C5500 TopKick 4x4 Crew Cab Build
- Thread starter NeverEnough
- Start date
NeverEnough
Adventurer
We usually just curse at this point in the project !
Speaking of cursing, nothing has been quite as frustrating as installing the personnel door hardware from Trimark. While I love the fact that we have bomber doors, I don't know if I'd ever go through the learning process again had I known what we were in for. I wanted a multi-point, automotive style hardware setup. I also wanted the inside and outside handles mounted at the appropriate levels for easy operation (a big deal with such high-clearance rigs). Unfortunately, mounting those types of components into a plastic honeycomb panel requires some serious hoop-jumping. Here's a shot of the door with the inside and outsite handles, electric lock, and deadbolt components revealed:
All of the linkages have to be custom, of course, and TriMark has ZERO documentation for assembling their various components. Days of trial and error, and a pile of bent rods later, the doors got mounted on the trailer.
The gasket is pinched in that pic, but it's been fixed since. Here's what they look like from the inside before mounting the inside casing:
In the end, they've worked out very nice, with a solid feel and latch, self-closing hinges, mulit-point catches, and a great weather seal. Once again, it's been great to use the trailer as a practice build before attempting this type of stuff on the camper.
A highlight of the trailer build was testing the pooper. Both the trailer and camper have the Tecma Silence Plus macerating toilet. The trailer has seen three test trips so far, and it's just like home. At this point in my life, I appreciate a nice crapper, and this one delivers.
The interior color scheme will be the same in the camper: black basins and toilet, Decor Plastics beige composite wall paneling, and TrafficMaster Allure vinyl flooring. The baseboard is not permanant and will be replaced when we do the camper.
Per the original design criteria, there are almost no wood products in either build. All walls, doors, and cabinetry are made from PPE honeycomb panels with a surface treatment applied- either a laminate or paint/coating. Here's a shot of the laminated bathroom door, surrounded by painted white walls (two part epoxy). The control panel is to the right.
The interior cargo area of the trailer is also painted. Both the walls and ceiling have CoreTrax embedded to allow easy connection points for cargo nets, bags, bike hangers, and bunks.
I'm also reconsidering using the Scorpion XO2 coating on the camper. After a lot of investigation and cooperation with Scorpion, I'm pretty sure our difficulties were caused by numerous procedural and environmental factors at the paint shop. We're doing another round of testing, and the results are promising. From a functional perspective, the coating on the trailer is working great. You can drive through brush and wack trees without stressing about scratching up the finish.
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thetonka
Observer
Understand the cursing. I've got my own project, a custom stacker toyhauler, and while mine list of todos is no where near as long as yours I still need to finish the insulation, interior paneling, cabinetry, inverter, batteries, wiring upgrades, and furniture.
These type of projects never seem to be completed.
These type of projects never seem to be completed.
Ford Prefect
Expedition Leader
These type of projects never seem to be completed.
That is precisely why my wife would not let me build my own truck! She was worried that it would never be done.
Personally I would have been happy to just have windows, and hand made wooden bunks. Beyond that put up some insulation and be happy!
This thing just blows me away! The attention to detail, and the efforts to make this truck every bit as nice looking and feeling as a production coach is amazing to me!
Thanks for the updates, and I am glad you enjoyed your thrown room et al.
thetonka
Observer
I get that comment a lot about our hauler, and the truck, and the CJ5, and the CJ3B, and the Rhino, and the brewery, and the yard, and the .......
Still not sure how to break it to here that I want to build a motorhome when the boy moves out. :Wow1:
Details on the PPE Honeycomb panels used to make cabinets and such would be appreciated. May have missed it on a previous page. A google search for "PPE Honeycomb" and "PPE Panels" did not turn up much.
Also info like ease of fabrication, costs, suppliers, etc would be appreciated,
thanks
Also info like ease of fabrication, costs, suppliers, etc would be appreciated,
thanks
NeverEnough
Adventurer
PPE=Polypropylene w Polyester Veil (thermally embedded into the glass reinforced polypropylene skins). Two US manufacturers: NidaCore and Plascore. I went with Plascore. Check out the documentation on Plascore's site. If you want to go that route, PM me and I can get you more info on fabrication, costs, etc.
In general, fabrication is a challenge because there really are not any established techniques, tools, or hardware to date. The panels can be joined by splining or butt joints with glass layup corners, or by using fiberglass pultrusions or aluminum extrusions. We have used all of the above.
The most challenging and time consuming aspect is mechanical fastening for hardware (hinges, latches, slides, etc.) because you're really working with very thin material and mostly air. We became very inventive with t-nuts, dowels, a cool product called Z-grip (automotive filler). In addition, adhesive selection is very important when working with polypropylene because very little sticks to it. Z-grip and SABA Sealtak have ruled the day.
