Round nose hybrid build

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Round nose hybrid build

Postby Flatworm » Sun Sep 04, 2016 4:47 pm

Our current teardrop (little guy knock off) is great - but with limitations. Ever since someone decided to film the "Lord of the rings" in New Zealand, we have been inundated with tourists looking for hobbits or whatever. Anyway, to avoid our country becoming a giant toilet, there are now some tight rules about where you can camp if not self contained. To get certified as self contained, we need a
- toilet that is useable when the bed is set up
- 24 litres of clean and grey water
- hose
- rubbish bin

Once we have these, camping areas are a lot cheaper and more plentiful.

Apart from a place to sleep, crap and cook, the main use of the caravan is as a base from where we can fly fish.

To accommodate a toilet with headroom, going to a round nose seems logical. I have some rough plans and some rough skills and thought I'd make a start.

We have also set ourselves the challenge of financing the build through selling or using whatever we have laying around.

I am the kind of person who makes things up as they go along, making plenty of mistakes in the process. I have had a good look around the forum and have a reasonable idea of how to go about building. Reasonable, not great.
Hi
Hmmm. So I'm both tight fisted and ham fisted.

I also have the small problem of work. I make 60% out my annual income between mid September and mid November so time will be limited for the next few months.

However, we have made a start.

I'll try and attach a couple of rough sketches of the concept and pics of progress so far.
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Re: Round nose hybrid build

Postby Flatworm » Sun Sep 04, 2016 6:08 pm

[/album]http://www.tnttt.com/gallery/image_page.php?album_id=4431&image_id=144450

gallery/image.php?album_id=4431&image_id=144449

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Re: Round nose hybrid build

Postby Flatworm » Sun Sep 04, 2016 6:21 pm

Here are some pics of work so far.

I have a trailer. It is under my boat!
Need to get a new boat trailer then modify old one for caravan. Have made the base to fit but I'm winging it as usual.

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Re: Round nose hybrid build

Postby greygoos » Sun Sep 04, 2016 9:36 pm

Good luck with the build. I guess the toilet fits
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Re: Round nose hybrid build

Postby KCStudly » Sun Sep 04, 2016 9:47 pm

So... are you going to separate the loo from the rest of the camper?

One thing that struck me when I first visited NZ, that many Americans probably aren't aware of, is that it is very common in NZ for the "toilet" (or loo) to be in a separate room from the "bathroom" (sink and tub/shower); hence my 'cheeky' (no pun intended?) question. :lol:
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Re: Round nose hybrid build

Postby OP827 » Sun Sep 04, 2016 10:59 pm

It is interesting concept. What materials, glue and technique are you using for the round front, I cannot quite get it from the photo.
Also today I saw a similar front end bathroom on this trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3JrHfq0i0Y
Good luck with your build! :thumbsup:
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Re: Round nose hybrid build

Postby Flatworm » Mon Sep 05, 2016 12:06 am

Yes, I'll separate the round front with the toilet. Unfortunately that does mean the additional challenge of a bent door. Laid this out today. Will be interesting to see if it works.

My construction method might be a little unconventional. I bought a pile of 900x1200x30mm (2'x3'x1 1/4") xps sheets, ripped a whole lot of 1 1/4" square lengths of wood and basically made a ladder of wood with xps sheets in the gaps between the rungs. Glued it all together and let it dry.

Then kerfed it, put it out in the rain for an hour and bent the whole thing around the bow section.

I plan to sheet both sides with 3-4mm ply. Seems very strong and also fast.

I like the idea of foam construction but like the tidyness and simplicity of hard wooden corners.

Will try this for the whole outside and inside positions as well.

it might even work.
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Re: Round nose hybrid build

Postby Flatworm » Mon Sep 05, 2016 12:22 am

KC.
I'm always surprised when I'm in the States. I get told where the bathroom is and think "do I smell that much?". Then I realise that I'm being told where to find the toilet, not the bath.

Might make a hatch through from the bed to the ensuite to save going outside. Most likely the curved area will get filled with fishing gear though.
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Re: Round nose hybrid build

Postby OP827 » Mon Sep 05, 2016 11:15 am

Flatworm wrote:Yes, I'll separate the round front with the toilet. Unfortunately that does mean the additional challenge of a bent door. Laid this out today. Will be interesting to see if it works.

I think once you have laminated the curve, the curved door can be made out of access door cutout opening.
I found it would work in my build curved front. The cutouts are quite stable. Having two access doors to the toilet from outside and inside make total sense. If you look at the video link I sent you above, that guy did exactly that. The outside access door is more of a smaller hatch to load camping gear than a door, that makes sense too.

I have 3mm baltic birch inside and 6oz FG outside of 40mm XPS foam in build there. I would use a thinner plywood if that was economical and available in my area. I think 3mm baltic birch plywood is plenty good.


