A Little Tearapy

[erfnie]

It's looking great so far! It looks like you are planning a "stargazer" window on the curve; I'm curious to see how you work that out (I'm considering giving up on mine).

Wow, you are right on about the stargazer window. It WAS in the original plan and we framed for it anyway just in case or to potentially add later, but we decided to give up on it for now. Reason being cost and the challenge to seal it tight on a slight curve. Also because with our large galley "window" in the back, we felt that was enough of another big window in the cabin (that is, when the hatch is open, which led us to consider putting some kind of window on the hatch itself!)

Off-topic question: How are you able to post more than 3 images at once? And how do you make them "non-scrolling"?

I found and follow these directions to add pictures into the posts, adding as many or as few as needed.
http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?p=983358#p983358
Sorry I can't help you with the scrolling. I have no idea why some peoples' pictures scroll.

[erfnie]

Back to the Walls
Time to cover up the insulation and add the next outer layer on the walls. This would be 1/4" ply. We used the Titebond Heavy Duty Construction Adhesive and pneumatic staples for this step. Working one section at a time, DH applied it with the caulk gun and I smeared it around with my favorite homemade tool - the old credit card which I cut custom notches in first. Didn't notice the writing on it 'til now,



Then we plopped on a piece of ply, one section at a time. We cut and planned the pieces to a certain size so as to avoid lining up seams over seams of the previous layer. And before stapling each section, we used the wall template to mark the all the areas of insulation, the door and window, as well as the wires already grooved into the wall. That's so that we'd be sure to only staple on the solid areas. Here's a side looking like a big box on wheels.

The door and window were the first to get routed out. Knowing how messy that job is we first blocked off the cabin from the inside to keep it somewhat clean in there.


Then we routed the edge of the whole profile.

[S. Heisley]

Cleverly done!

[erfnie]

Seat Bench
The cabin structure and walls are now in place and the interior has all been poly'd. It's time to move forward with the guts starting with the seat bed.
This was put together much like the seat boxes but instead as one whole piece that spans the width of the cabin.


The top is three separate parts that lift off for storage, just like the seat boxes.

[erfnie]

The Front Curve Corner Cabinets
With the bench base complete, we can now proceed with the cabinets that will be on top of it.
The front corner cabinets house an AC and DC outlet each and some cubby storage inside of them.
To match the curve on the back of the cabinet, we pulled out our front curve template piece.

A couple test fits and cutting adjustments until we were satisfied with the fit.

Our first plan had the cubby opening to the inside (the side pictured above). But after further thought, we moved it to the front side instead
because once the mattress is in place, it would cover most of the opening making access difficult.
Plus it would be easier to grab and go stuff from outside the camper (through the doorway) without having to climb in.

One done, one to go, built to mirror the other.

Every cabinet or shelf we build will have a lip to the edge so things don't fall off. One exception will be on top of this one above the outlets.
We'd like to do something creative like a piece of live edge wood slab or something TBD.

[Az Pete]

very nice!

[erfnie]

Another Cabin Cubby
This one spans the width between the two corner cabinets. We cut openings out of it but we're not sure yet if we'll put those pieces back on as doors or not.
We first had to build a support for it which also goes underneath the corner cabinets and rests against the lower front wall.
The space between this support and the back of the seat bench will be more storage, but for longer things - like a fishing pole?

We found the easiest way to cut out the flush doors on all the cabinets we made, was to use our cordless 6-1/2" circular saw making a plunge cut to cut the straight edges,
then go back and cut the corners with the jigsaw. After that it was just a matter of sanding smooth all the edges and corners.

[erfnie]

Galley Cabinets

The blank slate before

Using our sketchup plan to plan the cuts and make the most out of the plywood material

Once all the pieces were cut out, we needed to cut the doors out. This had to be done carefully because the (inset flush) doors were cut directly
out of what would be the face frame. We started with a plunge cut by the circular saw to make the straight edge, then finished the curved corners with a jigsaw.
A little sanding helped to smooth everything out.


A little test fitting

Some boxes ready for stain and poly. All our cabinets were assembled with a combination of wood glue, kreg screws and/or the 18ga nailer.


This small cabinet/shelf will go underneath one of the box cabinets in the galley. It will house some electrical.

Back when we were working on this part, DH already had turned off the outdoor wood boiler that usually heated our garage.
That meant it was now too cold to glue/stain/poly in the garage. Most of this had to be done in the basement where it was warmer.
The freezer made for a pretty good work table

And there will be no more weight lifting for awhile!

