Newbie build - the lemon drop

[Hartse25]

I have been doing a lot of reading and a lot of planing and now that the weather is finally warming up here in Minnesota, I really want to get started on my build. Unfortunately, well only unfortunate because I'm on spring break and the weather is nice, my father is going to do a little work on my used, homemade trailer and I'd like to let him do that before I get too far. I have been staying awake at night looking at build threads, planning and replanning. If I don't do something, I'm going to go crazy. I thought at the very least I could get my foam and the plywood for my floor and maybe get it treated with the sauce.

As I read the different threads, I find I am combining what feels like a million ideas and I wonder if I can put them all into one little camper. I plan to build my camper about 5 feet high, did I see that called a slouchie? My trailer itself is about 18 inches from the ground to top. I was thinking I could build part of my floor down 6-8 inches so I would have a section where I could mostly stand upright. Will this give me enough ground clearance? And from the pictures I saw, I can't remember who's build, they are blurring together, it looked like they built a box into the floor.

I also saw a convertible teardrop, I think it was blue. Could this been done with a foamie? Will it have enough structure without a frame and without canvas covering the whole thing? I was thinking I would put in some 1x2 cross members along the roof and some frame on the top of the wall piece and wrap the canvas from the sides up over the top a couple of inches maybe even up to 6 inches. I think the original one I saw he used snaps to hold down the top. I think I would use grommets and something to hook them on the side of the camper.

From what I have read, it sounds like the galley and doors and windows can be tricky spots. I think for my galley, instead of a hatch, I am going to just have a flap that I can raise up to make an awing using tent poles. I've been reading about the Wiley window lately and it sounds interesting. Maybe that's something I can try this week too.

Sorry, that got to be a really long post, but I am super excited and all my friends are sick of listening to me.

[KCStudly]

For an open top (or opening hard top) foamie your thoughts of using wooden rails along the top corners of the walls with spars and a box frame (or cofferdam) around the opening sound like the way to go. Check out Sharon's MyAway build, or Mike Young's Where or When Jr build for some ideas on construction geometry.

Canvas (or marine vinyl) and snaps will take special care to arrange so as to keep water out. You are probably refering to Zach's X1, or X2 build. IIRC he also used a cofferdam approach snapping the vinyl to the vertical face of a short lip.

For a rear hatch with canvas in place of a flat back or barn doors, I am having a hard time picturing how the snaps could be arranged so as not to scoop water under the fabric (such as what I picture happening if the fabric were to be wrapped from the rear forward onto the side walls. Perhaps wrapping a hard frame that fits into a shrouded area at the back (walls and roof extending past), hinged under the roof overhang, and sealed to a fixed inner frame with weather gasket. But that doesn't sound any easier or thriftier than building simple framed barn doors or a flat back lifting foamie hatch.

Even if you live and only plan on camping in very dry regions... and even then, you will come across a rainstorm sooner or later, so be ready for it.

You are doing the right thing; do your research before jumping in. I suggest that you don't try to fit every feature into your first build. It adds complication, build time, cost, and weight. Figure out what features are most important to you and prioritize those. For example, I am trying to keep my galley relatively simple until I have a chance to camp with it a few times and decide what, if anything needs to be changed or upgraded.

Making a scale plan or model, or doing full scale mockups, perhaps in cardboard, can be very beneficial toward confirming the major aspects of your design.

The temptation is to get all excited about building, and slam something together, but too often that approach ends when the reality of just how much time, effort, and cost can go into even the simplest of these little campers. It helps a lot to plan how you will join things; how the walls will meet the floor; how the ceiling will meet the walls; how your doors will fit and be sealed; and how you will sequence your build so that you don't proverbially paint yourself into a corner and end up having to undo or redo your hard work. Many of us have used (or are currently using) an inside out approach, building and finishing as much as we can on the bench before assembly. Building the box and then trying to outfit the inside is a bit like building a ship in a bottle, except you are the one crawling thru the neck of the bottle and working in awkward positions inside. Even in a slouchie.

Don't be discouraged by this advice. Keep up the good work and plan, plan, plan (... and start looking at material costs, add it up).

[Mary C]

welcome to foamies, Ha! just wait a couple a years your friends will not believe you built it and the will really be sick when you decide and start talking about "the next one you will build". I don't care what you decide in the begining, you will find things arent always going to work out exactally the way you plan, take it easy and dont be hard on yourself even the most expierenced builder can be surprized with the way things can work out especially with foam. we have told lots to make a small one out of foam to work out the details of your design. I will be interested in watching your build.

Mary C.