Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Having difficulty deciding how I will finish/skin my trailer. I'd love to hear what people like and dislike about what they have done.

How did price, application, and daily use affect your decision?
If you did it all over again would you do the same finish or would you do a totally different finish?
Where did you source your materials?

Right now I am struggling between:
PMF for the whole thing (paint a gloss finish)
Woody sides and PMF top
Aluminum (have no idea where to start looking to find aluminum)

Thanks in advance for your input

I'm using FRP on the sides of mine. It's fairly cheap, easy to install, and hides a multitude of sins. It also comes in 10' lengths, so it won't need any seems on my design. There are questions about it's UV resistance, but I did my own test to find out. I got a bunch of sample pieces and nailed them to the south side of my fence. I then let them sit for about 1.5 years. Yes, years. I have no cracking, fading, chalking, or any other problems. The top is still up in the air, but I'm thinking I may go with canvas. I want a convertible!

So far I am thrilled with the results of Canvas over Plywood.
It's very forgiving, not expensve, and should last the life of the trailer.

I have cedar strip sides on mine simply because I wanted to play around with it that way and wanted to give my bandsaw a real workout. My front and rear are primarily PMF, with an aluminum sheet covering the galley door and will be on the lower part of the front for a rock guard. My roof covering is white EPDM, done because I know how well it works and I've put it on before.

If I build another, it'll be a foamie, it'll be all PMF with maybe a bit of wood or aluminum trim. After resawing over 1,500 linear feet of cedar strips, I kind of burned out that desire for the time being.

dave

I have tried many finishes...

One of them was aluminum. It's probably the nicest finish of all...

My woodies have always been painted. The early models delaminated because there is no membrane over the wood, so that's not a good option.

So if a membrane is a requirement, your choices are

PMF: Rayvillan has had very good luck with this

Canvas: All the foamie builders says this is good stuff. So my current build is using this.

Fiberglass: If you're good with fiberglass, this can be gorgeous. But it costs more.

Mike...

P.S. If you want aluminum shipped anywhere in the country saf.com willl do it. There's where I got mine.

We used prepainted sign grade steel sheet.
We live right on the coast or near enough, and salt spray drift on the wind is an issue, but over the years we have had the Tear and the fact it lives in a carport, there is no evidence of rust at all.
Take it easy.
Roo

I think a lot has to do with climate & what you will be parking under all year. Living in the desert, my main concern was the sun & heat. A wood finish looks really nice, but the sun eats wood & finish where I live, so that's out of the question for what I want. I want to build it once & then not worry about maintenance too much, so I chose aluminum. If you have a garage, nearly any finish would be ok if it's just out a couple times a year for road trips. The whole thing is keeping the water out, so whatever method works for you is good.

Some of the old aluminum WWII vintage stuff is water tight after all these years & still going strong. PMF works on boats, so it should be fine on dry land as long as the paint holds up.

Noseoil,
Yeah I would agree with that. Horses for courses.
Colorbond steel sheet as it is called in Oz has quite a long guarantee, hence our choice. I cannot recall the gauge but it is quite thin on the sheet we used. It was cut out with a small drill driven nibbler.
We did consider aluminum, but the prepainted sheet swung us over to the Colorbond. Very little weight difference, if any when one considers the amount used.
I do like a timber finish but living coastal and with hot summers it just did not seem the way to go.
Take it easy.
Roo.