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Hi. I'm new here. I am building a toy hauler out of a new enclosed Utiity trailer. It will be a very basic camper setup. Only a full Bathroom and a garage with beds and cabinets. I have been checking out the Supplier links for info on parts. My question for anyone now would be. What is the best way to build a interior wall? It needs to be strong but light weight.
The wall is to devide the Bath from the Garage.

Well, I haven't built a camper, but I helped my father build a few years ago.

The most recent was in about '84, and we used a technique that was common on the manufactured campers. Actually, we did a hybrid of the traditional and 'contemporary.'

By 'traditional' I mean standard wood-frame construction.

The 'contemporary' method we had seen in production campers had the windows and doors framed in wood, but the walls were basically just a sandwich of paneling glued to styrofoam insulation glued to siding. No studs.

Our hybrid was to do standard framing of pine. I don't remember the stud centers, but they were spaced so that a standard sheet of construction foam insulation would just fit between the studs. We used something like LiquidNails to glue paneling on the inside and thin plywood on the outside (glued to the studs and to the foam itself). Then the outside was covered with siding. I think we used 1x2s for the framing. A 1x2 is actually only about 3/4" x 1 3/4", so we used 3/4" foam. The idea is to have the foam fill the voids, and be able to glue it to both the inside paneling and the outside siding.

Just doing the sandwich is a lot stronger than you might think, and really light. If you think you need the extra strength, go with the framing. If it needs to be really strong, maybe you could use aluminum square tubing for the framing?

If you have a router you don't need to pre-cut the window and door holes, but you will need a special bit. I think it's for cutting counter tops.

Frame the windows and doors in, then just glue your sheets of paneling/siding right over them. Then after it's up you take your router (with the special bit) and punch through somewhere in the middle of the frame, cut your way to the frame, and follow the frame around.

Again, I'm no expert, and didn't stay at the Holiday Inn last night. Just sharing some thoughts for your evaluation.

Also, we were working in Colorado, where the foam insulation is easy to get. I've read on another web board (a model train board, where the foam is popular for building landscapes) that the foam can be hard to come by in warmer states. I've also heard that Home Depot can order it for you, even if they don't stock it.

Good luck!

A couple of years ago I was at an RV show where TrailManor had a couple of campers on display. Really cool trailers, by the way. They also had a sample of the type of construction I am talking about.

http://www.trailmanor.com/WebDocs/Media/Video/TrailManorManufacturing_384.wmv shows a quick look at the type of construction I am talking about.

TrailManor uses aluminum on each side of the foam, and vacuum bagging. Dad and I used wood paneling and just piled stuff on it for weight while the glue dried.

Here's a thought...

For weight (assuming you are building on flat concrete), why not get an old waterbed matress, lay it on top, and fill it with water? That should give a nice even weight distribution.

There are other boat-builder sites out there that talk about doing vacuum bagging with bubble-wrap and a shop vac, as well.

Or there might be other suggestions in other parts fo this forum. I'm new here, and haven't visited the boat-builder parts.

Thanks. I am going to try the bonding method. It is an inside wall, but it sounds like the insulation will make it mor sturdy. I'm going to look into the cost of 1" square alum. Otherwise the 1x2 will work. It has to be strong enough for accidental bumps from Motorcycles and Quads.
The video helped out.