Project Choose Your Own Adventure

[.RJ]

updates pls

[ScottyB]

updates pls

not ded!  sorry, took august and most of september off due to vacation/sick wife/school break/car wrecked/hot as Zeus's sweaty lightning-struck ballsack and therefore unfit for human garage projects.  progress:

flipped the deck over on the frame, 2 coats of Zinsser primer on the exposed underside to ensure that extra bit of waterproofing protection underneath the undercoating that i'll apply



1 quart was the perfect amount


Pete once again saved me from probably more work and heartache.  i was originally going to coat the underside with a roofing tar but he convinced me that automotive undercoating would harden up and protect better.  i agree - grabbed 5 cans of this at the local auto store and will be spraying this on tomorrow morning.


next up is a big step - finally bolting the deck to the frame.  once its on, i'll apply the undercoating to seal up the entire underside of the deck + frame rails as it sits.

drilled out 14 total holes around the perimeter of the deck to fasten it down, using the 1.25" forstener bit to allow clearance for the toothed washers that the carriage bolts sit in (prevents the bolt from spinning).  sunk the first bolt last night as a test-fit, all good.


the toothed washers are zinc, and the bolts are stainless so there is potential for a mild reaction between the 2 differing metals.  i'll hit the washers with some undercoat to help insulate the connection.

next big steps:
• bolt everything down for real
• mask the side of the frame and wheels/tires to prep for undercoat
• pull the trailer outside over a tarp and undercoat the bottom 
• build the smuggler's compartment hatch
• lay flooring, glue up + tack nails, trim edge w/router
• order plywood for the walls

[ScottyB]

busy weekend. was hoping to work in crisp fall temps, got soup-air hurricane sauna and mosquito plague instead.

deck got bolted on, reclaimed oak flooring is completely installed and the sides trimmed with the flush router bit. smuggler's compartment in the floor got routed out and so far i have a frame for the lid but need to install the matching flooring for that.

only half of the bottom of the floor/frame got undercoated. i used the 3M stuff and its incredibly easy and effective but holy shit the fumes. i had a mask and was spraying on a windy day out in the driveway, and after the 2nd can my throat was closing up and i felt kinda sick. i just have to spread out the applications. would prefer my neighbors didn't find me dead under a trailer with a spray can in my hand, i don't think the headlines would do good things for my reputation.

pics to come later

[ScottyB]

since last post, floor is completely built, fastened, trimmed, sanded and polyurethaned.  fitted up the floor storage hatch this weekend and routed out the mortises for the flush pull handle on each side that you yank the hatch up with to get access to the compartment.  all of the leftover flooring went to the curb which felt awesome to get some space back after tripping over that lumber pile for a year.

all of the above is currently under a pile of stuff so no glorious pics yet, again.

big day Saturday...picked up 3 sheets of 3/4", 4x8 plywood for the walls.  the last purchase of "big heavy stuff" to haul home, after the trailer kit, flooring, and birch plywood.  from here on out its mostly assembly and smaller lumber like 1x2's, some small plywood paneling, some insulation, and lots of fasteners.

i spend WAY too much time here


i don't advise this but it worked, so we're badasses


next up:
• finish undercoating the front 1/2 of the chassis
• convert my blueprints to the 4x8's and jigsaw the teardrop shape out

[ScottyB]

here she be, awaiting walls.


closeup of the flush mount lid pulls on the floor compartment.  had to chisel out the reliefs for the pulls, which was time consuming, but it came out OK. functionally, we just needed to be able to lift up the mattress and access one side at a time for nicknacks, so a hinge didn't make sense.


how do you make a 9 foot wall?  glue bits of two 4x8 walls together, then use a subaru clutch to get the joint nice and tight while the glue cures (clutch still FS btw!  you buy now!)


the joint is a simple 2-inch lap joint created with a router and a straight-edge fence clamped to the wood.  i took too much material off one side, so i made a filler strip which you can see right in the middle (lighter wood) and it worked great.


