Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Posted: **Fri May 18, 2007 7:24 pm**

oh my goodness word is getting out amongst my friends and family that I am building a TD. :shocked:

First of all I have to educate them as to what a TD is. WOW

I think the last profile is the one.

My father-in-law who is a Scamp/Casita enthusiast felt that I should be using marine grade plywood or treated lumbar for the floor.

Should I be going to the store for this?

Posted: **Fri May 18, 2007 7:51 pm**

LittleCritter wrote:
My father-in-law who is a Scamp/Casita enthusiast felt that I should be using marine grade plywood or treated lumbar for the floor.

Should I be going to the store for this?

I plan on painting the trailer white with the Uniflex 255.

Some people use marine grade plywood, probably most don't.
If you are going to use the Rot Doctor's paint, use some of his other products too like the CPES, a penetrating epox. As long as the wood is well sealed it should be fine. Especially seal the ends, as that is where the moisture would do the most damage. If you do a search there are a number of threads on this.
Martha

Posted: **Fri May 18, 2007 8:16 pm**

Darla, really a nice profile, I think you'll find that 4' is going to give you enought height, provided you don't have a table planned or a drop floor. If it were me, I'd make sure that you get really good smooth curves on the profile, just looking at the curve where the nose meets the top just in front of the door, I'd smooth that one out and make it more "flowing". Just my opinion...have fun! Doug

Posted: **Sat May 19, 2007 12:40 am**

Darla, I used a hinge at the 8’ point.

Posted: **Sat May 19, 2007 3:15 am**

LittleCritter wrote:... My father-in-law who is a Scamp/Casita enthusiast felt that I should be using marine grade plywood or treated lumbar for the floor.

Should I be going to the store for this?

Hey there, Darla!

As far as I've been able to determine, the only difference between marine-grade plywood and construction-grade exterior plywood is the quality of the vaneers in the inner layers (unless you get the marine-grade with the mahogany outer vaneer) ... the glues are identical, so the overall duraility is identical. Unless you will be working with the thinner dims. of plywood, the results will be the same, but you'll save a bucket of $$$ by going with the construction-grade exterior stuff.

As someone else has already said, before you go thinking about splicing pieces of plywood together, do a real thorough search of the lumberyards within a couple of hundred miles of you ... 4'x10', 4'x12', 5'x9' (standard Ping-Pong table stock), 5'x10', and even 5'x12' plywood is available ... might be a bit expensive, but man does it save a lot of work!

Good Luck with your upcoming build! In the meantime ...

CHEERS!

Grant

Posted: **Sat May 19, 2007 3:58 am**

Hello Darla,

I like the profile you posted in the lady builders thread. The LuxoTear is a teardrop design similar to yours with details you might borrow upon. http://www.westhoffdesign.com/michael/teardrop.htm

There are earlier posts here cautioning against using pressure treated plywood because breathing toxic fumes in an enclosed area could be a health risk. It was enough for me to give up the idea.

Well sealed exterior grade plywood seems to be fine for a floor.

Marine grade plywood would be a step up in quality and cost. If you decide to use marine plywood for your sides or floor Boulter Plywood is one source for 4'x10" and 5'x10' sheets. Their Okoume would make nice lightweight one piece sides. If you're going to paint the outside it might be worth it to save time and to get a good base for higher quality paint job.
http://www.boulterplywood.com/

Best of luck to you on your new adventure,

Steve B.

Posted: **Sat May 19, 2007 10:24 am**

Darla, Marine grade is great stuff if you can get it. It is not necessary though. I used cheappy fibered roof coating (aka---evil smelling black goo) on the bottom of my floor. Lot of teardrops running around lookin like that. I just poured on the goo and spread it out with a dollar store squeegee. Oh and wear disposable gloves.

The stuff will get on everything no matter how careful you are.

