8' x 16’ + 4' V nose "Take A Kid Outdoors" House Build

[Chad Holst]

Ok, some more pictures of the build.

We started the day at 10AM, a bit later than i had hoped, but we made pretty good progress for one day and 2 guys for most of the day. I ended up with some little helpers for an hour or so, but the pictures are on another camera.

We learned alot today, and things went fairly well. I didnt stop until about midnight, so im just gonna post the pictures, and get some shut eye, as we are meeting back at the shop at 9AM. We had a board member and my 15 year old help for the last few hours, so i stayed late to get the extra hands busy.

Went went from a frame and floored roller to a structure that SHOULD be able to get some aluminum sheeting on by Sunday night. Not bad for 2 days of work...but we will see how the roof, wheel well(got 1 done tonight, no pics yet) and doors/interior wall goes.

Enjoy...

A few pictures of laying out the treated 2x2 plate. We set it back 7/16" so the osb sheeting would be flush with the frames outside edge.

We then started building then adding the walls. 2x2 untreated, and 2x4 corners. Framed out the windows. there will be 4 windows. A large rear window, 2 medium/large on the sides and a smaller one for the bathroom.

Finally, we were able to start sheeting the outside. After Scott and I got the sheeting cut and hung, using a Nailer, AAron, my 15 year old, Mike, one of our board members and I went back and screwed all the sheeting in, and then screwed all of the studs/plates and other nailed areas.

Continued....

[Chad Holst]

....Continued

Well, after it taking an hour to figure out how to get my pictures straight and loaded..im off to bed. Have a great Sunday, i'll post Sundays work when i get home or on Monday.

Tight Lines

[eagle_3464]

Why the 7/16 OSB sheeting on the walls? Don't most just attach the aluminum sheeting and then spray foam? That is going to add a couple hundred extra pounds.

[Chad Holst]

eagle, thats a good question. yes, It will be a bit heavier, but we did it for 3 reasons..and i may make up a few more as i go...lol...

1st, we need to drive the trailer from my house, to the shop, and then back home again, during the build. Since we wouldnt have any other structure up, when we had it framed out, and sheeted, it would have ripped/bent my sheeting, as there is flex in the trailer at this point in the build. With the osb attached it gave it strength, to be able to drive the house around.

2nd, We went with foam insulation and 7/16 osb, rather than poly board and no osb. same R factor and saved us some money. We cant afford to spray it, and there isnt really a need for it, with the osb/foam combo. plus, wiring AFTER the walls are sheeted, is now possible. If you sray it, you have to run your wires first, which means we would have had to frame/wire/spray/sheet all in one weekend, as we need to drive the trailer home after sunday nights work. (we have sat/sun use of the shop, and cant leave it there anywhere)

3rd, being able to go back and square everything up with the sheeting was a huge bonus. We made good cuts on the studs, plates, etc. but due to the lag bolts (not all exactly in the EXACT same spot), several window placements, etc...everything wasn't perfectly square, but when we put the OSB on, then screwed it in, it made it self square and made it very solid.

The biggest thing really was being able to drive it around, regardless of what step we were on, and not have it cause any issues. To give you an example: while it was just sitting in the shop, we lowered the framed trailer to the floor, to messure the wheel box hieght. JUST from lowering the house, it snapped out one of our 2x2! There was no sheet of any kind on it. so it had no real support yet. The aluminum would have been bent to heck, if we had just aluminum sheeting on at that point. Imagine what the waves in the side would look like after driving down the bumpy road 5 miles.

Finally, some of it comes from being comfortable working with wood more than aluminum, so we could basically learn from the wood, then copy that when we did the aluminum. Its basically the same cuts, except for the 1 inch over lay from aluminum sheet to sheet. Plus the sheeting will lay much flater, with less waves, with a flat smooth service to screw it to. 1/16 inch off on just one stud and it is pretty obvious when you look down the side. With sheeting over that, it helps spread out those small variations.