then you spend an hour making a huge 2x2 grid all over the wood and map out your shape.  acquire ancient used jigsaw and go to town.


closeup of that sexy 70's fecal brown color, its what contractors ask for!


acquire humans, test fit them.  be sure to account for the 8 inch foam mattress.  kiddo is sleeping width-wise on a loft (shelf) over our shins until he's too long and then i probably get kicked out to a tent so he can sleep lengthwise.  i moved the bulkhead at my wife's feet back about 2 inches for a little more foot room, and the loft up another 2 inches so we can sleep on our sides without cracking our knees on the edge.  on the other side of the bulkhead at the back will live the galley kitchen - yeti on the floor, counter and small cupboard above.  counter is deep enough to sit, and open a Coleman Triton propane stove.


the lower 4-3/4" of the wall is actually going to be partially routed out and will cover the trailer frame like a skirt, which is why everyone's so far up on the space from the real bottom of the piece.  the large center shape is the 36x26 door (each side gets one).  the smaller shapes with the hash marks will be cut out and fitted with 3/4 hard foam insulation, just like the floor got.  this (A) keeps us comfy of course and (B) removes a bunch of unnecessary weight.  "build it like a plane, not a tank" is the motto with these (except ignore the 1/2" oak floor i put on, i do what i want!)

----

you only see one wall for a reason. in order to get both walls identical, i'll splice up another 9 footer and clamp it on top of the finished wall shape. then i'll follow that shape with a flush-trim router bit to ensure both are exact copies.

while clamped, i'll also cut out the door/insulation cavities because again we want each side to be an exact replica of the other. once that's done, the walls get separated and then the skirts routed to be mounted to the trailer. another flange will be routed along the front/top to make a small channel for the roof joists to sit on and tie the sides together.

from there, the walls get a dense coating of poly around the edges for waterproofing and then the insulation and skinning process starts...

[CaptainHenreh]

[PDenbigh]

Scott that is looking great! Fantastic craftsmanship too man. Really impressive. Can't wait to see it continue to it's path of reality!

Rockwell Jawhorse FTW by the way. Super useful tool "when you need it."

Peter

[ScottyB]

Scott that is looking great!  Fantastic craftsmanship too man.  Really impressive.  Can't wait to see it continue to it's path of reality!

Rockwell Jawhorse FTW by the way.  Super useful tool "when you need it."  

Peter

ayyy you noticed the jawhorse! couldn't agree more. i would kick some of my power tools to the curb before that guy. indispensible.

thanks man. appreciate your help and feedback on this project, its definitely been needed.

[ScottyB]

made a bunch of sawdust this weekend while it was gray, rainy, and miserable outside

i was happy with my sidewall profile from the prior weekend, so i put the remaining spliced 4x9 plywood sheet on top of the profiled one, steadied it solid with a bunch of clamps (you can NEVER have enough clamps, this is a natural law), and was able to exactly copy it with a simple flush trim bit run all the way around with my router.


then i went back to the first profiled wall.  i wanted to finish this one completely so that meant step 1 was to route out the 4-3/4" skirt that will cover the side of the floor and side of the trailer frame.  1/4" deep with a straight bit, going back and forth about a half inch at a time until i made it to the straight-edge fence.


next up was to follow around the front and top edge with a 1-5/8" route, using the same bit, to give the roof stringers a ledge to mount on.  the trick was i needed a flexible fence to help guide the router.  we don't do cable TV anymore so i found some old coax that was stiff but flexible enough to bend the radius.  then i Griswalded it into place.



worked awesome.  cleaned up any small irregularities by freehand routing it very carefully in tiny sections where needed.


i hired a day laborer for jobsite cleanup.  payout in animal crackers.


then i held my breath and started cutting out the cavities for insulation as well as the side door with my jigsaw.  the door will be 26W x 36H. this process not only makes room for the insulation, but also serves to take at least 50% of the weight out of the slab (without sacrificing any meaningful strength) and will make handling/wiring/mounting way easier.


