I Have Power

The electrical wiring was by far my biggest worry on this project. There was no way I was going to try and figure it out on my own because electricity is very dangerous and I wasn't about to take any chances on getting hurt or starting a fire. My dad has done some electrical work in the past so I asked him to help me. Once he showed me how to run the first circuit, it was surprisingly easy to run the rest of them. I decided to go with a 15 amp service instead of a 30 amp. The 30 amp would have been almost triple the price. My only limitation with the 15 amp is that I will have to turn the air conditioner off in order to run the microwave.

I Wasn't Taking a Break

I've had several people ask me why I stopped working on my trailer because I haven't posted anything lately. I didn't stop working on it. I just didn't have anything very exciting to post. But now I do. I just finished my little dinette table and it is so cute! It's made out of left over fiberboard from the counter top. I used the folding leg and brackets from the table in the old camper. I glued thin wooden rails to the cabinet fronts so the table can be lowered down to make one big bed out of the two separate beds on either side of the trailer.

And now for something much less exciting. The other thing I have been working on is getting my air conditioner installed. When it is pushed out like it is supposed to be, it sticks out past the bumper. This could potentially cause a bad situation if I were to get rear ended while towing. In order to avoid that, the AC cannot be permanently mounted so that it can come in and out of the trailer. Not mounting it with the brackets that it comes with causes a problem of making sure it doesn't fall out of the back of the trailer. I attached a little wooden shelf to the bumper to solve the problem but I am not happy with it and I am currently researching a better way to install it. I have seen pictures of people attaching drawer slides directly to the AC. I haven't found any step by step instructions but I going to try it based on what I see in the pictures. I also ended up returning the first AC I bought because it was broken. I bought a different brand to replace it because the Goldstar had these metal clips on the bottom that were causing problems due to the fact that I am using the AC in a totally different way from which it is intended to be used.

Doggie Door?

I cut the hole in the back of the trailer for the air conditioner but my crazy dogs seem to think that it's a door for them.

One Light Fixture Up

I really hope that these fixtures are going to work because I love the way they look. They totally fit the style of my camper. I made the box for the light out of plywood and a 1X3. I attached it to the wall with a piano hinge. I put it on a hinge so that I could still get to the wires once the roof is on. It doesn't tilt down as much as I was hoping it would but I am using hinges that came out of my old camper so if it doesn't work, at least it didn't cost me anything.

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.