Bubbles version 2.0: DONE!

[Martinjmpr]

Part 4

Part 4:

While I was up top removing the gutters, I noticed this:

See how the wood is starting to split apart? Not sure what, if anything, I can do about that at this point. As I said above, a complete sanding and re-finishing is in the works, but I'm not sure if that will fix this deterioration. I think what we will do is try to refinish as best we can for this year and if the problem continues (which I presume it will), I think I may have to look into something radical for a solution, like skinning the top (but not the sides) in aluminum. Any thoughts or recommendations on that?

Next I turned to the galley area. As you can see, the builder put a 110v electrical outlet to the galley. this "shore power" connector was not made for a vehicle, it was made for a home - like everything else he did, he bought his supplies at Home Depot.

That power connection went to a household-type power strip that sat in a box he constructed in the galley:

From there, power went to the AC unit in the galley (which we removed 2 weeks ago) and also through a hole in the bottom of the electrical box to a stereo system in the sleeping area.

Can you see the problem here? Again, I give mad props to the builder for being an expert wood craftsman - and then I have to take away points because he didn't seem to understand that he was building something that might, occasionally, have to be placed out in the rain. Here's what it looked like once I had the wooden box in the corner removed:

So you can probably guess what happened: When it rained, we either got leakage through the hatch (which was inadequately weather stripped) or through the shore power connector and then via that little 1" hole, water dripped straight into the sleeping compartment! Not good!

As you can see from the picture above, I removed the shore power connector, and then using my table saw for the first time (Christmas gift from my wife!)I made a filler piece using some of the extra wood from the box that used to enclose the power strip:

I'll use wood filler to seal any gaps around that so water can't get in. As for that devious little hole, I found a PVC pipe cap that will fit perfectly, and will, again, be sealed into place.

We will have some kind of electrical system, but it will be attached to the sleeping compartment via a tongue box (which we already have) and then will connect through the floor, so there won't be any way for rain water to come in and ruin our night!

That was pretty much it for this weekend, once we get the new axle and wheels we'll have a lot more flexibility in what we can do.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Interlude: Interior pics...

I didn't do a lot of work this weekend but I did take some pictures of the interior. At this time we're not planning on making any radical changes to the inside, though of course, that's always a possibility in the future.

Most of the interior decoration was done by Liz. She's quite creative and likes using Bubbles as her "canvas." She wanted to have a "fish" theme to Bubbles because of the "porthole" type windows (also where she got her name "Bubbles."):

I cut the little mini railings out and Liz painted them yellow. Since this is the head of our "bed", it's a nice place to put water bottles, glasses, phone, books, flashlight, etc. I have no idea where Liz go the stuffed fish:

When we got Bubbles last year, the builder had the plans tacked up on his wall. Liz asked if she could have a copy of the plans, which we then framed and put inside:

Most people put their "where I've been" RV map on the outside, but we didn't want anything on our gorgeous wood exterior, so Liz came up with the idea of putting this inside:

We have plans to go to Montana in June. Hmmm....We haven't been to Arizona or Texas or Washington yet.... :thinking:

Liz and I were in our 40's when we met so we both like this sign:

Anyway, that's about it for the interior. Hopefully next week I'll have the new axle on, some temporary wheels, a roof vent, and maybe some new fenders will be on the way! Stay tuned! :elkgrin:

 

[Waltzing Matilda]

Great personal touches! This really is becoming a work of art. Love the fish.

Reading this thread reminds me of my sailboat days...and why I have a truck (and a kayak) now. I am reminded that BOAT stands for "Bring Out Another Thousand."

And while you can easily do that with a truck, and the galley/cabin challenges can be similar, I'm much more likely to make use of the truck than I was the sailboat once I ended my liveaboard days.

Thanks for the interior shots and updates.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Great personal touches! This really is becoming a work of art. Love the fish.

Reading this thread reminds me of my sailboat days...and why I have a truck (and a kayak) now. I am reminded that BOAT stands for "Bring Out Another Thousand."

I've never owned a boat (though we have an old 17' Grumman Aluminum canoe now) but the saying I remember is the one that goes "the two happiest days I had with that boat were the day I bought it and the day I sold it."

 

[Martinjmpr]

Axle On!

