Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Has anyone used stainless steel sheeting on their teardrop roof? What are the pros and cons and where does a person get this material?

Kris

Cons?? Mostly weight and cost. Otherwise not many.

Thanks Rich and Danny,
I'm going to have to investigate this further.
Kris

Stainless steel tends to be quite hard, so drilling loads of holes in it to screw on things like trim is gonna be a pain....

Andrew

Thanks Andrew,
I'm starting to think that the stainless steel should be left to the pros.
Kris

KA wrote:Thanks Andrew,
I'm starting to think that the stainless steel should be left to the pros.
Kris

Andrew and Kris

I spoke with Ed Ester not long ago and I was inquiring about the stainless roof and he says its not a problem at all to install....since he has built so many teardrops using the same materials.

But I didnt ask what thickness of the stainless he was using...sorry...

Classic Finn

...my take on SS...we investigated using SS to cover a tear awhile back...I don't remember the exact cost difference but it was not cheap, seems like it added somewhere around 3/500 bucks to the build and when asking my bodyman expert, was informed could be cut with air shears...most of us are using anywhere from .032 to .060 Al for skins...with SS you could get by with .024, which would offset some of the weight....as to drilling...when we drilled the SS Piano hinge for screw holes(door hinge) we were afraid of the problems the SS would cause us...needn't have worried at all...while it was certainly harder than the Al, it was not hard enough to require anything special to drill the holes...no titaniumcarbidecobalt drills with cutting oil was required...SO, if you look around and can find the SS sheeting at a reasonable/affodablecost to you, there is no real reason not to use it...
madjack

I used ss sheet for my 5 foot teardrop and it was a pain in the axx! It was .050 thickness and trying to align the sheet onto the top of the teardrop was a 2 man job. Drilling the holes wasn't too bad as long as the drill bits were sharp. I used two drill bit for approximately 60 holes.

The reason for my ss usage was convenience. My supplier only had 5 foot widths in stainless steel. It was reasonable- $110 for a 5 X 10 sheet.


It looks sharp!

Thanks Asian!

funomenal wrote:I used ss sheet for my 5 foot teardrop and it was a pain in the axx! It was .50 thickness and trying to align the sheet onto the top of the teardrop was a 2 man job.

No wonder it was a pain. A 1/2in thick sheet of metal would need at least 2 people just to pick it up.

I hope you meant .050.

There so many grades ss . Some will even rust depending how much iron is in it . like the ss hinges ,if there cheap ss they will rust like crazy .

kerryd wrote:There so many grades ss . Some will even rust depending how much iron is in it . like the ss hinges ,if there cheap ss they will rust like crazy .

Hi Kerry

There are very good quality Marine Hinges out on the market though that
will not rust..But they are not cheap..as you said as well... you use the cheap ones and you get what you pay for..

But ok whatever one wants to use and what the budget is...


Classic Finn

Hey Finn , how you doing , its only money ! I like stainlees ,heavy , eazy to weld too . Get you some good kitchen grade . I'd put on the roof . Kerry

How cool it would be to quilt it or sand blast a wild patern on it .I already tried the sand blast on something else , It was slick

Hey you could always cheat like some of us in the auto customizing buisness.....use some type of grinder with a mild abrasive wheel to grind a design into the metal then clearcoat or spray a candy color clearcoat over it......looks VERY sharp!!!