1- Has anyone used the 5 step scissor steps and if so are they sturdy?

2- For the jack knife couches, what and how do you mount them onto a box.

3- For cabinets, can you order them through like menards or Ikea or are those to heavy and would it be better to order through a RV supply shop?

4- I don't like the carpet in my trailer and will be replacing it.  What have people used that wouldn't be slippery?  Linoleum is slippery.  Do they make a non slip linoleum?  We saw the rubber flooring and not sure if I like the look. 

Thanks for all your help.

I've never been inside a Mennards or IKEA store. So I really don't know what quality there cabinets are. With that disclosed I offer the following.

Cabinets that are built over seas and then ships to a retail store are usually built stacked flat so they are more compact for the shipping. When you assemble them, they usually have some type of a cam/latch connection that holds the parts together. Usually two along each edge that join in a butt joint . This may work OK in a home, but I worry about their long term use in a LQ. which is always in motion and has certain amount of vibration to cope with. I personally would want to have a more secure connection between the piece of wood.  Glued and Pinned. Dove tail or Mortise and Tenon.   Just putting glue on the end of boards prior to fastening the cams works poorly. You want to glue the wood pieces together without using the end grain of wood which has a low adheision to the glue. 

Another disadvantage of these prebuilt cabinets is that come only  in standard sizes.  The space you need to fil may be 38 1/4" wide. A standard cabnet is 36".  So you waste 2 1/4" because you can't buy a cabinet to fit the space exactly. By building a custom cabinet, you can make it fit the exact dimension that you.  Even if you just build the face frame and buy standard doors, you get a better fit. They also come in a standard Depth. They may be 12" deep for wall cabinets or 24" deep for base cabinets. You may want to store something bigger than 12" but not want to take up all your floor space with 24" deep cabinets. You don't have much versitility in your choices with prebuilt cabinets.

Most prebuilt cabinets use a partical board as the main material to build the box.  This is a poor choice of materials that will be in constant motion.

I suggest you build face frames from solid wood or from plywood ( you can buy Baltic Birch Plywood at Home Depot fairly inexpensive). You can build your own doors or buy pre-built doors and install them onto your frames.  If you don't have a woodworking gene in your body, Then stop by a local cabinet shop. The housing industry is suffering the worst down turn since the Great Depression. Most shops won't be busy and would welcome some work. They can custom build your entire cabinets to fit your trailer exactly or just build face frames for you and you can install the doors. Most of these shops will have cad software and can quickly whip out a drawing of what they are going to build for you.

The most challenging part of cabinet construction is building the raised panel doors. You need particular skills and a well equipped shop to fabricate them. On Ebay are several vendors that sell the doors and drawer fronts in a variety of sizes and wood types at very nominal pricing.

I have used a set of the cabinets, of which PH spoke. I did so for a few reasons; the flat packaging saved an enormous amount of space, when they were hauled 500 miles to another location for installation; these cabinets were made with plywood boxes and shelves, and solid raised panel doors with solid wood face frames. The equivalent cabinets at the big box stores were universally constructed with chip board boxes. Custom made, solid wood cabinets were almost 3x the price.

The knock down construction allows you to easily modify the depth of the boxes before assembly. Then they can be conventionally assembled with glue, screws or nails. The face frames are larger than the boxes by at least 1/2" allowing a final trim of the widths by an inch or larger per box.

Linoleum is easily cleaned, but a hard surface is very uncomfortable to walk on when you drag mud and gravel into the trailer. Wet linoleum is very slippery when you're in bare feet; be careful after your shower.

If you cover the linoleum with a rubber backed carpet sold for bathroom use, it will not slide, and collects mud and dirt much better than a bare, hard surface. It can be shaken outside to dislodge the majority of its collection, and then washed when necessary. A thick door mat placed just inside the entry door, will allow you to scrape of a majority of the mud. Depending on the weather, we place a boot scraper outside, near the door.

BOL  Gard

When I did my interior I built the cabinets myself. I went to Menards and looked at their selection of cabinet doors. You can find them in flat panel, raised panel and arched raised panel. I chose the flat panel for two reason 1) cost, the flat panels are the cheapest of the doors, 2) weight, the raised panel doors are heavier.

I highly recommend building your face frames out of 1" x ? material. That way you can vary the width of the stile and rails to suit your installation and door opening requirements.I joined my face frames together with a dab of wood glue and pocket screws. I used the Kreg system.

www.kregtool.com

For the cabinet door hinges I used the Blum Euromount type. They are concealed, but are nice with plenty of adjustment. Takes some head scratching to get everything to come together.I used 3/4" MDF oak veneer plywood in very limited places, instead building face frames for the end panels and fitting 1/4" oak veneer plywood in those openings. It was a time consuming process as the cabinet interiors are lined as well. If they weren't lined the rabbet in which the 1/4" panel were set into would be exposed, along with the staples.

Trailer Interior

Thanks!  I will let my husband read all this.  He built ou rhouse so I would think he could build this. This is what I have so far.  Tell me what you think.  I need stairs to the bed, due to some physical limitations I have.  Does anything stand out wrong.  It is my first idea. First is my actual dimensions. Second is my plan. The table would be removable and stored in a closet.

ANY IDEAS WOULD BE GREAT.

I built my own cabinets with Oak face boards and 1/2 inch cabinet plywood (7 Ply) for all the internal parts.  I purchased pre made cabinet doors from a site on Ebay @ $6 each, and built my drawers, faced with Oak.  My table is removable and stores in my boot box which is the seat.  The mount on the table is offset so I can have it up and mostly over the seat,(Floor Space), or rotate it 180 degrees for better seating.

I have a power point presentation on my unit if you PM me your email address I will send it off to you.

Turfa