A Pile of Parts

     I'm going to let everyone in on a little secret.  The "Little Trailer Project" blog doesn't exactly coincide with the progress of the little trailer project.  The picture above is a fine illustration of why that is.  While this pile of parts isn't much fun to look at, it did take a fair amount of time and head scratching to produce.  If I had started the blog when I started to put all this stuff together, it would have been a long time before anyone got to see how they would go together, and that would be really boring.  In an attempt to make this pile a bit more interesting, I decided to wait until I could reveal the whole thing at once and maybe convey some idea of how the parts will become a whole.  You might ask, "What is this pile?".  These parts make up the structure of the camper, and are what is required to go ahead with the basic assembly.  In the picture above, in order of foreground to back ground the parts are as follows: roof/fan frame, rear bulkhead, front bulkhead, galley counter and cabinet back, forward cabin cabinet, and aft cabin cabinet.  I suppose it would be possible to begin assembly with just the sides and bulkheads, and build things in as you go.  I prefer to make all of the parts that will  contribute to the strength and squareness of the camper before I begin assembly.  That way I can compare them to each other and make adjustments if there are any discrepancies.    

    This picture shows a the forward (overhead) cabin cabinet parts ready for assembly.  I am using glue and biscuits to join the parts because they will tolerate the stresses of the road better than screws and nails would.  Like the camper sides, all parts must be finished before they are assembled.

    Here is the  assembled cabinet.  The cabinet back follows the curve of the front of the camper's roof.  Eventually there will be doors flanking the open cubby in the center.  The upper section of the cubby will have a reading light, two 12v outlets, and a 120v outlet.  This cabinet will sit on top of the front bulkhead.

     Spoiler alert!  Don't look at the background of this picture!  I had to dry fit the camper (assemble with no glue and few fasteners) in order to work out the exact dimensions of some parts, particularly the height and angle of this cabinet's profile.  I may have mentioned before how much I love the finishing process.  Because I love it so much and feel it is immoral to indulge in too much guilty pleasure, I use pre-finished maple plywood here and wherever possible.

     This is the aft (over foot) cabin cabinet.  It will share a back with the upper galley cabinet.  If you refer back to the first picture, you can see (hidden by the forward bulkhead, the galley countertop with a dark gray plastic laminate.  It's hard to see, but attached to it's back edge is a vertical piece of plywood.  That plywood will serve as the back for this cabinet, for the galley upper cabinet,  and as the pivot point for the galley hatch.   Now that my basic components are finished and assembled,  I am almost ready to start putting this thing together.  There are still a couple of things to do to get the trailer prepped.

This rubber seal will keep water out of the area of the camper side that will be covered by the wheel well

The cabin flooring has been installed prior to assembly.

     Now we are ready to build a camper!  I fully understand that the anticipation may be too much for some of you to handle, but you're going to have to wait 'til  next time for the big moment.  I promise, next time you'll get to see what this thing is going to look like.

    As we all are getting ready to stuff as much food as possible down our throats and lay around with friends and family in a tryptophan induced stupor watching one football game bleed into the next,  I'd like to briefly remember the Thanksgivings of my youth.  How could this possibly be relevant?  Bear with me and I'll try to explain what is, for me, more than a marginal relevance.   My earliest Thanksgiving memories are of Nanny and Papa's warm and happy home in Gainesville, FL.  My grandmother would cook an amazing quantity and variety of food in a kitchen that couldn't have been more than 10'x12'.  How she did it, I'll never know, but in my recollection, it was effortless and the food was always pure southern perfection.  

     When dinner was winding down and I'd had enough of sitting around the table, I would inevitably find my way to my favorite part of that house; the garage where Papa kept his shop.  He had this wall of tools and gadgets and fasteners and things that I had no idea what they were, and I would just stand there messing with his stuff, trying to figure out what the things did.  If ever I asked him, he would stop whatever he was doing to tell me.  When he was explaining things he used the word "kindly" to mean "sort of" or "like".  I've never heard anyone before or since use that word like that.  He always had a box of scraps and a can of nails that he would let me bang away at.  I spent a lot of time nailing random boards together on the garage floor.  

     This was the place and he was the man that sparked in me the desire to make things.  I always loved it when I saw him get his toolbox because I knew it meant that I would get to "help" him fix or build something.  I was very fortunate to have known his gentleness, patience, and creativity.  It is something that I give thanks for every Thanksgiving, and in fact, much more often than that.  If it weren't for Papa who knows if I'd have built a treehouse or if I'd be building a camper now?  Thank you Nanny and Papa, and Happy Thanksgiving everyone.