First Tear Drop Build, 54"x8' Slide on......

[Originalspacerob]

Tidy job wiring. Is the white wire solid core Romex or 2 lead stranded?

The wire is just solid core Romex. It worked pretty good and was cheaper than buying the rolls of stranded. It also made it a lot easier to keep things separated and organized. The stiff wire did make it hard to get in the shallow boxes with GFCI's but it was able to be done. I only used 14 awg for 15A rated circuits. The maine supply wires are all stranded and 10 AWG for 30A rating.

I've been meaning to ask, on each of your under floor storage lids I see 4 little fasteners or some such thing around the edges. What's the deal with those? Some sort of keeper or rubber bumper thing?

The round things on the hatch doors are just dowels which were screwed and glued in place. They were used to locate and center the covers in the opening. I had a 1/4 inch gap all the way around the covers from cutting them out and if I put them in place they would shuffle around. So I cut the half circles in the covers and used those to locate my dowels which were then glued and screwed down. This keeps them from moving around.

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[KCStudly]

Makes sense.

[Originalspacerob]

I had the doors partially built up to this point but never trimmed the radius on the outside of the door after installing the internal 1x2 framework. Now that the galley was done and some of the inside shelving it was time to trim the doors and check the fit. I had ordered stainless piano hinges from Amazon to use on the doors, galley, and need to order a set for the windows. The doors were pretty easy to build and were built up just like the walls. I kerf cut the piece to get them to bent to the radius and added reinforcement were the latch will go. The window opening was added and more detail on the windows will be added later once stops are installed and windows put in. The idea is to use 1/4" Optix Acrylic from Lowes for the windows and use a stainless hinge at the top so it can be opened while keeping rain out.

hollow door

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This picture shows the basic framing of the door without the extra reinforcement for the latch

insulated door

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1.5" foam insulation inside the door

assembled door

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Completed door with screw heads filled

[Originalspacerob]

The doors were finally trimmed and installed to test fit and check operation in the wall opening. Everything seems to align ok for the initial fit. The door also worked out great opening towards the back of the trailer. It can close almost flat against the side and out of the way if needed. It will clear the fenders once it is put on the trailer. That was the first thing I had to make sure before I set the height. The door basically opens the whole heigh of the trailer which makes it easier to get in and out and really gives us a nice opening for putting a screen on if we want to sleep with the doors open or just be in there with the door open.

door hinge

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door open

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door stop

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This picture is a little out of order, because I did the stops at a later time, but it has to do with the door installation so I wanted to add it here. The stop was made so that I have a 1/4" gap between the door and the stop for a weather strip material. I found a really nice gasket from McMaster Carr that I am going to use and will show more detail on that once it is installed. It makes the inside of the door work really nice and adds protection to the stops also. The stop material is made from 1/4" Maple plywood.

[Originalspacerob]

For door handles I used a set from Vintage Technologies. This set included the two for the doors and one for the hatch. The items are really nicely finished and works great. The only thing they don't have are locks on the inside, they only lock from the outside. So I will either make these so they can lock or add a separate lock over these. have not decided yet.

Inside door Handle

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external door handle

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[Originalspacerob]

Now that the doors were fitted it was getting time to add the insulation on the roof and put the roofing on. Originally the idea was to use the same foam used on the walls for the roof. But this proved to be more labor intensive than it was worth with trying to get the foam to fit the curve of the roof. So the idea was abandoned and I just used fiberglass insulation that I had left over from my kitchen remodel. It made it a lot easier to get around the electrical and fit the curve in the roof.
For the roof I used the same 1/4" plywood that was used on the sides. There was no need to kerf cut the plywood because the bend was gradual enough that it followed the curve just fine. It also helped that I cut the sheet in half since the width of the Teardrop is 53" I had to fill the center 5" space with a 7" piece of plywood which give me a raised stripe down the middle of the trailer.

insulation

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insulation back

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plywood top front

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[Originalspacerob]

Filled gap

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Galley Hatch

with the top of the tear drop closed in the last part to make and close in is the galley. This I was dreading because I only left about 3/4-1" space in the galley for the thickness of the hatch. I was not sure how this was going to work out building the frame. But I was hoping it would make for a pretty light hatch. The first rib I made did not come out so well. It didn't match the profile of the galley because when I cut it to size I cut it off the wrong end and the curve didn't match. On the second attempt I cut it correctly and widened the ends to make it easier to screw the ribs into my Maple end pieces. The rides were then skinned with 1/4" Maple ply on the inside and 1/4" Plytanium on the outside. I had to kerf cut both of these to get it to bend around the curve on the hatch. Everything was glued and construction adhered together including screws. I also ran electrical inside for the galley lights which I can retrieve later when I add the lights.

ribs

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top covered ribs

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I didn't realize the rib on the bottom right was not straight even when I glued it. Not a huge deal, still supports just fine. Thought it was funny that it wasn't seen until I looked at the pictures. LOL

[Originalspacerob]

electrical

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side hatch open

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hatch closed

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The hatch has a natural spring to it that was a concern. This causes a little pressure to be applied before the hatch will latch when trying to close the hatch. Try saying that three times fast. This proved to actually work really nice because it keeps tension on the hatch latch and should keep it from having play while driving around. I have not weighed the hatch but if I estimated wood weight it weighs about 25 lbs at a rough guess. In this picture you can also see I have some wood sticking out from the hatch. That is because I have a 1/4" gap at the bottom for weather stripping and I wanted to make sure that the gap was still correct when it closed.


