Inspired to get a 6X10 CT!

[crumvoc]

Showing some new shelving in the alcove, as well as new vinyl on the counter top, and some "remnants" of vinyl on the floor.

[pmowers]

Crumvoc- Great looking setup. What kind of vinyl did you use for the countertop? As of right now, I am undecided as to how to finish mine. Do you have any problem getting the butane canisters for your stove. I have a big green coleman, but I think that the smaller butane might be better if I had to cook inside.

[crumvoc]

What kind of vinyl did you use for the countertop?

The cheap kind from the local Habitat for Humanity store. It was just a flooring vinyl remnant. Probably not an ideal work surface, but it was better than the awful cloth covering it replaced. And, easy to cut. I may end up using the vinyl as a pattern for some laminate. But for now... it's Vinyl baby!

As of right now, I am undecided as to how to finish mine. Do you have any problem getting the butane canisters for your stove. I have a big green coleman, but I think that the smaller butane might be better if I had to cook inside.

I really like the little butane stove, and it only cost $18! The local Kroger/Fred Meyer stores carry the fuel. It is very light weight and puts out pretty good heat. I keep the door and windows open when I use it, as I don't really wanna DIE.


I also have a two burner propane stove, another Fred Meyer cheapie, that works very well. For now, these stoves are being used instead of the ancient/huge/heavy three-burner coleman "white gas" stove that I inherited from my grandfather. (It almost requires its own trailer!)

[crumvoc]

A few new additions. From Habitat for Humanity store today, a nice Mirror,

aluminum molding to frame the window interiors,

and a drawer divider... $11.00 total!
From HD, miniblinds, just the right size for ... $1.70 each!!


The trailer is looking more civilized all the time...

[crumvoc]

Today, just an updated photo of the 6x10 Mirage interior, now featuring the fiberglass upper panels (replacing the black carpet panels); my "water system" (4 gal Cabelas jug with stainless steel "sink"); and new, today, vinyl flooring glued down. Replacing the carpet on the ceiling with the fibreglass panels really lightened up the interior. Also, today installed Marinco shore power outlet and wired in my first 110v outlet on the interior... it works, I'm not dead and the trailer didn't burn up... success!


My wife reminds me that I might think about actually taking it out for some camping... Why didn't I think of that?

[crumvoc]

So, I purchased this trailer last spring. Made a lot of progress during the year, but by the end of the season, I was still sleeping on a cot, and was unsatisfied with the seating. So, a trip or six to harbor freight to purchase etrack, 10 etrack beam sockets through Amazon, a couple sheets of 3/8 sheeting plywood, a mess-o-screws, creating 5' 8" wide plywood decking using a scarf joint made with a belt sander and thickened marine epoxy, and couple of Costco sleeping pads.... Here is the result...

Here is a shot from the doorway looking aft, with the bed set up.


Here is a shot of the "couch" variation.


Here is a shot from the rear, looking at the "couch" backrest and etrack 2x4 socket support.



This is just a detail of the backrest support setup.




I have designed this arrangement for fast changes. I can change from bed to couch in about 2 minutes. I can go from couch or bed to total disassembly and all parts secured to the starboard wall, taking about 5" of floor space (68" long) in about 5 minutes. This is necessary because I haul a motorcycle in the trailer at times.

I designed the bed/couch to be high enough off the floor to be able to put some pretty good size plastic storage tubs (and other miscellaneous junk) under it all.

I really like this etrack stuff! I have some on the floor, front and back, to secure the bike. The bed/couch setup uses 72" inches of etrack on either side, 10 beam sockets, and five 2x4 beams. The bed and couch are very sturdy, don't sag and don't rattle when you move around on them (I was worried that they might rattle.)


By the way, the reason for scarfing the plywood is because plywood is engineered to bend easier along the short width. If I just cut plywood with the long axis going across the trailer, it would have eventually sagged between the beams. It is a good deal of work to make the scarfs, but worth it, I think.

[hankaye]

crumvoc, Howdy;

Very nicely done project, I do have a question.
When you said;
"By the way, the reason for scarfing the plywood is because plywood is engineered to bend easier along the short width. If I just cut plywood with the long axis going across the trailer, it would have eventually sagged between the beams. It is a good deal of work to make the scarfs, but worth it, I think."
I'm trying to visualize what you are discribing but my brain has a hard time
turning words into pictures. I can read the words, I understand the words ...
they just refuse to convert. Are you ripping the plywood and then putting it
into the bed frame?????
Thanks for taking the time to help me understand.

hank

[crumvoc]

crumvoc, Howdy;

Very nicely done project, I do have a question.
When you said;
"By the way, the reason for scarfing the plywood is because plywood is engineered to bend easier along the short width. If I just cut plywood with the long axis going across the trailer, it would have eventually sagged between the beams. It is a good deal of work to make the scarfs, but worth it, I think."
I'm trying to visualize what you are discribing but my brain has a hard time
turning words into pictures. I can read the words, I understand the words ...
they just refuse to convert. Are you ripping the plywood and then putting it
into the bed frame?????
Thanks for taking the time to help me understand.

hank

Imagine it this way: stand a piece of plywood on end with one arm on either side of it, across the narrow 4' width. Now, bring your arms together and it will curl/bend away from you.

If you can grow arms that give you an 8' wingspan, and try it the long 8' axis, it will bend, but is much more resistant to the idea. That is because plywood is designed to be a (mostly) vertical structural element in construction. (The plywood mill does that by making fewer of the internal plys 90 degrees to the vertical axis.)

