Re: Building My Home Made Caravan by JR
Stage 3 Frame and Floor Cont.The frame was screwed and clued.The inner ply walls where then glued on with Weldbond, this then made the entire frame very strong. Even though the frame was glued and screwed it became apparent that once the ply walls were glued to the frame the method that the frame was held together could have been staples and still would have been OK. Naturally staples are not as good but I can see that staples are not as bad as they sound as all they do is hold the frame together until the walls are attached and then the frame is strong anyway.
Liquid nail was used to glue the frame and the floor to the chassis and Weldbond to glue the inner ply walls to the frame.
Why not use Sikaflex?Answer: to be honest I was not aware of the product and probably would have used it to glue the floor to the chassis if I had known. Four years down the track the liquid nail has shown no sign of cracking, also probably due to so many tech screws holding the floor down and the softer riding suspension.
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Two glues.jpg [ 156.8 KiB | Viewed 1531 times ]
FloorThe floor is 12mm ply, there are other products available that will cover in on go but again I stuck to a proven product.
I did not fit the floor until the wall frames were made as the chassis was outside in the weather while making the frame. The floor ply top side had no protection, the underside was undercoated and two coats of Hammertone enamel applied. Once the floor was screwed down I filled any blemishes and screw heads with filler so no indents would appear through the vinyl.
On the outer edge of the chassis 50x25x2mm RHS was used to allow H4 treated pine edging to be glues and tech screwed.
The floor was then laid over the chassis and to the outer edge of the treaded pine edging, the floor was also glued and screwed, this then gave the walls a large body of timber to screw to around the outer edges.
The front treated pine edging was a thicker section to allow for a taper to follow for the angle contour at the front.
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Chassis timber edging.jpg [ 75.04 KiB | Viewed 1531 times ]
Five sheets of 12mm ply were used for the floor, 50x25x2mm RHS was used to support the floor between the main chassis rails and cross rails.Attachment:
Floor.jpg [ 88.04 KiB | Viewed 1504 times ]
12mm ply may seem a bit thin but the 50x25x2 RHS was place so there is not a great span between supports.
JR