Rookie Building A Wheel House

[lots2fish28]

First of all I want to Let all of you reading this I am very green at building things. Over the past 2 years I have always wanted to build a Ice fishing Shack. I have been reading other posts on this site of others building there wheelhouses and it has been very helpful on different ideas and designs. So here we go Im going to attempt at building one and I will probably have a lot of questions along the way. I have my frame already that I have been working on basically the frame is an old pop up camper frame that has been ripped down to just the steel. This past week I have modified the frame a bit with the help of a buddy and added a foot in the back of it and added a V front. Overall length is 12ft with a 3ft v front. It is 6ft 6" wide. My plan is to have double doors in the back for the atv and a camper door towards the front and 2 small windows to give you a basic idea of what im thinking. My first question for you guys is I plan on doing the floor this week and sandwiching some pink insulation in between 2 sheets of plywood. I would like to know your guys thoughts on how thick of plywood I should use and how thick of insulation should be sandwich in between.

[pike doctor]

Make sure you know the frame and axles are strong enough to support a wheeler. I would stay away from sandwhiching the floor. A lot of guys do it, and it is a complete waste of time and money and it makes it to heavy. All you need is one layer, and then cut some ridgid board foam to fit between your frame. Cut it really tight, and then glue it in with some spray foam in a can. Most guys think it will rot, but they are completely wrong. Make sure it has clearance from the ice. You dont need that much to keep it warm on the floor.

Or you can go the route that I did and get the floor spray foamed.

If you have a building to build the house in I would build it from the inside out.

When I did mine it went like this.

1. 5/8 treated flooring fastened with stainless screws

2. cut all the holes out for the house. Have your auger there and know your plan. Some guys get the holes to close the the walls, etc.

3. carpeted the house, cut holes out, and installed holes and catch covers. stapled the carpet where the stud walls would hit.

4. built walls and panelled them. Then stood them all up and fasted together and fasted to the frame. I used 7" stainless bolts and lock nuts and drilled through the frame and the sill plate to hold the walls onto the trailer.

5. Build roof. I used 8ft 2*6 and cut them to 2" at the tail full depth at the peak. It sheds just enough water. Plywood and then rubber roof.

6. Panel ceiling

7. Run all lights, gas and electrical.

8. hang all shelves, beds, etc. This way you can screw from the back and never see any screwheads.

9. Take the house and have it sprayfoamed.

10. Bring the house back and put on siding and diamond plate and you done.

I also did my frame with herculiner. Get it good and clean and the stuff will last forever. Looks a lot better than all the brand new houses I see with rusty trailers.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE TRAILER LEVEL WHEN YOU BUILD THE HOUSE. IT MAKES IT WAY EASIER. I used some wood blocks, jacks or whatever. I was able to just pre-panel my walls and stand them up and everything fit really nice. GOOD LUCK.

[bak2MN]

Sounds like alot of weight for a atv hauler on that frame. My pop up campers I have had in the past looked pretty weak.

[katophil]

1 I'd glue in the floor foam, like posted

next if I were doing it again I'd used 1/2" on the floor not 5/8"

then more glass a window on all four sides

good luck

[lots2fish28]

Thanks for the info guys gonna change my plans a little because of your suggestions. Not gonna do the atv door and instead of sandwiching plywood I went with 5\8" treated plywood. I plan on cutting pink insulation and glueing the bottom and great foaming the edges. Thanks again for all the input so far. I will take pics after I get done with the floor this weekend.

[lots2fish28]

I would like to post some pics of my progress on the frame but i cant seem to paste any on here??? Any good suggestions on posting pics I tried to link up my photos of it from photobucket but it only gives the link it wont let you click on it to view images. I would like to know how you can just add a pic into your reply without using photobucket it would make it a lot easier if i could just cut and paste.

[svonasek]

I would like to post some pics of my progress on the frame but i cant seem to paste any on here??? Any good suggestions on posting pics I tried to link up my photos of it from photobucket but it only gives the link it wont let you click on it to view images. I would like to know how you can just add a pic into your reply without using photobucket it would make it a lot easier if i could just cut and paste.

if you're using photobucket then there's a direct link that you'll see below the picutre. For instance...mine looks like this "http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/svonasek/IMG00043-20100829-1919.jpg" without the quotes.

to post the picture I have first type "" to the post without the quotes.

[lots2fish28]

Alright I think I figured out how to Post Pics on here. Heres what I started with as you can see lots of sanding and grinding. And then two coats of primer and paint. Tonight I finished up the floor by glueing and screwing. Like I said im a rookie at this so I hope it turns out all right. Tomorrow going to flip the trailer on its side and pink insulate the floor any suggestions on what thickness I should go with?

[Big Buck Buster]

Go as thick as your budget will allow. You can never have enough insulation.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

If it isn't too late, I'd highly recommend spray foaming the floor. It'll add a lot of strength, make it totally waterproof from the bottom, and last forever.

[pike doctor]

Is that regular plywood on your floor????

[lots2fish28]

No that is treated 5/8 plywood. Decided to go with 1 and 1/2 in pink foam on floor, glued in this evening with pl 300. I also filled gaps and sealed with couple cans of foam. I would like to spray foam in the future but want to be as cost effective as i can this yr.

[pike doctor]

It sure doesnt look treated from the pictures. Did you use stainless or galvinized screws? The galvinized screws will be ate away by the treated plywood. You have to use stainless.

