Fiberglass Composite Camper Construction?

[boblynch]

I'm struggling with the same thing (ease of resale vs. maximum storage/functionality).

In your case the choice seems to be based on the future of the truck. If you want to do a trial camper, mated to a truck you might sell or have your daughter drive, then stick to a standard size slide-in camper. You can still swap the standard bed for a flatbed and boxes (above and below the flatbed). When you're ready, sell the slide-in camper, flatbed and boxes, and then reinstall the original bed. All of this modularity might be more trouble than it’s worth.

The Aussies have two big advantages. First, they have a market where flatbeds are common, so resale is easier and components are readily available. Second, it’s warm. They can mount water tanks below the frame and outside of the camper box without them freezing.

If you want a long-term one-off camper that can be moved from truck to truck, I’d only consider a flatbed or chassis-mount design. In this scenario I’d stick to industry standard frame rail specs and cab-to-axle dimensions.

Good luck.

Bob

[Slough the Grid]

Just wondering if you ever built your camper? I'm in the process of designing my own and am currently struggling over the issue of what type of foam core to use. Does anyone have any suggestions on a foam core material that would be light, yet thick (at least 2") and strong enough to maintain structural integrity. Price is of course an issue. I would love to use one of the popular cores designed for marine use, but they all seem to be very thin (I want to have the R value that a thicker material will provide) and quite expensive (I found 48" by 48" , 5/8"thick stock selling for $145.00 a sheet). I probably don't require the resistance of a speedboat hull but I don't want it to fall apart on the highway either. I probably will be using the MAS epoxy products as they seem to be less poisonous than some of the others out there.
Thank you and your responders for this thread, as it has thus far helped me out a great deal in researching this issue.

Cheers

[whatcharterboat]

Harder to sell later w/o a normal bed and the daughter won't want to drive it around town when she learns to drive.

Is this true? Could someone please enlighten me on this? I just find this a bit foreign and can't imagine why. Here it is actually the opposite. Most carpenters, plumbers, tilers and virtually all other tradesman who makeup the majority of utility/ute (or pickup) sales won't consider anything but a flatbed (trayback) with dropsides and if it has a "normal"bed fitted, it doesn't usually last too long before it's ditched or turned into a trailer. However "normal" beds tend to far more widespread on the back of twincabs here, I've noticed.

Unless it's more of image thing like this new GM Holden ute.


Nitromethane43 > That CAD drawing looks pretty slick. So many options as far as construction methods go. Urethane foam and Polyester or Polystyrene foam with epoxy? Check out the costs involved either way. If you are going to cover it both sides with glass then you will also have to do a fair bit of bogging and fairing on the outside as well and then it will have to be painted or flowcoated if you use polyester resin. The external joins and corners can of course be done at the same time as you are glassing the sides so it ends up quite structurally sound. Forget using a chopper gun here. A woven or bi-directional cloth will be much easier to keep neat and a uniform thickness.

If you go this way, I'd be glassing the inside of the sheets before you tack them together and then just tag the corners after. Save a lot of work. I presume you already have some experience and skill with composite construction or you wouldn't have access to a chopper gun, heh?

Another option is to make a shiny table to use as a mold and you then go gelcoat> glass >foam > glass to make your own panels which will have a nice finish on the outside and chopstrand cloth is OK for this. The trick then is to work out how you are going to join them. A lot of guys simply tack the sheets together, glass all the internal corners and glue or rivet an aluminum frame around the outside. We've made stainless steel large radius external corners before that the sheets butted up to instead of going over the outside. Very cool looking and neat but probably getting a bit involved for a home builder without a long bed folder and guillotine.

BTW Use rivets that are specially designed for use into fiberglass. Do not use normal rivets.

As for fitting solar to a composite roof, look at Canon Photovoltaic Laminates (PVL's). Wierd sizes but perfect for this application and around the same price as most aluminum framed panels are anyway. Also don't forget about how you are going to line the interior or how you are going to run your electrical wiring.

Go and have a look at how foam sandwich yacht builders do it to get some construction ideas. Good luck with it.

Have a look at this caravan we built from pre-fabbed fiberglass/foam panel. Hey, notice the flatbed towing it, too. Haha.

http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...ad.php?t=18131

[ersatzknarf]

Looks like someone has started another Nida-Core camper : http://customtruckcamper.blogspot.com/

[laidback]

Looks like someone has started another Nida-Core camper : http://customtruckcamper.blogspot.com/

I wonder if the material he's using is strong enough to support people sleeping in the overcab bed?

[Tony LEE]

This build won't be directly applicable to yours but it does demonstrate that a fully-frameless construction using sandwich panel works.
https://picasaweb.google.com/1146117...xConstruction#

All DIY design and construction from the chassis up - stuck together with one-pack polyurathane adhesive with additional fibreglassing internally and aluminium angle externally.

Current trip involves about 15,000km with about 5000km across the Simpson Desert, Gunbarrel Highway, Canning Stock Route and the Gibb River Road with no sign of any failure of any joints