Honestly the spray foam is great, and warmer, but in the end, after this weekend, i would never spray foam a house I WAS BUILDING MYSELF. Too many positives from using the osb. It weighs in at 47lbs a sheet, but i dont mind it, if it adds protection, makes the build easier and allows us to move the unfinished house around. Now, after building one and knowing what to expect, IF i had a shop to keep it in from start to finish and if i had the extra money, i would for sure spray foam it.

Anyway...we did get some more work done on Sunday. Here are the newest pictures:

We started the day getting organized and figuring how far we hoped to get. The goal was to have the roof framed, and rubber roof glued down, the door hung, and maybe get some aluminum sheeting on.

heres the NOT pre-hung door. 36" wide, steel, insulated.

As you can see we also got all of the 2x8's curved and placed, the roof sheeted and the rubber roof on.

We then started working on some sheeting and got 1 window put in.

here are a few other random pictures of the house, maybe to help if someone wants to see how we did it.

We then put some temp lights on the back and pulled it back home. I then stapled plastic over the open windows and screwed the door closed for now.

The goal is to put in a bit here and there after work this week and then do a big push on it again on Sunday. It would be nice to have it weather proof in a few nights, then get the remainder of the aluminum hung. Then is all about wiring, and building up the inside.

We hope, if my body holds up, to have it ready to go to the paint shop the sunday after next.

Thanks for following along, comments, questions and suggestions are appreciated.

[katophil]

Do you have the trailer lights for this rig yet???

[Chad Holst]

I don't yet. We just picked up a cheaply walmart set to put on temp to get it back and forth from the shop. Didn't even put on side markers.

We want to put all led lights on it. Keep them as flush as we can. Also trying to figure out the best way to do wheel well lights, an area light on the side and a light for the hitch area. Suggestions? Ideas?

[Smoker]

I got recessed work lights for mine. Not LED but how long will they be on. I also go 2 of them to put on the back for backup lights. I hate backing a trailer at night and not seeing where I am going. For the LP tank I am putting a LED RV porch light.

[ZachD]

Need some help...

So we have what they called size 10 (1/8 inch thick, maybe a bit less), diamond plate. and .063 aluminum sheeting. The plate is going to need to be cut a bit, in some areas.

I would be ripping a 4x8 sheet to fit the inside of our wheel wells, as the wheel system on the new frame is longer than we had planned when we ordered the diamond plate, so they gave me 2 extra 4x8 shets to cut what we needed. We will also have to cut the lengths to fit the windows and doors. These pieces have been cut to width and bent, but we need to cut them to length.

We will also need to cut the last sheet of aluminum sheeting, to fit the front.

I have looked up info on the web, but everyone seems to have a different answer. I DONT have a plasma cutter, so thats out. Some guys swear the best way is to simply use a circle saw, as the uluminum is thin and much softer than some hard woods...which makes sense. I just dont want to take a piece of my blade in the face. others have said to put a cut off wheel on our mitor saw or on a table saw. Others yet said to buy a $50 multi saw, which looks like a small circle saw, as they are made for this purpose. Even others said a jig saw with a metal cut blade, is the best.

I would like to not have to buy extra tools, as we are on a tight budget, but at the same time, if i have to, i will. If the circle saw will work...ill go with that. If i need a $10 blade..fine.

I have a circle saw, a table saw, a mitor saw with slide cut. and angle grinder and a jig saw.

Thanks for the advise.

I wouldn't use the angle grinder... You can cut with a jig or circular saw both have blades made for cutting alum... If you go with a wood blade do not use an abrasive blade they can do damage because they clog up with alum.. use a A fine finish carbide tipped blade and use bees wax on the blade. Be really careful and once you start cutting do not try to back out the blade on your cut finish it all the way. I would wear a face shield as well..

I would say your best option is calling some local shops and seeing if they could shear them to size for you. My work stopped letting people bring stuff in otherwise I would shear it, but im sure someone around you would be willing to do so!

[Chad Holst]

Actually, we ended up getting one blade, for the cirle saw, that worked GREAT for both the Diamond plate and the .063.

