Small Steps

No major advancements to report of right now, we have been working on a handful of areas all at once as we can. I started roughing in the electrical and have two of the exterior corner trim pieces installed and sealed up. We've also spent some time discussing the interior layout and flow of traffic, which has gotten us sketching ideas for the camper.

This is a sketch of the rear right corner of the camper. The back window is shown on the right. The red lines are the paths for electrical wiring. This will help me to build the interior correctly and not forget anything... Hopefully.

This sketch has a lot going on. Green is the traffic flow. Purple are storage areas. Blue is the proposed AC placement. Yellow are electrical lines (except for the two big circles). Red are water lines. Orange blobs are outlets. Blue blobs are lights.

We have already deviated from this first rough sketch, but it's still mostly relevant. One big decision we made (and likely a controversial one among other campers) was to omit any 12 volt components. Our camper (except for exterior tow lights) will run solely on 110v "household" current. We have had several campers over the years and have never been ones to "dry camp". This simplifies my wiring job and we think it will work fine for us.

A quick photo of one of the completed corner seals. I used ProFlex RV sealant generously under the trim, around the trim, and over the screw heads. After letting it "set up" for 24 hours, I then installed new vinyl trim into the piece. It looks quite nice to have a finished corner now!

Gimme Some Skin!

While cleaning up some sheet metal that was removed from the fridge area, my wife noticed something that was a little out-of-place.

That's right... a snake skin!  What's more interesting is this snake would have had to be inside the camper to get to this spot, and inside the cabinetry too!

A little creepy to find, but an interesting one nonetheless. :-)

Raising the Roof! Part 2

The rain was due to start at 1pm today and continue for the next two days so I had to get the roof done... No choice! I continued where I left off last night; working my way from the back of the camper to the front, overlapping the seams at least 3" and attaching termination bars at each seam. Once I knew the roof would withstand my moving about on top of it, I made relatively quick work of the job and finished the "rough covering" in just under 4 hours. I'm extremely pleased with the sheet aluminum and how it turned out, especially with it being my first and doing all but the front overhang/curved seam by myself. The white looks great too, I'm glad I didn't go with the plain mill finish.

Using a water jug and block of pine shavings as weights to help coax the sheeting into lying flat so I could attach the next piece.

Quick photo as I progressed over the camper. Notice the longer sheet... Read below for info on that one.

The final sheet! I attached it to the front of the camper first, then to the top. This way my front seam was level and correctly placed.

View of the front overhang and on towards the back of the camper.

View of the back overhang and on towards the front of the camper. 

Just beginning to work the roof over the sides. Much more work to do with this, both in trim and refinement of the overhang.

View of the front from ground level. I purposely bought one ten foot long sheet (visible here in front) so that after trimming the excess I would have some aluminum left over to cover the old water heater hatch and other areas.

It was at this point, the winds were picking up and the sky was quite cloudy. I didn't dare do anything further on the roof today. I still had clean up work to do as well as take a trailer load to the landfill station again. The rains came about 3 hours later and are still going. I'm eager to check the interior out tomorrow to look for leaks. Here's hoping it's bone dry!

All for now,

Sam

Raising the Roof! Part 1

With the wall framing, windows, and siding finished it was finally time to move on to the roofing. I've spent a good deal of time researching roof options, materials and methods and decided to go with an aluminum roof. I looked into a seamless aluminum roof, but the price was beyond what I was willing to pay ($400+ just for the sheet--no hardware or adhesives included). I then came across a great site for people who build their own small teardrop camping trailers. Many of them use aluminum sheeting (an option I previously questioned due to water intrusion) without issues. I read up on their techniques and decided it would work for me. A trip to the local aluminum supplier and I had what I needed for over a hundred dollars less than the seamless sheets cost. Okay, enough talk, let's get to the pictures.

I wanted to strengthen the area that the new roof will terminate/attach to the front and back of the camper. This photo is from yesterday evening. It shows the new board clamped up after being glued.

I got a call that my roofing material was delivered today so I stopped by and picked the materials up.

Once home, I began the prep work on the roof by removing the lights and cleaning up any loose debris. The new roof will overlap the front and back panels a good bit, hiding all previous roof coating material.

Front marker lights to be removed.

Pry them off, cut the wires, scrape the area, and repeat.

Camper front wall: prepped and ready for new roof. The new roofing will come down to just above the decal.

Same procedure on the back.

New roof panel lying on the roof. It was rolled up for the trip home, but the sheet flattens out easily.

Calling it a night, but a productive one considering this happened after I got off work today.

More to come tomorrow...

-Sam

Pass the Catch Up, Please

Lately I've spent any free time working in the camper and neglected the blog posts. So we'll call this one "catch up"... now, where to start?

After finishing one side of the camper, it was time to continue on to the front corner... the last corner to repair/replace on the camper!

The windows were removed and the siding detached from the framing as much a possible. We left a few screws up top to support the siding. It would have been a pain to take off and reinstall later!

My smart idea for supporting the siding to be able to reframe the wall and work on the areas behind the bathroom/fridge/closet... Quick Clamps!

Framing the fridge area.

Repair completed and insulation installed where needed prior to reattaching the siding.

Freshly installed windows in their new wood frames. We still need to trim the butyl putty tape and add the gaskets and trim pieces (to be purchased).

While attaching the siding, I took a better photo of the roof. This is the "weather guarded" side of the plywood. Glued and stapled to the roof rafters.

Nearly finished with this side! After taking this photo, I decided on this camper's name... Either Dimples or The Dimple... Because of all the dents, ripples, and general unevenness of the 38 year old camper. :-)

We continued working our way to the back, the front of the camper. Removing, repairing, and reinstalling the windows and any wood framing that was needed. 

Here are some various interior photos showing the new wood and framing repairs:

I added some white Gorilla Tape to the corners to help protect them from water until the camper trim is installed (after the new roof is done). Here is the camper now, all windows finished, all siding reattached permanently, and ready for the next step! I'm sure the neighbors are happy it no longer looks like a tornado ran through our yard... We sure are!

Next up... The Roof!!!

Stay tuned,

Sam