Greetings,
I am new to this forum and was referred here from a metalworking site so I hope you will excuse any silly questions.
I am in the planning stages of building a truck camper to slide into my 2011 F250 Powerstroke Short Bed. I have arrived At the conclusion that I need to build after owning two travel trailers. The problem with the trailers is that they can never go where I go in the backcountry hunting and exploring. What is more, it makes it tough for me to bring along pack animals if I have the trailer. So I sold the trailer and am planning to build a truck camper that has a but of ruggedness and internally is a but like a hunting cabin.
I am thinking of an aluminum frame with an aluminum skin, inside would be knotty pine wood panelling and a decor reminiscent of a hunting cabin. For heat I would use a Kimberly Wood Stove which is a gasified stove. The walls would be the aluminum studs with the skin riveted on then spray in foam used to fill the gaps between studs then a layer of foam and then panelling over that.
The questions come in the area of the frame. I want to use aluminum for weight reasons but I am not an expert welder so I thought about using aircraft construction techniques like those used for homebuilt planes. I was thinking a riveted frame using 1" square tube with 1/8" wall. I would also want to mount lift jacks so the camper can be lifted off in the field. Finally I would like to have stable enough camper anchors to handle moderate 4wd driving on rutted roads (not necessarily rock crawling type but that would be nice)
The questions.
Do you think a riveted frame with blind rivets and 1/8" plate for gussets would be strong enough for the application?
Is my tube sizing going to be sufficient to make the camper rugged and strong without having to put in 5000 spars?
Would it be better to use square tube and blind rivets or c channel and solid rivets on the frame? If the c channel then how big?
Thanks for your time.
I am new to this forum and was referred here from a metalworking site so I hope you will excuse any silly questions.
I am in the planning stages of building a truck camper to slide into my 2011 F250 Powerstroke Short Bed. I have arrived At the conclusion that I need to build after owning two travel trailers. The problem with the trailers is that they can never go where I go in the backcountry hunting and exploring. What is more, it makes it tough for me to bring along pack animals if I have the trailer. So I sold the trailer and am planning to build a truck camper that has a but of ruggedness and internally is a but like a hunting cabin.
I am thinking of an aluminum frame with an aluminum skin, inside would be knotty pine wood panelling and a decor reminiscent of a hunting cabin. For heat I would use a Kimberly Wood Stove which is a gasified stove. The walls would be the aluminum studs with the skin riveted on then spray in foam used to fill the gaps between studs then a layer of foam and then panelling over that.
The questions come in the area of the frame. I want to use aluminum for weight reasons but I am not an expert welder so I thought about using aircraft construction techniques like those used for homebuilt planes. I was thinking a riveted frame using 1" square tube with 1/8" wall. I would also want to mount lift jacks so the camper can be lifted off in the field. Finally I would like to have stable enough camper anchors to handle moderate 4wd driving on rutted roads (not necessarily rock crawling type but that would be nice)
The questions.
Do you think a riveted frame with blind rivets and 1/8" plate for gussets would be strong enough for the application?
Is my tube sizing going to be sufficient to make the camper rugged and strong without having to put in 5000 spars?
Would it be better to use square tube and blind rivets or c channel and solid rivets on the frame? If the c channel then how big?
Thanks for your time.