I Love Lucy

[DDickey]

I got the inner center skin up and fastened and the air conditioner installed. I absolutely hate what the AC does to the exterior lines on the trailer, but living in Texas, AC isn't an option. I'm sure I'll get used to it.

The center skin was a beast to do because I didn't have any help. I made a cradle and lifted the skin in place, which worked great, but it took me about 10 hours total.

Against everyone's advise I'm trying an experiment: I'm installing a gravity hot water circulation system. The second picture shows the insulated hot water line running up and over through the skin (the white line is the AC drain). The return line will run back through the cabinetry. If this line ever gives out I can simply abandon it and reverse the flow through the return line. I'll also be able to turn the circulation off with a valve so I won't have excessive heat loss if it becomes an issue.

The third pic shows an exterior shower. If we boondocks on warm weather days this will conserve gray tanks.

The last pic is the wart of an AC on the roof :\

[Jhiner1978]

Curious, I'm about to replace the interior skins with new aluminum and was wondering, did you use your old ones as templates or just wing it? Also is the new sheets hung horizontally or vertically? What sized sheets did you use, I have the option of getting 8 foot or 10 foot sheets

[DDickey]

Hi Jhiner1978,

I purchased 12' sheets of .032 2024T3 from a local supplier because the original skins were 12' long. I went with the more expensive Alclad because I'm going to keep the aluminum bare and shiny. I've used the old skins as patterns and I'm hanging them horizontally.

I woke up in the middle of the night last night and realized I may have made a mistake: I hung the center skin without considering how tightly it should line up with the rest of the skins (front-to-back), and if it's even 1/4" off it's going to look horrible. This wouldn't be a problem had I not cut the rest of the skins first. If everything does line up it's going to be sheer luck, dang it.

[DDickey]

I thought the center skin was going to be the hardest to do by myself, but the street side curved skin was a bear to handle. I creased it in the process, but it's going to be behind the kitchen cabinet, so I didn't lose the skin. To put it up by myself I used rope to pull the sheet into the approximate curve, I taped a 1x4 lengthways to keep the sheet from folding in on itself, and then I set it on a 1x4 tacked to the wall to hold it at the right height. It was slow going, but I finally got it riveted in place. I'm not looking forward to shaving the bazillion Olympics

[DDickey]

I'm working curbside now and making great progress. The lower sidewall skins are mostly behind cabinets so I've chosen to clean and reuse the old ones. The first pic is the upper curved skin prepped so I can install it by myself. I pulled it into its rough shape with rope, and then tape a board to the front of it to keep it front curling in on itself. It works pretty well and it's relatively easy to handle like this. I made the mistake of using the old skins as patterns and cutting everything first, but not doing a great job of lining the middle skin up (the first one up) exactly right front to back. The entire skin assembly is shifted forward a little under 1/4" which has created all sorts of little problems, but the only one I couldn't surmount was the cutout for the door. It was too far off to save, so I cut 4 1/2' off of the front of the skin and will patch a new piece in. The seam will be almost completely behind the cabinet, so no harm, no foul. The second pic shows the wall insulated with the 1x4 in place to set the skin on while I drill and cleco. The third pic shows the wall 95% complete. It's going to be incredibly rewarding to finish the metalwork and move on to cabinetry and finish-out

[DDickey]

Last panel clecoed up and ready to rivet, then it's on to window trim and shaving about a billion Olympics. It feels incredibly good to get this far and I'm looking forward to building the cabinets. This project is the first time I've done much metal work (besides welding repairs), and moving on to the familiarity of wood is exciting.

I had Custom Sheetmetal CNC and bend a new kitchen cabinet, had new doors cut at Regal Plastic and I'm happy with how it turned out. I'll set it aside for now because it will be one of the last things to go in.

[Masondood]

DD, that cabinet front looks amazing! Have been checking out your picks and enjoying the level of craftsmanship you put in.

[islandtrader]

Originally Posted by DDickey

I had Custom Sheetmetal CNC and bend a new kitchen cabinet, had new doors cut at Regal Plastic and I'm happy with how it turned out. I'll set it aside for now because it will be one of the last things to go in.

Looks great! Any chance of seeing side and back views ? Or is this just a face plate?.

[jjmtb]

Wow. An incredible amount of work. If you had to do it again would you cut new panels or use existing? I am debating the same thing.

