Odds and ends

We took a long weekend to do some birthday stuff, but also to catch up on some miscellaneous trailer tasks.  Next weekend we will play trailer tourist at the big Pismo Trailer Rally, so we probably won't get much time on our trailer for a few weeks.

The first task was to frame in the rest of the bed.  It needed some outside framing on the back wall to hold the supports, then the top portion can slide out from couch to bed.

We will probably add a leg or some other support under the front, as 1/4" of plywood just doesn't seem like enough for nearly 400lbs of us.

The next task was to prop up the rear ceiling that seems to have sagged a bit after being installed.  Using cheap home depot pine was probably a mistake here.  First, we built a support and pushed the ceiling up as high as we could.

Then we glued an already bowed rafter next to the bent one.  The next day, after removing the support the ceiling ended up just a little high, leaving some room for more sag down to flat.

 After that, we decided to get the prebuilt window framing out of the garage.  We had been waiting on this for when we had the roof skin laid out, so we could place the windows exactly, but tacking them in place still lets us move them a bit if needed.

Finally, to try and reduce any more wood damage from the blistering sun, we insulated as much of the sides and roof as possible using rigid foam insulation material.

With only two sides and half the roof, the temperature inside is already at least 10 degrees cooler...very tolerable to sit and relax and think about the electrical work we need to do next.

The Final Post on the Final Cabinet

Finally finished the cabinet over the dinette.  Now we can move on to electrical, insulation and button the old girl back up.

Uh Oh Part 8, and getting back to the build

The old girl has been tarped up for several weeks, barricaded against the light rain, high winds and the busy schedules of a family including two little girls.  This weekend, we had a break in both the weather and our schedule, so we unwrapped the tarps only to find that one of the ceiling panels had gotten cooked...the shellac was popped and delaminating and looked terrible.

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Luckily this panel gets a cabinet and a vent, so less will show.  We'll have to sand and reshellac this panel later after we get the rest of the trailer back together.  After this little setback, we moved on, installing the last two panels in the lower rear and front.  Both were hidden behind cabinets, so we used the panel that looked the worst.

Finally, we got back to the last cabinet above the dinette.  Originally it had one large opening with ugly sliders, but it was so rotten, we rebuilt the whole thing using recycled ash panels.  For this version, we added two openings and will later build doors from birch.

The final cabinet

After a frantic 3 day weekend, our trailer turned out pretty sturdy.  It weathered multiple windstorms and even a late season rain shower.  Consequently, our sense of urgency waned...Last weekend was a total bust...next weekend is fully booked.  This Sunday, we did manage to get a little bit done, rebuilding the final cabinet that goes above the dinette.  This cabinet was in the worst shape as the vent leak drained straight across and totally rotted out the bottom and the right side.

On top of that, it had a big hole for an ugly light fixture that we didn't intend to reuse and was the longest cabinet at 80 inches, meaning our stock of recycled ash panels would be stretched to the limits.

We tried cutting off the bad parts (see line in picture #1), but it ended up too short, so we started the rebuild process using as much of the old framing as we could.  We'll probably make a cabinet with two doors and some LED pucks to light the dinette.

Trailer Raising: Day 3

 Our goal this weekend was to get a pile of parts put together into a trailer that could withstand the gusty winds we've been having.  We spent the morning running errands, but still managed to get enough assembled to make the trailer pretty sturdy.  We started with the back curve wall, muscling the paneling into submission, after 2 unsuccessful tries we ended up adding some additional framing at the top to help hold the curve.

After the ordeal of the rear curve, we got a little smarter and used a ratchet strap to pull the front curve into shape.  We made a bit of a mistake here starting at the bottom of the panel, so when we got to the top, there was a tiny overlap.  We wrestled that flat and used the front overhead cabinet to pull the ceiling down flat.

 While securing all the the cabinets to the floor and walls for structure, we took a little time to mount the old table for the kids to use at snack time.  Our plan is to replace the laminate and cushions with something a little nicer once the trailer is more together.

The rear curve actually came out pretty nice.  It has a little bulge, but that only makes our tiny trailer seem that much bigger.

Trailer Raising: Day 2

On day 2, the trailer kit we've spent months building actually seemed to go together pretty well.  The curb side floor was not very flat, so we attached the wall in the middle and used shims against our clamped wall holding boards to flatten the floor out.  The secret to these trailers is the the metal frame is actually pretty floppy...it's the unibody camper box that actually holds it all together.

The street side wall was actually pretty easy...just lift, hold and screw every 6 inches with 2.5" deck screws into the plywood, fir joists and the cleats.

 Since the walls don't stay upright without some help, we quickly installed as many of the ceiling panels as we had time to do.

Day 2, and it's starting to look like a camper again.

Trailer Raising: Day 1

We took Friday off to get ready for our big trailer raising extravaganza.  The first day, we set all the cabinets in place, screwed them together and stapled the welting to all of the cabinet edges.

 To make installing the walls easier, we clamped some 2x3 boards to the edges to rest the walls on.

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Since we were a little worried about the thin, 1-1//2" floor, we added some cleats inside the cabinets to give us additional thickness to screw the walls into.