@Adrifters - F550 Surf Camper Build - Adrift Motorhome

[S2DM]

With the front rail in place, and the new roof/top box wall panels installed



I rebuilt the cab-over roof/top box wall as 1" pop out bilaterally from the original wall width. I now have a 1.75" pocket (from the 3/4" weather stripping space I originally had) between the top box walls and the bottom box walls.

Given how much work we did to have a hard sided pop top, I really wanted to retain hard sides in the cab-over section. So in that 1.75" space, I have built a .5" nested wall. It runs on sliders, I'm still debating where to put them, and as of now, I'm leaning towards having them paired with small pneumatic cylinders. But basically, as the roof wall raises, the nested wall will raise with it until it reaches its stop point.

 

[S2DM]

Here's a view from the front

 

[Darwin]

If you go diesel, go Ram, much easier motor to work on, and the new ones with DEF are returning some pretty good mileage.

 

[brice]

Awesome build so far, I can't wait to see this one finished. I tow 4-5k lbs fairly often, so I am close to you in weight, and have done so quite a bit with both gas and Diesel engines. Currently I am driving a diesel Ram 2500. My next truck will have a gas engine. There are just too many downsides to the diesel, and I prefer the gas engines power curve when I'm not in the mountains or towing.

 

[tgreening]

I likes me a diesel, currently having everything from a 7.3 idi to Fords new 6.7. If I were driving any of the newer generation Ford diesels (and probably any make for that matter) I'd have to think long and hard about traveling out of the countey and feeding them anything except what they were (supposedly) designed for. They are pretty picky about fuel and/or fuel quality, and repairs are soul killing ban account busters. Repair costs and/or warranty issues aside, just the time lost while waiting on it to be fixed can be a bugger.

Love the fab work. There are some amazingly skilled people on this forum.

 

[heimbig]

tgreening: valid point about fuel cleanliness and super important to keep it / get it clean. but All newer diesels sold USA have the same fuel quality and UL sulfur requirements. the 6.7 ford (and likely most of the others) do not require ULS for the engine, just the pollution components in the exhaust - that is a big challenge to overcome, but not impossible. Ford does sell the 6.7 for export without pollution controls.

Taking any newer vehicle outside of the country in which it was sold has risks, and a different set of risks for older vehicles.

 

[Kiomon]

This is looking amazing! Great job man!

 

[S2DM]

Got the new door location cut while the top box was on.



Also installed a band of 12" Carbon Unidirectional weave in the cabover section. This part was probably unnecessary as I was only registering a .25" deflection with Heather and I hanging on the lip of the cab over, but it is brutally strong now. The unidirectional carbon adds a ton of rigidity.





It's a single piece wrapping the entire bed platform such that it cantilevers back into the non-cabover section.

 

[S2DM]

Started cutting windows and hatches as well. The original opening are all cut square with the track saw, and then in the subsequent secondary glassing stage, a radius is reformed with vinyl ester cabosil putty and then glassed over, creating a rigid frame for the windows with radiused corners.

 

[S2DM]

And for some fun progress, I fitted the top box on the bottom box in its "up" position, to test how everything works together and to get a feel of the interior space. We have between 6'10" and 7' in ceiling height, but I'm 6'7" tall and really wanted to be able to move around without stooping.

 

[S2DM]

For bug screens and blinds, I didn't have the wall thickness to incorporate integrated shades. It either requires thick walls, a hokey mechanism with seals that I'm not a fan of, or big pop-outs on the external walls to make it work.

I created sealed pockets above each of the windows recessed into the wall. Both pockets will carry two rollers, one a bug screen and one a shade. The screen and shade will have velcro edges and attach around the windows to velcro applied there. I'd played around a bit with a magnetized system, but I believe this will be easier.

 

[S2DM]

The design of the outbound windows also required a tiered installation pad. I tried to route out the foam to the desired depth, but the crosslinks in the transonite interfered (the router blade catchs them and then throws them which blows out the surrounding foam). The other issue is that the transonite skin is very thick, which makes it quite impact resistant, but it wasn't carbide router bit friendly at all. I completely tore up two bits, which worked fine on my homemade panels. I ended up cutting the walls back to the inner skin, and then built up foam and glassed over to fit the profile of the window.



For structural strength, I used resin impregnated fir bonded to the panels with 3m 5200 marine adhesive. After resin impregnation and 5200, the fir was covered in carbon uni and glassed for additional stiffness. As strong as the transonite panels are, the roof has no additional internal structure like the bottom box does, and it is quite light, so it has a far bit of flex to it. That flex was increased when I removed the cutouts for the windows, so the fir/carbon combo was very helpful in stiffening everything back up.

 

[S2DM]

Also got the underside of the bed platform in, and prepped the dividers for the underbed storage. Using tape was a little hokey, but I ran out of clamps as I had something else clamped down and it ended up working perfectly.

The bed will have 11" deep storage compartments. Still debating about a hinge and pneumatic bed lift apparatus, versus using something electric or hydraulic like a tiered cylinder.



I also used carbon to glass in the bottom of the bed platform which was most definitely overkill, but it puts carbon on both sides of the cabover. Here is a pic of the top box going on.



And a pick of the whole combo in it's nested or "down" position.

 

[S2DM]

A few pics of current progress. Currently finishing up all the rough sanding and primer process, then onto systems.

 

[Healeyjet]

Any updates ?
Ward