New Member With Big Plans

pextron · 07-07-2010, 12:51 AM

Hello,

I am new to travel trailers and do not currently own one but I am in the process of planning my own frame-up build project which will require a donor travel trailer in the 24 foot size range to use as a foundation for my build. While conducting research, I was attracted to your forum by the Homemade Travel Trailer Project thread and have been following it for a while now.

You folks seem to have a positive attitude and appear to be tolerant of new ideas and ways of thinking so I decided to join your forum and see how things went. People seem to really like Sunlines so I may consider using one that is in need of some serious TLC as a basis for my build which would make me a Sunline owner, sort of anyway.

If anyone is interested, I would be more than happy to post my plans/ideas and would welcome any feedback or suggestions that anyone has.

Thanks

rich2500 · 07-07-2010, 04:32 AM

Hi pextron and welcome to the club,I and I'm sure most others here would love to follow your build,I have read your posts on rv.net and liked your way of thinking.I think starting your project with a sunline is a great idea and you have come to the correct place when it comes to sunline and rv's in general,we got lots of very knowledgable folks here that I know would be happy to guide you in the right direction with your project.

pextron · 07-07-2010, 06:55 AM

Thank you for your kind welcome.

As you could tell, I am also a member of the other forum but my experience there has been met with mixed results. Regardless, I used the same name here so there would be no confusion as it only seemed logical that some people would be members of both forums.

I am still very much in the planning stages and have yet to locate a suitable travel trailer to use as a donor but it seems that a Sunline would be an excellent candidate. The biggest problem I am facing is finding one that has water damage that has not been wrecked and is priced low enough to make the cost of my build feasible.

I have gained a lot of valuable information here and have little doubt that there is much more to be gained but more importantly, this seems to be a friendly place where the potential exists to develop lasting friendships while sharing ideas and information. My entire reason behind doing this is to have fun and sharing experiences and information would make it all that much better.

pextron · 07-08-2010, 12:09 AM

Is this forum not very active anymore? There doesn't seem to be a lot of traffic.

Steve Collins · 07-08-2010, 04:29 AM

Summer = camping. Easily a third of our usual posters are out away from home right now and may not even have internet access. Those that do generally only check in once a day.

And, our total number of members here is a very small fraction compared to places like rv.net.

pextron · 07-08-2010, 06:40 AM

Yea, I knew it was a smaller site before I joined and unfortunately summer doesn't mean camping for me, at least not yet anyway.

Honda03842 · 07-08-2010, 07:11 AM

Pextron,
There are three or four site members that are massively reconfiguring their trailers or building a trailer from frame up. These postings get a lot of views and a fair amount of comment.

It is a site where people do respond and answer questions. The best part of this site is the freindliness of the members. Part of this may be due to the fact that the manufacturer no longer exists and we are more dependent on each other; another part may be that members love their Sunlines. With all that the members have been tolerant and accepting of those members that are seeking more, going a little beyond, something to be respected about the nature of the group.

Certainly your postings would be welcome. As to a Sunline as a base for your development, I am using a Sunline frame for my trailer, dismantling it with heavy heart before starting, at the same time learning a lot about trailers and their construction.

Another member ("Homebuilt") is using a popup frame. Certainly cost of the frame and additional available components on the sacraficial trailer are a deciding factor. In my case, one factor were the Sunline windows in our trailer and all the components we had added over the years plus the emotional ties to our little Sunline.

Welcome to the site, my personal favorite RV site.

DianeScraps · 07-08-2010, 08:26 AM

Hi and welcome!

I truely admire those up to the major rebuilds and mods! For us just doing the small stuff requires help, but the people around here are awesome with us non handy types too!

I have seen various posts around here in the past about damaged sunlines for sale, so perhaps they can even help you make your match.

Chat with you soon! (now i've gotta go finish packing my sunline - we leave tonight)

Diane

pextron · 07-08-2010, 11:32 AM

Friendliness is one of the things that attracted me to the site. I am a big believer in quality over quantity and it means a lot to me to have the ability to not only communicate with people but to actually relate to them in a meaningful way. This seems like a great place and while I may be new to travel trailers, I have a great deal of experience in many other areas and would be more than happy to contribute in whatever ways I can. Afterall, helping one another and sharing a friendly atmosphere is what camping is all about.

I also gave a great love of the outdoors and have went tent camping and even backpacking many times in the past. Over time, I had less and less time to go camping until I eventually stopped but now that I have more free time, I have decided to resume camping, only this time I want to step it up a few notches.

I had originally thought of simply purchasing a travel trailer that was ready to go but as I began to research them and came across a few build threads, the seed for building my own started to take root and eventually brought me to the point where I am at today.