So, If I had just cut off the 4X8 plywood so that it was 5' 8" long (to match the trailer width), it would have tended to sag between the beams. Since I made the plywood 5'8" wide by adding 1' 8" using a scarf joint along the (stiffer) long axis, the plywood is much stiffer. (So, yes, I ripped one 8' sheet into two sections (one is 1'8" wide) and joined that 1'8" wide section with the other sheet along the long axis of the plywood.)

Just to make things a little less clear, I actually made the section I cut off about 21.5 inches wide so as to compensate for the material/width loss in the scarf joint itself.

I learned that info when I once built a "stitch and glue" plywood and epoxy boat. I hope that is clear... If not, let me know.

Here's a picture of a scarf joint (and a butt joint), if you didn't know:




Doug

[hankaye]

crumvoc, Howdy;

Thanks for the explanation. Something else to consider when I get to build mine...

hank

[crumvoc]

I have been around trailers of various sorts since high school. Worked at a marina hooking up and backing boats in the water. Very good backer-upper. Always safety conscious... until today...

Took the CC out for a test drive behind my new tow vehicle (06 Dodge Ram with the smaller v-8... huge improvement over the previous v-6 Dakota) About half a block from home, went over a speed bump, heard a loud noise, looked in the mirrors and saw smoke... This can't be good...

I forgot to latch the hitch coupler! The TV was dragging the trailer by the safety chains. tongue jack was gouging a hole in the road.

Lucky for me, my 22 year old daughter came along about 2 minutes later... "dad, do you need any help? (Stifling laughter)..." Great. Insult to injury.

Just a reminder to all... take a minute while getting ready to move the trailer, make sure everything is ready to roll... Luckily, no damage was done to either trailer or TV... My ego, on the other hand.....

[crumvoc]

Ordered foam for my platform bed from FoambyMail

http://www.foambymail.com/

I ordered queen size foam which is apparently 68" X 76". (This is actually a little different than a real queen size (60" X 80"), but that is OK. I was going to trim it some anyway.) The foam arrived one week after I ordered it.

I ordered 1- queen size HD-36 R Regular (white) foam (2") and 1- queen Lux Regular (blue) foam (2"). Cost: $99.00 with free shipping.

(The HD-36R foam is 1.8 density, 35 IFD. The Lux Regular foam is 1.8 density, 50 IFD. IFD is a measurement of firmness/resistance. The idea is if you take a 50 square inch "foot" and compress the foam 25%, IFD is the amount of force required... or something like that. Density is the weight, in pounds, I guess, of one cubic foot of the foam.)

Here are a few photos of the delivered product before and after it expanded. It is shipped with much of the air removed, apparently. As I unwrapped it, it made noises that made me wonder if it would dangerously explode. (FOOOOM!!!)

It didn't.


This stuff is quite firm, much more firm that the local foam I was looking at at Home Depot and fabric stores. Much cheaper, too. It will be interesting to test-sleep it. I know that I will not "bottom out" on this foam. I just wonder if I might need some sort of convoluted foam topper to soften it a little.

I plan to use contact adhesive (3m 77) to glue the sheets together, and then cut it into three sections... Have not worked out exactly what I'm going to do there. I want to get the sections so that they are easily handleable, but not so small they get fiddly. I'm thinking of cutting two 32" X 64" sections, and one 64" X 12" section in order to make a bed 64" X 76".

[hankaye]

crumvoc, Howdy;

Looks like you got a good deal and have a decent plan for the foam.
I'm still trying to remember the foam the Navy gave us for our 'racks'.
Black closed cell (?), foam only 2" - 2.25" thick on a steel slab. used
to sleep like a baby on that thing. I weight now as well as then about
215 #'s and I never hit bottom nor had a 'hot spot'... good stuff.

hank

[crumvoc]

Wish I had a project to use this on.... TOday at the Habitat for Humanity "Restore" store, I saw this RV fiberglass shower unit with integral theford marine toilet... for $55.

[crumvoc]

This stuff is quite firm, much more firm that the local foam I was looking at at Home Depot and fabric stores. Much cheaper, too. It will be interesting to test-sleep it. I know that I will not "bottom out" on this foam. I just wonder if I might need some sort of convoluted foam topper to soften it a little.

Well, I've "test-sleeped" the new foam mattresses. They were a little too hard/firm for me. I ended up getting a convoluted topper to soften the top layer. Made all the difference. Very comfy now! Firm with a little "cush." I like it!

Today I also cut the foam into three sections and glued the two different layers together with 3m spray glue. Now, I need to get someone... anyone... to sew up some simple covers.

[crumvoc]

Just an update... The trailer no longer hauls a motorcycle because the motorcycle has been sold. Last August, on a beautiful Idaho Sunday afternoon, I was going around a corner at about 12 miles an hour in the mountains when I hit some gravel, the bike slid out from underneath me and I hit the ground, hard. I landed hard on my head, tearing up my fullface helmet. I also landed hard on my left shoulder which was not injured because I was wearing an armored coat. I was not, however, wearing armored pants and sustained a large road rash on my left knee, which healed without any treatment but has given me a memorable scar. Lastly, on the way down, I apparently was going faster than the motorcycle, jammed my thumb into the throttle grip and tore a ligament in my right thumb which required surgery.

I Managed to pick up the bike and rode it down the road a few miles to a country store where a group of Harley riders from Bellingham Washington had just pulled up, wearing shorts, T-shirts and very few wearing helmets. I'm sure that they could tell that I had had an accident since my knee was bleeding, jeans were torn and my helmet was obviously damaged. Strangely, not one of them came over to talk to me.

Not long after, I decided I am too old to bounce off the pavement and the motorcycle is gone. Lucky for it, I broke its fall and the bike was not damaged.

And so, friends, please wear your helmet and armor so that you can keep contributing to this forum.