Home Build Composite Panel Flatbed Truck Camper

[smokejumper98]

I've spent a lot of time over the years researching composite panels and DIY camper builds and gotten a lot of inspiration. I finally decided to start my camper build and thought I would give back a bit to help others who may be interested in tackling the same project.
My wife and I have had several other trailers (1958 Silver Streak Clipper) and truck campers (Alaskan, Northern Lite) over the years. I decided that I wanted to build my own to accomplish some goals that are now easily found in commercially produced campers.

-Under $20K total cost
-Under 3k pounds fully loaded
-4 season, Hard sided, flatbed design with as low a profile as possible

This thread was very inspirational for me and I thank all that participated to help guide my build. I don't want to rehash all of the discussions and debates within that build, I just wanted to lay out what I did.

T

Thread 'DIY Composite Flatbed Camper Build'

Nov 5, 2017

This idea came to me from another build involving carbon fiber laminated over foam board. I then came across FRP manufactured composite panels. After an exhaustive search
and brief "horrible" experience as a panel sales rep, I decided to build my own panels from scratch.

First step was to locate the fiberglass skin. This actually took longer than I thought it would, but found a manufacturer practically in my own back yard. http://www.vetroresina.com/?lang=us

After visiting the plant and learning a lot about their various products, I left with some test samples. I can't say...

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This TC will have a 10' floor space with departure angle, North/South Cabover sleeping platform 84" wide x 77" long, total camper width of 84" and camper height of 80".
As you can see from the photo, I started with building the full size composite panels. Panels were made from FRP and XPS 250 PSI 4x8 foam sheets. The composites were adhered with single part polyurethane glue. I went back and forth between polyurethane glue and epoxy but finally settled on the poly after reading several good reports about its successful use and considering other aspects like temperature at which I was doing the build. In the next post I will lay out the products I used.

 

[smokejumper98]

As many of you have used before, I sourced my FRP from Vetroresina in South Carolina. I used there G450 High Gloss product. They require a minimum of a 200' roll order at any width, so I ordered a 200'x90" roll delivered to Boise, ID. The product I used cost about $1.56/sq. ft when I ordered mine so total cost was about $2300 for the roll. I also paid $850 for shipping to Boise.

The Polyurethane glue was from a Georgia company called Chemique Adhesives. This was a single part Polyurethane that simplified its application. The salesman recommended that I purchase two six gallon containers. Each container cost $325 for a total of $650 for the adhesive. Additionally, I purchased an 8" glue applicator that was VERY useful to apply the adhesive quickly over large area. The applicator cost $280 and was well worth it. The product I used was Solfre 2811 Neutral. It was about $300 to ship the 140 pounds to Boise. Total cost for adhesive, applicator and shipping was $1243.

Foam was sourced locally at Home Depot and each sheet cost $50ish after my Veteran discount. I used about 18 sheets for a total of about $900. I looked at using other products, but they were way too expensive and went against the goal of staying under $20K for the build. I mitigated the potential strength issue of using the 250psi foam by using a welded aluminum exoskeleton to adhere the panels into. I will get to that in a later post.