POD: Homebuilt foam core fiberglass skin pop-up camper build thread

adam88

Explorer
and an issue with a neighbor (so I try to avoid power tool late or long, unfortunately later works better on the family front)

Those pesky neighbors!

It looks good. I can't believe this build is still going on. And I don't mean that in an offensive way... I mean... wow, you have tons of patience and stamina. I get bored quickly doing projects so I need to complete them quick. When this is finally done, you are going to feel super accomplished. I love builds like this.

That mini-door within a door is pretty neat. Great idea.
 

pods8

Explorer
Moving to a new place, had to make up the jack brackets. Got to see what this looked like on the truck, SOMEDAY...

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Rbertalotto

Explorer
My lord does that look great!Just spent a few hours reading the whole build. Excellent work and planning!

I have the same truck and will be ordering that flatbed and building a hardside, side door camper. I'm planning on extending my chassis a foot or more to get the rear wheels further back and less overhang. I'll be towing a 6000# motorcycle trailer / workshop.

I'll be mounting underbed boxes between the cab and the rear wheels.

I plan on using available composite panels or I just might go your route. But only fiberglass the exterior and simple poly paneling on the inside.

A few questions on the flatbed if you don't mind.

Does it end up at the same bed height as the standard bed?

Does it simply bolt to the trucks frame rails or did you have to build them up in any way?

Is there enough clearance between the tires and the bed? Any rubbing?

Thanks for all the time you've taken to document this build. Much appreciated!
 

pods8

Explorer
Find some panels, trust me. :p

No its a few inches higher than the stock bed (I want to say 3-4" off my head but don't recall the stock bed height anymore, I think it was earlier in the thread...). I factored that into the front wall weight of my design.

The UTE bed (when I got it anyways, no idea if they evolve or not) has a cross rail that mounts to the truck that the unit main rails (parrellel) to the truck attach to. See photo below.

I can't readily see the stock suspension rubbing, it would take a fair amount of articulation to do it (just bottoming out wouldn't due to bump stops if I'm recalling right). A power wagon model would have issues potentially but then again those aren't "supposed" to have a camper on them. ;)

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Rbertalotto

Explorer
Thank You...I have a call into UTE to see if anything has changed with their design.

There is also a flat bed fabricator closer to me in PA that makes a nice bed. I'm going to give them a call also.

Martin's Welding
Martinsburg, PA

This one is $1975.00

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And this one is $4950.00

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pods8

Explorer
Hi Pods,

Based on the below, if you had your druthers, which panels would you choose ?

No idea what is on the market, I just know I'd look long/hard for them and know what kind of value they'd hold to me personally with hindsight. If I didn't need to spend the hours I needed to making the panels then I'd likely have had a finished camper about now (or a shell at least). :)
 

ersatzknarf

lost, but making time
Understood and thanks. Your opinion is very much appreciated.
Will keep good thoughts that you will be able to finish the camper soon :)
 

guidolyons

Addicted to Gear Oil
Very cool. Between yours and Home Skillet's build...you both are giving me a bunch of bad ideas :sombrero:
 

pods8

Explorer
A disheartening occurrence occurred. I'm knocking out a kitchen table out in the garage for the wife and then was going to switch gears to completing the lower half shell. I had the door open on a nice sunny winter day and the sun was hitting the front nose of the camper, the surface got quite hot to the touch and I can see a couple delamination bubbles. :( Though I almost want to say they were in areas that delaminated during fabrication with the heat blankets so not sure if there is something else going on there I'm overlooking.

At this point I'm stewing on the implications. I'm leaning towards taking the painted top half off and setting it out in the sun and seeing what happens. If its just those spots that are of issue I'll likely drill two holes in each and inject epoxy from one hole to vent out the other just to back fill and support the skin. If it happens all over, well that just sorta sucks... I can live with a couple cosmetic bumps I had to back fill at this stage if that's all it is, mass delamination would mean structural instability though.

Doing some reading sounds like there are gasses trapped in this type of foam (extruded polystyrene) that expand when heated up. For any future builders not sure if cooking the foam ahead of time would have mitigated this (not that it would be practical) or not. One more reason, other than time, to have started with engineered panels ideally, hindsight 20-20 to have searched harder than I did.

I flipped the top back onto the bottom to double check the fit (and I want to do a trial run with actuators before coating in case a problem needs a structural modification). I pulled all the peel ply as well so I can start the rough fairing. I found a couple areas where the heat blankets bubbled up things on me which was concerning, so I ran a little test to see what kind of heat I was dealing with. I put a sample piece in a moving blanket with a temperature probe on the surface and put a doubled up heat blanket over it. Turns out it could heat the glass surface up to 170F! So at high temps there is concern over a bubble forming under the glass and a pocket of delamination but hopefully its not a realistic issue under normal conditions (esp. with light paint colors). Westss had a delam in his rig due to the high heat thrown off by his catalytic heater but hasn't had issue with normal environmental stuff (though I would guess his rig is likely a polyurethane core so not quite apples to apples). Anyways not sure if I'll try injecting epoxy into the bubbles and push them down or sand out and re glass those areas. Injection would be easier, I think, but I'd be pissed later if those areas lifted again down the line...

Anyways some pics w/ some repair areas to correct circled (hard to see with some of the other marks I had to help orientate the fabric):
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Overland Hadley

on a journey
Thanks for the update, sad to see that it was for a disheartening occurrence occurring.

Sure hope it is isolated to that particular area. Let us know how it works out.
 

ben2go

Adventurer
Epoxy and polyester resins are not UV stable.Aircraft and boats,are made from the same type of foam core and I have never seen one do that.However,aircraft parts are vacuum bagged,infused with epoxy,and pressure cured in an autoclave.
 

pods8

Explorer
Epoxy and polyester resins are not UV stable.Aircraft and boats,are made from the same type of foam core and I have never seen one do that.However,aircraft parts are vacuum bagged,infused with epoxy,and pressure cured in an autoclave.

Yes I know about the UV the areas in question are already painted (I pulled up an old post there of delamination from heat blankets prior to paint.

I believe boats mostly use polyurethane foam (doesn't dissolve if exposed to gas). Also expanded polystyrene is different than extruded polystyrene. If you have anymore details/thoughts on it though I am all ears. I roughed up the surface of the foam with 80grit before laminating to encourage more grab but I have also heard of some manufactured products having even deeper scoring machined in to key in even more.

Who knows those might just be finicky spots (hopefully) putting the painted top out in some strong sun will likely be the true test.
 

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