camper van purchase

[josh78]

Hi All,
Total newbie to the overland travel concept. I am planning on buying a custom designed overland camper. It's got aluminum skin, about 1.6 inches of white polystyrene insulation and about 1.2 inches of solid wood paneling to back that up. It's based on the mada 3500 chassis, is about 22 foot long and about 2 metres wide.
I have two concerns. Fire and insulation for cold weather. wood is flamable and polystyrene is not fire retardant (i think and it gives out poisonous fumes).
What do I do to make the van fire retarding / fire proof ?
What kind of cold weather camping can it take (0-32 f ?) ?

Let's assume there are minimal leaks. There are about 3-4 small sized windows on it and they are not double glazed. But they can probably be closed out tightly.

Appreciate any thoughts !

[Lynn]

Welcome,

Sorry I can't really answer your questions, but rather have questions of my own

1.2 inches of solid wood paneling

Wow, that's a lot of wood. It seems to me that much wood would bring a lot of unnecessary weight. Why is it so thick?

It's based on the mada 3500 chassis

Sorry, I'm not familiar with that one, but would like to know more. Can you provide any further information? I would love to see pictures of your vehicle / project.

Hope someone here can help you answer your questions...

[josh78]

Welcome,

Sorry I can't really answer your questions, but rather have questions of my own



Wow, that's a lot of wood. It seems to me that much wood would bring a lot of unnecessary weight. Why is it so thick?



Sorry, I'm not familiar with that one, but would like to know more. Can you provide any further information? I would love to see pictures of your vehicle / project.

Hope someone here can help you answer your questions...

Hi,
This is a camper that I saw on sale.I'm sorry about the typo. THe chassis is based on Mazda 3500 truck 4X2. The guy who built it wanted the wood panelling to be much thinner but the coach builder(who had never done RV's before) overcompensated to provide the vehicle more structural rigidity and the wood was of a native species and cheap at that time.
So what's the R value of a combination of wood and polystyrene of this thickness ? What kind of lower temperatures can this van be taken?
Is there any fire retarding material that I can add to the camper ?
The camper looks sort of like this one.

Thanks in advance !

[kerry]

Is this the one in India for sale by an American that I've seen on the internet? If so, as I recall, it has an aftermarket turbo installed on the engine. I took that to mean that the vehicle was underpowered. If the interior wood is indeed 1.5" thick, it would explain the lack of power.

[josh78]

Yes. That's right. Since their pictures had the owners on them, I decided to attach another picture to my previous post.
I will PM you.

[kerry]

You should have posted the picture with the bikini clad woman.

[josh78]

he says its upto about 120 hp which is pretty good for india.gets about 6-8 km/litre.do you think it can climb 10-12,000 feet?
what do you think of it as a package?

[kerry]

Can you post a link to the ad? It's been a few months since I read it.

[josh78]

Here's the link.
http://www.amsterdamhouseboats.nl/india_camper.htm