This, That, and the Other...

In my last post cabinet door assembly was the goal.  Having installed the hinges, latches, and catches, the next logical step figured to be to finish the doors (and much of the rest of the interior). So, off the door come.  Because of the peculiarity of the door assembly (specifically hinge alignment), the safe/smart move was to tag each piece of hardware so that it could be returned to its original installation location.  While this didn't take a ton of time, it did prove an impressive collection of shiny stuff when organized in zip lock bags.

With the hardware tagged and bagged, the doors, cabinet faces, and exposed wall surfaces of the camper interior and galley are sealed, stained, and varnished.

Relying on my dad's woodworking knowledge, skill, and sweat-equity (as with many other aspects of this project), the end result is a rich and smooth semi-gloss finish that brings out the subtlety of the wood grain while showing a fine craftsman touch.

Switching gears a bit, it's time to start the electrical wiring of the trailer.  Before investing much in electrical hardware, some electric design was in order.  Working with a few objectives in mind, an electrical schematic diagram was really needed to guide this next phase.  Fortunately, my dad came to the rescue again, sketching up what the camper electrical system would look like:

While this diagram looks complicated, it's really not that bad.  As I mentioned, this schematic incorporates several design objectives.  They include (in no particular order):

• Provide 120V AC from park power at campgrounds.
• Provide 12V DC to lights, vent fan, a water pump, electronic accessories, etc.
• Access 12V DC from automotive battery while camping (before buying a deep cycle battery).
• Access 12V DC from a deep cycle battery onboard the trailer.
• Recharge deep cycle battery from car alternator.
• Provide continuous power to 12V DC circuits via a power supply/charger while on park power.
• Recharge the deep cycle battery from the 12V power supply/while on park power.   

I'll explain how each of these objectives is met, including the electrical components involved, in the sections and posts to follow.  Needless to say, to accomplish the wiring and other tasks described here some shopping was in order.

First up is a camp extension cord and inlet.  Before I could buy, I realized I didn't know what I needed. Doing some limited research, I learned that campgrounds vary according to electrical service provided.  Typically, electrical service is provided and communicated according to a couple of parameters, including amperage and voltage.  In the interest of avoiding a lesson in electric distribution and power (in part, because I don't know it that well), I'll keep it short here.  Park power is usually provided as one (or two via, separate receptacles at the pedestal) of three options:

• 120V, 15A
• 120V, 30A
• 240V, 50A (two legs)

15A service is provided via the typical, three prong outlets common in homes.  The other two services have their own plug style(s).  I also learned that there is no one standard, and campgrounds will vary in terms of service provided.  Fortunately, there is general interchangeability between services via pigtail adapters, used with a bit of common sense.  That is mostly to do with not overloading a particular service.  In my case, I determined that my camper could safely use 30A service without overloading.  So, what I found was a nice cord and inlet combination with a fault sensor (for the park power side) from the a company called Furrion on the Campingworld website at: Cord and Inlet.  A nice feature of this system is that the cord has an integrated thread ring that mates to the inlet making a secure, weather-proof fit.

Installation involved drilling a hole through the side of the camper, wiring the receptacle back side of the inlet, screwing the inlet base in, and voila:

With the inlet installed, the next task is to continue the AC wiring.  From the back side of the inlet inside the electrical raceway, components are installed accordinging to the picture below.

First up (from right to left), is a master switch to control power to everything in the camper.  This is easily accomplished with a standard wall switch in its own box.  Next in line is a double gang box containing two outlets, one of which provides GFCI, and the other provides surge protection.  These babies are of the 20A line of Decora outlets from Leviton.  Finally, a junction box is wired to enclose wire nut connections for the two additional outlets, one on the interior cabinet face, and the other on the galley cabinet face.  All of these items are wired with 12/2 Romex.

