ITTOG's Truck Camper Build (was 6' x 12' Trailer Conversion)

[ITTOG]

A few posts back I talked about how I want to skin the camper. I don't believe I will do either of those because the roof matches the width and length of the camper exactly. Thus no overhang to help with the drip edge/rain guard. This is the new plan so let's set up what you are looking at. Box one is the new 1.5" x 3" to create the side of the roof. Box 2 is 1.5" x 1.5" tubing to create the cross supports of the roof. Box three is the top of the camper, not including the roof. The gap between the camper and roof is where my weatherstripping will be. This is the yellow, upside-down triangles. I believe its dimensions are 1" wide and 5/8" tall. The yellow line is the canvas. The gray rectangle is the skin, 3mm ACM most likely. The red lines are the drip edge/rain guard. The black line is the galvalume roof. The green line is the corner cap which will be aluminum flat stock. Between the roof and skin with the tube will be 3M's VHB tape. The VHB tape would also be between the galvalume and tube/skin. I have decided, about 80% committed, the green line will be flat because I won't need it to be angle to provide a weatherproof joint. The roof, black line, will do that. The purple line serves two purposes: first is to create a weatherproof connection between the camper and the skin, second is to create a gutter and connection for the canvas. All of this looks good to me on paper but the red and purple lines are not off the shelf items. At least I have never found them online. Thus they will have to be custom made. This may prove difficult. For the red line, the drip guard, I am thinking about 16 to 20 gauge steel. I will have to bend it and weld pieces together to go around the roof, which is almost 36'. For the purple line I am thinking about 1/8" by 2" angle stock. This will require I weld flat bar on to the angle to make the shape I show. That would require 36' of welding the angle and flat bar together. Oh, and I have never welded aluminum. So this may not work out for me. I could see the need to first put it together easily to shorten the build time and then modify to this? Decisions, decisions.

 

[1000arms]

I know you have thought about hard-sided and soft-sided, and are currently planning on soft-sided, but you might want to look at Alaskan Campers hard-sided popup cabover and non-cabover for additional ideas, if you haven't already done so.

Alaskan Campers | Telescopic Truck Campers

Discover 60+ years of quality with Alaskan Campers. Explore remote spots in comfort and style with the original telescopic camper. Get a quote today!

alaskancampers.com

 

[ITTOG]

If I had known about that style before I began, I would have learned to weld aluminum and built something like that.

 

[Snydmax]

A few thoughts...

1. While I’m all about redundancy, you may not need both the red and purple flashing approaches. My Pop-up camper utilizes an interior leg and gaskets (purple flashing only) and our m416 style trailer has an exterior drip edge (red) formed by how e lid overlaps the box. Both have similar gaskets to what you propose.

2. When I imagine the detail you’ve proposed in the fully closed position, I think you’ll have interference with the upper canvas and the purple angle.

3a. The “red” flashing would not have to be angled... it might be easier to find z-shaped profiles off the shelf

3b. Rather than hold the skin tight to the red flashing, leave a 1/4 gap... this will help you break capillary action of water running off of the roof, not to mention providing some forgiveness during assembly

You’re getting there!


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[ITTOG]

1. While I’m all about redundancy, you may not need both the red and purple flashing approaches. My Pop-up camper utilizes an interior leg and gaskets (purple flashing only) and our m416 style trailer has an exterior drip edge (red) formed by how e lid overlaps the box. Both have similar gaskets to what you propose.

Thanks so much for your thoughts and information. I don't have examples to look at so going completely by what I see online and there just isn't much on drip edges and sealing. Most is on the camper itself, understandably. I hadn't considered the two as redundant. Good to know someone has had success with only one option. I wish the camper dealers around here had pop ups so I could go inspect and get ideas. If I do remove one, it would be the drip edge (red). I think I like the mounting option for the canvas of the purple item and I feel it would be the best option for leak prevention. One issue with the purple item is finding someone with a sheet metal brake willing to make it. I was planning on using 16 gauge so it would be fairly stiff but a bit flexible as well.

2. When I imagine the detail you’ve proposed in the fully closed position, I think you’ll have interference with the upper canvas and the purple angle.

That is a concern so after posting I thought I would move the top connection up some and ensure the bottom doesn't overlap. The gasket I am planning on using is fairly stiff. It is about 1/2" high and only compresses to about 3/8". Are the gaskets on your campers soft or stiff? All the softer ones I looked at would just get crushed by the weight of the roof. If I went with softer material I would have to weld in some stops to prevent that.

3a. The “red” flashing would not have to be angled... it might be easier to find z-shaped profiles off the shelf

3b. Rather than hold the skin tight to the red flashing, leave a 1/4 gap... this will help you break capillary action of water running off of the roof, not to mention providing some forgiveness during assembly

I looked at some z profiles on McMaster-Car but there wasn't a lot of options. Maybe I am being too picky. Do you know of other sources for the z profiles? Good point on leaving a gap between the skin and drip edge. That would also be easier to cut.


Thanks again for all the feedback. Very helpful. If you had any pictures of your campers' gaskets and canvas attachment I would greatly appreciate seeing them.

 

[ITTOG]

Date: Feb 19, 2022
Time: 6 hours
Total Time to Date: 206 hours
Rework: 0 hours
Total Rework to Date: 79 hours (not part of time above)
Current Weight: 631 pounds
Roof: 123 (need to reweigh and add lift support weight)
Camper: 460 (calculated)
Wedge Weight: 48

Time for the camper has been very short lately. Glad I have had some help or things wouldn't be progressing as much. We finished tacking the lift supports and tried them out. We then used four 1/8" thick rivets to attach the hinges. They work great and aren't even fully welded or secured. The stability was much better than I expected.