Taking on a travel trailer build project is a huge undertaking but I am fully prepared for the task. In fact, I am very much looking foreward to it when the time comes. Photography also happens to be one of my hobbies so as my build progresses, there will be lots of pictures with annotations for me to share.

My build plans are still a work in progress but here is my floor plan and a general overview of what it will look like. It's profile actually resembles a Sunline.

I very much welcome feedback and suggestions.

Floor Plan:

Structure:

Overview:

Interior 1:

Interior 2:

**JohnB** · 07-09-2010, 09:15 PM

Hi Pextron

Welcome to Sunline Owners Club.

Yes I know I for one would very much like to see your camper build. And modeling it after a Sunline would be a bonus but not a must have. If you can find a Sunline that fits the needs of your starter project, documenting the construction of build as you take it apart helps us all. And pic’s are really really helpful as we all take away different things from the pics to help with our campers.

Have you seen this persons build of a 5th wheel?

http://www.chadsprojects.com/RV_Homemade_Trailer.asp

I myself may redo our Sunline when I retire and after we have stopped our western US camping travel spree for a while….. By then it may need an upgrade as we use ours all year round now and have no plans to stop doing that. So I’m still collecting ideas and documenting the repairs I do now so it may help others.

The advantage you have in doing your own is you can add the extra time to make a good TT, great. Sunline was above most in the RV industry and a lot of it was from taking a little more time to finish it off right. They still followed and or lead the RV industry practices in how to build a camper so they are a good base for your new project. And yes there are some things that they too could of done better but in today’s industry they where top class.

H’mm looking at your diagrams, what CAD packaging are you using?

Good luck and hope to see more soon.

John

pextron · 07-10-2010, 12:33 AM

I used a program called Google Sketchup (http://sketchup.google.com) to create the 3D model of my floor plan. It's really easy to use with many great features and the best part is that it's a free program. I like planning in 3D because it allows me to see it before I build it to ensure it is what I had imagined. I have many ideas and have little doubt that many more will follow. Especially with the help of others.

The 5th wheel project was one of many that I refer to while planning for my build. He did a great job and the name "Envision" fits perfectly. In my case, I have considered the name "Phoenix", after the mythical bird that was reborn from the ashes of the old. The name "Phoenix" also lends itself to some interesting custom logos and graphics too. The following picture is one of many ideas I had for a custom logo. It was created using Photoshop.

Sunline's do appear to be better constructed than most. Granted, they could have done a few things differently, but overall they look very good. However, I do think that plywood would have been better suited than OSB for the floor because OSB has a tendancy to absorb moisture, leading to rot, but that's just my personal opinion.

In any case, I would be more than happy to take lots of pictures and document everything during disassembly of my donor travel trailer, after I locate one. When I began planning for this project, I knew nothing about the methods used to construct travel trailers but it was pictures and documentation provided by others that gave me the information I needed. In fact, the pictures of the factory tour on this site were some of the most helpful of all.

It would be great if I could manage to find a used Sunline that is suitable for my project so I will be especially alert for them. You never know, perhaps an owner of a damaged Sunline will read this and want to give their beloved Sunline a good home so it can be reborn. Hey, I can dream right?

pextron · 07-10-2010, 03:18 AM

The Phoenix logo would look something like this if it were on a trailer.

frank · 07-10-2010, 09:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pextron

Hello,

I am new to travel trailers and do not currently own one but I am in the process of planning my own frame-up build project which will require a donor travel trailer in the 24 foot size range to use as a foundation for my build. While conducting research, I was attracted to your forum by the Homemade Travel Trailer Project thread and have been following it for a while now.

You folks seem to have a positive attitude and appear to be tolerant of new ideas and ways of thinking so I decided to join your forum and see how things went. People seem to really like Sunlines so I may consider using one that is in need of some serious TLC as a basis for my build which would make me a Sunline owner, sort of anyway.

If anyone is interested, I would be more than happy to post my plans/ideas and would welcome any feedback or suggestions that anyone has.

Thanks

First off, welcome! Yes, this is a very friendly community over here with a bunch of great people.

I saw some of your posts on the "other forum" and am the guy that replied to your side vent questions saying that some fun finders use that configuration. To be honest, that was my first post on there in probably two years, so it's safe to assume I find your project quite interesting.

By the way, really nice sketchup work.

- Frank

luvrque · 07-10-2010, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pextron

Hello,

I am new to travel trailers and do not currently own one but I am in the process of planning my own frame-up build project .

If anyone is interested, I would be more than happy to post my plans/ideas and would welcome any feedback or suggestions that anyone has.

