The Ark of the Covenant

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The Ark of the Covenant

Postby SwiftRiver » Mon Feb 13, 2017 10:49 pm

So I am getting married this summer, and what better to honeymoon in than a tear drop camper? That's what we think at least. If you don't get the name by now, this camper is a sort of arc and there is a certain covenant that is going along with it. ;)

It all started when I proposed to my fiancee. I was thinking about what we might do for a honeymoon, and we were thinking that a road trip west might be a good idea since neither of us have been sightseeing out there. However, the idea of paying to spend a night in a hotel every day didn't seem like a good idea to me. I looked into renting a camper, but the rates were not much better, plus there was nothing in my area. Then I saw a DIY teardrop and thought that I could pull it off. After a lot of research, some more research, and developing plans of my own, we have finally started working on our own little piece of freedom (all this while still going to college full time and prepping for a wedding).

So far our plans are to make a teardrop on a 4x8 harbor freight trailer. We plan to frame the walls with mostly 2x2s with some 2x4s mixed in (well actually we have already begun this process). To waterproof the rig we are going to use the poor man's fiberglass technique. I do not know exactly how we are going to do the galley hatch, but I have a few ideas bouncing through my head. One thing about our camper is that is will not have a curved roof. It will still retain the idea of a teardrop, but it will be angular instead (just thought it would be easier to cut the framing and not worry about bending stuff, also like the look).

I am trying to build at least a couple nights a week so that we can finish the project by May (when we are getting married). Usually we work sometime between Wednesday and Thursday, but I don't know how soon I will get to posting pics.

Feel free to ask any questions and leave comments when I am about to screw something up big time.
In the meantime here are some pictures of our progress so far.

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Fiancee working hard
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Best Man lending a hand
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Done with the trailer
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Fiancee mixing the tar
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Help from a friend picking windows from the junkyard
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Fixing the bed to the frame
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Fiance measuring
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Done for the day
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Next Day: Help from the Sisters attaching the frame to interior wall Used pocket holes and polyeurethane glue
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Interior wall
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Holding it up just to see
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Hopefully next time we wont have to lay it flat again.
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Re: The Ark of the Covenant

Postby dancam » Tue Feb 14, 2017 12:26 am

This is awesome! :) i like the name for your trailer too.
Do you have a target weight?
Whatcha pulling it with?
Where is west to you? My wife and i did a road trip camping honeymoon west for us. Image it was awesome.
We took 1.5wks, just had a car, and alternated between camping and hotels every other night. It was the best. We had a lot of packing and unpacking because we moved almost every day and we were tenting. Plan so you do as little packing and unpacking as possible every day.
Its cool to see someone doijg something somewhat similar to what we did! Heres a couple photos of our trip:
ImageImage
Be sure to do lots of exploring if thats what you like. Some of our best times were completely unplanned, taking deserted old roads, an unexpected concert....

Unloading everytjing for what seemed like the 50th time into a hotel...
Image (we were gonna camp that night in the middle of nowhere but we saw a mountain lion less than a mile from the spot i had in mind, so we went into town)
Toast!
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Re: The Ark of the Covenant

Postby Greg M » Tue Feb 14, 2017 1:05 am

Looking good. Be careful opening it at campgrounds; any Nazis nearby will get melted
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Re: The Ark of the Covenant

Postby SwiftRiver » Tue Feb 14, 2017 1:20 am

Target weight around 1000 lbs. and we will be pulling hopefully with my parents' van. No travel maps yet but we want to see the most beautiful parts of the west.


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Re: The Ark of the Covenant

Postby daveesl77 » Tue Feb 14, 2017 9:01 am

Wonderful start! You guys will have a great time, it is an adventure!

On the HF frame, be absolutely certain to take the hubs apart, clean out the clear stuff they put in the bearings as it isn't grease. Repack the bearings and you shouldn't have any problems.

Have fun!

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Re: The Ark of the Covenant

Postby dakippen » Tue Feb 14, 2017 9:35 am

What a great start!! Started my build the first wkend in February and want to be done by mid-May as well..and what great helpers!
Build journal: http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=67862

Doing at almost 60 what I should have done at 20....
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Re: The Ark of the Covenant

Postby SwiftRiver » Tue Feb 14, 2017 12:09 pm

So as you all know, premade doors for teardrops are ungodly expensive. I was looking on ebay for them and this came across my radar.