[erfnie]

Roof Insulation

It was time to get to the job of cutting pieces of insulation to fit in all the sections of the roof. At the same time we needed to start thinking about where exactly all our wiring would run, because those areas would require some special cuts of the rigid foam. We decided to approach the process by first cutting each section piece whole. Later we'd go back and trim those "wired" sections to fit.

All these front sections had a slight curve. To accommodate that, we planned to cut each piece lengthwise into thirds, to better wrap with the curve of the TD.

Here is my "very precise" method of taking measurements at the inside surface of the curved areas - a scrap piece of paper folded to fit.

Then used a ruler to take the measure of the paper and transferred that measure to the rigid foam.

The top was a little easier without having to deal with as many curves.

[Az Pete]

again, nice work. We use the chest freezer in our garage for a work table, often...handy, and just the right height.

[erfnie]

Getting Cabinets in Place

The thought of wiring is moving up the list slowly, but in order to figure out where all the wire runs and components will go,
cabinets needed to be in place first. Here's the before...


First to go up were the galley wall cabinets. We routed out some grooves for wiring that will go in later.


Then up they went! We built them in such a way that there was a back board to attach them to the wall easy enough.



After the main wall cabinets were in, we could finish the shelf that would go in between them.


The cabinets in the cabin also went up and no, DH is not on fire! That was just our temporary light source


These cabinets hung the same way as the galley ones. Later we'll use that back board to attach a thin piece of ply that will hide all our wire work.
Plus it will be easy to remove if necessary, to access the wires for any changes or fixes in the future.


In between these cabin cabinets will house our power center. We'll put a inconspicuous front on that which will open for easy access and/or maintenance.

[erfnie]

Let's Sidetrack to the Front Deck
Our plan has the use of a tool box at the front of the TD to house the battery and other stuff.
We also wanted potential to carry other gear, provide an easy step to reach the roof, provide support for
the very front bottom edge of the TD (there's no cross brace on the trailer there), and have a nicer surface to mount the tool box to.
But... we wanted all this without having to put lots of holes in our aluminum trailer frame.

Here's what the space looked like way before the roof/headliner were even up.


We first built a frame out of 2x4's that fit in the space of the trailer frame. We primed, painted and notched it slightly so it could
fit snugly over the welds and against the edges of the trailer frame.

It would have to be assembled in place in two pieces because that was the only way to get it to fit tight under the front edge of the TD.
Once in place (sorry, can't find a photo), it was held with two front bolts to the trailer frame that the trailer company gave us.
It's also held to the bottom of the TD through the floor with some heavy duty screws.

With that frame in place, we now had a place to affix some decking to. We chose a composite deck product and cut it to span across the width of the trailer.



This is as far as we got for now. When the tool box comes, we plan to extend it a little more and taper it to match the width of the tool box and angle of the trailer frame.

[swoody126]

like the shelving units not being permanent for later access

you might consider bolting thru from the back w/ nuts n washers

screws can get loosened over time while be jostled going down the road

keep posting pics ;-)

sw

[erfnie]

Wiring Roadblock
Time to unravel this challenge!

We knew wiring would be somewhat of a roadblock as we had much to learn about this system, so this step took awhile. The details on this are better laid out in our separate post linked here. viewtopic.php?p=1262464#p1262464

In a nutshell, we decided on a super simple AC and DC circuit that are independent of each other - no converter nor inverter. The DC will eventually have solar tho. When there is shore power, we'll maybe plug in. If not, we'll run off the DC side.

The main DC power will come from the battery which will be housed in a tool box at the front of the trailer. Here are the 8awg cables run through the headliner cavity and then through a hole in the floor. I know it sometimes has to be done, but I had a hard time having to MAKE holes in our teardrop. Anyone else have that feeling?

Near the floor looking from the outside.

We drilled the hole through the floor from the inside.

Then we fed all the other wires from the front of the cabin through the space which all led to a power center at the back of the cabin.




This is in the rear of the cabin near the ceiling in an inconspicuous, but easily accessible, center cabinet.

Back in the galley we ran wires through different hidden raceways of sort. They blended right in with the cabinets.
On one side are both an AC and DC outlet and an outlet that goes to the outside.

Drilling the hole for the outside outlet.

View from the inside which will be inside the raceway.

On the opposite side is where the NOCO 15 amp inlet plug is located which leads to the power block in the power center.
Drilling the hole for the inlet plug. This will also be in a raceway.

And from the outside.

Here again is where it all leads to - the power block and the fuse block.

[tony.latham]

Tony