Part 5:

We had a gorgeous warm evening yesterday so I had time to put the axle on.

Here's a nice comparison between axles. This is the old Dayton axle:

And here's the new one:

It took me and the buyer a good deal of effort to lift the old axle into the bed of his truck. This one I could pick up with one hand!

Installation was actually pretty easy. I used a scissor jack to hold the axle in place and then I just bolted it in:

It looks good and I think it has plenty of clearance, so that's a relief.

A couple of days ago I also scored some wheels off of CL. Of course, they weren't in great shape...

But they aren't dented, the rust seems to be just surface rust and they're structurally sound otherwise. Best of all, they were $20 for all three.

I did a "test fit" to make sure they'd work on the axle, and they do:

OK, I've never built a trailer before so I don't know: Does this look like enough clearance for the wheel & tire?

We're going to try and go with as low profile a tire as we can (BTW these are 15" wheels) and we'll be putting a fiberglass fender on, does it look like it will clear?

If not, I think I can get a spacer to put between the wheel and the hub, right?

This weekend's project will be to bolt everything up tight, work on making some cabinets for the galley area, and maybe scrubbing and sanding these wheels and shooting them with some primer. If I can get tires by next week that will be great, we can move the trailer around!

 

[Aspen Trails Trailers]

It looks like you will need a spacer. Normally the tire will be wider than the wheel at some point. Remember when the wheel travels up it also moves in at the top, possibly rubbing the side of the trailer.

Bob

 

[Martinjmpr]

OK. another productive day! Tightened up the axle and put on a set of temporary wheels (off of my little utility trailer) so we could move her around.

The drop in height is amazing! We love how low she sits now! Here's the comparison:

Before:

After:

I would imagine we lost almost a foot of height, which will make the trailer more comfortable to use and easier to tow. Of course, this is with little 12" wheels off my utility trailer, Bubbles is eventually going to get 15" wheels and tires that will move her up maybe another 4" or so.

 

[Martinjmpr]

The process continues:

So on Sunday Liz started sanding the side with the orbital sander to get the old finish and poly off.

I can tell already that it's going to be a laborious process!

I also fixed the hole in the galley that caused so much trouble:

Plugged it with a piece of PVC pipe cap and surrounded it with silicone sealer for good measure.

Then we went to Lowe's and picked out some floor tiles to deck the galley area with. Liz liked this one so of course I said "yes dear!" I'm no fool!

I think it complements the wood nicely. I also started building some storage cabinets for the back, while still leaving enough space to put our coleman stove.

Last weekend I picked up this guy at Harbor Freight:

It will go on the tongue....once we get the jockey wheel moved.

As you can see, the jockey wheel is mounted to a piece that is welded on so I guess I'll have to grind that off (ah yes, an opportunity to buy another tool.... :sombrero: )

The original plan was to put a battery in the tongue box and then run the electrical from there to the underside of the trailer so we could have electrical with no visible wires and (best of all) no way that rain could get in. But the more we thought about it, the more we think we're going to try and get by with batteries and solar. After all, Bubbles is not so much an "RV" as she is a "hard sided tent." We don't need home-like accomodations!

 

[climbingxj]

Nice build/re-build! Out of curiosity, is that an aluminum frame? I'm interested to see how your plans for electrical turn out; I'm planning on putting solar and a couple of batteries in mine, so I'll be watching.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Nice build/re-build! Out of curiosity, is that an aluminum frame? I'm interested to see how your plans for electrical turn out; I'm planning on putting solar and a couple of batteries in mine, so I'll be watching.

Oh, hell no! I wish it was aluminum, then it wouldn't weigh in excess of 1000lb! The frame is actually very heavy steel, I think it's 1/4" ( < ----- NOT a typo, that's ONE QUARTER INCH THICK SQUARE STEEL TUBING! :Wow1: )

At this point the most critical need is the need to repair and seal the cracked wood in the roof. We will either be looking at getting a fiberglass/epoxy coating (which would preserve the "all wood" look at the expense of needing more maintenance) or else "skinning" the top (but only the top) in aluminum. The aluminum finish would be more expensive, and wouldn't look as unique, but it would be pretty much a one-time expense, once that was done we wouldn't have to mess with it again.

