Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

This may be a newbe silly questiom!

Is there more then one way to design a floor?
How I mean is:
1) A sheet of plywood
2) Two thinner sheets glued together
3) Sandwich
4) And whatever?

Could someone tell me the do's and dont's here?
What did you do and why?
Is one type better and why?
If I am going to build under floor storage, which floor works best in doing this?

I know! Questions, questions, questions, but how else am I going to learn?

Bruce, are you still planning for a 5x9.......................................................

Yes - Do you see a problem?

Bruce,

I think most people will agree that an insulated sandwiched floor is the one most people are building............or at least I think that is the case.

The generic Benroy plans at the top of the page show you how most people do it.
I know Steve aka Trail of tears bolted 3/4 ply (i think) straight down to the frame. You might want to talk to him.
By the way good luck with the build and congrats on the win!!

I'm building a 5x9 Ben Roy sorta kinda almost you can look in my album there is some pretty good pics in there (not to say that is the best way to do it just the best way I could come up with)

Mike

I used 5/8" ply to trailer with 2x4 cross pieces and 1/4" ply floor with 1 1/2" insulation.
Maybe not the best, but shouldn't be the worst. It worked for me.

Hardin Valley Magic wrote:I used 5/8" ply to trailer with 2x4 cross pieces and 1/4" ply floor with 1 1/2" insulation.
Maybe not the best, but shouldn't be the worst. It worked for me.

Do most people use 2x4's or 1x3,4's??

My TTT has a 5' x 9' floor of 3/4" plywood. I cut two sheets to 4' x 5', which left another foot that I made up with two smaller pieces. That smaller part is in the cargo compartment and won't have much weight on it. All the pieces are joined with grooves and splines and then each joint is reinforced on the bottom with a 4" strip of spruce screwed to both pieces. The finished floor is solid, no bending or flexing at all.

My floor album has pics of various stages of construction of the floor.

The Cubby plans just call for a 2 by 2 frame bolted to the trailer (actually measuring 1 1/2) with 3/4 ply on top. There's insulation on the bottom, but no ply on the bottom.

Bruce, my camper is 5 1/2 feet wide on a 4 X HF trailer. The frame was built with 2 X 3s on edge and 1/2" ply top. The bottom was then covered with pink foam between the studs after some sort of waterproofing. No bottom sheet to trap moisture. That seemd like the standard method but a search will reveal that.

Unless I am planning on hauling around bowling balls in racks attached to the inside walls, the 9" overhang seems to be plenty strong.

Ed

Ira wrote:The Cubby plans just call for a 2 by 2 frame bolted to the trailer (actually measuring 1 1/2) with 3/4 ply on top. There's insulation on the bottom, but no ply on the bottom.

I didn't put any sub-frame under my floor. The trailer is tall enough as it is. I bolted my floor securely to gussets and cross members with construction adhesive added where the plywood contacted the metal. Then, I glued and screwed a 3/4" x 1" high strip to the sides of the floor, and bolted a cross member to the ends of the chassis. The side walls are glued and screwed to the strip and the ends attached to that cross member. In addition, on the advice of a couple of members, I put 4 carriage bolts through the side framing, one at each end of each side, through "L" brackets that are bolted to the frame. Those brackets are inside my galley and rear storage areas, so they aren't seen.

rampage wrote:The generic Benroy plans at the top of the page show you how most people do it.
I know Steve aka Trail of tears bolted 3/4 ply (i think) straight down to the frame. You might want to talk to him.
By the way good luck with the build and congrats on the win!!

Rampage, I actually used 1/2 ply. I built the body (floor walls roof) seperate from the trailer frame. I just slid the body onto the frame and bolted the floor down with 6 elevator bolts. This is a drawing of how I did it. The walls and floor are glued and screwed from the inside thru the 1x1 poplar dowel. I hope this helps.

I am overwelmed with all the support here!

THANKS ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EZ - Do you have pics or a drawing on how you layed out the floor - mabe a bottom shot before you turned it over?

Trail thank for the drawing!

All these great ideas! You all give me so many ways to go here! This will help me learn how to best put a plan into action!

Keep the ideas comming!

Thanks!!!

riverfront wrote:I am overwelmed with all the support here!!!!

I think that impression is shared by nearly every newbie. I know I felt the same way a year ago. I'd never have gotten my project off the ground if it wasn't for all of the ideas, information, helpful suggestions, photos, etc. that I found here. To me, this is more than just a forum. It's a social club, a support group, a place to meet people and form friendships. I wrote thisback in '98 after finding a chat room for people in their 50s where I made lasting friendships, and it applies to this web site as well.