Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hello to all and what a great site. I am well underway in the construction of my first tear. I am getting close to installing the roof and I am looking at different options. I have two things enhancing the challenge. First, I am trying to keep cost down so I ruled out an aluminum skin. The second is I am making my tear 72" wide.

I was originally just going to skin it with 1/8" birch and coat it with an oil based stain and marine spar varnish. I am concerned about durability and 4 sheets of the ply is over $100 and about $50 for the stain and varnish. A more expensive option is to go with a fiberglass resin but that is a huge mess and over $200. The idea I came up with would be to use 1/8" hardboard (like peg board without the holes) for the roof and then covering the top with vinyl. I found a shop that carries the vinyl in 72" width used for tonneau covers. Waterproof and no seams. Cost for hardboard, glue, vinyl and the corner molding about $150. I am leaning toward the vinyl. I might still do the hatch in the birch. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

Jay

poly max board may be an option for you to use...no one has actually used it that I know of but it does look promising...

the vinyl idea is a very good one and I assume it can be had in different colors, making for an "attractive" option. However I would hesitate to recommend the wall board...in my experience, if it should get wet or even damp and stay that way for just a short while, it will turn to mush...put some ply(luan) on and cover it with vinyl...that would be a much better option...afterall a few bucks saved now will not make up for the pain of failure/replacement later
madjack

Pretty Cool. You talking a vinyl top like a car? That would be neat and if your car had it you could make it match.

if you plan on keeping the tear a long time you may want to consider that the life of vinyl is much shorter than aluminum. You can expect problems with the vinyl in 5+years (the plus depends on keeping it out of the sun and proper care) while the life of properly installed aluminum may exceed your lifetime

Buck:

You may want to consider a PVC or EPDM rubber roofing material. Believe that Lowes or HD may be able to order it for you. Cost of material maybe in your budget,

Larry

You should also consider "Filon". UV Fiberglass sheet. It comes in 4' wide and 8' wide. It is the stuff that some RV's are made of.

Bucko6, am I reading your post right? Do you want to use a single membrane on top like a convertible car has or are you wanting a hard base to put something inexpensive onto? Please shed some more info on how your roof is built or what you want to do with your tear when you are done. Whatever way you want to go, a lot of people will monkey-pile on and give some great options that will help with your final decision.

I had a 76 Valiant with a vinyl roof. When I scrappped the car in 85, the roof was as good as new... Too bad the car wasn't. What a rustbucket. Last chrysler I bought.

What the heck was that stuff discussed here that was used for truck bedliners? And there was this other stuff used for industrial flooring.

Anyone remember? (One was "rubbery," I think.) I cleaned out a lot of my internet favorites, and those were two sites that I trashed.

Both companies sent me materials on the products, and both looked really good for folks looking for this kind of roof.

THANKS FOR ALL THE GREAT INPUT!!

I am going to rule out the hardboard and go with some 1/8 luan to have better moisture protection jsut in case someting goes wrong. I will be applying some 1/8" luan directly to the spars to form the outer structure. Rather than skin the front and top in aluminum, I am looking at skinning it in vinyl, yes, like a vinyl top on a 60's/70's car. I just fond some black water proof vinly used for making pickup bed tonneau covers. The black may make things a bit hot in the summer but no color choice. What makes this appealing is that is is available in 72" wide rolls, the width of my tear. I could then cover the roof with one piece and glue it directly to the 1/8" luan. Any suggestions for an adhesive?

As far as plans for the tear, I hope to be able to store it indoors. If I have to store it outside, I will work our some sort of a cover. It will of course be exposed to the elements while in use and traveling.

Thanks again for all the input

Ira wrote:What the heck was that stuff discussed here that was used for truck bedliners? And there was this other stuff used for industrial flooring.

Anyone remember? (One was "rubbery," I think.) I cleaned out a lot of my internet favorites, and those were two sites that I trashed.

Both companies sent me materials on the products, and both looked really good for folks looking for this kind of roof.

Rhino Lining and LineX come to mind, any others?

I think one of them was LIKE the Rhino lining, but the other...no.

Duraflex? Does that sound familiar? Let me go look.

madjack wrote:poly max board may be an option for you to use...no one has actually used it that I know of but it does look promising...

I have used products similar to this for may project (although not a teardrop) The product is a HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) that often goes under the name of "puckboard". It truly is almost indestructible and easy to work with, the only problem is that NOTHING will stick to it, the only way to connect it to anything is using mechanical fasteners like screws. If it were used as the outer skin and a structural member by gluing directly to the spars it would not stick and this would reduce the overall strength of the roof panel, but if it was just used as a covering it would work excellent.

Volvord 784VC wrote:

madjack wrote:poly max board may be an option for you to use...no one has actually used it that I know of but it does look promising...

I have used products similar to this for may project (although not a teardrop) The product is a HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) that often goes under the name of "puckboard". It truly is almost indestructible and easy to work with, the only problem is that NOTHING will stick to it, the only way to connect it to anything is using mechanical fasteners like screws. If it were used as the outer skin and a structural member by gluing directly to the spars it would not stick and this would reduce the overall strength of the roof panel, but if it was just used as a covering it would work excellent.

Hmm, I wonder if caulk will stick? I was thinking of using this stuff on a future project but I'm having second thoughts. Can you make the corner where the side meets the top watertight?
Bruce

Buck06, they glued vinyl on cars with sprayed on contact cement. Coat both the roof and the vinyl, let dry and jointogether. Be carefull because if you goof it's a bugger to fix.