Papercreters: [papercreters] Re: papercrete mobile building or rv type of trailer

Sunday, March 4, 2012

[papercreters] Re: papercrete mobile building or rv type of trailer

I'd like to back the discussion up a bit, and ask you to be specific about what exactly your expectations are for the trailer.

Are you expecting to use the trailer primarly as a hauler for your stuff, or are you expecting to use it like a portable vending wagon with a customer sales window? Do you have expectations of sleeping in it like a camper? Do you want the exterior of the trailer to have "outdoor living spaces?" Like.. a retractable awning, or a fold down counter or bench that can be folded up during transport?

How important is it to have insulation in the shell? While I have never been to Alaska, my understanding is that different parts of the state can have radically different climates.

One suggestion I have is to try designing the trailer from the INSIDE OUT. Instead of building a shaped shell, and then struggling to figure out how to fit the stuff inside that you need. Try to figure out what will be inside the trailer, and how it will be used with minimal effort. Then wrap the most appropriate shell around everything. Get all the functional stuff figured out... THEN design the best box/shell to hold it all in a readily usable form.

Perhaps you could experiment with something as simple as Sidewalk Chalk to draw an outline of a possible floorplan on your driveway? Then you could mock up various interior features perhaps with cardboard boxes? That would probably be very useful in helping you determine exactly how much space various things you expect to have inside the trailer for various functions. If you started out by drawing a chalk outline of a standard trailer frame you hope to use, and work from there, you probably can learn a lot really fast. Each major item you plan on putting in the trailer could get mocked up full size with reused cardboard boxes. (It's not like you'd be wasting the boxes anyway. Eventually you'll be pulping up those boxes and turning them into papercrete anyway.) You could mock up the roof of the trailer with a tarp or something to figure out how much headroom you need.

Don't forget to consider weight distribution. You will want to keep things mostly balanced, but with a little more weight toward the tongue than toward the back of the trailer. You don't want the towing vehicle holding UP a large amount of weight on the hitch. However, the worst possible thing is to have the trailer trying to lift the hitch off the ground. That is extremely dangerous because it can dramatically impact the towing vehicle controlability. You also don't want all the heavy stuff on the left or on the right. Otherwise the trailer may lean to one side, and possibly not track properly down the road.

I cannot imagine attempting a specialty project like this without experimenting with a full sized mockup first. Standing inside the space and seeing exactly how everything will be placed and used would be more than worth the time spent. It's a lot cheaper, and a lot faster to find mistakes with sidewalk chalk and cardboard than with a 3/4ths finished project that doesn't have enough space to hold critical items or that doesn't have the most frequently used items organized in manner that is easy and efficient to use.

Something as simple as the size of the door. Will it be big enough to get the stuff that you hope to put inside through the door? You'd be amazed how often extremely smart people make a mistake that fundamental because the problem simply didn't show up on their paper drawings. Who puts things through the door on a paper drawing?

I like the idea of using a chickenwire framework. That makes a lot of sense. That would allow you the ability to make rounded corners and streamline the design. That would make for better fuel economy when hauling it down the road.

For such a small sized project, you probably don't need to use a sprayer. You could apply papercrete by hand ferrocement style, especially if you have two people working together, one on the outside applying papercrete, and one on the inside holding a backer board. (For the first coat anyway.)

I strongly discourage the use of plaster or stucco over the papercrete in this application. With all the vibrations, I doubt that would last. Do you have a local source for old used Billboard tarps? That might make for an excellent inexpensive flexible exterior water tight sheathing that would be easily paintable. You'd probably have to cut it up into "shingles" and glue it on to any tight compound curves, but if the joints overlap an extra amount, it should still be easy to keep everything watertight. Elastomeric paint would be another option, but it would be more prone to leaks if there was some road damage or a crack in the papercrete from all the vibrations. If you used billboard tarp material as a sheathing, it would be more forgiving and have a better chance at keeping the water out, even if there is minor damage.

--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "kjtbeskimo" <vickeym@...> wrote:
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> This is the type of ideas we were thinking of, being new to PC ws not sure what type of wire or mesh was suitable. Will go look for their photos.
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> Have been searching photos anyway...there are just so many and not as much time as I need to get through them all yet.
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> Judith, have been watching your videos on YouTube. Teaching us a lot, and giving us lots of ideas as well.
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> We are planning all types of tests on small stuff first, such as flower pots, wall plaques, etc that if they turn out we can sell in our store.
> Then working up to a small shed or something at first, then maybe a shower house/laundry room. Would be throwing the trailer into the middle of the mix somewhere as our state fair starts in mid August.
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> Our idea for extending our season (once the 6 foot or so of compressed snow we have here melts off) is something akin to a green house with heater and fans to encourage or PC to dry in our short season here in Alaska.
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> Appreciate the tips, the learning opportunities and all help.
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