Fish House rv Build

[Papa Bear]

Still pluggin away on our shack. This part of the process has seemed painfully slow, I'm sure mostly because I'm anxious to get it out on the ice. Was up till 1 last night laminating the counters and spraying the last of the doors and drawer fronts. The cabinets were sprayed in place along with the walls and ceiling with sanding sealer and then 2 coats of lacquer. Not a fun process when all the windows are taped off and the door is closed to keep the heat in! Respirator couldn't quite keep up. Either way, it's done now and turned out.

 

 

 

Pile o' drawers. I built these a little different than I've done in the past. Instead of plywood, the sides are made of pine planed down to 1/2" and biscuited. The bottoms are leftover cedar planking. I ended up finding some "push-to-open" type drawer slides that latch like the door catches fishnfan shared above.

 

 

Bathroom pocket door. Pine frame and the same cedar planks used on everything else.

 

 

 

Not a very good picture but wanted to kind of show how the bathroom/shower went together. The walls were covered with GoBoard which is a tile backer board with a waterproof skin and a foam core. The raised floor is the same 1" polyurethane that I used in the rest of the house. I gave the pan a slight taper towards the drain with a belt sander. If the shack isn't perfectly level some squeegeeing might be involved after use. I don't expect the shower to get much use but wanted one available if needed. The shower curb and toilet platform is raised another inch. All the joints and seams were then liberally sealed and then the pan got 3 coats of Redgard which is used for shower membranes. Then that got a coat of liquid rubber over the top. Lastly the walls are covered with thin plastic paneling. The toilet tucks back in there and the waste tank cassette pulls out the side of the house. The hole for the access door wasn't cut in yet in this picture. I didn't want to eat up a lot of space with a big bathroom but wanted to be able to S&S if nothing else was available. Hopefully this will work out.

 

 

The counters; edged, sanded and ready for contact cement.

 

 

 

I've never used contact cement before. I glued these up in our attached garage last night. Stunk up the whole house. I wasn't very popular this morning.

 

 

 

The laminate still needs to be trimmed but I think it turned out pretty good for my first stab at laminating counters

 

 

Also made a little rod rack with some of the trim scraps. I swear the pink one's not mine. That's pretty much where I'm at. I'm optimistically hoping to get enough done before the weekend to take it out for a night and have some BL smoothies!

 

 

 

[Cooperman]

2 hours ago, Papa Bear said:

Still pluggin away on our shack. This part of the process has seemed painfully slow, I'm sure mostly because I'm anxious to get it out on the ice. Was up till 1 last night laminating the counters and spraying the last of the doors and drawer fronts. The cabinets were sprayed in place along with the walls and ceiling with sanding sealer and then 2 coats of lacquer. Not a fun process when all the windows are taped off and the door is closed to keep the heat in! Respirator couldn't quite keep up. Either way, it's done now and turned out.

 

 

 

Pile o' drawers. I built these a little different than I've done in the past. Instead of plywood, the sides are made of pine planed down to 1/2" and biscuited. The bottoms are leftover cedar planking. I ended up finding some "push-to-open" type drawer slides that latch like the door catches fishnfan shared above.

 

 

Bathroom pocket door. Pine frame and the same cedar planks used on everything else.

 

 

 

Not a very good picture but wanted to kind of show how the bathroom/shower went together. The walls were covered with GoBoard which is a tile backer board with a waterproof skin and a foam core. The raised floor is the same 1" polyurethane that I used in the rest of the house. I gave the pan a slight taper towards the drain with a belt sander. If the shack isn't perfectly level some squeegeeing might be involved after use. I don't expect the shower to get much use but wanted one available if needed. The shower curb and toilet platform is raised another inch. All the joints and seams were then liberally sealed and then the pan got 3 coats of Redgard which is used for shower membranes. Then that got a coat of liquid rubber over the top. Lastly the walls are covered with thin plastic paneling. The toilet tucks back in there and the waste tank cassette pulls out the side of the house. The hole for the access door wasn't cut in yet in this picture. I didn't want to eat up a lot of space with a big bathroom but wanted to be able to S&S if nothing else was available. Hopefully this will work out.

 

 

The counters; edged, sanded and ready for contact cement.

 

 

 

I've never used contact cement before. I glued these up in our attached garage last night. Stunk up the whole house. I wasn't very popular this morning.

