Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Great call on the film. I'll go with the 3M product. Another question I had on your build. I recall that you were installing vinyl plank flooring. If so, how is it holding up, particularly with temperature swings we have here in Florida. Any issues with the seams parting or expansion, contraction movement? I was looking at some vinyl waterproof planks that were 9"x60", not cheap but I liked the larger size for fewer seams.
Thanks for your help.

It's actually holding up very well. I left enough room at the perimeter for movement, and the joints have remained tight and flush same as the day I installed it. I've gone about 350 miles with the flooring down, and no issues travelling either.
First time we camped with the flooring down, I was running the AC Friday Night, and Sunday morning it was 30 degrees when we were packing up with the space heater running inside. No issues.

It's holding up very well to wear as well. We throw everything inside as well as buckets that I put extra firewood in. We've been careful not to gouge it, but it's fairly tough.

Here's a pic showing it and the finished cabinet doors.




I've ordered some 1/4" dia. rare earth magnets for a screen door project I'll start this weekend. Want a screen door, but need it to be a quick on/off deal. I have an idea.
My Mom finished the curtains for us as well. Wife picked out the material. It's like a little cabin in there now.

Good to know on the flooring. I've got doors on both sides and one of the doors I'm going to use the screen window frame kits you can get at HD and some small alu U channel to slide it into. Should work like the screens in the sliders on my house.

We need a screen on the main door. I was going to hang a dangling screen thing like you can buy for your home doors and cut it down to size, but I didn't really care for that idea.
I want a real door, one that you can open and shut and not have issues with, so that's what I came up with.

The door had to be removable because it sits in the same track that the regular door closes into, and shares the same weather stripping for a sealing surface. So I bought a 25 pack of rare earth magnets on Amazon with the plan of recessing some in the hinge side of the door, and a matching set in the door jamb so that I would simply put the screen door unit in the hole, and the magnets would catch each other and hold everything in place until I pulled the door back off.

Like this:



I built a lightweight door frame out of 3/4" thick cypress and made the stiles and rails 1" wide. I reinforced the corners with blocks and glued and shot everything together.





Epoxying the magnets in door side:



Test fit once epoxy dried and both sets of magnets installed:



All I do is set it in the hole, and the magnets self align and snap the door in place. I used 9 magnets per side.

Screened and painted black:

Nice Job!
I can see that design being stolen, right now.....
Thanx!!

McDave

tsyj, Howdy;

Fantastic idea and outstanding execution of it!!! , !!!!

's to ya!

hank

Wow... very creative idea. Outstanding work!

Well, had another successful weekend in the trailer. Went to Juniper Springs in the Ocala National Forest http://www.juniper-springs.com/. The inside is 100% done except for some wall decoration. It is pretty cozy.



All the sites are no hookups, and luckily the weather was perfect mid 70's during day and mid 40's at night. The screen door worked great. Kept the trailer at almost perfect temp all day.
This has me looking into a small DC system that I can throw into the trailer when I know I'm going somewhere without power.
Our next off-grid camp is mid May, and I know I'll want some cooling ability then.

So now I'm going to work on a DC system that will probably have a solar option. I need to do some more reading.

McDave wrote:Nice Job!
I can see that design being stolen, right now.....
Thanx!!

McDave

Yep!


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Love what you've done, TSYJ, you've given me some things to think about to make my upcoming conversion a bit more visually friendly. I ordered a trailer made by Arising last week, excited to get it home. (I needed shorter, so it's 5x8 sharp v-nose, but it's taller, so I end up having 2' of flexible cargo space underneath, with 4' on camper space on top. Going to be some odd proportions, but it works.)

Two questions if I may...
Since all of the structure of the trailer is steel tube, did you just run your wiring in front of the beams, in some sort of channel? Under the 3/8 plywood, or??? I'm going to be running more DC than I am AC, but I still hate to just have things running in conduits/wire wraps.

Other question: are you happy with your window sizes? I was thinking up putting in a few 18 x 24 windows (two per side), but now I'm wondering if I should do bigger/less... I recognize everyone wants something different (which is why we're here!) but thought I'd ask since you've had it out camping. Your way I think is more affordable, which is nice...

Cheers. Thanks for posting all you've done!

Hay Matt, thanks. I ran the wiring up in the corner where the wall "studs" meet the roof "joists". Just like the stock wiring was run. If you use screws on the top piece, you can always access the wiring later on if you need to.



As far as the window sizes, they are perfect for us. Only thing I wish I did differently was had a screen in the door window, but we can live with it how we have it.

That's an amazing way to answer my question, thank you. Wiring shouldn't be bad at all.

MatthewWorks wrote:That's an amazing way to answer my question, thank you. Wiring shouldn't be bad at all.

I agree. Can you tell me how, or what program you use to make those excellent drawings?
Keep in mind I am not well versed in computers. But my wife is...

Thanks,

McDave

MatthewWorks wrote:That's an amazing way to answer my question, thank you. Wiring shouldn't be bad at all.

No problem!

McDave wrote:

MatthewWorks wrote:That's an amazing way to answer my question, thank you. Wiring shouldn't be bad at all.

I agree. Can you tell me how, or what program you use to make those excellent drawings?
Keep in mind I am not well versed in computers. But my wife is...

Thanks,

McDave

I use a program called SoftPlan http://softplan.com/ for my drawings. It's meant to be used for Architectural drawings, but I punish myself and use it for technical stuff as well. I've been using it since I was 13 designing houses and commercial. That's what I do for a living.



I've always wanted to sit down and learn SketchUP for drawing stuff like this, but I just haven't had the time.

hey tsjy -
Do you by chance know what the inside width of your trailer is? I'm expecting 56", but since your trailer came from the same people I was wondering if you could verify. (mine is a 5x8) I'll be getting on the road about a week after my trailer gets here, so hoping I can build my bed platform beforehand... I just realized it's right between a double and a queen, so deciding which way I'll roll.

thanks for your help, if you have a chance.

Matthew