The Schnoodle Shack - Final Update - Goodbye My Friend

[Jim Edgerly]

On Tuesday it will be one year exactly since I made my first post in this forum, starting a build journal. I learned a lot from reading other posts before I dared make my first post in here. I did a lot of research before deciding that with your help I could build a teardrop camper.

I have to admit it has been quite the journey. I had wood working skills before ever deciding that I would start this project, but I did not have any camper building skills. It's one thing to build something that is nailed securely into your house, or something that sits on the floor that people use and look at. It is an entirely different story to build something that you are going to strap to the back of a utility trailer and tow down the road at 70 MPH, dodging and sometime hitting New England pot holes.

My build journal has so far seen 123 entries, been viewed 9787 times, and my Hall of Fame photo has been viewed close to 3400 times since being posted not even 2 weeks ago. When I first started this I got a thrill every time I saw my view count hit "another hundred views." I remember telling my wife "wow, I'm up to 300 views already...who would have imagined", and now I'm hoping it hits the magical 10,000 mark before it is done. I am so thrilled to have shared this experience with you all, with words and close to 100 pictures. You are all such a welcoming and knowledgeable bunch of people. One year ago I was a nobody that nobody in here had ever heard of, and now I have a bunch of on-line buddies that have shared in some way my build experience. One of my biggest supporters during this project comes from the opposite side of the country in Fort Worth, Texas. I know I will never get to meet him in person, but I am so thankful for his support and words of encouragement. This entire experience has been extremely rewarding, in so many ways. I hope that in the future I can give back to you guys what you have given to me...help, experience, a been-there-done that, and a sense of belonging to an on-line group of people who share their knowledge with strangers for the betterment of everybody involved.

This weekend I will take my second trip in The Shack, then put it in the garage for storage over the winter. I really hate seeing it go into storage until the spring, but New England weather dictates that that is the way it has to be. There may be some updates in the spring as I think over the winter of modifications I want to make in the spring. I know with the little exposure The Shack has seen, and the 9 public viewings already, that next year I am in for a bunch more viewings by people who have never seen a teardrop before. Hopefully I can spark others to start such a rewarding journey. I'm going to carry little "business cards" in my wallet of the url of this forum to hopefully give them encouragement in their potential journey.

Well, I've been long winded enough for one day. I thank you ALL for your wonderful support and encouragement and comments along my journey!

[Jpageau]

Phenomenal job Jim!!! Bravo!!! your a Yankee eh? I'm from mid-nh. I know they have a gathering at mi-tee-Joe in Milton nh. Maybe we'll meet someday. I'd love to see your build in person. What a gem! Great job!

[campmaster-k]

Wow Jim that is so great. Congratulations!

[absolutsnwbrdr]

Congrats on a great build and a wonderful maiden voyage Jim!

I just read over the whole thread, and your basement construction technique may be my answer for my upcoming build since I no longer have a garage.

[Jim Edgerly]

Zach, My biggest word of advice if you are going to try building one in your basement would be to build a very sturdy FLAT platform on casters to place your camper floor on. The platform can be moved around to give your more space depending which side of the camper you are working on. I had about a total of 7.5 feet to build a 5 foot wide camper, and right about the same amount of clearance in the front to back department. By having it on casters I could move The Shack all the way to one side and have the full 30 inches on one side to work with, then slide it over to the other side to work on the second side.

I also labeled every piece when taking it apart to make sure everything went back together as originally build. Don't assume that spars are interchangeable because each one could be off by a hair plus the screw holes will be slightly different. If you could take mine back apart you would find pieces like A7 matching up with A7, and F14 matching up with F14. Label each and every place where 2 pieces of wood are held together with screws today that will be replaced with glue tomorrow.

If I had it to do all over again would I start working in my basement and have all winter to accomplish what I did? DEFINITELY

Good luck!

[kevingb]

Congrats on the build an being able to use it. I have been looking back over the build threads. I have learned a big lesson. While I'm over building and worried to death about the next oops, your out camping. Good job!

[Jim Edgerly]

After camping in the rain I've come to the conclusion that The Shack needs a couple slight modifications to deal with the rain.

1) The "joint" at the top where the galley meets the cabin, at the hurricane hinge, needs some work. A little, very little, water got in up at that joint...but as you know any water at all is a problem. The problem is that the hurricane hinge is only 60 inches long, and the camper body is 63 inches wide. I had put a flap of black rubber there to keep the water out, but apparently it did not do a good enough job. The rubber is the rubber membrane from a flat roof and is apparently too stiff and inflexible. I will redesign that joint using the rubber membrane from an exercise band and hope in the spring that the water issue is a distant memory.

2) As much as I hate to I'm going to replace the doors. The warpage I reported on in an earlier post is a problem. It does not allow for a good water tight seal around the doors and I would rather deal with the problem now than to wait until there is water damage to the frame to repair as well as replace the doors. I'm also going to install a miniature wooden drip edge, about an inch wide, over the doors so water drips away from the top seam instead of into the top seam.

The only other design issue to deal with is the tongue weight. It is within range, but heavier than I would like. I believe that once I determine how I will mount the spare tire under the rear that it will sufficiently address the issue.

I feel it is better to deal with these issues now rather than to put them off. Very few things fix themselves by ignoring them.

