Spruce Ceiling T&G Installed

I ordered 14' spruce 1x6 T&G.  I wished I had found thinner material.  I used lacquer and gave each board two coats. 

First window and cedar siding installed

Picked up the cedar siding on Thursday and used an clear oil sealer on the front and back of each piece.  It takes long to soak into the wood than the lacquerer  did on the rafters.

The nails for cedar siding were a big issue.  I found an instruction guide online and they spec'd 6D, 2" nails with textured heads.  They needed to be Stainless steel or hot galvanized.  I drove an hour to get these nails because they are not carried in a local store.  On Saturday, the first nail drove in where the instructions indicated broke the tongue off .... even AFTER drilling a small pilot hole.  I can go on and on, but it took five trips to various stores to finally settle on 2", 16 gauge, stainless steel nails I could use with a nailing gun.  No more problems.

On the front of the trailer, where wind and rain can easily penetrate the exterior siding while in transit, I decide to cover the wall sheathing with Grace Watersheild and created a rain sheding wall with 1/4" furrings trips applied over the Grace Watershield.  The cedar siding was nailed to the furring strips on the tongue of the T&G cedar boards.

The window was installed as usual and is undoubtedly watertight.

To ensure the siding is securely attached, I am going to use screws on the corners.  I found SS screws at home depot:  Simpson Strong-Tie, 1-5/8 in. Lobed Flat-Head Stainless Steel Multi-Purpose Wood Screw. The smaller the gage number the smaller the screw diameter (opposite of nails and wire diameter, sheesh).

Curved Rafters Finished and Installed

The rafters were a enduring project.  After getting them built and cut to the same length, it took weeks before I was able to sand them and lacquer them.  My guess is that it too hour to construct each rafter, sand each one and apply two coats of lacquer.

Instead of cutting a birdsmouth, we simply used Simpson Ties.  Smaller ones worked well, putting in four screws in each end of the rafter seem to secure them well. They are roughly 2' feet on enter with the front and back Rafters are inside the wagon.  Only the porch rafter will be outside the wagon.  I decided to have the porch only 3-4 inches beyond the end of the trailer.

I thought I wanted to see the rafter tails from the outside,  However, after looking at many pictures, I like the appearance of a fascia board.  So, in planning the roof, one needs to plan for the additional 3/4" for the fascia board since it has to be installed before the drip edge.

Electrical Planned

Now that the wall framing is complete, the electrical was planned.  As always, DC and AC electrical complicates the plan.  For the Gypsy wagon, we are planning:

• All lights to be run on DC.  Apparently you can use regular recepticles with DC light bulbs.  I have a swag lamp over the dining room table, two wall sconces above the head of the beds, a light above the kitchen countertop, and a outside porch light.
• There are two DC outlets with USB chargers near each bed.  
• AC outlets will available at the dining room table, for the Air Conditioner, one embedded in the kitchen counter, and one in three of the four OUTSIDE corners.  
• On the porch, there will be a battery box outside.
• Inside a bench, there will be a inverter/switch unit, the DC fuse box, and the AC breaker box. 

The horizontal "shelves" above the wheels were the convenient place to run electrical wires from the front to the back of the gypsy wagon.

The bench was designed and built for the electrical apparatus.  

Wall Framing

Yesterday, a crew of four assembled most of the other three walls in a matter of 4-5 hours.  Everyone was quite impressed with the rigidity of the structure even before the side sheathing is on.  I thought we would build four walls and then assemble them; however, we actually built the back wall (with the door) and used that as the template for the front wall.  Once complete and put in place, we built the side wall framing between the front and back walls.  

The next step is to finish the door header and cut the opening so we can get inside easily.  

On a second weekend, we finished the door header, matching the curve of the roof, and cut the opening so we can get inside by walking through the door opening.

Installing the thermal ply side walls were easy. I glued and nailed the pieces to the framing.  The siding will be screwed or ring shank nails used with construction glue.

Windows and the door opening was routed out with a plunge router bit.  I have said before, the purchase of the router is worth simplifying this task.

We will need to add a few more nailers to support the inside T&G paneling and to support the exterior siding beside the side windows.

Floor almost done; lower walls cut.

Now that the ply is cut I can see that 10" horizontal ledges initially planned are too wide and believe it would force the total width of the roof beyond the fenders.  I do not want to do that.  I'm going to buy brackets that are 5.5"deep and sell my 7.5" deep brackets on Ebay. Here are the ones I want:  Avery-Wrought-Iron-Bracket-8-Triple-Center-Brace-mediterranean-brackets

Highly water resistent bottom

Interesting problem, perhaps solved.  I was excited when my neighbor suggested using Thermo Ply as a light weight, water resistant panel which will face the road.  Then he suggested painting a truck liner to really make the bottom durable.  So, last weekend we attached the thermal ply to the bottom of the floor, taped the seams with Gorilla tape and then sealed it with two coats of xxx

Then we used Thermo ply to build the water-resistant sides.