Florida Benroy

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Florida Benroy

Postby cma713 » Fri Mar 15, 2019 12:15 am

Hello everyone... I am Casey and I am from Florida. I have been building a 5x9 benroy for the last few months and I am finally getting around to starting a build journal.

I discovered this site about a year ago and immediately knew that I would build a teardrop. After many sketches, I finally decided on the benroy profile. As a teacher, I have been using our breaks to get most of the work done. I am planning on finishing it just in time for summer break.

My brother built the trailer for me and I got it back home just in time for Thanksgiving Break to get started on building it. I was able to get most of the floor done by the end of the break.
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It ended up a few inches bigger than 5x9 at 62 1/4" x 109".
Once I had the trailer, I was able to start on the floor. I built the frame from 2x2's and topped it with 1/2" ply. I made two underfloor storage boxes.
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I then filled the voids with 2 layers of 3/4" foam and after a lot of sanding to make it flush, I covered the bottom with 1/4" ply.
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Here is a close up of the underfloor storage box.
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Casey
Build Journal: viewtopic.php?f=50&t=71456
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cma713
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Re: Florida Benroy

Postby Mr. Lahey » Fri Mar 15, 2019 4:59 am

That's sure a good looking start to your project. I hope it goes well and you can stick to your timeline to complete it.
Don't forget to update us here. More pictures are always welcome.
My teardrop camper build journal: http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=64721
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Re: Florida Benroy

Postby FM82 » Sun Mar 17, 2019 3:48 pm

Good looking work, Casey. I'll be following along with your build. Looking forward to seeing your progress. I'm from Florida also. Always nice to see ideas for combating a similar climate. The extra space from the lengthening will be nice. I did mine off of a 7' length, which was perfectly fine, at the beginning. As my build plan has morphed, I'm thinking some wishful thinking will cross my mind many times, once I finally get it finished and use it several times.

Anyway, good luck to you on your build!

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Re: Florida Benroy

Postby ratrod71 » Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:53 pm

Go Girl Go. You can do it. Keep your eyes on the prize.
Alaskan Benroy build journal: viewtopic.php?f=50&t=61738
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Re: Florida Benroy

Postby cma713 » Mon Mar 18, 2019 6:54 pm

Thanks FM82... including an A/C is a must with the Florida weather so I am glad to have the extra length to make up for the space it will take up.
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Re: Florida Benroy

Postby cma713 » Mon Mar 18, 2019 7:29 pm

During Christmas Break, I was able to get my template cut out and finalize the profile. If I could redo the template, I wouldn't place the pieces that I used to glue the multiple pieces of plywood together so close to the edge since I ended up needing to cut some of it away from the edges to make a flat surface to follow along with router.

The sidewalls will sit on top of the floor and are 51" tall. I knew that I wanted the walls to be taller than 4' since I had tested out some different commercially built teardrops that had 4' sidewalls to help decide on a size for my build. I landed on 51" tall side walls by measuring our garage door opening and figured out the tallest I could go taking into account the roof vent height. The front curve has a radius of 18" and the rear curve has a 36" radius. I then used a 3 wing router bit and spliced together some 3/4" ply for the wall. Once I got the window openings and insulation voids cut out, I was able to attach the 1/8" ply inner skins.
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Re: Florida Benroy

Postby cma713 » Mon Mar 18, 2019 7:53 pm

I was also able to coat the bottom of the floor with two to three(in certain places) coats of Black Beauty fence paint. I left about 4 inches of space around the edge uncoated to wrap with PMF then paint the canvas on the bottom with the fence paint to waterproof it leaving an inch wrapped up around the side so I can overlap it with the side canvas later. I haven't see anyone else do it this way, so I hope it works. It seemed to be my best option since I originally thought I could just lift up the whole trailer body up a few inches after assembling everything and wrap the canvas from the walls around the floor but after feeling how heavy just the floor was, I didn't even want to think of how difficult it would be to lift up the whole body after it was complete to do that. I covered all screw holes/seams with some asphalt roof caulking after the fence paint dried.

The last two pictures show what I am doing with the PMF wrapped around the bottom of the floor. I am hoping that since the fence paint is good enough to waterproof the rest of the floor it would work well with the canvas to do the same.
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Casey
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Re: Florida Benroy

Postby FM82 » Tue Mar 19, 2019 5:08 pm

cma713 wrote:Thanks FM82... including an A/C is a must with the Florida weather so I am glad to have the extra length to make up for the space it will take up.
No doubt! I completely agree. Much to hot and humid to go without.