Ford Prefect
Expedition Leader
There is another truck on here, a small Toyota, that was built entirely out of Nidacore as well. You can look up their stuff, they have a very extensive build on here and how they did all the work with the stuff. Ultimately they just needed a couple of people to help them pick up their entire campers to install it onto their truck (if I recall correctly). Cool stuff IMHO.
Edit, I found it. It is called the 'Super Camper' and it was built by Holly Beck, and her boyfriend, an incredibly talented engineer, who sadly I can not recall his name. Really nice guy, and he answered a lot of questions I had.
Anyhow, here are some links if you are interested.
And then there is their blog about it, which if you go back all the way and read the entire thing you will find out two things.
A) You have a lot more time on your hands than you thought,
and
B) that was a pretty impressive build with some well thought out designs ideas.
Hope you do not mind my attaching these things, if you do PM me and I will delete the entire post.
Regards,
Edit, I found it. It is called the 'Super Camper' and it was built by Holly Beck, and her boyfriend, an incredibly talented engineer, who sadly I can not recall his name. Really nice guy, and he answered a lot of questions I had.
Anyhow, here are some links if you are interested.
And then there is their blog about it, which if you go back all the way and read the entire thing you will find out two things.
A) You have a lot more time on your hands than you thought,
and
B) that was a pretty impressive build with some well thought out designs ideas.
Hope you do not mind my attaching these things, if you do PM me and I will delete the entire post.
Regards,
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NeverEnough
Adventurer
Just for clarification, NidaCore and Plascore are company names. Both make polypropylene honeycomb core as their primary product. They provide core material to a number of honeycomb "panel" manufacturers, in addition to providing their own panel products. There are a wide variety of skin materials available. I chose a polypropylene glass-fiber reinforced skin with a polyester veil for may panels after testing a number of different panels, including foam-core panels. The PPE panel skins and core are joined with a thermal press which welds the plastic core and skins together. The polyester veil is embedded into the skins at the same time. It is nearly impossible to delaminate the skins from the core, and very difficult to delaminate the veil from the skins. If the motorhome camper performs as well as the trailer body, and I assume it will, then the PPE panels will have proven to be a good choice, despite the build challenges.
The Super Camper build was one the resources I referenced before setting out on this particular adventure.
Ford Prefect
Expedition Leader
Yes, that was a good build with a lot of info. They too stressed the difficulty in the joining of the pieces, and the overall construction of the camper. They do not seem to use it much anymore, but have said (last time I spoke with them) that it has been holding up nicely.
jgreen-fsi
New member
Very impressive build!
NeverEnough
Adventurer
Thanks!
I've got the paint shop scheduled for Friday to do the exterior coating of the main body, so today we had to find out if we could actually mount it on the truck and drive it over there! The computer model said it would work, but I figured we should do a dry run to see if any tweeks were needed to the body.
Step 1 was to rotate the body 180 degress in the shop. We've done this twice before, but it's always a game of inches.
Step 2 requires extending the jacks to full length and then setting the body on horses in order to use the jack drop-extensions.
Step 3: Then the truck had to be carefully backed into the shop, which also requires a bit of finesse, and lined up under the camper body. This was actually much easier than I thought it would be.
Step 4: The jacks are used to lower the body onto the subframe. Once we got close, all of the key areas were checked to make sure the fit was still good.
Everything fits great and we'll be able to roll out of the shop on Friday! Cool.
NeverEnough
Adventurer
Good thing it isn't an inch longer!
I need some feedback. I had been thinking all along that I would use a simple white/grey/black color scheme for the exterior. The trailer shows the basic scheme: mostly white body, grey lower portion (notice the different color of grey on the door- screw-up so we have to overcoat no matter what), and black lower frame.
However, I have been very tempted to switch to a "sand" and black scheme, replacing the white with desert sand "tan" and the grey with black. The roof, however, will stay white regardless and you'll never see it unless you're flying overhead.
There are several reasons for this possible change of course. 1- I think it would make the rig look cool; 2- It would fit better with the relatively constant state of dirtiness I expect for the rig and I wouldn't feel like having to clean it after every outing; 3- White will require more long-term maintenance to keep it looking white (UV, grime).
The reasons not to change: 1- The vinyl for the awnings will not longer match (grey and white) and have to be replaced $$$$; 2- The darker color will create more heat gain, which is not a huge concern, but still a factor; 3- I will have to paint the truck cab to match, also $$$$; 4- If I choose to apply a partial graphics wrap, options will be more limited.
So PLEASE help me make up my mind. I have until 11:00AM MT tomorrow to decide. Don't be shy! And if you've got any vehicle pics to support your opinion, let's see'um.