As for the electrical, we are putting that on hold for the moment. So, this weekend we bought a couple of very nice battery powered LED lights, one for the cooking area and one for the interior. We will also be getting some kind of battery powered radio/boom box for music. We may look into solar panels for battery charging.


We really regard Bubbles as a "hard-sided tent" more than an "RV." We went looking at RVs this weekend (hoping they might have some factory built teardrops we could compare) and when I look at these big things, with their electrical, water, gas, plumbing, etc I think to myself "Damn! That's like having another house to maintain - and maintaining the house is one of the things I go camping to get away from!" The more complex "systems" we add, the more we add maintenance requirements. Not only that, our teardrop does not have a "sandwich" design (that is, separate interior and exterior walls) so any wires that run into the trailer will be visible, and the Mrs. doesn't like that idea. (I'm also leery of having live electrical wires running into a wooden trailer that only has one exit, for fire safety reasons.)

Honestly, Liz and I like camping. We like cooking outside and just sitting outside shooting the breeze or playing with the dog. The only thing we don't like is sleeping on the ground, and that's why we got Bubbles.

It's kind of funny (or sad, I guess, depending on your viewpoint) that when we go to a KOA or other big "commercial" campground, we're often surrounded by these huge RVs, but there's almost never anybody outside! They're inside their RVs watching TV. When we were in Albuquerque last year, a guy in a big 5th wheel came to look at Bubbles (as you can imagine, she gets a lot of attention) and he said "yeah, this is camping." Pointing back to his big RV, he said "That's not camping!" He was about my age (late 40's/early 50's) and said that when he and his wife first met, they camped in a tent, then they got a small trailer, then a bigger trailer, and so on, until they finally had the monster 5th wheel that needed a big crew-cab diesel pickup to pull it. But he got wistful when he saw how simply we lived.

 

[Martinjmpr]

This weekend's progress...

We spent (really wasted) a whole day looking at RVs, hoping to find a place in the Denver area that sold teardrops, just so we could compare them in terms of price and features to Bubbles. Unfortunately, the only place I could find that actually sold teardrop trailers was in Loveland, 40 miles to the north, and was closed when we got there.

Sunday, Liz worked on sanding off the finish on the driver's side. She wants to re-stain it with a leaf-type design (she's going to try it out on some scrap wood before we commit it to bubbles.) We picked up the stain we need at Lowe's.

Liz also put new tiling down for the deck in the galley area. She picked out a dark brown pattern that will look a lot better than the washed out white tile that the builder used:

Meanwhile, I worked on the cabinet that will be in the galley. I should point out that in our trips last year, we had a large metal "chuck box" that carried all of our cooking essentials. For reference, here's a (fuzzy) picture of the chuck box. It was about 30" wide by 16" high by about 8" deep and weighed probably 25lbs empty:

Getting rid of the chuck box was one of our goals and we were happy to note that almost everything that was in the chuck box fit into the mesh bins and into our cabinet. Originally, the galley only had the AC unit in there, and it was difficult to put anything else back there because of the slope of the hatch. With the AC unit out and the electrical box out (which also took up room in the galley) we have a lot more space. I had some scrap plywood so I built a simple cabinet that will cover most of the width of the galley, but will leave enough room for our camp stove. We then decided that rather than drawers, we'd go to the container store and get some metal mesh bins and see if they would work. We then mocked up the whole arrangement to see what would fit:

When we are "under way", the bins will be secured by a bungee cord or chain. Liz wants to find something "decorative" to use, I just want to make sure they don't go sliding around. Of course, the cabinet will be sanded and stained before it's permanently installed.

Liz then spent the rest of the afternoon putting a tile wall on the back of the galley area. We re-modeled our kitchen last year and Liz got a taste for installing ceramic tile. She's really good at it! She wanted to go with an irregular, funky pattern, so she bought some tile and spent about 4 hours installing it. The result is pretty spectacular!

We also got this very nice solar vent/light from Amazon. Looks like it will work well and no wiring is required. We have not yet installed it since we're still trying to figure out how we're going to skin the roof.

With much of the side finish sanded off and another big spring snowstorm coming in, we decided to put Bubbles into the garage and leave my SUV outside. Bubbles will probably remain in the garage until we get the roof finish done.