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Re: Florida Benroy

Postby cma713 » Wed Mar 20, 2019 6:06 pm

Before attaching the 1/4" outer skin, I cut the ledge for the ceiling panel and spars to rest on. I used a jig made from a piece of 1/8" ply for the ceiling and a 1.5" spar to draw the line to cut the ledge. Rather than buy the rotozip bit to cut the ledge, I used an 1/8" router bit to cut as deep as I could with multiple passes then finished the cut with a jigsaw. I cleaned up the last bit of wood that needed to be removed to allow space for the ceiling with a sander. This ended up being a little bit more work than just buying the rotozip bit and adapter, but I didn't want to spend extra or wait for shipping. After the ledge was cut, I glued on the outer skins and used a flush trim bit and template to trim the skins to the appropriate shape.
Because I am including a porthole window that is for either 1/8" or 1.5" wall thickness and mine is a bit less that 1-1/8", I was thinking I would only have to create a small spacer from 1/2" ply to span the gap from the wall to the trim ring. After I made the ring, I also found that I had to route out a bit of the interior wall around the window opening since the bottom of the trim ring had a bigger diameter than the window where they met together.
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Re: Florida Benroy

Postby cma713 » Wed Mar 20, 2019 6:34 pm

This is the part of the build that I was avoiding for as long as I could.... cutting the doors. I was trying to make sure that I had enough time to work slowly and not feel rushed since I wouldn't get a second chance. I took my time and used a circular saw on the straight sections and a jig saw with a new, good blade for the curves. I have had issues in the past with jigsaw blades bending while cutting thicker wood but with a nice blade and making sure not to rush prevented that from happening here. I am pleased with how the doors turned out. After the doors were cut out, I cut the bottom of the door jamb and the top of the door at a 7 degree angle to help water not pool in those areas. I also cut the hatch sides from the walls.
The actual trailer got the finishing touches last week. My brother was able to weld on a 2" receiver on the rear of the trailer for a bike rack and an additional 2" receiver on the driver's side to the rear of the tire to move the bike rack to while we are at camp. He was also able to get the trailer painted. Since I forgot to include the axle info in my first post, the axle is a 72" 2000# Dexter ALKO Trailer Axle with brake flanges already welded on since I will be adding trailer brakes in the future. The trailer brakes aren't a complete necessity for the trips we go on in Florida, but I want to make sure that I have them for when we go north and have to drive in the mountains.
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Re: Florida Benroy

Postby cma713 » Mon Apr 08, 2019 7:34 pm

In the past few weeks, I have been able to get alot done during spring break and each weekend. I cut all the spars from 2x6s down to 1x2s and glued 2 together for each spar. I glued up the ceiling panels and got the walls attached. Getting the walls attached was the most exciting part of the build so far since it finally feels like a real teardrop. Apparently my pattern that I cut the walls from wasn't completely straight on the bottom so I had to sand the bottom of each wall in certain places to make it flush with the floor before attaching it.
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Casey
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Re: Florida Benroy

Postby cma713 » Mon Apr 08, 2019 7:49 pm

Installing the ceiling was definitely a 2 person job and even still we needed some ratchet straps for some extra help holding things in place while I applied the PL premium and nailed it down. I am pretty pleased with how it looks but I will have to fill some small gaps in some places where the ceiling and the wall didn't sit as flush as I would have liked. You can see the gaps in one of the pictures right above porthole window/door area.
The last 5 pictures show the inner galley wall/hatch seal being cut out. Instead of cutting out the 1/4" seal area with a router, I made the markings then cut it out with a jigsaw and sanded the edges to clean it up. The 1/8" plywood spacer for the inner galley wall was a great way to use up all the random scraps.
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Re: Florida Benroy

Postby cma713 » Mon Apr 08, 2019 8:18 pm

I installed most of the roof spars. The only ones I couldn't install yet were the ones that frame the stargazer window and roof vent. I was waiting on them to be delivered before framing the openings. In the meantime, I got to work on the bulkhead. I split bulkhead by having the top portion set further back so I could have deeper upper cabinets in the galley. The upper portion also was spliced from 2 smaller pieces of plywood to avoid having to buy an extra sheet of 3/4" ply. The lower bulkhead is set so there is exactly 6 1/2 feet on the inside for the queen mattress.

After getting annoyed with trying to erase pencil marks from the wood completely, I decided to plan the layout of the galley and interior cabinets by tacking up some wrapping paper so I could draw and change things as many times as I wanted without marking up the wood. It has been nicer since getting to this part of the build since many of these small projects can be done in the evening after work without having to clear the entire garage to work like I had to with the previous steps. I am able to get much more done now since I am not waiting for the weekends to work on it.

The interior cabinets are framed with more 1x2's that I ripped down from 2x6's. I attached small cleats to support the cabinet bottom made from 1/4" plywood. The lower center portion of the interior cabinet was framed with the intention of hanging a small tv no larger than 15" from the cabinet door. I plan to have the cabinet behind the tv be a place for all the wiring for the radio and outlets to run since directly behind it on the other side of the bulkhead will be the PD4045 power center.

By this time, the stargazer window and roof vent had been delivered so I was able to finish installing the final roof spars and cut the openings.
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Casey
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Re: Florida Benroy

Postby KCStudly » Tue May 28, 2019 6:55 am

Very nice work. :thumbsup: :applause:
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Re: Florida Benroy

Postby tony.latham » Tue May 28, 2019 9:27 am

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

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