Dreaming of My Teardrop

I love the way my mind works.  Even though I'm super busy this week and won't have much time, if any, to work on the Carpe Diem, my mind has been hard at work solving some of my design 'problems.'

Problem One:  How to make the 'seams' where the wall and 'floor,' which are covered in insulation and headliner, come together in a way that looks finished.  I found a soft rubber that has a slight bend to it.  It is originally designed for the bottom of a garage door, but I think, with the right glue, it will fit perfectly along the seams.  This will also be a great way to cover the machine screw/bolts that hold the plywood floor to the walls of the teardrop.  Here is what the material looks like.

This also 'solves' another problem I had; my mattress is not going to 'perfectly' fit the width of the teardrop.  I would have had a problem with the heads of the screw/bolts.  I could imagine them scratching fingers or hands and being cold in colder months.  This will cover them and provide a tiny amount of cushion as well.

Problem Two:  How to insulate the doors and still maintain the integrity of the hinge mechanisms. The way my teardrop is designed, the hinges, which are brass, are mounted directly on the inside of the teardrop and to the door.  Because they are bolted in both positions, they are firm and very sturdy.  I wanted to add insulation for two reasons.  One: it would make the 'wall' when the doors were shut, the same 'thickness.'  Two: it would allow me to cover the whole door with the headliner to give the edges a finished look.  I'm working to make the inside of the teardrop look like it was made that way intentionally, not just thrown together in a make-shift fashion.

My solution; cut pieces of plywood to mount to the door and the wall which will bring the thickness of both the door and wall to the same thickness as the 1" insulation panels.  Then, I can simply cover the plywood at the same time I finish the foam core.  I'll then bolt through both the wood and the covering of headliner.  The hinge will then be visible, but will be solid.  The gray that I've painted the interior skin will compliment the subtle charcoal gray of the headliner.

Now, back to my regularly scheduled, busy work week!  My mind will be running in the background.  Next problem to mentally work on:  how best to construct the galley cabinets to allow for a power center with my fuse box and how to create a pull out drawer for the cooking stove...

Saturday

My Wingman, Jim Tingey was back for a status update today.  He helped me jack up the teardrop in order to anchor the edges of the plywood floor which needed to be bolted together.  We also completed the bulkhead installation of the green treated board.

Next, I measured and cut the first piece of headliner for the floor.  Simply placing it on the floor of the teardrop immediately made a huge difference!  The whole space was more 'finished' and pleasant.  Unfortunately, I had to remove the storage boxes and start over with the aluminum trim.  I was too eager to have the floor boxes in place and realized that with the headliner on the floor, I would need to re-do the aluminum edging.  Nonetheless, it looks much, much better.  I didn't use any contact cement yet.  It's too cold and I'm weighing the benefits of the material I have.  I may end up returning the gallon of contact cement and going with a spray adhesive from 3M.  I'm researching that for a later date.

In addition to 're-doing' the trim, I decided to anchor the boxes to the frame with some of the left over aluminum angle material that was left over from removing the galley.  I screwed the angle to the frame and then screwed the boxes to it.  This is a much more secure way to do the floor boxes anyway.  I should have done it that way in the first place. Well, I should say, I tried to do this.  I need to invest in some jacks to get the trailer up in the air, even a few inches will greatly increase my ability to work on it.  I plan on picking a set up from Harbor Freight tomorrow.

I showed the door hardware and the ventilation fan to Jim.  He was impressed with the fan!  One thing I discovered, kinda by accident, is that the fan's blades are clear which allows you to be able to 'see' the stars through the vent!  I'm thinking about where to place the vent in order to take advantage of this awesome design feature.

I may go ahead and cut the opening for the ventilation fan tomorrow.  It would be nice to have the additional light in the cabin while I'm working on it; plus this would motivate me to get the other electrical work started.


I started measuring the cabin for the foam that I plan to install.  I turned to Sketchup again to help me with figuring out my materials.  The end result is pretty cool, take a look:

Above you can see the 4 x 8 sheets with all the individual sections marked out.  My plan, at this point is to install the headliner on the individual pieces of foam and then install the pieces.  By doing this, I should eliminate the need for large sheets of headliner to be installed.  That's the plan at this point.

I'm getting ahead of myself.  The galley needs to be at least roughed in completely before I can start installing the electric.  

Galley Animation and Windows!

So, this was fun.  I was able to make this sketch up design in about an hour today.  It's not exactly to scale, but its a lot easier than monkeying around with pieces of wood in the garage.  I was able to experiment with different size cabinets, counter tops, etc.  I'm so glad that I took the time to learn how to use this tool!  Unfortunately, the 'actual' measurements are a little tighter than the model I made here.  I'm trying to find a way to store our Coleman stove during transport and make an elegant way to use it when in camp.  I'm leaning toward a side table that will allow us to use the stove.



Galley Design One from Todd Burleson on Vimeo.

My windows arrived today.  They look pretty spiffy.  

I am going to have to do some cutting of the door to make them fit, but I think it's going to work out great.  I'm a little anxious about cutting the door; it has an aluminum 'L' piece that I'll need to trim in order to make these fit just right.  It's time to invest in a few good quality metal scroll saw blades!  However, I'm so happy that the rubber seal will cover the holes for the hinges that the previous owner cut into the aluminum!  This is the door that I still have to remove all the rust spots. 

Rough Draft Animation

I discovered that I could make an animation of my design in Sketchup.  This is amazingly cool!


Rough Draft Animation from Todd Burleson on Vimeo.

Sketches

I don't get much 'work' done on the teardrop during the week, but that doesn't mean my mind isn't working on problems and ideas for it!

I took some time yesterday to try to measure as many parts of the teardrop as possible.  I'm finding Google Sketch Up to be a real challenge; probably should have started with something a bit simpler at this point, but its fun to experiment.

Here are my rough drafts.

This is the side view.  I drew it so that you could see through the side of the trailer.

 Rear view; the blue rectangle is the cooler which will be on a pull out slider.

 You can see the cabinetry of the galley and the rough cabinets inside the cabin.

 Side view:  you can see the wheel wells and interior cabinets.

 You can see all the way through the trailer in this image.

 This gives you a sense of the layout in the galley a bit better.

An above view.

I learned a lot about working with Google Sketch Up.  I think these look pretty darn good!  The key was having very specific measurements from the actual teardrop to put into the drawing program.  I learned that you can make the walls transparent.  This allows you to 'see inside' which is very hard to sketch by hand.  I think I'll go back and tweak the cabinetry in the galley and the cabin a bit more in future versions.

 The back view of the galley.

 Possible layouts.

 Estimates for headliner materials.

 Top view above.  Key measurements on the side of the teardrop.

 Battery compartment and power panel possible layout.

 I had no idea how perfectly symmetrical this design was.  It is truly 60.5" wide and 60.5" high.

Key measurements of the galley area.  It's a lot tighter than a lot of other designs.