How we insulate our teardrop campers.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ส.ค. 2024
- Here's a quick vid showing our process for insulating our teardrops. If you attempt these methods, please be careful. Rigid insulation panels are very effortless to cut using a table saw, but can bind on sawblades very easily and can cause kickback, which is the number-1 cause of table saw injury. So take it slow to start so you can get a feel for how your saw will react to the material...
Very nice. Tight work as usual.
Love how considered everything you do is. Really good stuff - keep it up!
Thanks guys! Right back at ya!
Great stuff mate, thanks heaps for sharing your knowledge
+Pat Dennis You are welcome, thanks for watching!
any other vidios? making a tear drop
+Pat Dennis Sure do, just click the "subscribe" button, and check out our other videos. We have more coming out all the time too!
THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS VIDEO, IT REALLY SHOWS THE LEVEL OF DETAIL & CARE GIVEN TO YOUR UNITS! I ALWAYS WONDER WHY METAL "L" BRACKETS ARE NOT USED TO FURTHER SUPPORT SIDES TO FLOOR, ROOF BEAMS TO SIDE WALLS ETC ??
Nice work on producing these teardrops.
Love all the quality and attention to detail Oregon Trailer puts into these.
Question in the other video I see you guys standing on the sidewalls during assembly, how do you get the boot prints off and finish the inside walls once assembled?
Thanks in advance
Thanks! We have our sidewalls pre-finished with a UV applied super durable coating. Any shoe prints or stains just wipe off. It also makes for cleaner cuts with all our tooling.
Thank you 4 sharing this.
+Steph You are very welcome!
Хорошая работа! Привет из Украины! Многое подчерпнул!
Nothing on the sidewalls or floor? Yes, that will consume interior space but I decided to go with 2" closed cell (R10) on every surface along with radiant barrier in the ceiling. 22 foot box truck with 12 x 6 x 6 box.
The floor has 4" of dual density foam insulation, which we also call a "mattress" ;) Yes we don't insulate our sidewalls, partially because of what you already mentioned (consumes interior space), but mostly because we have found it entirely unnecessary to have insulated sidewalls. Our walls are made from 18mm marine grade Baltic Birch, meaning every ply is solid birch, glued together with waterproof phenolic adhesive. R-value basically only measures the how fast heat passes through a material, but it doesn't measure how well a material can hold onto heat (stay warm itself). Think of a log cabin- zero insulation, yet if you heat the interior up in the evening, the walls are still warm in the morning. Once wood is warm, it holds onto that heat really well, which is a property that insulation doesn't have, though it does do a better job at not allowing heat to pass through it. Long story short, it was vastly more important to us to have very solid marine grade baltic birch sidewalls that allow for very strong dado and rabbet joinery techniques than to have a slightly higher R-value. We use a very high density 1.5" insulation inside our roof (R12) with dual-radiant barrier, and it does the heavy lifting in terms of keeping our campers comfortable. With decades of all-weather teardop camping under my belt (in an area that can easily be over 100 degrees in the summer and well into single digit temps at night. I can say that body heat alone is plenty to stay warm inside our teardrops, especially given how little cubic volume there is. I can definitely see why a 12' box would need extra insulation, but this is clearly an apples/oranges situation. And we have multiple clients throughout Alaska and Canada who adventure year-round who agree.
@@OregonTrailR Great discussion. Thanks for sharing your experience with the pros and cons of insulation. I'm working with Mark at overlandtrailer and am using his pans as a guide and he makes almost the exact same arguments.
Without insulation on the walls, do the trailers tend to get condensation build up on the interior surfaces of walls? It sounds to me condensation issues is the main drawback to not insulating walls. Would love to hear your opinion.
Mike Washmuth In cold enough weather, absolutely you will have some amount of condensation on the walls. It’s not a big deal to us, because our materials are marine grade and it’s easily wiped up in a matter of seconds. To insulate the walls would mean a less stout and durable body, a narrower cabin and smaller bed, less storage, a ton more labor, and higher pricing. In order for our doors and windows to seal correctly, we need to maintain a 3/4” wall, meaning we would only be able to use 1/2” insulation, which has an R-value barely more than the Baltic Birch plywood walls themselves. Really it’s a cost/benefit decision (like everything), and the costs very much outweigh the benefits, considering any condensation is harmless and the campers maintain temperatures very well without it. Thanks for the question, I hope this helps!
@@OregonTrailR thanks for the prompt reply. Thanks for the thorough explanation. A framed wall would definately be more costly/labor intensive. I'm trying to decide how to design walls for my own build. I think you make good points, just sort of surprising more teardrop manufacturers dont simply use a single layer of plywood for the walls.
Mike Washmuth I’d argue that the majority of teardrop builders actually don’t insulate their walls, in fact many don’t even insulate their roofs. There’s no right or wrong way to do it, and if you are making a single trailer, it might be worth the extra effort for you. Some folks achieve a bit of insulative value from lining the walls with thin carpet. Not our preference, but would be an easy effective way to keep down on condensation on your walls. Food for thought. Good luck!
This music rips
Wouldn’t spray foam be quicker. Then piano wire trim.
So, no insulation on the sides, which appear to be pre-finished 3/4" Baltic birch ply so the inside walls need very little finishing ? Thanks! Cheers, Chris.
Chris, you got it. 3/4" pre-finished exterior-rated Baltic Birch. For many reasons, we need our wall thickness to be exactly 3/4" and we are of the mind that very little is to be gained from insulating a 3/4" wall. This plywood has an R-value of 1.5 on it's own. To make a 3/4" insulated wall, you'd use 1/2" insulation with two 1/8" plywood skins. 1/2" rigid insulation has an R-value of 1.5 - 2.5 depending on what type you can find. R-value is just a way to measure a material's resistance to heat flow. Combine that with the fact that wood is excellent at holding heat, where foam is not, and the reasoning is clear. Think about a log cabin, the walls are not insulated, but once you get it warm, it stays warm much longer because those thick wood walls hold heat. Our campers use the same idea. Your body heat alone can warm our campers very quickly, and holds it through the night. And for those who want to do serious cold weather camping, we have a propane furnace option that hides very neatly within our tongue box.
Very cool, great info. Not that we need a lot of insulation in AZ most of the time. Thanks a lot for the concise response. Cheers!
Does this hold true for air conditioning, too?
Leah, we don't normally do AC units, for a few reasons. First, their is simply not a small enough unit available that isn't crazy overkill for a space this small. Second, they take up a ton of precious storage space. Third, they require 110 volts, meaning you will need to be plugged into the grid or a generator to use it. Fourth, we insulate our campers well enough that even in Death Valley we stay comfortable at night with the windows open and the fan pulling fresh air through the camper. And during the day, you are outside taking advantage of spending time outside, which is the whole reason we go camping!
is the thickness of the insulation 1.5 inches?
Sure is. High density, dual radiant barrier, very good stuff!
Is that music?
where do i buy insulated tear drop trailers in toronto, canada?
Sorry about the late reply... I couldn't help you there, other than to let you know we have sold quite a few teardrops to folks in Canada, but we leave it to them to figure out how to get it home from our shop. Folks usually turn it into a road trip!