The other interesting item in the picture above is the DC power supply.  This beauty is a NOCO Genius 7200, and represents a transition of sorts between the AC and DC systems.  The NOCO has many nice features including switchable modes and trickle/maintenance/fast charging, but almost most importantly, a 13.6V, 5A supply mode enabling continuous use of DC loads while on AC park power.  Proving that this stuff all works, I couldn't help but wire it up temporarily to the vent fan for a test run:

With the power supply as the start of the DC system and end of the wiring to-date, it's time to switch gears again- more electrical details to follow.  So in addition to the electrical shopping recently, I also did some shopping for doors and window.  Having purchased a truck topper door some time ago, I realized I had a bit of a ventilation issue (as the video above might suggest)!  I considered several options including building a door or buying a door with a screen, but both options would waste the investment made in the topper door, and building the door would prove a real challenge.  A compromise option I arrived at was to add a small window to the driver side of the trailer, forward of the door.  The window should prove useful in a number of ways, providing face level ventilation on the trailer's driver side and providing a portal for an external air conditioner installation (as a later add-on enhancement).

So the window addition first requires an opening.  Taking some measurements and drawing an opening using the trim ring included with the window, I cut an opening in the side of the trailer with the jigsaw.

With the opening cut, the trim ring needs to be shimmed on the back side to full wall thickness, which we have established as 1 5/8".  Cutting, gluing, and nailing 1" wide shims along with adding 1/8" temporary paneling shims, the window framing takes shape.

Pairing the window on the outside with the trim ring on the inside completes the installation.

Installing the driver's door is done in a similar manner in terms of using an internal trim ring, with differences in screw length and the size/dimensions of the trim ring.

With both the door and window installed, the driver's side is starting to look finished.

Shifting to the passenger side, construction becomes a bit more complicated.  Originally, I had planned to purchase two topper doors, one for each side, and as such I cut openings in the trailer accordingly.  When I realized my ventilation issues, I reconsidered the topper door approach.  Instead, I decided on an integrated door and screened window option from Frank Bear at Vintage Technologies/TeardropTrailerParts.com.  While this door was expensive, I think it was the right choice for a clean, professional, and most importantly, dry fit and finish.  Right off the bat though, I ran into a significant issue with this door- it is shorter and wider than the opening I had previously cut.  Fortunately, fixing this wasn't as bad as it seemed.

Luckily, I hung onto the door blank that was cut out of the passenger opening.  Cutting an approximate length off the top of this opening, we routed a groove around the door opening and the blank to enable gluing and buscuiting of the blank in place.  With a few minutes of wood clamping, the opening was shrunk.

A few minutes for the glue to dry, and the opening is no longer too big.  Now to make it large enough. Using the door as a stencil and aligning the lower rear corner to the existing opening, we traced the new opening, and cut with a jigsaw.  A re-sized backing board helped ensure the patch stayed put, and a little bit of sanding and fitting for the trim ring, and it's installed.

 Not too shabby, eh?

 

 Whew.  Ok, I'm done blogging for a few days, at least! Up next, more wiring, insulation, and paneling...

Cabinet Doors and More

With the cabinet door openings cut, it was time to close them back in by hanging doors- quite of a few of them actually, 10 to be exact.  Shopping door hardware online, I decided on satin nickel hinges and latches like these available from Home Depot:

and:

The hinges are a self closing style, and feature a 3/8" offset to fit to a lip edge style door edge, as depicted in this picture:

 To get to to this point, door face measurements and some woodworking was required.  Each cabinet door was measured about 3/8" larger per side than the door opening to allow for the lip.  Several passes through the table saw, at least two per edge, were required to cut the lip.  With the lip cut around each door face, the hinges could be drilled and mounted.  Attached to the doors, the offset hinges look like this:

With some careful placement, using a punch to set the drill bit center for a pilot hole, each door can be hung on the cabinet face:

and:

To hang the lower rear cabinet doors, some finish work was required on the cabinet edge.  Thinking ahead too, we decided to dry fit the Aquatainer in the lower cabinet space beneath the countertop. If you recall from an earlier post, the goal is to piano hinge the lower cabinet face to enable rear removal of the mattress.  Upon taking a measurement, we realized we had left the cabinet too shallow to accommodate to Aquatainer.  We are realized that the the front edge of the countertop lacked support and rigidity, so we decided to extend and strengthen the countertop with a piece of walnut trim.  Measuring about 3/4" x 1", the walnut was biscuited and glued to the face of the countertop.  In profile, a diagram of this arrangement looks like this:

Attaching the walnut trim, we used a number of clamps to ensure a good, tight fit:

And when assembled, with piano hinge and cabinet doors hung, the lower rear cabinet face looks like this:

Next up, latches.  The latches we selected are a matchbox style, and required a relatively square edge to the cabinet face to allow the latch and the catch faces to butt close enough to each other to allow the latch tongue to engage the catch.  Because of the lip style of the cabinets, the catches need to be raised from the face to meet the face of the doors.  Using some walnut patches, wood glue, and screws, the mounted latches and catches look like this:

and:

and this:

That's it for now.  Next up, cabinet staining, and soon after: electrical, insulation, and doors...

Cuttin' Loose

So after building the door in place, and skinning the remaining exterior surface of the trailer, it was time for a bit of subtraction.  Last time we had skinned the trailer, leaving the panel above the kitchen door unglued.  Removing it would provide useful access to the interior of the cabinetry and more importantly right now, the support screws holding the top of the door in place.  Off it comes.

Next up, we needed to cut the door loose.  To do this, we used a Dremel with a cutting guide to measure an inset from each outside edge.

 

Starting in the corner with a plunge cut, it was simply a matter of walking the Dremel around the edge of the trailer, following the pre-measured gap between the on-trailer framing and the door framing.

and

 and voila:

the door is loose:

With the door off, the router can be used to clean up both the door opening, and the door itself.

and

Next up is to begin to cut out the door openings for the cabinets.  Taking some measurements and establishing the size of the cabinet opening, we could pencil the desired door openings on the cabinet face.

In this case, since the cabinets faces are enclosed inside the trailer rear opening, there are no edges to use as guides.  Instead, we used scrap plywood temporarily screwed to the cabinet face to act as a guide.

and

The end result is a nice pair of cabinet door openings.  In the case of the top main rear door, we were sure to leave a center face gap wide enough to accommodate a standard two plug AC wall outlet and an LED light fixture...later.

In total, 10 door openings will need to be cut: two above the countertop in the rear, two below, three overhead inside the trailer, and two short, wide openings for the raceway below the three overhead.  Kinda like this (on the inside):

Again, more to follow.  Next up, the foot-end hinged mattress enclosure needs to be installed.  If you recall from an earlier post, with the allowable space, the 80" queen size mattress length protrudes several inches into the cabinet space under the countertop.  Stepping out and around the mattress end, this enclosure needs to be hinged to allow for install and removal of the mattress inside through the rear of the trailer (since there will be no other opening nearly large enough to do this).  Using a 48" piano hinge from Home Depot face mounted on the ends of the moving and fixed panels, installations is clean and easy.

  and

 and

When complete, the hinged panel will latch to the floor in the vertical position, enclosing the interior cabin space.  This panel will move in concert with the hinged rear lower cabinet face to allow for removal of the mattress (say what? details to follow).

The last item this time around is to cut the roof vent opening.  In this case, we needed to measure, cut,  and add two lengthwise 2"x2" braces to connect the two existing roof stringers.  Again using the Dremel, but this time around with an edge following bit and after starting with a plunge cut, the opening was smooth and easy to cut.

A few screws on each side to anchor the skin to the new braces, and the opening is done and ready for final fan installation.

and

Again, details to follow.  That's it for now, and until next time...

Closin' In

...well, sort of.  Not closing in on anything in particular, but more to do with construction progress since the last post, and literally closing in the exterior of the trailer.  My last post reflected considerable progress building the cabinetry and skinning the front half of the trailer after almost a year hiatus working on the build.  With outdoor construction time running short for the second summer of the project, it was time to make a push to take advantage of the late season weather and get something done.