Posted: **Sat May 19, 2007 12:08 pm**

Darla,

I like the last profile you posted,, (like most of the other comments) Before you cut out the doors, you need to draw in the wheels and Fenders to help position the location of the doors and windows. AND draw in the frame, which will give you the location of the bottom of the door. One thing that you should consider NOT having is that wall protuding UP into your legs when you are sitting in the doorway and dangling your feet out.

The hatch will be easier to build with that last profile too.

While you are looking for material to build with, be looking for 1/8 plywood for skinning the interior and exterior. Be thinking about what you are going to use, Fabrics could be an option too.

You haven't told us if your are going to insulate or not (unless I missed it)

Looking good. The best approach is to plan for the build. Some decisions will be made on the spot BUT planning will make those decisions easier.

Its great that the family is getting involved USE THEM. An extra hand and a conversation will be welcomed when you are out there late and stuck.

Darla, How's the sleep going now that you are obsessed?

John

Posted: **Sat May 19, 2007 1:14 pm**

Darla,

You could always learn CAD!

Mike...

Posted: **Sat May 19, 2007 4:03 pm**

Darla, Steve Frederick's "Building a Wooden Teardrop Trailer" teardrop builders shop manual is a very helpful. His inside out building technique seems like a good time and back saver. I bought one and think it's well worth $49.95.

http://www.campingclassics.com

Posted: **Sat May 19, 2007 11:55 pm**

Esteban wrote:Darla, Steve Frederick's "Building a Wooden Teardrop Trailer" teardrop builders shop manual is a very helpful. His inside out building technique seems like a good time and back saver. I bought one and think it's well worth $49.95.

http://www.campingclassics.com

It's in the mail to me - I'm thinking I will see it in a couple days

Posted: **Sat May 19, 2007 11:58 pm**

mikeschn wrote:Darla,

You could always learn CAD!

Mike...

Yeah I probably should. I really enjoy the designing.

Posted: **Sun May 20, 2007 12:10 am**

LittleCritter wrote:
mikeschn wrote:Darla,

You could always learn CAD!

Mike...

Yeah I probably should. I really enjoy the designing.

Have you found this yet. It has all the forum secrets to CAD.

http://tnttt.com/viewforum.php?f=36

Something to play with while you are learning. :thumbsup:

Posted: **Sun May 20, 2007 12:11 am**

jdarkoregon wrote:Darla,

I like the last profile you posted,, (like most of the other comments) Before you cut out the doors, you need to draw in the wheels and Fenders to help position the location of the doors and windows. AND draw in the frame, which will give you the location of the bottom of the door. One thing that you should consider NOT having is that wall protuding UP into your legs when you are sitting in the doorway and dangling your feet out.
Okay, will do. Thanks

The hatch will be easier to build with that last profile too.

While you are looking for material to build with, be looking for 1/8 plywood for skinning the interior and exterior. Be thinking about what you are going to use, Fabrics could be an option too.
I did see 1/8 inch luan at Menards which is much like Home Depot. Menards is the closest for me.

You haven't told us if your are going to insulate or not (unless I missed it)
Yeah I'll be insulating the bottom and the top with EPS. The sides are 3/4" plywood - probably baltic birch

Looking good. The best approach is to plan for the build. Some decisions will be made on the spot BUT planning will make those decisions easier.

Its great that the family is getting involved USE THEM. An extra hand and a conversation will be welcomed when you are out there late and stuck.
I started the trailer floor today. Our son was right there helping out. Wow that was sure nice to have a second pair of hands. He was wondering if maybe he could build one. So, we may have another TD project going on, we'll see. He was looking through the Hall of Fame here on the forum

Darla, How's the sleep going now that you are obsessed?
Obsessed is right. WOW As you can tell by my post times I'm spending lots of time late at night on the 'puter TD browsing and reading It's like this, when I grew up there was 7 people in the house and 1 bathroom. Well now to me it was very important to have at least two bathrooms when we built our home. BUT, it has now gotten to the point where computers are almost that essential to our family - everyone needs to use the computer

Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Darla's Lil' Critter TD Build