This gets this build thread current with the build as of today. At the end of last week I removed the doors and the hatch so I could fill all the screw holes and start sanding the exterior for preparation for the fabric on the outside and well as polyurethane on the inside. I will update as those items are added. I also need to think about a support for the galley hatch. I want to stay away from gas springs and just use possibly and extending pole or make wooden supports that can mount near the top shelf. any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Originalspacerob]

It has been awhile since I posted an update on the teardrop. I took some time away from posting and have been focusing on working on the trailer. Everything has been going pretty good and progressing really well. Since getting the galley hatch in place and making sure everything else fit it was time to get everything sanded on the outside so that I can start adding the 8oz canvas from Lowes. This canvas had the seam in it that is 4' wide. I checked at Harbor Freight and the part number that has no seams they did not stock in the store. The canvas at Home Depot also had the seems. So I had to make it work. I used the 4' section on the sides and ran a thin seam down at the bottom where the storage is.
For cutting the canvas I was not sure what to use so I tried a knife at first, that would work but not real good, especially if the canvas is damp with Titebond. A sharp scissor worked good but was hard to get nice straight lines. So after some trial and error I picked up a rollie cutter from the craft store. This worked perfect for the long cuts, and I used the scissors for smaller cuts. I only used the knife after the paint or glue was dry to cut the fabric while it was hardened. This gave me a nice clean cut with no frays. In the pictures below you can see the fabric on the doors as well as the first coats of paint. I used all Sherwin Willaims Duration Exterior paint. I had gray left over from my shed as well as blue from the house. Those worked great for the base coats. The first 3 coats were thinned 50% with water. The next 2 coats were full strength, duration is thick so this would be equivalent to 4 coats of regular paint. I then did 2 coats of the final color in a Satin finish to make it easier to clean. The final color was actually the same color as my shed which is what we started with for the first 3 coats. Both my wife and I really liked the look on the camper.

first coat and unpainted door

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This picture shows the first thinned coat on the body of the trailer and one of the doors that has been covered with the fabric. The sides were installed first and then the top next with a 1" overlap over the sides. The lower seam on the bottom of the body I was able to get to a 1/4" seam so that it does not show up too much. On the roof, there are three pieces and they are overlapped 1/4". The center filler piece was covered first, and then the pieces on the side of that were added after. The seam is barely noticeable because it falls on the step up from the roof to the center filler piece.

Hatch paint

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finally coat

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This is the final 2 coats on the body of the camper.

[Originalspacerob]

With he final coats on the outside of the trailer it was time to get the inside and galley sanded and ready for spar urethane. I dreaded this since it knew it would be really dusty and a pain to get in all the nooks and crannies. It took me about 4 hours to get everything sanded. The second longest part was applying the polyurethane. That took close to 6 ours with putting 2 coats on. I used a rag to apply it so it did not go on too thick. After the poly cured I then wet sanded with 400 grit paper and hand rubbed all the poly to give it a brushed look, it also hides some of the streaks from the rag. This took the longest. Almost 8 hours of rubbing the poly and wet sanding. My arm felt like it was going to fall off. I finished at 3am one night after work because I did not want to deal with the poly the next day. It was worth it because it made the next night short and I could catch up on sleep.
When the poly was all done I had to install the hatch and figure out how I was going to support it. I decided on just using some of the left over 1x2 maple boards I had. I cut part of my left over piano hinge to fit the board and made it so the leg can fold up into the hatch so the hatch can be closed. The legs end up in the space of the counter when the hatch is closed. To keep them from flopping around I used a slide latch and drilled a hole in the bottom to hold them secure. The latch lock flops down when the hatch is shut and won't allow it to release the leg. One leg is also under the other one slightly so that when you open the hatch with your right hand the leg on the right can drop on the left leg and allow you to hold the hatch without the leg falling and crashing into the counter when holding the hatch with one hand and trying to put the leg down.

inside poly

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Poly finished inside the camper. Floor storage covers have been removed so they can be polyurethaned

galley

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Polyurethane galley and supports for hatch

latch

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Latch support for holding up legs for hatch. The legs are staggered 1.5 inches so that they can pass by each other when latched and overlap slightly toward one end.

[Originalspacerob]

With the inside and outside coating done it was time to start installing some of the items inside the trailer that were trial fit earlier. The first was the door handles so the doors can be latched. These had to be shimmed a bit since the fabric added a little more thickness than I thought. Close to 1/8" at the doors. The next item was to work on getting the power panel installed. This panel will take care of 120 and 12V and will also charge the battery.

wires

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All the 12VDC wires were run to the two 30A terminal blocks. One is for +12V and the other is for -12V. The 120V wires go directly inside the unit to the breakers.

inside panel

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Inside the panel with cover removed.

closed panel

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Closed panel inside top corner of inside cabinets. It is hidden when sliding doors are shut

[Originalspacerob]

I still need to get some pictures of the next items that I have worked on and will update again very soon.

[Mushin]

This is a great looking build, got some skills. Nice work!

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[KCStudly]

Wow! Things have really shaped up and your camper is looking great. The way you handled the roof skin lap joint/plywood splice really adds a nice effect, celebrating the elements, rather than trying to hide or blend them in. Well done! I like the color, too.

One thing that I would not wait to add, though, is some sort of keeper or pin to hold/attach your hatch rods to the counter or side walls when the hatch is in the raised position. Believe it or not the hatch has a relatively large 'sail area' and even a modest gust of wind can flip that sucker over backwards if not restrained.

This is commonly given advice, and there have been incidents, even on the very first outing, where people have had their hatch blow over onto the roof, causing damage. (In one severe case the hinge was damaged and the hatch had to be strapped back on for travel. IIRC, the straps ended up failing and they lost the hatch while running down the highway, adding insult to injury.)

Don't let it happen to you for lack of a couple of pins or barrel bolts. Just saying.

[Mushin]

Good advice on the hatch supportservices, gonna do that this weekend

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