We ran it regular, not flipped, and it was easier than cutting wood. made very straight, very clean cuts. For curved areas, we used the jig saw with a regular metal blade that came with the cheepy jig saw.

The blade was a dewalt, 60 tooth, precision trim 7 1/4" blade. Tungstun carbide. Im telling you, this is the way to go. it was smooth, fast and cut the edge as clean as it came from the factory. $19.00 at Lowes.

The trick was to float the saw above the metal, not rest it ON the metal, as the metal from the saws base would kind of stick tot he metal on the diamond plate. We used a sharpie to draw a line and it was that simple. no need for a jig or straight board clamped to it. I ripped a 8 foot section, and you couldnt tell which side was the cut side and which was the factory edge. Pludge cuts were just as simple.

I will be looking on the large auction site again today for lights, there are sooo many, and i dont know how bright i need to go. Well, i know how bright i want, but i dont know what lights are "that" bright. Their numbers mean ZERO to me.

How many Deep Cell Batteries do you guys use? I was thinking i would use two, but is that more than i will need? The plan is to run a generator, but not when we are fishing, if we can help it. The plan would be to use the generator to charge the batteries. Run everything off the 12 volt battts.

[magicstix]

Looks good! I like the OSB idea, I bet that really stiffen things up.

Lights get more than you think and put them on seperate switches or a dimmer.

[Chad Holst]

Not just the sheeting, but the screws! the construction guy used a nail gun for framing houses. it worked well and all, to get the structure up, but when we went and did all the sheeting and studs with screws..it REALLY helped make everything solid.

So i have a new project and need some advice. BEFORE anyone goes and gets all "[PoorWordUsage]" on my drawing..remember i was dropped on my head, i think, many many times as a child and i am also blind in one eye and cant see out of the other, so be nice...lol.

I have an idea about the rattle reels and flasher use in the house. Keeping in mind will will have from time to time, folks in wheel chairs in the house, i wanted to try and keep the floor free of "stuff". Rather than have a flasher up high, on a shelf, where it can fall, etc... i thought this would be cool...

The idea is to have a small "platform/shelf" that is attached to a pivot, much like the rattle reels with a hinge. On top of the platform would be a "flasher" mount. under them would be the rattle reel. On the wall would be the 12v plug in for the flasher power. This would mean that i wouldnt need the whole flasher pack. Simply the screen and the transducer. I could plug the flasher right into the wall and run it off the 12v power supply up front.

It would illiminate the need to set them on the floor, or put them on a shelf or whatever and get knocked around. it also serves the dual purpose of being the rattle reel. maybe put a piece of foam on the top to stick jigs onto. when not in use it can simple swivle to the wall and a wing nut could be tightened to keep it in place.

So, do you see any issues with this set up? good idea? If this will work, then i need some ideas on how to do the wiring. Id preffer to make it look nice, so i really dont want 2 wires just sticking out of 1 small hole in the wall, with quick connects. has anyone seen a fitting or wall mount that has a +/- quick connect, that can be screwed in/to the wall. It would make this look clean. I suppose i could fabricate 8 of them, but out of what? Some sort of small platic box that could be flush mounted to the wall?

Thanks for any advice/help/input.

[randerson]

? I would have is how many power cords are going to have are you going to just convert the ones you have and add a 12V plug on them what if you want to use the graph elsewhere what if someone has a Vex another has a Bird and yet another a Marcum they all take different plugs but all operate on a small 12v ?

[Chad Holst]

its just the regular battery clips, they all use the same batteries, so the wires are all the same on them. I would just have an an extension wire from the existing wire on the unit to the wall plugs. The wall plugs are 12v also...running to the main 12v batt. Model/brand doesnt change anything.