Flatworm wrote:My construction method might be a little unconventional. I bought a pile of 900x1200x30mm (2'x3'x1 1/4") xps sheets, ripped a whole lot of 1 1/4" square lengths of wood and basically made a ladder of wood with xps sheets in the gaps between the rungs. Glued it all together and let it dry.

Then kerfed it, put it out in the rain for an hour and bent the whole thing around the bow section.

I plan to sheet both sides with 3-4mm ply. Seems very strong and also fast.

I like the idea of foam construction but like the tidyness and simplicity of hard wooden corners.

Will try this for the whole outside and inside positions as well.

it might even work.


I like what you did with kerfing, did you use some jig to make them as good as they look in the photo? I agree with you on simplicity of having hard wooden corners. One challenge I had was working time of glue when laminating large sheets of plywood to sandwich. Maybe if I soaked some water on the plywood that would help, otherwise I found that epoxy worked best for me there. Next time I'll try to put some water on the plywood especially in curved areas.

How are you going to clamp the curved and flat panels for the glueup? I am interested in that very much.
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Re: Round nose hybrid build

Postby KCStudly » Mon Sep 05, 2016 11:22 am

Small hatch outside probably makes it easier to pull the port-o-pot or cassette for dumping, rather than juggling it thru the inside, although being able to enter loo from outside w/o going inside sounds convenient.

I would make templates of the front curve so that sill and headers of the doorway can be made. Once the wall form is set, and the opening is cut you can frame it in with jambs, header and sill, then cut the door down, frame it and rehang it. It might be easier to leave the inside skin opening smaller, forming a lip for a seal.
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Re: Round nose hybrid build

Postby Flatworm » Mon Sep 05, 2016 3:05 pm

Thanks for your help guys

Kerfing: I made one cut in the wooden frame parallel to the edge then simply dropped a straight edge ruler into the cut and ran my circular saw against this. Lifted out the ruler and moved it to the cut I'd just made etc. Using the ruler as a fence worked great. No marking, nice straight cuts and the job was done in 15 minutes including clean up. Not sure of the "proper" way to do it.

Front door. Rightly or wrongly I've cut the whole panel out to make a big door. I'd like to be able to get my inflatable dinghy and outboard through it. I'm not confident about being able to seal it for highway speeds in wet weather but I'll try.


I have a simple idea for building the curved door but am not sure if it will work.

Plan b if I can't get a seal on the front door is to make a wrap around canvas cover for the front while travelling. Could double as an awning when parked. Would also protect against scratches and chips although I'm not too precious about these.

Ideally, I'll run a track along the top of the wall from the rear, right around the front and back down the other side. I'll fit a sheet of canvas into the track. Travelling, I'd pull the canvas around the front and dome it down. Parked, I'd just pull it to either side and support it on poles as an awning. Dead simple and it would save ever having to deal with a wet awning.

Smart eh?

But I don't want to get bogged down on finishing details yet. Just work away at the stage I'm at.

Good point about ply thickness. It does come down to what I can get here.

laminating. I'm not sure about clamping. For the curved bow, I'm hoping to simply screw the inside liner to the battens while the glue sets. I'll make a couple more jigs and also screw into them right through from the outside. I'm not worried about filling screw holes. Could be tricky though.If I need to, I'll also screw done temporary vertical battens to the inside while the glue sets.

I have also made the front and rear radius' of the build the same. I.e.the bow and the rear curve. This way I can re use all my jigs etc.

Thanks again for your help. You are both more experienced at this kind of stuff than me.
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Re: Round nose hybrid build

Postby Flatworm » Mon Sep 05, 2016 3:12 pm

I'll try to keep a tally of time and money spent here. Useful for myself and potentiality others.

Time spent so far
8 hours

Money
Ply floor - free
Xps. 13 sheets@$15 =$195
Glues and screws ~ $130
Battens - free
Total $325

$1 NZD~$.67USD
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Re: Round nose hybrid build

Postby dirtsailor2003 » Mon Sep 12, 2016 2:48 pm

Interesting build! Just logging in to follow along. Saw a Camp Inn 560 this weekend. No loo, just extra space in the cab for storage or bunk beds.

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Re: Round nose hybrid build

Postby Flatworm » Mon Sep 12, 2016 10:39 pm

Thanks dirt sailor. Cool name. I'd seen the camp in model. Pinched a few ideas there.

Working 7 days/week for 2 more months. Will just do what I can and be fired up to go when things settle down mid November. Might go quiet for a bit though.
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Re: Round nose hybrid build

Postby Flatworm » Tue Jan 03, 2017 11:21 am

[album][/album]Back to work on this after a few months concentrating on earning money.

Thought about doors a bit and decided to make a frame and just rout my door frames from this using a template and collett. Seems to have worked well.

Door frames are light and seem strong. I'll clad then in 2mm ply and probably PMF.

If this works, I'll be very relieved. I was worrying about building nice shaped doors.146496146497
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