All Fiberglass Camper Shell Experience - Failures or Successes?

[bapple]

Long time reader. First time post.

I am designing a hardshell camper to mount on a F350 crew cab flatbed. I have found a large, commercial composite fabrication shop that is willing/interested in building the shell. This company builds bridges, buildings, art, campers, etc. Been around 30 years with very experienced staff. The cost will be very competitive with other commercial options (under $20K including custom paint).

The shell will be built primarly with fiberglass core sheets. Aditional foam and fiberglass will be used to reinforce the joints. There will be no frame. No metal and no wood. This is the recommendation of the fabrication shop. The shop is very confident in the design. However, other fab shops have recommended using a frame and have warned that an overhang over the cab built of 100% fiberglass shell will fail.

Has anyone had any failures of camper shells built of 100% fiberglass (without frame)? Or has anyone put their 100% fiberglass camper shells to the test without failure?

The current design has an total length of 14' with a 5' overhand. Sketchup image attached for reference.

Manhy thanks to anyone willing to share their experiences.

 

[The Artisan]

If you are going that route, I would at least have it sprayed with polyurea. I have a frame on my proto and will have poly coating. I bet I could throw it off a cliff when I am done. Not really but it will be stupid strong and wont rack.
Kevin

 

[Victorian]

Under 20.000$ assembled including custom paint job? Sounds like a smoking deal. Have they build other campers? Website? Thanks!

 

[rruff]

The shell will be built primarly with fiberglass core sheets. Aditional foam and fiberglass will be used to reinforce the joints. There will be no frame. No metal and no wood. This is the recommendation of the fabrication shop. The shop is very confident in the design. However, other fab shops have recommended using a frame and have warned that an overhang over the cab built of 100% fiberglass shell will fail.

Did you get any details regarding core material and FG properties?

Of course the overhang will be strong enough if it's done properly. Sounds like they have engineers with lots of experience with the materials, so I wouldn't worry.

 

[bapple]

Under 20.000$ assembled including custom paint job? Sounds like a smoking deal. Have they build other campers? Website? Thanks!

Let me get a final quote with full engineering specifications and warranty details. If it's as good as the estimate then I'll gladly forward details - would love to send these guys business if they are deserving. Perhaps a bulk order if others are interested?

 

[oldnslow]

Bigfoot and Northern Lite campers are both built of fiberglass with no other framing and have 6-7 foot cabovers. I have never heard of anyone on here or on RV.net experiencing a structural failure. Leaks that allowed the wood floors to rot, yes, but no structural failures.

There are also several companies making fiberglass travel trailers. They all seem to have good track records for the structures.

 

[The Artisan]

Bigfoot and Northern Lite campers are both built of fiberglass with no other framing and have 6-7 foot cabovers. I have never heard of anyone on here or on RV.net experiencing a structural failure. Leaks that allowed the wood floors to rot, yes, but no structural failures.

There are also several companies making fiberglass travel trailers. They all seem to have good track records for the structures.

All true but they are not designed for offroad use. They would take a lot more stress
Kevin

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Although not an offroad rv (though the next adventure will be in one), I am sailing a fiberglass sailboat around the world. I can say that with proper engineering a fiberglass rv shell can be made to be bulletproof. The tradeoff with composite construction is always strength vs weight vs cost. Want stronger/lighter use vacuum backing and carbon fiber, cost goes up. Want stronger cheaper (and heavier), hand lay lots of glass. I think there can be a middle ground with these pre-made composite panels, I hope to start a fuso build when we finish up sailing next year, hopefully with a Total Composite shell.

 

[Conagher]

If you want a hard sided composite fiberglass camper for a flatbed or slide in, I would suggest that you speak to the owners of Bahn Camper Works? The website shows that they will make a "shell" or a "loaded" camper. All meant for off road. Website: www.bahncamperworks.com - Owner, Ryan and Sarah.

I have a V1 pop-up camper from XP Camper. I have had no issues with it off road and it has no internal frame. It is a molded, monocoque, composite over foam upper and lower shell connected by hydraulic rams and sliders. XP also makes a cube version that is hard sided, but you would have to talk to owner to see if he will do the overhang. Website: www.xpcamper.com - Owner, Marc and Toni.

Other considerations are; the suspension of your truck, how the camper is mounted to the truck, how much the truck flexes by itself and how much flex is transmitted to the camper. Also note that the access panels and the corners of the campers from XP and Bahn, are rounded thus preventing stress cracks from a true 90 degree turn. If your current plans shows 90 degree turns, that should be modified - assuming you stay with company you mentioned.

You may benefit by talking to the owners of XP and Bahn.

Nice build

 

[bapple]

The Bahn Camper is an awesome product. Definitely my inspiration. I corresponded with Ryan via email - he still takes time to email despite a very healthy backlog. Unfortunately the Bahn camper is beyond my price range. It might be financially feasible if Bahn sold just the fiberglass shell (their base model has some amenities that I would need to remove/modify). And let's not forget that Bahn sponsors this forum!

I plan to mount the camper on a heavy duty flatbed - still shopping but will go with something commercially available and designed for heavy loads. This will help distribute the load and maintain a relatively flat/stable platform for the camper.

Good point on the hard 90deg corners. I am aiming for 2" radius on all edges and rounded hardware (panels, window, door).

Thanks to everyone for the comments. All very helpful.

 

[rruff]

Good point on the hard 90deg corners. I am aiming for 2" radius on all edges and rounded hardware (panels, window, door).

Rounding is good for aero but not necessary for the structure. Styromax campers are simply glued together at edges; very sharp angles. https://youtu.be/JATnqYsRcDs

I think Victorian's company (Total Composites) uses extrusions on all the edges. At any rate your fabricator will know what they are doing.

 

[calicamper]

The only thing that matters is how its built. Gelcoat looks the same regardless if its chopper gun sprayed, hand laid glass or whats called engineered composite ie cored and bagged with specific glass weights and layouts etc. Im a sailboat giy also. Plus I built a Rutan Veri EZE in my teen yrs. The rule of thumb is engineered composite glass typically matches aluminum regarding weight vs strength. That is till you graduate to engineered Carbon which is a whole new ball game.

Chopper gun glass products are generally all you find in the RV biz. They might hand lay glass for a smooth skin and smooth interior but the core is often just chopper gun unengineered resinglass mix. This is the typical glass topper build approach. Its cheap, fast and the buyers in that market dont know enough otherwise. The big foot campers Ive seen up close seem to be a mix of all three approaches. The new glass two peice tub trailers like Oliver mostlikely is like Bigfoot a little of each type of glass work.