The 1 1/2 will work just fine for your floor. I would suggest carpeting now and putting in all of your holes. Make sure to leave enough room for the auger along the wall. Simply staple your carpet down on one side where the wall will be and pull tight to the other side and staple that down and you are done. Then put your holes with catch covers in and screw them down. It will hold the carpet nicely.

Then I would prepanel all of my stud walls and stand them up onto A LEVEL trailer. Very important to get it level when building. Makes it way easier. Keep the pictures coming.

[Survyr]

Just a thought... I lined the bottom of my house with the aluminum siding, overlapping 1 1/2" using adhesive caulk at the seams and used self tapping screws into the 2" frame. I don't travel much with the house, so it works well for me. I would imagine if you are on salty roads the slime would build up in the seams where the holes are cut. To avoid we did our best to caulk the seams on the bottom side; I plan on touching them up every year. We thought the rough edges would catch lines, but the ice build up from drilling and cleaning the holes covers up any rough edges. It worked out very well last year and I had absolutely no problems with the house freezing down. Set directly on the ice/snow. During the warm spells last winter I just brought the house home.

[Survyr]

I had one hell of a time replacing carpet and making a clean look. I would recommend not putting the walls on top of the carpet. Using a composite trim piece for baseboard works well, but it gets a little spendy. A friend of mine gave me oak baseboard so I put that in to cover up the seam where the carpet meets the wall.

[lots2fish28]

That is treated plywood it is treated fur not green treated pine thats why it is the color that it is. Here is a few pics of pink insulation installed. Next project is the floor was wondering your guys opinion. Wanted to stay away from marine carpet just cause i know it will get wet. I was thinking of going with vinyl what are your guys thoughts on marine grade vinyl. I was thinking of putting nautolex down it is a marine grade vinyl that looks like carpet. Or do you think a standard vinyl from big box retailer will work. Just looking for suggestions.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

I used Herculiner and it turned out great. Pics in the 2010 Fish House post.

[lots2fish28]

Lil ripper this looks pretty cool. The only thing that worrys me is if it will start to peel after a while. Ive seen guys who have used it in there truck beds and after one year it started to flake off. If I do use this how many gallons do you think im going to need. It is 14ft by 6.5ft. Any other tips about using this would be apprieciated.

[svonasek]

I bought a gallon of the roll on bed liner from walmart (menards sells the same brand). One gallon is suppose to cover 140 square feet.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

I used the cheap (plastikote?) bedliner from Fleet Farm on my last house on green treated plywood. It took about 2 minutes into the first trip before it started to peel up. By the end of the year it was about half gone.

With this house I went for the twice as expensive Herculiner, and used it on Advantech. This stuff goes on thicker, and dries into a pretty hard surface. It saw use on a 2 day camping trip with 10 guys walking all over it, plus walking over it while finishing up the house, with no signs whatsoever of peeling. I have a spray on bedliner in my truck (not sure of brand). It gets used and abused (wood, rocks, lumber, hunting/fishing, etc) and has not peeled one bit.

I used about 2/3 gallon in my house (2 coats). You'd probably be fine with 1 gallon.

[lots2fish28]

Thanks for info lip ripper went and picked up herculiner tonight and it was on sale which was cool and here it is after 2 coats. Applied first coat really thin and just finished second coat a couple hours latter hope it holds up cause this was easy to apply and it really looks nice

[pike doctor]

I would have cut the holes out first. I used the herculiner on my frame and I really like it. Took forever, but well worth it in opinion. Keep the pictures comming. Looks good so far and hopefully you get good suggestions along the way.

[lots2fish28]

I thought about cutting holes out but would like to get it framed up and actually sit in the house and see where I want the holes to be. Anyways going forward I have some questions about framing the house, as i stated before I want to do 2x2 walls and have 2x4s on the corners of the house. What im wondering is how high most of you guys go with your walls I plan on using .040 aluminum sheeting and running vertical do most of you guys use the full sheet of aluminum and cut down the 2x2s or would you recommend going only so high on the walls and cutting the aluminum to fit the walls. My plan was to run the full sheet of aluminum flush with the bottom of the frame and cut the 2x2s is this the way you guys would do it. This probably is a pretty basic question but like I said Im a rookie at this and want to do this as best as possible. Thanks Again for all the tips.

[svonasek]

I went 7 foot tall on my walls. I plan on using 5'x10' sheets of aluminum. The plan is to shear one 2 1/2 feet wide x 10. I'll put that one on bottom horizontally. The a full 5x10 sheet horizontally about that.

[pike doctor]

I went 6ft 8 inch height from floor to ceiling in my house and I used aluminum camper siding.

I would not use 2*2. Use 2*3s. The weight you gain is very minimal for the amount of strength you gain, and then you can insulate more. When you are getting your studs spend some time and go through the pile and pick lighter ones. 2*3 will add less weight than an extra battery. IMO you can never insulate a fishhouse enough. If it gets to warm you can always crack a window, but you are out there freezing your seeds off and you have been drinking and cant leave you may regret skimping on the insulation. Or if you have a lady friend out we all know that women and kids are chronically cold and will complain to the point of

driving you insane.

I dont recall seeing a fish house where the aluminum comes all the way to the frame. I guess the downside I see is smashing the aluminum up when you are banking the house. I put diamond plate the entire perimeter of my house. I think you can get 4*10 sheets from midway in St cloud or feggers in delano. You could cut the sheets in half and then just overlap the two foot diamond plate a little. Then run your rubber roof over the top of the siding and trim it out with termination bars.