new house is here

[jimindenver]

It was my pleasure HDR

 

[rokguy]

Nice trailer, highdesertranger, I haven't been on here for quite a while so I'm catching up on some older posts.
Nice to come back.

 

[highdesertranger]

hey I remember you, you are the stone cutter. welcome back.. thanks. highdesertranger

 

[rokguy]

Yep that's me, still living the dream.

 

[B and C]

OK. Inquiring minds want to know. Now that it is November and you were gone for awhile; make any good progress on the trailer?

 

[rvwandering]

Yeah, and where are the pictures? ;-)

 

[user 22017]

what kind of stuff?

well I have 2 of the 435 watt solar panels...

Congratulations HDR. I didn't know you bought a trailer. I like what you said about throwing a cot in it & you're ready.

 

[highdesertranger]

I have been sleeping in it for about a week. progress is slow. pics in a few days. I forgot my camera but my buddy took some pics. the bummer is work called and I need to go back hopefully that is a short gig. highdesertranger

 

[rokguy]

Yes, we need pictures.

 

[highdesertranger]

ok here is some pics. not really a good how to type build pics.  like I said I didn't have my camera with me so I asked my buddy to take pics but this was after a couple of days of work.  I wanted to get the rack going to mount the solar panels but the first 4 days where very windy and cold. so most of the work was done inside.



I got the front wall insulated and the bottom piece of 3/4 inch plywood mounted on the front wall.  plus one window and the RV door.

also the 3M two faced tape failed on one of the side panels. my guess is they didn't prep the seem good enough and the extreme heat of the Arizona summer expanding the aluminum caused a separation of about a foot. so instead of worrying about another seam failure I reinforced all of them on the side that failed. I plan on doing the other side too.

so without further ado,



in this pic you get a better shot of the Cleco's.  also the area within the circle is where the seemed failed.  you can't even tell in the pic.





in this pic you can see the door, the window,  and the reinforcing except for the one piece that goes over the door.   I don't know if they will show up but the reinforcement are only put up temporarily in this pic. they are only held up with Cleco's.


here is some old fart(me) making brakets.

more to come.

highdesertranger

 

[highdesertranger]

I don't have any idea why but the order of the pics got all out of wack. highdesertranger

 

[Cammalu]

Sharp, sharp trailer!

 

[highdesertranger]

here's my number 1 assistant,


behind him is the front wall.  you can see the insulation,  1.5 inches of Polyiso and the 3/4 plywood.  the reason for the 3/4 ply is all the main electrical components will be screwed to it.


here I am holding the cutout for the door.  notice how we had to cut studs to install the door and window.  we then added a header.






in this series of pics I am installing the door header.


door header installed. just the side stud left to go.

more to come.

highdesertranger

 

[bullfrog]

So HDR I'm wondering, whether the panels originally held on with only tape and the metal expanded beyond the tape's flex point and the tape released or did they have fasteners as well where you are putting the reinforcements? Will the reinforcements be loose enough to allow the metal to expand without breaking the seal? If not won't the oil canning eventually cause the aluminum to stress crack at the edge of the reinforcement? I know metal roofs used to use oversize rubber washers under screws with metal washers and enlarged holes to allow for expansion but now I believe they use clips. I wonder if some of the aircraft builders can give us some insight on how skinned trailers should be built to maintain a water tight seal. That is a lot of work to do on a new trailer!

 

[Qxxx]

Some beautiful rig, HDR. Lots of walls. Hope you get the insulation all installed before winter ends, lol. Got a name yet? HDC, High Desert Casagrande?

 

[Jimmyflorida]

LOOKING GOOD !!!

 

[highdesertranger]

bullfrog, I think it was more of an failure to prep correctly. where the seem popped the tape was not stuck to one side. believe me where we had to cut the studs out it was a PITA. I had to take a piece of stainless wire and insert between the stud and the wall panel. I would then heat up the wire red hot and pull it very hard to cut the tape. it would only cut about 6 inches at a time before the wire cooled off.

I glued everything with 3M 5200 and I did drill over size the holes for the hardware. there were no screws holding the wall panels only the tape. hopefully the trailer won't be in 125° temps anymore like it was last summer.

highdesertranger

 

[bullfrog]

Well I guess it is good that it was hard to cut the tape as where it stuck it really stuck. I used to use guitar strings with a couple wooden dowels as handles to cut out glued in broken windshields and in the foam world they use welding wire hooked up to a battery charger or some use an old model train transformer to control the heat to cut foam. Hope you don't have to make too many more cuts. Your trailer looks well built but man that is a lot of room to have to build out. Don't forget the nugget display case! LOL!!!

 

[Qxxx]

Yeah, foam cutter. Many years ago, we had a thick piece of nichrome wire hooked to a variac, used to cut 3' blocks of foam to use for canoe flotation.

 

[highdesertranger]

here we go another update.  I went to Arizona for Thanksgiving week and worked on the trailer.  so with out further ado,





work area





another shot


in this shot you can see the welding table and one part of the roof rack being assembled on it.


now it's in the paint shop.


another paint shop pic.  BTW that is 66788's step van

more to come,

highdesertranger