Cabinet materials and hardware for off road use

GR8ADV

Explorer
Interested in the wisdom of the group.
.
As I ponder the interior build of a 4wd camper, what cabinet materials, construction and mounting methods/techniques, joints, and hardware do you all recommend to withstand the rigors of offroad work.
.
thanks all! ken
 

southpier

Expedition Leader
marine plywood (plenty use Baltic birch but it's not really moisture resistant), interlocking joinery (rebates & dados), stainless steel hardware, and then take everything apart and apply 3 coats of finish before final assembly. the biggest guffaws I see are dimensional lumber (2"x framing lumber), OSB (oriented strand cheap board), and tension assembly. if you use the first - don't, and if the second, don't too, third - understand how to use it to your advantage. if not, use compression and expect things to deform under use; anticipate how to pull back together. post pictures!
 

GR8ADV

Explorer
marine plywood (plenty use Baltic birch but it's not really moisture resistant), interlocking joinery (rebates & dados), stainless steel hardware, and then take everything apart and apply 3 coats of finish before final assembly. the biggest guffaws I see are dimensional lumber (2"x framing lumber), OSB (oriented strand cheap board), and tension assembly. if you use the first - don't, and if the second, don't too, third - understand how to use it to your advantage. if not, use compression and expect things to deform under use; anticipate how to pull back together. post pictures!

I will not be the 'doer' but the 'commissioner' of said work. I do want to get educated and have been scouring the internet. But I am greatly under educuated in this area. What is the disadvantage of dimensional lumber from framing ? Also can you give me an example of a tension assembly and a compression assembly?

Thanks!!
 
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southpier

Expedition Leader
dimensional lumber expands & contracts with humidity too much to be stable enough for cabinet/ carcass construction.

going out on a limb here, but most building I see is from wood gleaned from the Big Box stores. there has been so much wood used in the past 2 generations that today's lumber is grown quickly for harvest - cash crop - new growth timber. this doesn't give the tree time to compress the wood during the growth cycle and yields a wood with big spaces between the wood stuff (lignum?). think of wood as a bundle of drinking straws glued together. so it expands and contracts too much in an application where fitting is important. wood will shrink & expand about 1/4" per foot in width. remember those charming floors in aunt betty's kitchen. the ones that would swallow your marbles if it rolled into the cracks?

screw a box together with four sides - top/ bottom/ driver & passenger - that's a bad thing. the assembly has the potential to transmogrify itself from a rectangle to a parallelogram under use because the fasteners (please don't tell me he used nails from a brad nailer and drove them half way through the plywood!) are being subjected to tension (or maybe shear? - remember this information is worth what you're paying). BUT - screw & glue an end on that square tube (best towards the front if you want to stash stuff up its butt) - now there's something that will resist the deformation side to side. if said end is rebated (groove 2 sides - some say "rabbet") or dadoed (grooved 3 sides) there's so much more resistance to movement that the nice drawer that was made to slip in the back end will probably actually side back. and forth.

oh; and glue only works well (qualifier) in long grain to long grain orientation. for example . . . two 1" x 4" x 6' pieces of wood can be successfully made into a 2" thick or 8" wide x 6' piece, but it can't be made into a 12' long piece and be expected to have any shear strength. so when you see someone gluing the end of a piece of wood, it's usually just to seal it from absorbing moisture. or they don't understand how glue works.

and no particle board. doesn't hold screws well and absorbs moisture, swells, and doesn't return to its original dimension.
 
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Joe917

Explorer
A high quality multi layer plywood should be the material for cabinets and drawers (Russian or Baltic Birch).
Do not depend on screws alone, rabbet joints or use biscuits.
Completed cabinets should be sealed with 3 coats of urethane (or varnish) after the units are glued together but before hardware is installed (drawer slides etc.)
Fiberglass and resin over plywood is great for wet room walls and boats but is overkill for cabinetry. It is very expensive and adds weight.
Interior walls such as wet room walls can be attached to the exterior walls with a polyurethane caulking such as 3M5200.(can only be removed with heat and mechanical destruction)
Cheers
 

yfarm

Observer
Interested in the wisdom of the group.
.
As I ponder the interior build of a 4wd camper, what cabinet materials, construction and mounting methods/techniques, joints, and hardware do you all recommend to withstand the rigors of offroad work.
.
thanks all! ken

I've thought about this issue for sometimein regards to the weight and strength of wood cabinets. Molded fiberglass similar to used in boats is light and strong, ideal except for start up costs associated with custom molding. Answer: buy interior cabinets direct from Casita in Rice Tx if they will sell. Interior dimensions and shape of their trailers are similar to a van.
 

GR8ADV

Explorer
I've thought about this issue for sometimein regards to the weight and strength of wood cabinets. Molded fiberglass similar to used in boats is light and strong, ideal except for start up costs associated with custom molding. Answer: buy interior cabinets direct from Casita in Rice Tx if they will sell. Interior dimensions and shape of their trailers are similar to a van.

I have wondered if earthcruiser would sell their product.
 

dlh62c

Explorer
As I ponder the interior build of a 4wd camper, what cabinet materials, construction and mounting methods/techniques, joints, and hardware do you all recommend to withstand the rigors of offroad work.

Here's a link to the Greene's build, nothing fancy and it got the job done.

Here's a link to some VW Camper Van conversion YouTube videos that may give you some insight into the effort.
 
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OBORG

Observer
Hickory cabinets with plywood boxes

I have built a lot of cabinets and wood furniture if you construct them right like the right glue's and fasteners quality products not the hardware these RV company's use . Junk I built mine 2 years ago now still looks new . image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg
 

GR8ADV

Explorer
I have built a lot of cabinets and wood furniture if you construct them right like the right glue's and fasteners quality products not the hardware these RV company's use . Junk I built mine 2 years ago now still looks new .

Can you provide some specifics? What kind of joints , glue, wood and fasteners are you referring too? Thanks!
 

Ron Bones

Observer
I'm no expert by any means but I've decided to try building all my carcasses from aluminium box section with nylon joints. Each joint is being reenforced with a triangular brace which should prevent any movement. So far the carcass for my kitchen which is 1800 x 450 weighs in at under 15kg and it really isn't going anywhere! The bracing has really stiffened it all up and once bolted through the floor it will be good and strong. Anyway, thats just my idea and its still a work in progress, I was just desperate to save weight so I wanted to avoid timber.
 

derjack

Adventurer
Interested in the wisdom of the group.
.
As I ponder the interior build of a 4wd camper, what cabinet materials, construction and mounting methods/techniques, joints, and hardware do you all recommend to withstand the rigors of offroad work.
.
thanks all! ken

Hi,

Actually the only and best way is in flight case building method, like this:

http://www.4x4-innenausbau.de/index.php this website is in German but i think it's easy to get what is mend. Or out it in a translater.

It's in the first look more expensive than taking a simple kind of wood. But you can use these "cases" for ever and on different vehicles. imho most vehicles here are made much to heavy and not rough enough to go off the road. Heavy does not necessarily mean it's robust!

You can Google 'Adam Hall', this is the basic idea. This is what all 'professionals' do here in Europe, btw.

Start_Robert.jpg
 
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southpier

Expedition Leader
I think unless a company was already set up for this type of construction it would be a tough sell to get them to use it.



GR8ADV "I will not be the 'doer' but the 'commissioner' of said work."
 

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