Thrifty Alternatives ..Building Foam Campers

[KCStudly]

I wonder how long it will take the wife to notice that the trailer count is going up again.

[GPW]

KC , The idea is for me to close in my shed so I can do some trailer assembly out there away from prying eyes... ... Stealth trailer building...
And she objects much less if they’re pretty ... She can’t deny my experimentations and projects ... At my age , that’s all I have left ...

Anybody think it’s a bit early for a Freeze ..... even we’re supposed to freeze tonight (there goes the garden )

[Mary C]

Just a something..........my husband used to hunt and fish I would always let him buy tools he needed I tried to keep him happy. If he had this building as a hobby we would have had four or five teardrops.

Mary C.

[GPW]

Mary, if we had a real shop I’d be churning these out left and right !!!

[Mary C]

Have you thought about building a building out of foam? I have been trying to come up with a three sided one using 1x2s and 2 x 2s. To park my truck under. Wonder could it be done?

Mary C.

[Wobbly Wheels]

As long as it's anchored well, the only thing to preclude that where I live would be to keep it under 100 square feet so it's classed as a garden shed (no foundation). Best to check the building codes to see where that cutoff is where you live.

[GPW]

Although a big proponent of Foam construction for campers , I wouldn’t do any permanent Large building construction depending on the foam alone for structure... There are limits as to how Big you can go with any material ... and while excellent for a camper ... it may not be as good for a garage ... However it may be Good when making “Panels” that would be attached to a more traditional framework (2X4s, 4X4s, etc.)...
(SIPS) , a proven building technology combining wood and foam into interlocking panels would also work ... You can buy or make those ...
Mary , living on a large patch , I’d just sink some posts and build a more traditional shed for the truck ... JMHO FWIW

And getting back to the first subject discussed here..... If you sink some posts , you can give them some extra protection by first using the mixture on them ( Poly and Min Spts) and then coat the bottoms , where it goes in the ground, with the Black Nasty stuff we use here for trailer bottoms ... Used that on my shed and then poured concrete around the posts , and it’s held up just fine over the years ... Yo can always do like the Indians did , and dig a hole , put a big rock in the bottom and put the post on top of that , filling around it with dirt ... That works too ...

[Mary C]

I am super lucky I live far enough out in the country that it is OK to build a three sided building without a permit. .......no rêtrictions.. If it is four sided then it is permitted and there are fourty different codes plus 4 inspections. That is why I was going to build a dog shelter and just make it big enough to park my truck in it.

[GPW]

Mary , when I built my house and studio , I was of the mind that all those inspections were just another Money grab by the city /county... But I actually worked with my building inspector to insure a safe and solid structure, which has paid off over the past 15 years of uneventful (good) use. Although a PIA dealing with bureaucracies, it’s much cheaper than hiring a Civil Engineer to assure you have a safe structure .... Don’t want it to fall in on the truck .... or the doggies ...

[GPW]

Nothing to do but enjoy the return of the nice weather (Not Freezing) ... trailer done ( well sorta’ ) So I’m building a new Lap Steel Guitar out of scraps salvaged from the bin at the guitar co.

[KCStudly]

Looks like '70's era space age pop. Pretty cool.

Should fit in very nicely with your shuttle craft style TD concept!

I'm not familiar with lap guitars. Is that a left handed or right handed one?

Looks like there's some oak in there, too(?).

[GPW]

Thanks KC , it’s a right hand model ... ( I guess) Mostly Black Limba and a little sinker cypress (the light stuff) ... Just satisfying the ”urge to build ” ...

[GPW]

No trailer work today ,or anything else, just lots of cooking ... I hope everyone has a Great Thanksgiving !!!

[RRJR]

Hello to everyone

I've been lurking for a few weeks and after reading the first 258 pages of this thread I thought it was time to join.
I'm almost done with the design of what I'm going to build.

We recently sold our 24' toyhauler after owning it for 7 years. It served us well and we never had any of the problems of which GPW speaks.
The only problem we had ever had was a water leak caused by me not using the pressure reducer when hooking up to city water. It was a simple 5 min fix.

Reason for selling was that it was really a pain when we used it. Because of the CCR's of our homeowners assoc. we couldn't keep the trailer at our house. That meant everything had to be planned well in advance. As the years went by, we used it less and less. I figured we might as well sell it before it had no resale value.

So here's my design criteria:

1. It has to be able to be built and stored inside my garage.
2. It has to able to carry a 250# racing motorcycle.
3. Hopefully "thrifty" construction cost.

What I came up with is a 7'6"W X 12"L X 5"H with a rear lifting roof that will make the sleeping area almost 7' when open.
It will be mostly foam construction covered by canvas.

I will start a build thread as I've already built a scale model and construction will start as soon as I can sell the golf cart that is taking up all my construction space.

Rich

[ghcoe]

Cool and welcome to the madness.