Super Sized Sixty Sovereign

[truckasaurus]

Thanks Harold, food for thought. I'll have to check my budget shrinker to see how big the jaws are. The front end is going to be a small dinette on the left and an L shaped couch across the front and down 7 feet of the curb side which nixes any simple vertical support.

[truckasaurus]

Yeah I'm going to nix that AC shelf plan....It was just weighing too heavily on my mind that it could fail, plus I hit my head on it a bunch of times whilst considering it's viability. Back to plan A, which is in a cabinet above the axles, and to celebrate an actual decision I'm adding to my Kreg supply, a lot.

I did ferret out some left over Nuvite and hit the end cap for 3 hours and door within a door for an hour so this weekends camping would look little less Breaking Bad.

Pic of one of the new grey tanks, the fit may be too tight as it's involved a little light trimming to get it to even consider fitting in the aperture. But on the other hand each one is 20 Gallons and should actually dump all its grey water contents which appeals a lot. Once the second one arrives I'll grab a rental plasma cutter and notch and plate the crossmembers for the outlets and get them plumbed. I had planned an electric dump valve arrangement that was very stealth but I'm leaning more and more towards keeping it simple and having a regular Bladex valve below but parallel to the belly pan, or even, gulp, below and perpendicular! (I'm normally all about form over function :-) but I'm also very much against crawling around under my trailer anywhere within sniffing distance of a dump station).

I'm thinking the door with a door is ready for the US ( & Canada) RV sticker map and a coat of wax. It looks like Wolverine tried to shred his way in but I'm keeping it as a nod to retaining some vintage feel.

[truckasaurus]

I wanted to get the grey tank entry points firmed up ready for cutting into the tanks and installing them, this led to starting the bathroom rough construction.

I found a low profile tub drain to work with the Hepvo to keep the height loss down so I get some decent headroom. I Kreg'd a base from ply and 1x4 poplar.

It's early days in the process with a bunch of sheetmetal work that may prove tricky but here's the general idea for the shower cubicle. At the foreword end a large curved wall meets curved ceiling and at the aft end a small curbside cubicle wall will close the opening down to about 18" width for a plexiglass frameless curved at the top shower door, (18" seemed a bit narrow but appears to be a thing in the yacht world). All the sheet work gets joined with flanges so there'll be no visible rivets. I plan to use Durabak smooth coating and polyurethane caulk for a seamless surface. The bathroom will continue aft another 5 feet ish with room for a vanity and Sunmar GTG toilet.

If this effort falls flat its back to a full fiberglass build.

[truckasaurus]

So far so good; my test piece came out pretty decent considering I just unboxed the new tool. Curved base to fit a curved tub, angled curved top to fit the wall/ ceiling and a straight long side to match up to the next piece of the puzzle. For a quick experiment I'm happy and ready to move on to the big segments. May wear clean gloves and have a helper next time....

[57Vintage]

New tool??

Another set of dies for the bead roller?

[truckasaurus]

Ah, a bead roller with tipping dies. I’ve only used one before in aviation for making curved flanges and now at home without a brake I’m finding it does a decent job on straight flanges too

[truckasaurus]

It's definitely not easy making these segments, although if I had a fully equipped shop it would have helped, but I don't. Still, the first 2 panels are looking viable at this point. I think I'll glass the shower pan to the plywood base next as it feels really weak and then make the next two pieces of the aluminum enclosure to firm it all up. I'm looking at 3M marine Acryl putty to repair some crazing in the tub, some sort of primer, polyurethane caulk for the seams then Durabak smooth white for the tub and enclosure.

[HiHoAgRV]

Those are skills unknown to common man!
Wow. Seriously impressed.

[57Vintage]

Would suggest a two part epoxy primer for the tub. If you want an alternative for the tub repair I'd suggest JB Weld 2 part epoxy. Metal panels are first rate. Well done.

[truckasaurus]

Thank you for kind words and advice :-)

Heres an updated materials plan;
3M Fiberglass kit and cloth to bond tub to plywood base, add support to tub lip, fabricate threshold/kick panel and general use.
Bondo filler for threshold.
JB Weld Marine epoxy for crack/ chip repair
3M Marine adhesive sealant 5200 for aluminum flange lap joints and radius sealing/ caulking.
Eastwood pre for prep cleaning
Eastwood 2K Aerosol Epoxy primer to seal all work.
Durabak smooth interior for finish coating.

It feels good to get some clecos in but there's a long way to go

[57Vintage]

Thoughts on a couple other items.

Suggest turning the tub upside down and adding further resin/cloth to the lip where you mount faucet (if mounted there) and where you'll step over. I have a bad tendency to want to sit on the edge. My top lip was pretty thin. Added a 1/4" layer underneath to reinforce. That also made it flatter for mounting faucet. I have more open area than you do so it may not be as important to your layout.



Second make sure when securing the bottom plywood to the tub that you have sufficient slope for water to go into drain. I have a small area of the bottom that won't drain by itself, leaves a thin puddle. Guess I should have spent more time making the surface flatter.