The next major construction challenge was to fabricate the rear galley door.  This would prove to be one of the most challenging and time consuming tasks of the project thus far.  I decided to frame the door using the glued and nailed 2"x2" stringers that were used to span side to side across the front of the trailer.  A critical difference this time though, is that the stingers need to be curved to follow the radius of the back of trailer.  Recalling back to the routing of the trailer walls, a jig was used to create a 48" radius curve on the back of the trailer.  This same radius (and jig) would be used to created the door stingers.  Working from a stack of 3/4" plywood spares from the earlier side wall construction, an afternoon of curved stringer routing lie ahead.

For each stinger, an inside and outside curve needed to be cut.  To ensure consistency, each plywood spare was screwed down temporarily to the saw table.  The outside of each stringer was cut using two router passes, one at half- and one at full depth.  The stringer inside cuts were accomplished by creating an inset pivot hole in the jig.  The jig was then unscrewed and reset set to the inset distance (about 1 3/4" shorter) before making the two inside passes.  Pretty simple, huh?  Scrub, rinse and repeat.

Not wanting to be guilty of building a wimpy trailer, I decided to err on the brick crap house side of things with construction.  Each side wall would be reinforced with a 1"x2" stringer, and then seven separate vertical 2"x2" stringers would span the width of the door.  Doing a little math on this, a total of 16 stringers would need to be cut (at four router passes each with a jig adjustment in the middle) for a total of 64 cuts, using about six total plywood spares.  [insert stupid joke here] If you act on this special TV offer, along with your Ginsu knives, we'll also throw in gluing, nailing, and chop sawing each stringer too.  But that's not all folks, in addition to all the curved stringers, straight header, footer, and mid-span stringers were needed as well.  [and second stupid joke here] By the time it was all said and done, we were ready to go into the hockey stick business.

Crappy infomercials/bad jokes aside, having trouble imagining what all this wood will be used for, or what it will look like when assembled?  OK, here's a sneak peek of it all put together, and following is how we got there:

My Dad made a good suggestion early in the fabrication of the galley door.  Rather than try to assemble and skin the door free from the trailer (and hope and pray that it fit when installed), we decided to build the door in place.  This would then allow us to skin it and cut it out after allowing the skin to bend and properly take the shape of the rear radius.  This approach seemed most likely to obtain the desire results in terms of build quality.

To accomplish this construction, we essentially needed to build the door from the outside-in.  After adding the side doubling 1"x2" stringer, we used scrap vinyl trim to create 1/4" door gap between the wall and the outside stringer.

 

To fix the door in place, a temporary 3" screw was then drilled from the exterior of the trailer through the side wall, the temporary spacer, and the outer stringer.

From there, straight headers and footers were added, and each vertical stringer was cut to precise length to fit between the header and footer, glued, and screwed at equal distances across the width of the door.

With all of the vertical stringers in place, three sets of horizontal mid-span spacers were cut to length, kreg'ed, glued, and screwed.

Voila!  A framed galley door!  Fast forward two months, borrow a neighbor's garage (more later), and the final tasks of closing in the trailer were at hand.  Remember the previous post on skinning the exterior?  Same applies here.  After cutting to length, starting at the bottom of the door (with a 1/4" spacer), a full sheet width of plywood was used to cover the door, bottom to top.  Add a box of screws, and some spar urethane, and here you are:

Gapping the top of the door at 3/8" to allow for the hurricane hinge to be installed later (coming soon), the final piece of exterior skin is cut to length and installed (without glue for now, to allow access to cabinetry:

The result...a completely skinned trailer.  Next steps?  Cut the door loose, install the door via a hurricane hinge (Santa brought some gifts, also to follow), and move construction back inside the trailer to finish the cabinets and possibly begin electrical wiring and insulation.

Until next time...