hit my dinnertime cutoff so had to lay everything back up on the trailer, but it was so cool to see the 2 identical wall profiles and 1 essentially done.  what I'll do next is lay the "no holes" wall exactly lined up on top of the holed one and use the router again to cut out the holes with the finished one as a template.  this will ensure both walls have cavities/cutouts in the exact same place.



i'm taking "off" on the 15th for Christmas but reality is that i'm actually buying myself 3-4 pure teardrop workdays before the Christmas holiday with the goal to officially raise the walls on the trailer before Christmas hits.  whole family's pitching in.  goal is to have both walls cut/routed, inside walls skinned with some of the 1/8" birch plywood, and all routed areas hit with polyurethane to waterproof from condensation.  at that point they're ready to mount to the trailer and will be held up straight with the galley bulkhead!

things are going to start moving fast now.

[WRXtranceformed]

I mean this is so awesome I can't even stand it. You have more wordworking prowess in one finger than I have in my entire body

You should mount an automatic, remote activated paintball gun turret to the top. You know, to blast a few warning shots across the bow of the Georgia mom-dozers

[ScottyB]

I mean this is so awesome I can't even stand it.  You have more wordworking prowess in one finger than I have in my entire body

ha thanks!  its worth mentioning though...i started from zero.  there is nothing special here other than i took woodshop in high school and had some guidance from my grandpa as a little kid, when he was doing carpentry as a side job.  all of my tools except my table saw is either used, ancient, or borrowed stuff.  i've only ever built 2 other noteworthy things...a potting bench and a loft bed for my kid, and those were both inspired from existing designs.  this camper is being built loosely from a plan as well.

what i mean is nothing i'm doing here is anything someone else couldn't do as well with a couple day's practice.  i hope people take that from this project when its done!  it was just a lot of planning and a lot of youtube-ing for tutorials.  i'm still learning and constantly screwing up, just getting better at covering my mistakes! 

and if anyone here ever wants to build one, i'd love to help.

You should mount an automatic, remote activated paintball gun turret to the top.  You know, to blast a few warning shots across the bow of the Georgia mom-dozers

that...isn't a bad idea.  this thing's already been hit once!

[Goodspeed]

I can't stop looking at that slab with all the holes cut out



So beautiful, even your Griswalding skills are on-point. Can't wait to see more!

[ScottyB]

got the other wall totally cut out and matched up to the first in our cold snap down here. i think i'm still warming up a day later. nothing meaningful to see since its just a re-run of the sequence i posted earlier, but its pretty damn cool to see both walls structurally ready to mount to the chassis.

currently too cold here for me to be able to start applying the inner wall skins, Titebond doesn't recommend you use it below 45 degrees and its definitely below that. so the trailer is back in its corner, looking forlorn with stuff piled all over it. by this weekend we'll be back in the 50's and it'll be time for more progress.

coming up:
• glue 1/8" birch sheets to the wall cores, and trim with laminate router bit
• stand walls up, glue/screw lower wall skirt to the floor, add rear galley kitchen bulkhead
• currently shopping lighting fixtures and a solar setup for boondocking...weeeee!

[ScottyB]

yet another yard sale piled up on mah pretty birch.  



its a wall sandwich, basically - the birch is glued to the bottom plywood wall you can't see with Titebond III, and then the other "free" wall on top is placed in as close of a mirror position as possible to put the weight exactly on the right spots and avoid any weight in the gaps where the 1/8" birch would break.  should be cured by tonight and then we'll get on to gluing the second wall.

