Zero Progress

I didn't make any progress on the trailer this weekend because I spent the entire weekend looking for light fixtures. I am very limited as to what I can use because my walls are solid. I am also limited by price as I am not going to spend a ton of money on anything that is labeled "rv" or "marine".

These are the first set of lights I bought. The instructions stated very clearly that these cannot be hardwired. Each light has a cord, all of the cords plug into a power strip, then the power strip plugs into an outlet. After I bought the lights I saw them installed in a store display and they looked terrible. There were cords everywhere.

These are the second set of lights I bought. These are meant to be hardwired in a series and connected to a switch. They seemed perfect and I really liked them but they use halogen bulbs which get very hot. Once I read the instructions for the spacing, I realized that I couldn't use them.

This is my third attempt. So far, it seems like this is going to work. I bought small frosted bulbs to in them and they look really cute with the tiny bulbs. I will not be mounting them on the wall. I am building shallow boxes for them and they will be mounted so that the bulbs are pointing down. It's hard to explain but I will post pictures once the boxes are done. That is unless I discover some reason why I can't use these!

Getting Ready to Wire

This week, I have been installing electrical boxes so that I can run the wiring. Since I used solid wall construction instead of sandwich, I have to be creative in order to hide all of the electrical components. I also put in the countertop since there are 2 receptacles in the top of it. I used something I got at Lowes called fiberboard. It is supposed to be less likely to sag than plywood and it has a nice smooth surface that I was told can be painted.

All 4 Walls and a Doorway

I purposely held off on putting on the front wall because I wanted to get as much framing done as possible before boxing myself in. Once the beds were framed out, I couldn't really move forward without the front wall. So I attached the front wall which then made it safe to cut out the doorway. This made a huge difference in the feel of the trailer. Now you can totally get a sense of what it will be like inside once it's done.

Bed/Seat #2

The 2nd bed/seat is now framed. I made it exactly like the first one so it was fairly quick and easy.

Crates

Instead of buying new crates, I got used crates from the rescue group where I volunteer

http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/anewbeginning.html

By getting them there, I had access to a wide variety of sizes. I was able to find the perfect configuration for the space I have available. Thank you, Abby.

How I Got My Cooler

I first started looking for a cooler months ago. I thought this would be something that would be very easy to find in either pink or lime green. I spent hours searching the net and watching ebay without any luck. There are plenty of small coolers in these colors but none the size that I need. I was pretty much resigned to the fact that I would have to settle for a white one when I got an excited phone call from my sister. In the break room at her job, she had spied this awesome lime green cooler. She got on the case and found out who owned it. She told the woman the whole travel trailer building story and explained why I needed her cooler. I can only imagine how that conversation went. Luckily for me, the woman was not attached to her cooler and couldn't care less about the color. She said she would be willing to sell it for the cost of a new one. SOLD!!!!! I gave her $30 for it.....a 5 year old slightly scuffed up cooler.......well worth the price. This is the first thing I have put in my camper that is the appropriate color. It is very exciting to see it in there.

Framing

*****Hey Brian, I can't find the comment you posted. It must be lost somewhere in cyberspace*******

I have the door side bed/seat framed out. I don't know anything about framing so this is totally just made up. My sister and I spent almost 3 hours talking, measuring, and putting tape on the floor before we finally got started. I really like the way it turned out though. It feels very sturdy.

Vinyl Tiles

Covering the floor was such a pain. It started when I realized that vinyl does not come in any fun colors or patterns. All of it is very serious house type stuff. So I decided to go with something really plain and unnoticeable and just put some funky rugs over it. I had read and heard mixed reviews on whether or not the tiles would stay stuck down with the adhesive that is already on the back. I spent quite a bit of time sanding and prepping the floor so I felt like it was safe to stick them down without any extra glue. I put down about half of the tiles and when I looked at it the next morning, there were already tiles peeling up. Then I had to get some vinyl glue and try to get it under the partially stuck down tiles. Obviously this was much harder to do than if I had just used the glue in the first place. This was a tedious, messy job and I'm not real happy with the way it looks. All I can say is that I'm glad about 80% of the floor will not be seen anyway.