I had to leave soon after this but I was surprised a few days later when my friend told me he finished welding the supports and then removed the lift supports and hinges for sand blast and paint. That was very nice of him. I did add his time to the total as I am trying to capture all time and costs. I have a few things left to weld for skin attachment below the truck bed rails but I can easily do that after paint. In addition, given they paint so much for the oil industry they have a spray booth so I am going to have them sand blast and paint it for me because I hate painting. So now to hurry up and wait for paint! I can't wait to see it.

 

[Snydmax]

Here’s how the CVT trailer seals up... notice the paint rub and inconsistent fit of the lid over the tub. I’d be sure you have some planned gap where things overlap for the inevitable occurrence when things rack so it will still shut without breaking something

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[Snydmax]

My pop-up is in storage... when this sleet melts we plan to get it out and ready to sell so I’ll get some pics of how it works... it’s a lot like your sketch without the outer drip profile, seals on roof... lip on inside

If you can’t get custom break metal, you could stack two angles and seal between them with some 3M 5200


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[1000arms]

I know you have thought about hard-sided and soft-sided, and are currently planning on soft-sided, but you might want to look at Alaskan Campers hard-sided popup cabover and non-cabover for additional ideas, if you haven't already done so.

Alaskan Campers | Telescopic Truck Campers

Discover 60+ years of quality with Alaskan Campers. Explore remote spots in comfort and style with the original telescopic camper. Get a quote today!

alaskancampers.com

If I had known about that style before I began, I would have learned to weld aluminum and built something like that.

There are many choices/compromises to be made when designing and building a "truck camper". How tall/short? How wide/skinny? How long/short? Pop-up or fixed-side? Flexible siding, hard siding, or a combination? How insulated? How heavy/light? Designed for how many people and/or animals? ...

The thought that I might want to build TWO "truck campers", especially if I could build them cheaply enough and simply swap them out on one vehicle, has occurred to me a number of times.

 

[ITTOG]

Date: Mar 5, 2022
Time: 6 hours
Total Time to Date: 212 hours
Rework: 0 hours
Total Rework to Date: 79 hours (not part of time above)
Current Weight: 631 pounds
Roof: 123 (need to reweigh and add lift support weight)
Camper: 460 (calculated)
Wedge Weight: 48

When looking at the camper it doesn't look like I did much but I did a lot of little things to prep the camper for sand blast and paint. This one probably doesn't deserve a post but it continues the documentation of progress.

Primary work was to add parts to attach the skin around corners. Other than that it was a lot of cleaning up welds. I cut out two 1.5" tube legs in the cabover section. They were in the way for my roof clamp brackets.



The vertical bar on the right is new just to help with the skin.


Okay, a little less boring. There has been enough of that over the past posts. I had to strengthen the attachment of the t-handle pin for the hinged bed section so I boxed in the frame. The two angled parts on each side of the t-handle pin (pin pointed at you) were open. It is a lot stronger and will easily support two people sitting on the edge of the bed.


It is getting harder to move this thing around by myself. I am getting too old and too broken to move around 600 plus pounds. Luckily people have been moving around more weight than they can do on their own for centuries. So with knowledge and leverage on my side I got it loaded, without any motorized assistance (ie winch).




Ready to go to the sandblaster and painter!

 

[ITTOG]

Date: Mar 23, 2022

I dropped the camper off on March 14 and picked it up on March 23. They sprayed it with one coat of primer and two coats of paint. It cost me $1,200 but I hate painting so I would of paid $2,000 if they wanted it. I guess that is another advantage of aluminum.

I asked the guys for pictures of progress and they provided these. They are not Ansel Adams, but neither am I. This is as I gave it to them.




All clean.


Painted.


I guess I may be a little better at taking pictures. But I am just glad they sent some during the process.


The grey area is the compound two-plane angle that I will be covering with Bondo and painting.




Unfortunately I am busy the next two weekends so I don't have time to work on it. Hopefully I will have time to do some work during the week to at least get the gas struts and the lifting supports on. But really I need to skin the bottom half of the camper first because that will be easier upside down. I am not positive but I think I am going to put wood on the bottom and then fiberglass it and the sides that are below the truck bed rails. But to do that, I have to come up with a way to keep the fiberglass straight between the frame rails. Not sure how I will do that. Ideas have been everything from saran wrap (will epoxy melt the saran wrap), 0.06 aluminum (bending would be difficult given I don't have a brake), to the 1/4" fiber board used in concrete fiber board forms.

 

[1000arms]

Keep in mind polyethylene sheeting.

"Epoxy will not bond polyethylene and polypropylene materials." is from:

https://support.jamestowndistributors.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017713434-Can-I-use-epoxy-to-glue-polyethylene-and-polypropylene

 

[ITTOG]

Then the Saran Wrap should work as I want it to then. I guess I just need to commit and buy the materials now.

Thanks for the link.

 

[1000arms]

You are welcome for the link.

I don't know if you will find either edition of the book useful, but I will mention "Devlin's Boat Building Manual: How to Build Your Boat the Stitch-and-Glue Way", and ping @calicamper for any information he might choose to add.

1995 edition:


The second edition which has been pushed off to August 2022 at the time of this post:

 

[calicamper]

You are welcome for the link.

I don't know if you will find either edition of the book useful, but I will mention "Devlin's Boat Building Manual: How to Build Your Boat the Stitch-and-Glue Way", and ping @calicamper for any information he might choose to add.

1995 edition:


The second edition which has been pushed off to August 2022 at the time of this post:

PT boats up in Washington State have a bunch of good how too YouTube videos. PT and Delvin are both Americas Cup level builders who do amazing stitch and glue stuff.