Go big or go home:

MTVR

Well-known member
I guess we're gonna have to start on the external sheathing- I've pretty much run out of ways to avoid doing it...
 

dreadlocks

Well-known member
With that inward swinging front facing door might put some steel on the door jam since your relying mostly on the dead bolt and some thin strips of wood to keep that closed against the wind.. like some of those anti-kick door plates, which is good security to have.
 

MTVR

Well-known member
With that inward swinging front facing door might put some steel on the door jam since your relying mostly on the dead bolt and some thin strips of wood to keep that closed against the wind.. like some of those anti-kick door plates, which is good security to have.

We have plans to do exactly that... ;)
 

dreadlocks

Well-known member
Sorry to say...

With the forward facing door and vinyl sliders, you have already guaranteed yourself leaks, especially if you drive in the rain.

yeah that inward swinging door was a big surprise setup like that.. was expecting it to swing out w/an overhanging lip like most RV's
 

Alloy

Well-known member
Why would I want to do that?

Stairs add multiples of hours to a job....1 stairs 1.1 -2 stairs 1.2 -3 stairs 1.3 The factors are crazy

Same goes for the adding door/ windows...inside gets hot quickly while finishsing and you loose the ability to easily get things inside without damaging things

Plywood sheething over the windows never seen that before?

Inward swing door means something on the inside has to be designed around it vs. nothing has to be designed around an out swing

The door means the front wall is 2 small shear walls that needs to be 1.5 x stonger than if the end was 1 big shear wall. Make to add some extra (4-6" spacing) screws to the end wall plywood.
 

1000arms

Well-known member
I'm wondering why you didn't do all the work on the ground, put the pieces together, then hoist the finished camper shell onto the bed...?
Why would I want to do that?
Many people would find it easiest to build the camper-box on the ground as long as they had a good way to get the camper box up on to the truck.

I think @rruff's question was one of curiosity rather than critique. :)

Off course, most people aren't building an expedition-vehicle that would be too tall to be road legal (in a lot of the US) with a standard 20' container on the back (even if the truck is designed to handle containers)! :cool:
 

MTVR

Well-known member
Thanks, man- I may have misinterpreted.

We have no way to lift a completed box from the ground to the truck, I have no place to build it other than on the truck, and the truck's bed is flat and square, which made it easier for us to build it dimensionally correct.
 

1000arms

Well-known member
Thanks, man- I may have misinterpreted.

We have no way to lift a completed box from the ground to the truck, I have no place to build it other than on the truck, and the truck's bed is flat and square, which made it easier for us to build it dimensionally correct.
You are welcome!

Makes sense, stay safe finishing the exterior! ... (And, for that matter, the interior!) :cool:
 

MTVR

Well-known member
Alloy, your point about the stairs is valid, but the stairs are good exercise for us.

My wife designed the floorplan, and after many many different floor plans were drawn up, this is what worked best for us. It also takes advantage of the platform in between the cab and box, which will serve as our front porch.

In swing is easier to reinforce than out swing. For starters, the hinges are on the inside. I have served as a breacher on an entry team, and I'd much rather take out external hinges or pull an out swing door with a Halligan tool, than to try to breach something like what we're putting together here.

And our two mini front walls are going to be massively strong, once we fill the stud bays completely with 3.5" thick 25 psi rigid R24 polyiso foam board, foamed in place with urethane foam, and 3/4" plywood screwed and bonded to it inside and out with PL Premium Fast Grab urethane construction adhesive and then completely encapsulated inside and out with three coats of West System marine-grade epoxy. Plus, those two mini-walls are only PART of the lateral support for the box. The bathroom wall, the garage wall, the kitchen counter and overhead cabinets, the bedroom armoire, the gun safe, the battery box, and just about everything inside that runs perpendicular to the walls, is going to be a structural member.
 

rruff

Explorer
We have no way to lift a completed box from the ground to the truck, I have no place to build it other than on the truck, and the truck's bed is flat and square, which made it easier for us to build it dimensionally correct.

No problem. Just thought it would be more work building it on the truck... but you'll get'r done.
 

1000arms

Well-known member
... With the forward facing door ... especially if you drive in the rain.
I guess we'll see... :)
@IdaSHO, don't worry, the outside screen-door will prevent any leaks! :cool:

I hope water doesn't leak around the door, but, I also am concerned it might. :( With the height of the cab, it wouldn't take much of a deflector on the cab roof to push air up and over the camper box. You might consider using boat fabric to make a removable deflector/awning that attaches to the cab and the camper. Use some shock cord on the camper attachment points to handle any possible flex between cab and camper.

@MTVR any more plans on your truck cab machine-gun-hatch/sunroof/wind-deflector? :cool:
 
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