Back Wall

The back wall is up. That was very quick and easy. The front and back walls are 1/2 ply up until the walls start to curve. I will need to switch to something thinner in order to bend around the curves. I think I will be using two pieces of 1/8 doors skin glued together.

Girl Power ROCKS the Powder Puff!

Craig is gone so it was time to get some girl power going on my trailer. Deanna, a teammate from my flyball team and my sister came over to help attach the walls. We used 2 car jacks to get the walls into position. Deanna and Kimberly held the walls steady on the jacks while I scewed them on. It was a seamless demonstration of team work just like when we are on the flyball lanes. Today was the most fun I have had so far working on my little trailer project.

Wall #2

The second wall is done now. The walls are 5/8 inch CDX plywood. I decided to go with the cheap stuff since I am painting everything inside anyway. This was around $15 per sheet as opposed to the nice stuff which was over $30 per sheet. The walls are 3 sections that are butt jointed together with 1X3s. The framing pieces around the perimeter are 1X2s and custom cut 5/8 ply to match up with the curves. There is a slight size difference where they meet but I feathered it down with a sander pretty easily. In order to make the walls match each other, I stood them up and clamped them together and sanded them with an angle grider. Now they are ready to attach.

I Have a Wall

I said in an earlier post that Craig would only be an advisor on my trailer project. I told him when he got here that I did not want him to help with the construction because it was important for me to be able to say that my sister and I built this trailer without any help. But as it turns out, the three of us make a great team. Kimberly and Craig built this awsome wall while I finished putting the rest of the cleat on the floor. I know that I could have done this without his help but I couldn't have done it as well and it certainly would have taken ten times longer. I didn't start this project because I wanted to build a trailer. I am doing this because I need the ability to travel with my dogs and there was nothing that I could buy that suited my needs. I won't be able to say my trailer was 100% chic built but it will be finished sooner than I thought and it's going to be very well built. Thanks for everything, Craig.

More Floor Progress

One side of the cleat is on. The cleat is a 2X2 attached with 1/4 hex bolts, locking washers and titebond glue. The bolt goes through the cleat, through the floor and through the frame. It is a super strong connection, no worries about the walls coming off.

Using the Right Tool for the Job

No luck finding self tapping screws with a Robertson head. I ended up with the same screws but a different driver bit. It's a special bit with little ridges on the tip that are supposed to hold on to the screw better. WOW, what a difference. This time the screws went right in with no problem. Ace Hardware rocks, thanks Brian!

The Floor is Attached

Putting the floor on wasn't as fun as I thought it was going to be. I was excited about using the screws that I got to attach it with. The guy at Lowe's said they were self taping and that they would counter sink on their own. Well, not exactly. They were Philip's head screws and they were a real pain to deal with, lots of chewed up bits and stripped screw heads. I will try to find some Robertson self taping screws to finish the job.

Not Exactly What I Was Hoping For

The floor still isn't attached. Believe it or not, it took almost the entire afternoon to get these 3 pieces of wood into the frame. I need to use 1/2 inch plywood for the floor to keep the over all height down. But because I am using such thin plywood, there are some places in the frame that need extra support. The piece in the back needed to be put in because I am extending the floor out further than the original floor. These pieces were 2X6s that had to be ripped down and a small notch taken out in order to fit within the frame. They are screwed in on the ends with 2 inch screws. Getting them in took much longer than I thought it would but I am very happy with the results.

Technical Advisor/Floor Started

My technical advisor has arrived all the way from Canada. Craig is an engineer. He will be an advisor only. He will not be doing any of the building on my trailer. After a 4 hour planning session, Craig left and I got started on the floor. I got the holes cut out for the wheel wells,



and I got the protective coating (roof tar) on the underside of the floor.

Hopefully, tomorrow I will get the floor attached.