[truckasaurus]

Thanks Harold, will do. Mine'll have the faucet in a wall divider yet to be built but I will for sure reinforce it. Does the tub drain basket sandwich around just the fiberglass tub or is the plywood base also between the drain basket and the nut? The tub is so flimsy I'm worried that if the drain basket was walked on it'd break out of the tub base. Your tub looks great.

[57Vintage]

My drain opening was thick enough. I added another layer of plywood under the original 1/4" plywood to make sure the bottom was rigid. Plywood had a slightly larger opening than the drain size so it didn't interfere with the drain basket installation.

[truckasaurus]

Could i go any slower on this project! I decided I need a firm deadline so I signed my wife up for the Rock n Roll marathon in Savannah, in early November, we'll be camping one way or another. To whit, behold the current plan for grey tank dump plumbing.

This is the best I can come up with, twin 20 Gal US tanks tied together with 3" plumbing. I wanted it totally enclosed and stealth but I also want it to actually work well in terms of drain slope so the compromise is that the belly pan will get fitted/ cross braked to drop one more inch at the centerline and the dump valve will be located under the belly for ease of use and maintenance. If it bothers me I'll ditch it and add in an electric valve in the belly cavity. I'm totally bewildered by the way the plumbing is supposed to attach to the tanks; butyl sealant in a loose fitting and a band clamp, how can that we the best these guys can come up with? I bought an Icon part that's supposed to work better but it's even sloppier.

I'll need to notch out 3 1/2" of two crossmembers for the 3" pipe which is a drag as I'll need to rent a plasma cutter but they are 6" box section so with a reinforcement strap I don't think its a concern as they are so far from the axles.

We also added a rescue dog (my first dog) to the crew so now I have the opportunity to add space for her crate to the interior planning.

[57Vintage]

I would suggest a shut off valve between the tanks so GW doesn't slosh back and forth on the road. I used a Valterra valve with a cable. The handle is in the kitchen sink cabinet so I can open from inside once we set up.

[truckasaurus]

I couldn't find a plasma cutter to rent conveniently so I bought a cheap one instead, I'm quite surprised just how well it works. I cut two crossmembers down and inserted filler pieces and welded it back up, I did not enjoy doing all this under a trailer at all.

I then jammed the tanks in place, it's really tight, and installed angle iron lined with 1/4" thick rubber strip. I have 2 x 1 1/2" inlets and 2 x 1" vent fittings.

Next came a simple dump plumbing set up, all 3" ABS for dump speed with Fernco couplers and one Valterra valve. It sits 4' in front of the front axle and leaves over 12" of clearance. It seems to work OK and dumps all 40 Gallons in 3 minutes.

[truckasaurus]

The conversion continues. I had previously cut the front face off the rear corner tub but still needed to alter the side that was up against a bulkhead wall so I could use it as the entry step over point. (Also mount it on a platform to get a HEPVO valve under it and into the grey tank below). I took the opportunity to repair any dings with resin and then glassed in a strengthening beam at the lip before laying down 2 coats of 2 part epoxy primer.

[truckasaurus]

Now we're on a roll I ordered a shower faucets and shower arm. I'm going to get the Bricor Ultramax shower head which flows at 0.625 GPM but I'm torn on the water heater. I'd like a traditional water heater but don't want a giant square panel on the trailer wall, instead I might have to go on demand again and this time run the Suburban Nuatilus IW60 as it can flow down to 0.5 GPM and the output temp can be set exactly with a digital control so I never have to mix hot with cold. It has a pretty small vent that I think will look great.

I did go nuts and instead of a bathroom counter and sink I bought a 32" long Italian ceramic drop in sink that I'll use sitting on top of a cabinet with no counter under it. It's somewhere around 30 lbs so not light but not insanely heavy. Originally this trailer has a fiberglass over plywood bathroom counter with moulded in sink which I would guess was just a few pounds lighter

If anyone knows of a non on-demand propane water heater, rated for RV use, that doesn't require a square wall panel and is available to the aftermarket I'm all ears.

[truckasaurus]

I feel like I'm endlessly searching for 1x2 poplar boards that aren't crooked, bowed, cupped, split or just not in inventory but at last I have some. I got more framing done on the bathroom, most of the walls are in now I just need to make the 4" radius corner pieces and actually assemble the aluminum shower enclosure before sound insulating and cladding all the framing with 1/4" underlayment and probably .025" aluminum on both sides.

Kerf cutting 1/4" plywood to bend around a 4" radius is probably something I should have experimented with but I'm just going to roll the dice on this bit.

It's not going to be spacious around the Sunmar GTG toilet but it won't be bad. I've been thinking that I'll add a quick release base to it and a vent disconnect so I can remove it for 'servicing' if needed.

A window here would be nice but instead I'll have an aluminum clad Maxfann dome with LED in the ceiling and lots of LED product to bounce light off an all white bathroom.

[truckasaurus]

Bolted the outdoor unit in place sitting on some vibration dampening mounts. The blue taped off fixture on the trailer body is for the AC line-set. Will add a set of sheet metal doors at the front to block wind when on the road and ultimately the sheetmetal will be silver and the fan shroud satin black.