 

 

 

The laminate still needs to be trimmed but I think it turned out pretty good for my first stab at laminating counters

 

 

Also made a little rod rack with some of the trim scraps. I swear the pink one's not mine. That's pretty much where I'm at. I'm optimistically hoping to get enough done before the weekend to take it out for a night and have some BL smoothies!

 

 

 

 

Papa Bear,

Great job! That is one awesome house. Can you tell me how thick your pocket door is, and did you recess your tongue & groove into the stiles and rail of the door. If possible could you post a photo of the back and side of the door? Again, great craftsmanship on everything!

Thanks

[Papa Bear]

23 minutes ago, Cooperman said:

 

Papa Bear,

Great job! That is one awesome house. Can you tell me how thick your pocket door is, and did you recess your tongue & groove into the stiles and rail of the door. If possible could you post a photo of the back and side of the door? Again, great craftsmanship on everything!

Thanks

Thank you, yes, the door has a 5/16 groove cut around the inside that the planks slip into and the rails then have a matching tongue. I used the same adjustable T&G cutter set for the cabinet doors, bath door, and to cut the groove for the drawer bottoms. The accent pieces on the front are just fitted between the frame, glued and brad nailed from the back. I believe the frame pieces were ~1 1/8" thick. I'll take a couple pics of the side and back of the door tonight if I remember.

[Papa Bear]

[Papa Bear]

Made it out this weekend for the maiden voyage. Went well other than some trailer light issues that developed after leaving home. I'll have to pick away at that along with more of the finishing work before the weekend. Do you guys bond your + from the truck harness to the house batteries?

 

 

 

Yesterday afternoon the wife looked out and saw this unfolding...

 

We were roughly 300 yards from this. 18" of ice where we were sitting.  Too bad this happened but hopefully it can be learned from. 

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Love the house!  My next build just may have to be an aluminum frame, depending on cost.

 

Regarding the trailer wires...are you hoping for the + from the truck to charge your house batteries?

[Cooperman]

On 2/2/2017 at 3:47 PM, Papa Bear said:

Thanks for the photos Papa Bear, very nice!

[Papa Bear]

No, don't want to charge from the truck harness, just wondering if not having everything at the same potential would cause any issue. I didn't wire it that way, just questioning myself. All connections were soldered to prevent issues down the road and here I am troubleshooting the darn lights after the first time out.  

 

You might be surprised at the aluminum trailer cost, no finishing cost involved. 

 

Also forgot to mention...was a little disappointed after stopping at the scale. Fully loaded 5400lbs on the axles 6200lbs total. Does 800 seem like too much tongue weight to you guys? There is a lot of stuff build into this house but comparing it to the Yetti with similar features and rubber/wood roof I'm questioning what I was told they weigh. Wondering if tongue weight wasn't added. Oh well, it is what it is. 

[highlife4me]

Trailer tongue weight should be between 10 - 15% of the weight of the trailer.  You're at 13%, perfect.  You probably couldn't have got it any better if you tried.  BTW, very nice house you built for yourself.  Very nice.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

3 hours ago, Papa Bear said:

No, don't want to charge from the truck harness, just wondering if not having everything at the same potential would cause any issue. I didn't wire it that way, just questioning myself. All connections were soldered to prevent issues down the road and here I am troubleshooting the darn lights after the first time out.  

 

You might be surprised at the aluminum trailer cost, no finishing cost involved. 

 

Also forgot to mention...was a little disappointed after stopping at the scale. Fully loaded 5400lbs on the axles 6200lbs total. Does 800 seem like too much tongue weight to you guys? There is a lot of stuff build into this house but comparing it to the Yetti with similar features and rubber/wood roof I'm questioning what I was told they weigh. Wondering if tongue weight wasn't added. Oh well, it is what it is. 

 

I've always skipped the + wire on the harness.  I like to keep systems isolated (ex: hydraulic pump, house lights, trailer lights).  It eliminates problems down the road.

 

What specific issues are you having?  I THOUGHT I was having wiring issues with mine, but it turns out it was a safety/lockout "feature" on my truck (Chevy).  

 

800 seems spot on, as does the 6200#.  Put a 21' Yetti on a scale...I've heard from multiple people that it isn't even close to what they claim.  Not to mention their hydraulic system is janky.  