also about to bite the bullet on some major electrical system components.  as noted earlier i'm doing a combo of shore power (i.e. plug into a wall socket at the campsite) and solar.  solar mounted on the roof will allow us to boondock in remote sites that have no shore power for extended periods with careful battery usage.  we plan to use very little power (again, the premise here is this tiny camper is basically "a more portable, comfy tent" not an RV), and prices have dropped so significantly this year that its a no-brainer for us to maximize our destination variety.  its been quite an education trying to figure all this out but i'm very excited to try this power system out in the camper and possibly migrate that installation knowledge over to a shop, shed, cabin or even permanent home someday far off in the future.  everything will be contained in a tongue-mounted weatherproof locked box to keep it organized and from eating up precious cabinet space.  the box is also a safety feature, in the crazy event the battery off-gases or explodes, or something catches fire...at least it gives us a change to get out of the camper, or contain a fire without half the camper immediately getting totaled.  

it'll look exactly like this once installed. i'm not crazy about adding even more weight to the tongue, but hopefully it will be easy to offset when the full cooler and water container are in the back:


the solar outfit will be based on:
• single 160W solid monocrystalline solar panel, mounted to the roof on hinges for transport and adjustment
• 125ah AGM VmaxTanks battery, sealed and well suited to solar deep cycles
• Victron BlueSolar MPPT charge controller and assorted wiring.  has the option to add a bluetooth dongle in the future to track charging parameters in realtime via phone, which is badass

since we're not running a fridge, microwave, or heater, the 125 amp-hour battery should provide a decent 2-3 day run time using the LED lights, charging phones, laptops, anker powerbanks and goalzero lights.  we'll eventually install a small inverter as well to charge some of our A/C-charged battery packs but that can simply plug into one of the cig lighters.

there are 2 kinds of solar charge controllers, and they are easily just as important as the panel itself.  that is, PWM (pulse width modulation) and MPPT (max power point tracking).  the PWM's are cheaper, more simplistic in their charge control, and typically make far more sense on a tiny 1 panel "backyard" system.  however, with prices dropping and the reality that my roof-mounted panel will be obstructed by woodsy shade often and can't be repositioned to get the best sun exposure all the time, i'm going for a controller that can intelligently change charging profiles on the fly to eek out that extra 15% charge efficiency and keep the battery topped longer....and only MPPT can do that.  plus i want that bluetooth capability later.

anyway, UPS will be busy with my house in the next couple days.

[Senor_Taylor]

So, maybe I've missed it, but is there a fire extinguisher mount somewhere in this?

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[ScottyB]

So, maybe I've missed it, but is there a fire extinguisher mount somewhere in this?

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good eye.  not yet.  a small automotive-sized one will be installed in the galley, probably very late in the build.

on that note, there will be battery operated smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in the cabin.  not sure i'm super comfortable with how loud that could potentially be, but its better than being dead.

[JPolen01]

I'll take partial deafness or tinitus over skin grafts or death. Not a bad move on the detectors.

[ScottyB]

interior walls skins glued up great and got trimmed flush with a laminate router bit.  

the "ledge" around the edge is where the roof spars will rest, and along the bottom is where the side wall "skirts" will cover up the frame rails of the trailer frame.


felt like Christmas again when this box showed up.  almost all the electrical system goodies....still missing an outlet, the battery, and the solar panel.  but i've been geeking out and refining the wiring schematic.  

[Steve85]

I guess I missed the solar approach mentioned earlier in the thread, love the idea and what a great way to learn more about it all. Have fun wiring it up!

[ScottyB]

I guess I missed the solar approach mentioned earlier in the thread, love the idea and what a great way to learn more about it all. Have fun wiring it up!

yeah i've rambled quite a bit so i don't blame anyone for missing it 

we really want to be able to camp off-grid as either the site or budget allows.  solar has come down so much in price in the last year since i started that i had to completely change gears and just go for it or i knew i'd regret not making it a part of the camper's power system.  it wasn't really something we budgeted for but that's part of the reason progress was slow the last couple months.  many tiny campers are moving towards a single or double panel system to expand their power solutions so there is a good support network too.

its honestly pretty straightforward.  modern solar arrays and charge controllers have taken a lot of the guesswork out.  that's not a guarantee i won't do something stupid but i think i have it worked out.