[Chad Holst]

I picked up some stuff at radio shack, for the 12v wall power. My goal was to get away from just having 2 wires sticking out of the wall, that pluged into the varies camera/flashers we may be using. So i picked up 1 of these for next to each hole:

Then 4 of the plates that these things snap into. obviously these aare used for RCa, so the wall plate has 2 on each. So we are going to use a cut off tool and turn 4 doubles into 8 singles. Then its just a matter of cutting up a few old RCA cords laying around the house to make a jumper from the rca jack to the equipment, that has male quick disconnect f2 plugs that are the same as the back of 12v flashers/cameras. Should look clean and get the job done. The clip ins are .54 each and the wall plates are $2.00 so we spent about $10 bucks total.

The plan is to be at the Ice Show all day Saturday, do some photo stuff with sponsors, talk to new vendors, etc... If anyone wants to say hello, we will be all wearing "Stevens Outdoors" sweatshirts, and 13 Fishing Hats. Say "Hi" if your around.

Saturday night we are going to put the house inside the shop, to thaw it out a bit, and hopefully sunday we can get the remaining aluminum sheeting hung, the windows installed, and the wheel wells covered. That way we have a closed house to work inside of, without hauling/waiting to haul to the shop on the weekend.

I'll post pictures Sunday evening or Monday AM. Have a great weekend everyone.

[Chad Holst]

Ok guys, time for me to learn some new things..again...

I have been researching the battery/chargers/inverter/ blah blah blah stufff.

I need some help on clarifying what these things do exactly.

I know i am going to have a 12V system in the house. This will run everything that is in the house.

I know we are going to have a 110 system in the house, this will have a few regular 110 outlets, for running things that we may need that are..110.

The system needs to run 100% off the batteries.

The system needs to be able to run off the generator or camp site plug-in or house extention cord, when available.

The generator/house power/camp site power needs to be able to charge the batteries.

So i was thinking i needed some sort of On board charger, an Inverter to run 110 off of the batteries (TV/Sat receiver/phone chargers).I also figured i would need a 12v fuse block and a small 110 panel.

I looked at charger/inveter combos on that big action site, and that seemed like the way to go, but after the St.Paul ice show, im told we dont need all that.

I now have a converter from Team Lodge being sent with our Furnace. He said it will do everything i need for powering, charging. It has a built in fuse panel and a cooling fan.

So my question is, based on what we want to do, will one of these systems do what we are trying to do?

Also, i am hoping to get some clarification on Battery storage/amp hours:

Is this correct... 1)if i run 2 12v batteries in SERIES, then they put out 24v but maintain the same amp hours. 2) If i run 2 12v batteries in parallel then i get 12v output but double the amp hours/capacity?

I have been told that simply running 2 deep cell batteries in parallel will not gain me any amp hours, but i dont understand why it wouldnt, and others have said that it will.

I want to put 2 125amp hour deep cell group 27 or 31 batteries in the house, to make sure we have plenty of power for any gadgets, the TV for a movie or to watch the game, etc... My goal would be to have 250 Amp hours from this set up. Whats the real answer here?

If in fact i can double my AMp hours with 2 12v in parallel, then the next question is will these batteries discharge evenly and charge evenly?

Thanks for the help guys.

(Quick Update on the house)

No new pictures to post, as i was woking by myslef yesterday and didnt get a chance to take any. it was slow going, but i managed to get the kitchen window installed and sorted out. i also completed the first wheel well, and got all the diamond plate on that wheel well. The other side is also done, except for a couple pieces of diamond plate left to put on.

For some reason my smaller window, for the bathroom is not as "thick" as the larger windows, so the frame piece that screws to the window to tighten everything together doesnt work, any ideas on how to fix this issue? I figured i could use some longer screws, but that may not look very good...

[Chad Holst]

Quick Update:

3rd day of the build finally happened last night. Went from about 7Pm till...well it was more early morning than "late night". but we got alot done. it was nice to have a few extra hands and the shop to work in for a night.

So we have the aluminum sheeting all on, except 3 pieces for the V nose, so that will be a quick job to finish. We put 1 piece of diomand plate on, to see what she will look like. Its pretty good.

We figured out an issue with the window for the back and the little one for the bathroom, and got 3 of the 4 windows in.

