right at $300, BUT (sometimes that's a big one), out of that $300 worth of al, I used a friends metal brake to form all of the trim, edge molding, etc. that I needed. So, with all that considered, may have not been that bad of a deal. I have more time than I do money.

[Irving]

What works well for exterior moulding? I have seen aluminum moulding mentioned - but does it follow the curves well? Is it flexible enough?

I'm also putting thought into what to use as a floor surface inside.. Anyone ever used carpet? I'm also thinking about some type of economical linoleum type product. What has worked well for you that was economical?

[WhitneyK]

Well, I drug my feet in replying hoping more experienced builders would chime in (& I'm sure they will)

The "store bought" edge moulding for campers is made of a very soft aluminum and it takes to bending around curves well.

Almost anything goes for the flooring. Carpet, IMHO, on the floor would not be as easy to keep clean on the floor, however, your mattress is covering it anyway. Others may have better opinions as to 'ya' or 'na' on this. I've seen linoleum used often on here, matter of fact, wished I would have used it, not that there's anything wrong with my stick on tiles, just wish it was all one piece. Tight wade me couldn't find a deal on the style I wanted at the time, so I went with the peel and stick. (after good surface prep of course)

It's just my opinion, and we all know what that's like.....

[Irving]

I have been looking more into some type of painted on finish rather than aluminum. Though I am still weighing all options. I came across a bunch of interesting products made by Henry and by Roofers Choice. The most intersting one is something called Roofers Choice #67 Aluminum Mobile Home Coating. It looks like a steal at $58 for a 4.75 gallon bucket. On the side of the bucket it says to fill cracks and holes with #15 plastic roofing cement and to prime with an asphalt based primer..

Going to have to do more research into this. I'm not even sure if you can use it directly on wood. Has anyone ever used this brush on aluminum coating?

[Irving]

This is the plan for my flooring. It is 10 feet by 6 feet. It will be a sandwich of plywood on very bottom - 2 x 3s and 2 x 2s in the middle - and another layer of plywood on top that will make up the interior floor.

All of the checkered areas represent the 2 x 3s and a few of them represent 2 x 2s. The wheel wells are surrounded with 2 x 2s and the seams between sheets of plywood are connected with 2 x 2s.

There are 3 separate pieces of plywood creating the bottom layer. I have illustrated this with two lines underneath the 2 x 2s.

Any feedback that you all can give me about my floor plan would be great. I am a bit unsure of which plywood thickness I should go with.

[mezmo]

Don't use Mobile Home Aluminum roof coat as an exterior
finish ! It is not meant to be a surface "finish". It is applied
as a thicker coating and will continously rub off on whatever
touches/abrades it. The aluminum portion of it generally is at
the topmost surface of the coating ["floating there"] and if you
wear that away the underpart of the coating is then exposed
and that is probably a tar-based coating, if it is one of the
cheaper aluminum roof coatings.

1/4in plywood for the bottom should be fine. The 'floor' area
on the top could be at least 1/2in if relatively closer 2x spaing
is used. 5/8 or 3/4 would be better though for concentrated
loads. If you insulate with same thickness foam and glue it all
together it'll be a mini SIP or a torsionbox, so using the thinner
ply would be lighter in weight.

[Irving]

What plywood thickness do most use for their walls? Have some of you used different thicknesses for the entire and exterior? I plan to insulate the walls with 3/4" foam and am trying to decide what thickness plywood to put on either side of that.

[Irving]

Don't use Mobile Home Aluminum roof coat as an exterior
finish ! It is not meant to be a surface "finish". It is applied
as a thicker coating and will continously rub off on whatever
touches/abrades it. The aluminum portion of it generally is at
the topmost surface of the coating ["floating there"] and if you
wear that away the underpart of the coating is then exposed
and that is probably a tar-based coating, if it is one of the
cheaper aluminum roof coatings.

Do you have experience using this stuff? I'm just trying to make sense of what you are saying. Is it just not good to use on bare wood? It's advertised directly on the can to use on the roof of mobile homes. I don't understand why it would just come off when touched. If it's designed for the roof of a traveling trailer, wouldn't it be durable?