Thanks

Hi Pextron,
Welcome to the club. We have lots of very friendly knowledgeable people here willing to answer all your questions...

I am very interested & would love to follow your build. as many others I am sure.
As for suggestions all I would say is put Large windows to see out from your sitting area, Large counter space, & Large holding tanks.
The first two I have...

but the Lg.tanks I don't.......

, Which is a shame because I now see TT my size with 30 & 40 gal.holding tanks. but the remainder of the trailer is by far inferior to the Sunline QUE I have.
I am sure YOU know what is important to you that is all that matters, so make the TT the way it suits you best.......

Honda03842 · 07-10-2010, 07:30 PM

A little rambling...

I wish that I had started my adulthood in a trailer.

My goal as I age, is to make life as easy and fun as possible.

From 10 years of RVing and 3 years of trailer living I've come to appreciate the importance of a place for everything. To me that means a lot of (storage) places but not jammed packed full storage. The second thing is I learned how little we need to live happily. To me if you're not using it don't take it. It's a marvelous country and if you really need it, your neighbor or a local store has one.

As part of this thinking, our draws are frequently subdivided with plastic containers (available at Walmart for $1).... a tray for batteries, a tray for kitchen clips... In the bathroom we extend this to a hairbrush tray, a razor tray,... and so on. Over the bed we have a tray for our glasses, one for our meds, ..... Very often we just screw them to the wall.

Of course our trailer was very small, but we had a lot of trays like this.

As well most cabinets had slide out draws (no back of the cabinet hiding), like for bread, pots, frying pans, outside for tools. We built draws into the bottom of the dinette seats.

We had one large, tall overhead cabinet over the bed. I never got to it but intend to put a draw in the bottom. It was too tall and needed to be divided.

I do not want our trailer to be an extension of my home. It's purpose is to provide what the two of us need to be comfortable. Cuteness is not our goal, easy care and usefulness is our goal.

We put storage everywhere - storage over the door (keys, camera), storage over each window (Nature books, ipod, headphones, geocaching gps), storage on the ends of cabinet walls (Charging station, satellite receiver).

We have also come to appreciate the advantages of the modern electronics world. We have Verizon wireless and run it through a router so we both can be on our computers just about anywhere in the USA. We have Satellite TV so we can make rainy days enjoyable and catch our shows at will (it turns out we receive the major networks of both the east coast and west coast providing two opportunities 3 hours apart for network TV and many different NFL games), We've added Netflix for $9 a month and can see a good movie in minutes over the internet, and as many as we want when ever we want. Most recently we've added barnes and noble electronic books via our computer and Blackberry allowing us to read a book, any book any where. As well B&N allow lending of books you buy to other for 14 days. I see a vast internet lending library coming. Lastly we're geocachers and usually plan a few hikes to find caches on our travels, they are every where and found a number even on the Labrador Highway. Geocaching invariably takes you to a place you won't find on your own. Often a local person has found a place you should see.

Now I know many of the members of this site are primarily weekend campers primarily because they still work. We are on the road for 6-10 months a year and electronics is making it more fun - the information and entertainment available is amazing.

In conclusion lots of storage, lots of electronics and a good multiple position, charging station.

I will say our trailer loading varies by the type, and location of the travel. Sometimes we do carry a generator or extra tools if we're off the beaten track, or extra bottled water where the water quality is suspect. In general we pack lightly and carefully in as many storage places as we can create.

Thoughts,

pextron · 07-12-2010, 12:57 PM

Great suggestions.

I completely agree about storage space and have been looking at various methods I can use to get the most out of every inch of available space, which has caused me to make a number of revisions to my floor plan. In fact, I am considering a major revision right now but have not decided which floor plan I like best yet. Regardless, it's amazing how much space you can find if you look for it. Especially when you are working with a scale model in 3D.

Fresh water storage capacity is also a major concern for me because I like to go off the beaten path and will be doing a lot of boondocking. I hope to have at least a 30-50 gallon main fresh water tank with an additional 30-50 gallon reserve tank capacity available if I need to use it. If all goes as planned, all main (fresh, grey, black) tanks will be mounted between the frame rails in close proximity to the axles to evenly distribute their weight. I have also considered the possibility of my fresh water reserve tank as being a sort of ballast tank, which would allow me to fine tune the tongue weight of the trailer for smoother towing.

Some of my boondocking will likely be during the off season so good insulation of the tanks and living area is yet another thing that I have to give very careful consideration to. Currently, I am looking at high density foam but am having a hard time justifying the cost so I may ultimately use standard foam core in conjunction with conventional fiberglass insulation.