Aaron, Kyle and Justin worked on the inside and wiring, while mike and I hung sheet and cut metal.

They ended up getting all the trailer lights (except 4 extra running lights we still need to pick up) ran and installed. They also ran 34 sets of 12v lines to different areas for different things. they wired 3 110V wall plugs.

hopefully the converter is at the house when i get home tonight, so they can wire it in.

The goal is to have all the sheet hung, diamond plate trim on, windows in, exterior lights installed and ready to go to paint on Monday. I think, if we dont mess around too much, we could also have a good amount of the car siding installed inside by the end of the weekend. but we will see.

Heres some new pictures, sorry the light isnt so good insdie. (oh, but it will be.. )

We have not built the inerior wall yet, as we are debating on doing it after we car side the main walls or to do it then car side. We also need to do cabinets still, bait well, beds, table, the potty and the holes.

We will be done with this before Christmas if i can keep getting shop time. But with only 3 days of work into it, i think its coming together fairly well.

[Chad Holst]

Weekend Update:

We made good progress this weekend, even though we didnt have much help (lots of people out on the ice)

My son, my friend mike, his son and I did manage to get the outside completed, trimmed, etc.

We started putting in the foam insulation, but i didnt get any picture, too long of a day, and didnt want to mess with the pictures by the time i remembered.

We started Saturday by re-gluing the rubber roof. i wasnt happy with the wrinkles that didnt work themselves out. We then worked on getting the 24" diamond plate put on the entire bottom. We cut and ran all the corners, then finished the top edge trim.

We had 3 black windows, and 1 white one in the back. We are panting it black, so the white window was bothing me...so we plasti-dipped it black...MUCH BETTER!

We then went around and spray foamed any cracks or seam that were exposed, corners, windows, etc.

Finally we went worked out the trick door trim, but after some learning, we got it to look great.

We had enough time to start cutting and installing foam panels inside, but afrer a few sheets we realized it was getting late on a school night so we cleaned up the shop and pulled her home for the week.

It is completely sealed, so i may work on installing foam pieces after work. its a harder job than i though since we had to run a 2x2 horizontally between the studs at 35 inches up. (so we have something to nail the car siding to for the zertical section) that doubles the amount of foam board cuts needed.

Ill get more pictures up when the inside is insulated.

Our pile is slowly getting smaller. But i am happy with the progress and the quality so far.

Other pictures from weekend:

continued...

[Chad Holst]

...continued

If anyone wants better pictures of a particular part, just ask, ill get some posted.

have a great week everyone. Tight Lines.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Looking great!

[Chad Holst]

Thanks Ripper.

We are learning as we go. i have never built anything like this, let alone a wheel house. I think the largest thing i have built is a vanity or a some other small thing. maybe the sled for my old suitcase? lol. So its been a learning experience. But its pretty straight forward if you take your time and think before you cut. Keep it sealed, keep it insulated and keep it strong. Thats about all the "musts". everything else is just window dressing.

I do wish i had done the corners of the roof different. We ran low on angled trim diamond plate (due to a bad cut i made on a couple pieces) So we ended up doing it how we originally planed. I wish i had made corner caps with some extra plate rather than butt end them together. I think when it is filled and painted it will look ok still but there is a 1/16-1/8 gap between the corner 45 degree cuts.

I also wish i knew how to wire, as it is holding us up from doing more inside and my wire guy works alot, so his free time is limited.

I still cant decide if we should Car side the entire inside and THEN build the interior wall, or if we should frame it it, then carside around it. The construction guy said to carside then frame the wall.

We picked up a very nice looking counter top that had a broken end, but it is 16 feet long (2-1/2' deep), so there is much more there than we need. so we are using it to make the counters and then cutting out of the rest what we need for matching shelves, wheel box tops, etc. Gotta love the dent/dig areas at menards. It will go well with the black lower walls and the carpet. (yikes, i live with too many women)

Converter came in, still waiting on Furnace.

[JC26]

This a very nice looking build especially if you have never done anything like this!