[DDickey]

Masondood - appreciate the encouragement!

islandtrader - attached are more pics of the cabinet

jjmtb - Honestly it would depend on the condition of the existing skins: Are they corroded? Do the have a bunch of holes in them that will have to be patched? How many layers of paint are on them? In my case, my trailer had been remodeled by one of the POs, so the skins had a ton of holes in them that would end up in the wrong place, and that was enough for me to replace them. Because I was going with 2024T3, to save cost, I reused the skins behind the cabinets, and when I stripped them I found them to be corroded. This is OK behind the cabinets, but wouldn't have been elsewhere. Then there's the issue of stripping the skins which is a TON of labor. If I was going back with 5052 I'd replace the skins just to avoid stripping the original skins, but 2024T3 is expensive enough to evaluate which way to go. One thing I did learn: if you use your old skins as patterns, don't cut them until you're ready to install them, and you've checked and rechecked every measurement. I lost one partial skin to this because I cut the door based on the old skin, but it was about 3/8" off. Stuff moves around a little bit when you're doing a Fully Monty

[jjmtb]

Thanks for the reply and those cabinets look like art pieces.

[rugjenkins]

I love the cabinet! That's a really simply, sleet design. And I really like the shiny aluminum [emoji106]

[Hittenstiehl]

Originally Posted by DDickey

Last panel clecoed up and ready to rivet, then it's on to window trim and shaving about a billion Olympics. It feels incredibly good to get this far and I'm looking forward to building the cabinets. This project is the first time I've done much metal work (besides welding repairs), and moving on to the familiarity of wood is exciting.

I had Custom Sheetmetal CNC and bend a new kitchen cabinet, had new doors cut at Regal Plastic and I'm happy with how it turned out. I'll set it aside for now because it will be one of the last things to go in.

Very nice cabinet, saved the pictures, good job.

[DDickey]

One of the valuable lessons I've learned along the way is to be flexible. This week I've completely changed the layout of the bathroom and moved the pump and accumulator to underneath the bathroom cabinet, over the wheel well.

The first picture shows my original bathroom layout with the sink in the corner, a shower on the wall, a low cabinet street side and the toilet next to it. I don't know why I didn't think of the 'improved' layout first, but when I framed the cabinet (the aluminum framing in the second picture) it occurred to me that the cabinet would be an ideal place for the sink with a combo lavatory/shower faucet. Duh. Furthermore, there was plenty of space to put the pump and accumulator underneath the cabinet instead of up front by the fresh water tank. Fortunately I ran a spare 12 gauge wire to this area because I was going to put a 12 volt plug there, but now I'll use that wire for the pump. I'll put the 12 volt access in the gaucho and use the wiring I was going to use for the pump.

The second picture shows the raised bathroom floor. This was my solution to making shallow tanks work in a 4" deep frame. The three layers of plywood over the subfloor gives me a total of 3" to put a 3/4" air conditioning trap in for the shower floor drain. For the black tank, in order to avoid cutting a frame crossmember, I had to use an offset closet flange so that the front bathroom wall would fall in between windows. Offset closet flanges are deep, so the 3" gives me room to make it all work. I roughed it in today and everything fits perfectly (I took the second pic before I installed the closet flange).

[Masondood]

Leaves you more room for the Italian marble walkin shower!🤣

[DDickey]

Originally Posted by Masondood

Leaves you more room for the Italian marble walkin shower!🤣

[islandtrader]

Good idea...as you know that is the same problem you and I have been talking about. So I will have to follow your lead

Can you tell me (us) what each of the items I have circled are? 123



Thanks,

[DDickey]

Originally Posted by islandtrader

Good idea...as you know that is the same problem you and I have been talking about. So I will have to follow your lead

Can you tell me (us) what each of the items I have circled are? 123

Attachment 286663

Thanks,

Here you go islandtrader:

Item #1 Sureflow Accumulator - Not strictly necessary with the pump I'm using, but will cut down on pump cycling

Item #2 Sureflow Revolution 12V Water Pump - Self priming so it doesn't need to be near the fresh water tank

Item #3 Fart Fan - I'm using a 3" bilge fan vented out the side with a nice stainless steel vent I found on eBay (pic)

[DDickey]

This is a cross section looking through the frame from street side. The tanks are sandwiched between crossmembers on the sides, the subfloor on top, and the belly pan on the bottom, so everything is very tight. The toilet needed to be 1" further toward the rear of the trailer than the tank placement would allow or the front wall of the bathroom would end up in a window. I could either cut the crossmember out or use an offset flange, so I chose to use an offset flange.

For the shower drain I used a 1" threaded street tee into the tank, a 3/4" AC condensation P-Trap and a marine grade shower drain. There's no vent after the trap, but the tank is vented, and flows will be low enough that siphoning shouldn't be a problem. Even if it is, the drain comes with a plug that I think will be necessary to use when the tanks are full and I'm pulling the trailer to the dump station.

All of this fits very nicely under three layers of 3/4" plywood plus the 3/4" subfloor.

Oh, and in a post last year I said I was going to use copper for the plumbing. I decided not to be old and set in my ways and I'm using PEX instead. Old dogs can learn new tricks.

[Masondood]

Looks really good DD, think the pex will work well for you, I'm old school too and would lean towards copper but think that pex has proven itself as a good material for water supply lines, especially at the pressures used here. Copper can have it's own issues too as I'm sure you know.