All that and I haven't even begun to design the electrical systems yet. What I do know is that I plan to maximize my battery storage capacity and have thought about using 2-4 6v deep cycle batteries because they tend to have more capacity but the only problem with them is that they have to be used in pairs and if you lose one you lose both. With that in mind, I may use 2-4 conventional 12v deep cycle batteries instead. My tennative plans for keeping the batteries charged will likely include solar and wind turbine technology coupled with a backup generator. Power conservation will also be a high priority.

Lastly, I like big windows too.

Honda03842 · 07-12-2010, 01:48 PM

Water
We have boondocked some and I have kept track of water usage. We spent 4 days and 3 nites in Denali at a campgroound some 30 miles into the park with two teenage grandchildren. We brought in 100 gallons. When we left we were empty.

We spent 5 days and 4 nites in Chaco Canyon (as good as Denali) and used 35 gallons.

In our motorhome we typically travel with about 25 gallons, only loading more if we're going into someplace like Denali then only filling our tanks at the park entrance. In our trailer we carry no more than 10 gallons unless we're doing a Chaco Canyon and than go for a full tank (23 gallons).

We usually change our mode of living when boondocking - paper plates and careful usage.

Our balck tank and water tank are both inside the trailer so there's no problem there. Our gray tank is flat wide and thin. It's hard to imagine freezing would do anything to a partially full tank. It's also mounted to the floor. I poresently have foam across the front of this tank to protect it from stones and will cover the bottom, paritcularly since I have a lot of leftover foam pieces in 1, 1.5 and 2 inch thicknesses.

I do wish our water tank was larger but we're using the tanks from our original small sunline. If I were doing a long boondock I would take a backup water container.

Our black tank has lasted 7 days.

As to insulation our new trailer has R-10 walls and R-18 ceiling/roof and near an R12 floor, truly high for a trailer. We have used high density construction foam in the building of our trailer. The walls, floor and roof all contain at least 2" polystyrene foam, minimally R-10. It's about $14 for a 2x8 foot piece. In general it is the inner surface of our entire trailer though most of it is covered by cabinets. Where it's not covered by cabinets it's painted or has vinyl wallpaper. The foam is ratede for 250 #s per square inch. If you buy it at the big box stores be careful because they sometimes mix 150 and 250 pound per square inch material. One nice feature is that it does not absorb water.

Our trailer door had white construction foam and that absorbed and held water like a sponge.

As to batteries, we have had a pair of 6v Trojan 105s for 13 years and still going strong. They are never not under charge and we use a converter with a built in desulfation cycle. Last year we had home built solar cells on the roof that were great for boondoocking. As well they provided power for our fridge which is AC only. If you have solar cells you may not need a gas/electric fridge.

As to storage space I think a lot depends on how you use it. Is it readily accessible (i.e. draws under the dinette or in the end of the dinette). The biggest wasted space or poorly accessible spoace is under the bed.

Wish you well in your planning. I spent a full year thinking about my design and change something every day as I build it.

Good luck

Honda03842 · 07-12-2010, 07:06 PM

Pextron,
Though the floor, walls and roof are well insulated, our windows are not. We do have thermopane windows in our motorhome but we've found that in the longer term they are prone to failure, eventual having seal failure and moisture gets in. They are nice because condensation does not build up on them. Of course the biggest windows in a motorhome, the windshield are not thermopane.

We really loved our jalousied windows in the Sunline. When you open them they are virtually 100% open not like most trailer windows that are barely 50% open. Of course they are not thermally efficient but low temperatures have not been a problem even with them. Like the Irish cottage we spent a winter vacation in, thick curtains are a partial solution.

Our present Sunline did not have an airconditioner but it seemed to be fine without it, probably because we don't travel too much in the summer.

Windows are a big decision.

pextron · 07-27-2010, 05:33 PM

I actually thought that the build portion of my project would be the hardest part but as it turns out, just finding a mid 90's model (or newer) travel trailer that is water damaged, priced right, and suitable for my build project has been next to impossible. So far, I've located a few but unfortunately, I didn't get to them before they were sold.

My search for that needle in the haystack continues.

Trailblazer · 07-27-2010, 07:06 PM

Just doing some catch up on the forum and came across your post. First let me Welcome you to the forum. Next let me say that I would be very interested in following your build. When I was young my father and my uncle build a slide in truck camper in the garage that our family used for many years. Although I was very young I was able to help our some during the build and was very sorry to see it go the day it was sold. The nice part of being able to build your own unit is that you can take your time and add the extra quality and features to it as you build it. Like John, when we retire I would love to do a complete rebuild over our 5'ver, but also like John we use are trailer all year long and also have no plans to stop right now.

So far I have enjoyed reading about your adventure and your planning and very much look forward to following the build.