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It is a cargo door for a larger RV. Its dimensions are 28x40 and it is 2 inches thick. I was thinking that I could replace the handle with an RV latch and install it as my main door. Over all it would save more than $150. I know it doesn't have a window, but maybe we can put a peep hole in.
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Re: The Ark of the Covenant

Postby ChefConroy » Tue Feb 14, 2017 1:00 pm

Greg M wrote:Looking good. Be careful opening it at campgrounds; any Nazis nearby will get melted

Shouldn't it be thrown open with reckless abandon if that's the case? Seems like a great security measure! ;)

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Re: The Ark of the Covenant

Postby pchast » Tue Feb 14, 2017 9:16 pm

It seems you are going to weigh more than that 1000 lbs.
Have you weighed one of your sides yet? :thinking:
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Re: The Ark of the Covenant

Postby SwiftRiver » Tue Feb 14, 2017 10:39 pm

How much should a single wall weigh to be on target for 1000 lbs?
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Re: The Ark of the Covenant

Postby dancam » Wed Feb 15, 2017 1:48 am

SwiftRiver wrote:Target weight around 1000 lbs. and we will be pulling hopefully with my parents' van. No travel maps yet but we want to see the most beautiful parts of the west.


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SwiftRiver wrote:How much should a single wall weigh to be on target for 1000 lbs?

Right on, at 1000 pounds dry your probably 1500 pounds loaded which is fine for no brakes behind a van. If you go over that check state rules about max trailer weight with no brakes. I think some are 1500 and some are 2000 pounds max.
Anyway, looks to me like youll go over 1000 pounds as well, but i dont really know. So youve got 730 pounds left after the trailer frame. Whats it weight with the floor?
Anyway, 730 minus 100 pounds of fixed interior stuff like cubbords and bedframe (being conservative) gives you 630 pounds. A 4x8x6.5ft square is 260sqft by 630 pounds=2.42pounds/sqft. So for a side wall is 126 pounds completed. That assumes floor, ceiling, walls are all the same thickness and weight, but the floor will be different and doors wiĺl be different and so on.
If your doing a 12v battery that and the wiring and so on will be maybe 40 pounds.
To weigh it while building take a bathroom scale and roll each trailer tire onto it and set the jack that keeps the tounge up onto it. Add the 3 weights togeather gives you the total. Try to keep tounge weight around 10-25%. Check the max tongue weight for your van.
Hope that helps

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Re: The Ark of the Covenant

Postby KCStudly » Wed Feb 15, 2017 12:58 pm

I was thinking the same thing on weight. 2x2's and 4's weigh a lot compared to 1x2's and a few cedar 2x2's.

My walls weighed 46 lbs each with bare doors (no hardware), but before my fiberglass outer skin was applied. That's about the same as a sheet of 1/2 thk 4x8 ply by itself, except they are about 9'-6" long x 50 inches tall. Not sure what my finished weight will be yet. roof construction is similar.

My built up floor (64" x 9'-6") was just a bit too heavy and awkward for me to pick it up by myself, but could be handled by two with reasonable effort; so maybe 80-100 lbs.

My hatch is a little heavier than I was hoping for, but I can still pick it up and maneuver it, so maybe 40-45 lbs(? ... I'll have to weigh it).

The thing to remember is that each piece does not have to do the job of the whole. The whole structure strengthens itself becoming greater than the sum of its parts. Also, every bit of weight added creates more load, both statically (sitting still) and dynamically (bouncing down the road). A light structure is strong enough to support itself; a heavy structure needs to be heavier to support itself.

Think airplane not house.
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Re: The Ark of the Covenant

Postby SwiftRiver » Wed Feb 15, 2017 2:32 pm

So the question is, what do I do now? I need to get the weight down. I would like to not take apart what I have done so far. Could I thin the parts of my frame down (possibly with a router) along the spots that do not have attachments and make the other side out of 1x2s? Would that lighten my load enough?
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Re: The Ark of the Covenant

Postby dancam » Wed Feb 15, 2017 2:44 pm

SwiftRiver wrote:So the question is, what do I do now? I need to get the weight down. I would like to not take apart what I have done so far. Could I thin the parts of my frame down (possibly with a router) along the spots that do not have attachments and make the other side out of 1x2s? Would that lighten my load enough?

Well first how thick is the outside plywood?
And All the framing- are things like cubbords or shelves being attached to it?
What were you going to use for your inside finishing? I assume plywood but i mean how thick.
How heavy is what you have so far? Do you have a bathroom scale you can weigh stuff on?
Is going over your target weight going to actually be a big issue or you would just rather have it lighter?

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Re: The Ark of the Covenant

Postby SwiftRiver » Wed Feb 15, 2017 2:51 pm

The ply wood is 1/4 inch right now, and that can be interior or exterior, I just have it attached because it seemed like an easy way to get everything square. I was hoping to attach cubbords to the framing as well. I will try to check tomorrow how heavy what I have so far is. And it is important that I keep the weight down because my HF trailer is only rated to 1195 lbs.

:frightened:
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