 

[climbingxj]

Oh, hell no! I wish it was aluminum, then it wouldn't weigh in excess of 1000lb! The frame is actually very heavy steel, I think it's 1/4" ( < ----- NOT a typo, that's ONE QUARTER INCH THICK SQUARE STEEL TUBING! :Wow1: )



We really regard Bubbles as a "hard-sided tent" more than an "RV." We went looking at RVs this weekend (hoping they might have some factory built teardrops we could compare) and when I look at these big things, with their electrical, water, gas, plumbing, etc I think to myself "Damn! That's like having another house to maintain - and maintaining the house is one of the things I go camping to get away from!" The more complex "systems" we add, the more we add maintenance requirements. Not only that, our teardrop does not have a "sandwich" design (that is, separate interior and exterior walls) so any wires that run into the trailer will be visible, and the Mrs. doesn't like that idea. (I'm also leery of having live electrical wires running into a wooden trailer that only has one exit, for fire safety reasons.)

Honestly, Liz and I like camping. We like cooking outside and just sitting outside shooting the breeze or playing with the dog. The only thing we don't like is sleeping on the ground, and that's why we got Bubbles.

It's kind of funny (or sad, I guess, depending on your viewpoint) that when we go to a KOA or other big "commercial" campground, we're often surrounded by these huge RVs, but there's almost never anybody outside! They're inside their RVs watching TV. When we were in Albuquerque last year, a guy in a big 5th wheel came to look at Bubbles (as you can imagine, she gets a lot of attention) and he said "yeah, this is camping." Pointing back to his big RV, he said "That's not camping!" He was about my age (late 40's/early 50's) and said that when he and his wife first met, they camped in a tent, then they got a small trailer, then a bigger trailer, and so on, until they finally had the monster 5th wheel that needed a big crew-cab diesel pickup to pull it. But he got wistful when he saw how simply we lived.

that's a beefy frame... wow! I'm with you on enjoying camping. If I just wanted to sit around and watch TV I could just stay home! It's really hard to beat sitting around a campfire with family and friends and visiting or just looking at the stars. Gotta love it!

 

[njtacoma]

There is an RV shop at HWY 119 and 25 on the south east side (so come back on the frontage road south) that usually has a teardrop or two out front. Century RV, but I just looked and no teardrops listed in their inventory. They do have some larger units and and have had TAB trailers as well. Never stopped in, but always look from the highway.

 

[Mark Harley]

I like what you have, You are adding your own touches and it will be great when finished.
Very nice rebuild.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Well, it was another sunny and productive weekend as we worked on Bubbles!

Liz got a jump-start on my by grouting the tile she installed last weekend. After she grouted, she had to take a fine paintbrush and brush in some turquoise paint so the tile would look good!

While Liz was finishing that up, I started to stain the shelf I built for the galley area.

It came out pretty nice with a cherry stain, and then Liz came up with one of her cool ideas to "dress up" the ugly exposed edges of the plywood with some extra tiles:

Now that the grout is in and sealed, and all the painting is done, it's about time to install the shelf with some L brackets. So I set it in place...

...Only to find that the 1" brackets were going to be too short! So I had to put 2" L brackets on my shopping list.

Next I tried to figure out how to install the new double-bar lock mechanism (which I got here: http://www.teardroptrailers.net/category_s/41.htm ) No pics of that, we're still trying to work out the details. Liz gave me some great ideas which we're going to try out, so stay tuned!

Other than that, Liz sanded a bunch more of the old finish off the side and we are still trying to figure out a good "sponge" staining we can use to give her exterior a "unique" look.

This week will be pivotal: I'm taking Friday off work and will drive Bubbles around to 3 different shops to find out if they can do the 'glassing, gel-coating or aluminum skinning (we'll get estimates on all 3 and then make a decision.) This will be the biggest (and most expensive) part of the buildup.

Additionally, I ordered tires this weekend from Coker Tire. Some beautiful wide whitewalls that will perfectly complement our retro fenders and baby moon hubcaps! Wheels should be in today, in fact, although the tires aren't due until the 10th of May.

Stay tuned! :ylsmoke: