out with the old in with the new

[westyss]

Hi all , starting a thread on my new camper. I had a 91 westy with lots of mods; suby, engine, propex furnace , dual propane tanks etc, and we slowly have grown out of it. So after lots of looking around with not alot of options, I chose to go with the FG. My main needs or wants were , bigger, able to haul more, and 4x4. I had a pretty good idea of the issues with the FG and thought I could work around them. I have just completed my first big trip with it and am very happy with it except improving the ability to dampen big bumps. This first pic is when I bought the truck and got it home. It was new but was on a lot for a while. Its a 2007 that I purchased in 2009.


The first thing needed was a deck, so I mocked one up out of wood. My neighbors thought it was to be built out of wood, ha.



this is in its semi complete state, still need to complete the interior and heat/ water system storage areas, and an out door kitchen. I needed to use it so am taking a break from working on it. It has some temporary cabinets, a queen size bed, and a 6.8 cu/ft nova cool 12 volt fridge with freezer. I do alot of highway so the bulk of my driving is with that in mind, but needed to be able to get into those hard to get into places. I have gotten stuck several times with my 2 wheel drive westy. Our trip was a good distance, 8,225 km with some 4x4 ing , I like the FG for its size and great turning radius, we got our selves onto an ATV track that dwindled down to nothing and did a reverse turn in very little space, Once off the track I had to remove some foliage that we took with us.
I will try to post some pics of the on going construction. Yves

 

[westyss]

deck

After finalizing the plans for the deck I had some one make it, I left the top off the deck to finish the mounts easier



Then a little testing, without any weight the frame flexes alot, but gave me a good idea how much movement it had.

This next pic was with the duellies still on.

Singles on , top of deck on

 

[westyss]

cabin

I had the cabin pieces made from my plans and once they were ready I took the FG to pick them up. Just a little snow.

The walls are fiberglass each side with a high density foam filled honey comb structure, strong like crazy. You can see that in the lower pic.With a bunch of aluminum I started to asemble it. The cabin is a complete unit, walls roof floor. Basically like a funny shaped shoe box.

 

[westyss]

time out

thats it for now til next week, I have to drag myself out to this place for some fly fishing.

 

[LukeH]

thats it for now til next week, I have to drag myself out to this place for some fly fishing.

What a chore, to have to go out fly fishing :ylsmoke:

Looks fantastic, looking forward to the next installment.
It appears that you've mastered quite a few of the issues both specific to FGs and those generic to a 4x4 lorry build. I'll be interested in the poptop sealing particularly.
Thanks for sharing

 

[1leglance]

great job and I am looking forward to hearing more...
I assume this is setup for 2 people but just wanted to make sure.

 

[spencyg]

Such a Tease.

Strong work so far. Interested to see the interior and details on your lift mechanism.

 

[Christian P.]

Extremely impressive. I really enjoy those "surprise" built.

 

[washington taco]

Your wall material looks like floor board for an aircraft interior. Nice build!

 

[chris_the_wrench]

Is that NidaCore for the walls, roof, and floor? If so what thicknesses are you using, it looks like a couple sizes?

Thanks
-Chris

 

[westyss]

walls

Thanks for all the comments, to answer a couple of questions; Yes its for 2 people and a dog, I removed the third seat and installed 2 national air seats.
;The top to bottom seal is done with brushes, Fuller Brush Co.
;Its not Nida Core, its a composit made in British Columbia to specific sizes.
; The lift is done with 400 pound 12 volt 18" actuators.

So after setting the floor down I set aluminum dowels in the floor to line up the walls and semi hold them in place. This I was hoping to provide lateral strength, but mostly to line up the walls because I was working alone and I used Sika 252, and you dont have much time to work with it. The whole concept was to have a self supported structure, no frame, the walls are the strength.

you can see a bit of the honey comb in this pic, far wall.



I assembled all the walls in place, then finished sticking the step floor in place.



note the holes for the dowels



After levelling and aligning the walls I drove long screws into the foam-honeycomb stuff, and surprisingly it grabbed and sucked together really well.
I wanted to have the whole structure sound and ready for aluminum corners, as that was what holds it all together.

 

[adrenaline503]

Wow! Looks great. You make it look easy.

 

[westyss]

walls

With the walls looking OK I got ready for the aluminum corners.


As much as possible I had all the corners cut and fit prior to starting the Sika process, and that was a little more complicated than anticipated, I had to allow for 2mm of space for the Sika, ( I think it was 2mm, might have been more)




I dont have any pics of me mounting the aluminum with Sika, I was mostly running around like a chicken with his head cut off trying to get the aluminum pieces in the right spot. I used jacks, 2x4's, shims and all sorts of things to coerce the stuff into place, like I said you dont have much time to work with it.

 

[laylow]

That thing is sex on wheels.

 

[westyss]

mock

With all the aluminum in place I had a box, a funny shaped box.




At this time in the build I decided to do a poor interior mock up to see if my plans would work out, I used google sketch for my plans, works good.



The point was to make sure the space was Ok for the kitchen/ washroom area, I also mocked up the bed/sitting area, I had my wife have a look and it seemed OK.
Some funny things; once the box was made, I clambered into it and almost passed out, the fumes were all collecting inside with no where to go, I had to put the fan in there pointing up to ventilate. Also , no door!! getting into the box needed 2 ladders, one inside and one outside and climb over the sides, that is a pain in the a**.