[vtx1029]

If you want to tie your positives together run a battery isolator it will keep your truck battery from discharging when the truck is turned off.

https://www.amazon.com/NOCO-IGD140HP-140-Battery-Isolator/dp/B001DKRF2M

[Papa Bear]

Thanks for the info guys! Haven't pinned down the light problem yet but it's looking like a vehicle issue. Trailer tail and left turn fuses blow when hooked to my truck but not when hooked to the wife's. More fun tonight

[avidleech]

Did you have to sand in between coats of lacquer? I was going to use a pre catalyzed lacquer for a little more durability, but it seems like it would take forever to get in all of the grooves. 

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

13 hours ago, avidleech said:

Did you have to sand in between coats of lacquer? I was going to use a pre catalyzed lacquer for a little more durability, but it seems like it would take forever to get in all of the grooves. 

 

Just a quick sanding with a sanding sponge.  It makes a HUGE difference in the smoothness of the wood.  

[avidleech]

4 hours ago, Lip_Ripper Guy said:

 

Just a quick sanding with a sanding sponge.  It makes a HUGE difference in the smoothness of the wood.  

I didn't know those existed. I will give it a try. I was just using regular sand paper and was ready to quit after 15 minutes. I should have sprayed it before the wood was up. The sanding would have been a little easier at least. 

[Papa Bear]

I sprayed in place and sanded with 200 grit  random orbit between coats. Sanding sealer as the first coat isn't necessary but in my experience saves sanding time and usually ends up smoother. I didn't worry about sanding in the grooves. 

[Okie boy]

Where did you get your subfloor? How is it holding up? 

[Papa Bear]

Company called space age synthetics out of Fargo. No issues. Good stuff. Need to get some finished pics up here. 

[Hawg]

It’s heavy, but incredible product. My ex partner in another business is a partner in Space Age. 

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

I was looking into that flooring when I did my last build.  Which product did you use?  "Versatile"?

[Papa Bear]

Looks like they call it Ice Cap. The only reason I ended up with that was bc they had lots of blem sheets of that stuff that were $50 each instead of $200/sheet full price for the other stuff.  1"x4'x8' is 55 lbs/sheet. I believe most 3/4" x 4'x8' plywood is around 70 lbs.

[Papa Bear]

 

Finally took some time to take some finished (almost) pics. We've gotten a ton of use out of it in the last year and are very happy with how it turned out. After sleeping almost 50 nights on the jackknife couches, I just added a lift bed which is a huge improvement.  

 

 

The electric fireplace wasn't in the plans but we're so glad we have it now. It's so much quieter than the furnace. The generator sucks more gas to run it but the furnace hardly ever runs when temps are above 0.

 

 

 

 

Thankless water heater and cassette toilet are both working very well.

 

 

Picked up one of these fish cleaning tables on sale and mounted it to the side of the house with some interlocking rail strips I found on amazon. A faucet came with it that I hook water to with one of those really fexible 1/4" air hoses that I run around the front of the house where it hooks in to the rest of my water.

 

I used the folding legs that came on the fish cleaning table to make our dinette table. The stubby legs were added so that when its folded down, it supports the couches that fold out onto it.

 

 

When we're fishing the table goes in the back of the truck or gets left at home.

 

 

We're really happy with how the lift been turned out. The tracks on the wall are 1x2 aluminum that were ripped on the table saw to make a channel for the slides to run in. The bed is raised and lowered with a winch type system that is designed for lifting things in your garage.

 

 

I replaced the steel cable that came on the winch with synthetic winch line. The weak link is the winch itself which is only rated for 250 lbs. This is more than enough to lift the bed itself. 3/8" pins are put through the rails to support our weight.

 

 

This is one of the slides. May seem a little crude but they are really working well. Zero binding. The brown piece is aluminum and the black layers are HDPE. The bolts are 1/2" grade 8's. You can see I cut all but about 1/8" of the heads off to improve clearance/slop. Sorry the video is so poor but you should at least get the idea of how it works. Thankfully I'm better at building stuff than videography.

 

IMG_3024.MOV

[vtx1029]

Your bed is pretty awesome! thanks for sharing. Got a link for that winch?

[Papa Bear]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A67WXDI/ref=sspa_dk_detail_2?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B01A67WXDI&pd_rd_wg=HKpzx&pd_rd_r=0VTSTJ7074GWKRGJGVW3&pd_rd_w=MhRMb

[rl_sd]

Now thats slick!