Floor Wood

I got the wood for the floor. I thought that getting it home would be difficult because the pieces are so big. But that part was actually easy. The hard part was dealing with the idiots working at Home Depot and Lowes. I went in Home Depot first and asked for CDX 1/2 plywood. The guy in the lumber department was so over the top rude that I just left the store. Then I went to Lowes. The guy in there wasn't rude but he couldn't give me what I wanted either. He had no idea what I was talking about and said that they don't use the term CDX for their plywood. I ended up with something 1/2 inch but I don't know what kind of plywood it is.

Surprise!

My flyball team threw me a surprise Trailer/Birthday party today. They got me a ton of pink and green stuff to go inside my trailer. It is all so pretty. I can't wait to see it inside the Powder Puff.

Now, That's Ironic

This morning I loaded up my truck with all of the aluminum from the camper I tore apart and headed off to a place that buys scrap metal. The place is located in a very shady part of town so I was fairly nervous about going there. As expected, the clientele were far from classy. There were no signs telling me what the procedure was so I was circling the building clearly looking confused. A homeless man appeared out of nowhere and told me what to do. He also asked me if I would kindly bring in his bag of cans with me because they only allow people with vehicles to drop items off. Fearing that I might set off some type of psychotic episode if I said no, I agreed to take his cans. After weighing my aluminum and the cans, they gave me a ticket which I took to a window and was given $54.20. A dollar, twenty of that was the cans. So I got back exactly $3 more than what I originally paid for the trailer. My excitement about the money was short-lived because then I realized that I still had to face the homeless man waiting outside. I showed him my receipt and gave him $2 which I thought he would be happy with but instead he started ranting about how he should have gotten more money and claiming that my aluminum actually belonged to him. I just smiled and laughed and quickly got in my truck and sped away.

The Floor Is Gone

It took almost as long to remove just the floor as it did to demolish in entire camper. The screws were so rusted that they could not be taken out. So the floor had to be sawed into pieces and pried off with a crowbar.

I Have Obtained A Tag!

Well, the dealer came through but as it turns out, he's actually not a used car dealer (oh, more misinformation).

The name of his establishment is Bellview Auto Salvage. So I figured it might be interesting to pick up the tag in person especially since he mentioned having a large selection of dead RVs. I was mainly hoping to score some windows as I have priced them new at $100 each.

After a survey of the "merchandise" we located some spectacular finds, 2 side windows and a possible window for the door. Of course once you have found an item you want, it's strictly self serve so we came prepared with the necessary equipment.
Today's grand total was a whopping $18 and here's what we left with:

Mind Numbing Stupidity

Yesterday, I decided that I had better get my camper registered before I go any further with the construction. When I picked up the camper, I was told that the title had been lost but that registering it without a title wouldn't be a problem. I was suspicious of this information but I thought that it was possible that campers could be different than cars when it comes to tags and registration...........wrong. As it turns out, any vehicle weighing 2000 lbs or more is required to have a title in order to register it. So I called the woman I bought it from and told her about the problem. She said her husband purchased the camper from a used car lot and was only given a receipt and not a title. Who on earth would shell out $350 for a vehicle on a car lot and not get a TITLE?! Then I called the used car lot. The guy pretended to have no knowledge of this camper and insisted that he never would have sold something without a title. Then he oddly offered to do whatever he could to help me get it registered. I found it very strange that he would go out of his way to help with something that supposedly had nothing to do with him. It's clear to me that he realized that I was a little smarter than the idiot he sold the camper to in the first place and he wanted to make sure that he made me go away. What was he thinking when he sold the camper without a title? Did he really think that wasn't going to come back and bite him? Anyway, he told me that he would get it registered in my name as a utility trailer under 2000 lbs. That way, I do not need a title. So now, my project is pretty much on hold until this gets cleared up........AUGH!

Oh, and one other thing, as I was looking for the VIN on the camper, I discovered that this thing is not a 1989. It is a 1979! Not that it matters for my purposes but it's hard to believe that the woman I bought it from couldn't even tell me what year it was.

Cardboard Floor Plan

Today, we used cardboard and pvc to lay out the floor plan. This floor plan is much different than the one we did on paper before I got the trailer. The first floor plan had bunk beds but I liked the layout of this camper better so we are going to rebuild it the way it was with a few modifications for the dogs.