One thing I noticed (I apologize if someone else already stated this or if you have already explained your reason for doing it this way)is the direction the door opens. To me it makes the most sense to have it so that when going down the road the wind pushes the door shut. Maybe you are to far along to change this but just throwing out ideas to help a guy out!

Again very nice looking house! Keep up the good work!

[Chad Holst]

JC26,

Noone has pointed it out, and i wish they had. Infact its VERY observant of you to notice this, as just yesterday we had to take the house up to the store to use it to pick up some long items for inside and our other trailer is to short...guess what happened? yep..it opened up and BANG. 12 nice screw head marks on the outside of the door where it hit against the house! We do want it to open out, for the extra clearance for wheelchairs, and to make it harder to "kick in". but we never thought about which way it swings open.

unfortunately its to late to change it now. The door is getting sanded, filled and painted, so im not worried about the new dings, but in the future there will be a door stop on the house. The wheel rubber stops it when its down, but when the house is lifted the door clears the wheel and hits the house.

First time? yah, to say the least. Lots of you tubing, forum reading, picture inspecting and taking my time. We did have a construction guy to help stud the walls and rafters with us, but honestly i wish we would have learned how to have done it, then done it ourselves, as it wasnt as... detailed as i would have liked. Dont get me wrong, it worked great, but a litle better cut here and there would have made the aluminum sheeting and trim ALOT faster and easier.

I really enjoy being able to do this with my son, nephew, my best friends son and a few others that have been able to come help out. They get wide eyed when you tell them they can use the saw or the drill, when they have never done anything like this before. Its pretty impressive to explain the safety and responsibility of the equipment and then see them thinking about it while they use it. Taking pride in something other than how many kills they can get on Call Of Duty.

It cool to hear them say "man, i cant believe this was just a pile of wood and metal 2 weeks ago". or when we are dropping them off at home and they look at trailers and things going by and they say "i could make that".

I look forward to seeing it painted and having the decals of all the wonderful sponsors on it. On the other hand i dred thinking about the cabinets and more detailed parts inside. YouTube will most deff be my friend the next couple weeks.

[JC26]

That very awesome to get children involved with projects like this! Lots can be learned from a project like this!

Keep up the good work!

[CaptainMusky]

Hey if you are going to build your cabinets get a kreg jig or some other pocket hole jig. Make face frames super easy. You could build them at a fraction of the cost and do a much better job.

Looks real nice. I want to do something like this one day but I have so many things I want to spend money on with shorter supply of the money than I'd like.

[Chad Holst]

CaptainMusky,

We have been talking about that exact thing, how to build the kitchen and all the cabinets. I'll be posting that stuff sooner than i am probably ready for...lol.

We looked at using a Kreg Jig, but then we wondered if it is really needed. Basically the Kreg hides the screws from having to go in the end, where you could see them, but if we are going to put a piece of molding around the corders anyway, they would cover up the screw heads.

After looking at how others have done it, including the higher end manufacturers, we are talking about basically building shelves and the putting a face on them and hanging a door. We want them to look nice, yes, but the end look will be just as nice on the outside as building expensive cabinets. Also, we are simply using Pine so that it matches the house interior. We even talked about using the carsiding to make the exterior of the cabinets, as that is what the house is completed with.

Lots to figure out here. Still waiting on our furnace (back ordered) and for the last of the wiring to be done, so we can atleast get the car siding started.

The house is able to go to paint today, but we are going to have to push that back a day or two, as i wasnt able to get the propane box finished last night. Too much family stuff going on to get a good night of work in on it. Heres where i got to so far...

Plan is to now diamond plate the box, put a swinging door on the front, and then bolt it to the house. Drill a hole and run the lines. Should be able to cut and attach plate tonight, so that we can get it painted on Thursday or Friday and have it back so we can work on inside this weekend. HOWEVER, if we dont have it back from paint this weekend, i may "have to" go fishing. I have not stepped on the hard water yet this year. Its killing me.

Anyone have a suggestion on how well this needs to be vented?