[Woodbutcher]

You did a great job and have a real nice teardrop. Thanks for posting the pictures of your first trip. It makes all the hard work worth it, doesn't it! Now get out and enjoy the country.....Oh yea...keep posting the pictures!

[aggie79]

Hi Jim,

I feel your pain about the hatch hinge. The first one I order about 6" too short for some reason. I tried making it work but it wasn't so.

I know you'll get your doors squared away. I think that there is more chance of leakage at the doors than the hatch. I too need to install some sort of drip edge, but that will be a winter project.

Keep in touch and take care,
Tom

[S. Heisley]

I think that tinkering with these home builds to make them better is part of the process, especially after the first trip. Undoubtedly, you'll fix what needs fixing and probably come up with a couple ideas to make the rest better in some way, for camping next summer. Thanks for sharing.

[Jim Edgerly]

I have reworked the joint at the top of my galley and I believe I have solved the leaking problem...so on to the next modification.

I've been trying to figure out what to do about my warped doors. If I have warp in my doors now there is nothing I can do to 100% remove the warp so I have conceded that new doors are in order. I have done multiple searches of this file for "warped doors" and read all the advice. I could sandwich a wooden frame between 2 sheets of plywood, or I could go with solid wood doors such as plywood, or I could go with a composite material or aluminum which seems the surest way to fix the wapring problem. But, since I have built a woody the composite doors and aluminum are out, leaving only wood to work with. I was a little nervous about making a plywood covered frame because of warping/twisting...so I decided to go with solid 3/4" plywood.

I bought a sheet of 3/4" A/C plywood at home depot, had it cut into 30/30/36x48 inch pieces so I could fit it in my car. I figured I would sheath this with 1/4 plywood both sides to match my current interior/exterior plywood. I got home and laid the 3 sheets of plywood FLAT on my work bench for 48 hours and when I went to work with them I noticed that 2 of the 3 sheets had a slight bow in them...AFTER 48 HOURS of laying flat. The bow is more than 1/8 inch, approaching 1/4 inch...again, after 48 hours! Can't imagine what the bow would be come spring, so I started rethinking my plan again.

Then I noticed a couple of boards that have been hanging around my cellar since I bought the house 28 years ago. I looked at them every now and again (every few years) and contemplated cutting them up in firewood for the fireplace. Black from dust and grime, 60 inches long, 11 1/2 inches wide, 3/4 inches thick...and not the slightest hint of bowing, warping, or twisting in any direction, on either one. I ran the boards through my planer to get off the 28+ years of dust, and they look pretty good. I have started the process of sandwiching this wood between my 2 sheets of 1/4 inch plywood. I will take pictures as the doors progress, and report back on the progress. Judging how stable the framing wood appears to be after 28 years of leaning in the corner I am very hopeful of the new doors.

[mike93lx]

Jim, I just read through your entire build thread and really enjoyed it. Your profile is almost identical to what I am planning and I am also leaning towards the Northern Tool 5x8 trailer.

It's nice you see someone in the same neck of the woods as me on here (I live in Hudson).

[David S]

Jim
I have never had good results from the big box stores chinese plywood,usually it is warped laying in the rack.It sounds like you may have found the solution.If you hadn't I would have recomended 5 or 7 layer baltic birch plywood made in the USA,it tends to be a stable material.
Hate those do overs,good luck with the fix.
Dave

[Jim Edgerly]

Mike...looking forward to meeting you. Hopefully first thing in the spring before you get too far along on your build. I'll give you a tour of The Schnoodle Shack. Right now the doors are off and in the basement to be rebuilt, and the doorways on The Shack are covered with plastic and nailed strips of wood to keep the critters out...you know the ones, the little mice that think chewing up an 8" memory foam mattress would make great bedding for themselves over the winter. The Shack is tight as a drum otherwise, so the open doorways would give them access to the mattress if I had not sealed them up. Looking forward to the spring!

For the rest of you, this is what Massachusetts normally DOES NOT look like in October. This is roughly where I was camping in The Shack 2 weeks ago.

[Jim Edgerly]

As previously mentioned I am redesigning my doors because of a warping issue. I should have know better than to think a 30 inch wide door made of pine boards would not warp over time. I also had an inherent design flaw that would make the doors prone to leakage. Although I did not have an immediate issue with leakage, once The Shack is exposed to "real rain" or "highway rain" it is just a matter of time before water finds it's way in.

As you can see by the Old Design photo I was allowing water to make it's way part way into the door seam before encountering the weatherstripping. The weatherstripping was just sitting on top of the piece of wood.

In the New Design you see I have added another piece of thin wood forming a lip that goes around the door, and moved the weatherstripping to the very edge of this piece so that no water is allowed to enter the seam before encountering the weatherstripping. I also will route a rabbit into this lip to mount the weatherstripping in. That way I can plan on a 1/8" gap but use a 1/4" thick piece of weatherstripping. The weatherstripping will compress as far as needed to fill the gap, yet will not be totally compressed so I should get a really good seal doing it this way.

The finished door will look pretty close to the original door on the outside, but will look different on the inside. My wife liked the look of the "barn board" type of inside door, but she understands that "no pine/no water" is preferable to the "pine/water stain" look. I have not been in a real hurry to make progress because The Shack is stored away for the winter and won't see the light of day before April sometime. I will take the doors out and install them in the garage when ready, but no one will see them until spring.