We will be getting back to our electrical build next post, but I did want to mention an issue that cropped up this week during the storm that I should have seen coming and totally missed: the heat loss from our hollow-core door.
I used a narrow interior closet doorjamb (and door) for the trailer. Interior doors and closet doors in particular are not insulated anything like exterior doors, which we discovered during the storm. Ice built up in the lower jam area from moisture accumulating on the inside face of the door and made opening the door difficult, not to mention sucking heat from the front of the trailer.
To address this problem, I drilled a few small holes and foamed the door voids with low pressure canned foam for doors and windows, then refinished the interior door.
I have considered putting a layer of foam over the exterior door, but at this point the advantages of a clean, professional looking door seem more important than improved insulation.
True stealth depends on the cleanest, most professional-looking build possible. Once again, we want invisibility gained from fitting the viewer's expectations. No one notices a work trailer, so we want to look like one as much as possible. If you have the cash to start with a $6000 cargo trailer, excellent. But if you are low-balling the build, you need to shape your effort to the expectation.
Another minor problem we discovered was various tiny cracks around the door frame. With the door closed and us stuck inside all day, we had time to notice a few things... like you could see thin slivers of daylight in a few places where the outer frame was screwed into the actual doorjamb structure. My solution was to dampen a piece of TP with Gorilla Glue, double it over and pack it into the crack with a scraper blade. Once the glue activated and began foaming up, it filled the cracks perfectly and even strengthened the door frame.
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