New and Improved Camper Box Build - Ver 2.0
- Thread starter Heifer Boy
- Start date
Heifer Boy
Adventurer
.
Firstly, apologies for not updating my build thread for so long. I just got sidetracked with family and the Easter/ANZAC day holidays. I don't know why I ended up putting family first but I guess something’s got to give. LOL!!! I have been making some progress over the last month and are now back into it full throttle. Thanks to those who asked if I had dropped off the planet or something.
Stage Sixteen – Completed Metalwork
All the folding and welding has been completed so I bolted up the battery tray with high tensile bolts and fitted the internal aluminium “roof rack” cross members. These were also bolted in place. I had some brackets made up with nuts welded to the undersides which I will fit to the truck tub and use to bolt the camper to the truck later on. These were all primed and the battery tray painted black and the brackets white to match the truck.
Once the roof rails were in place, the top was test fitted and the Roof Top Tent finally put in place. I could then drill the mounting holes through the top and the rails to make sure everything would line up ok. Then it all got pulled apart...again.
Firstly, apologies for not updating my build thread for so long. I just got sidetracked with family and the Easter/ANZAC day holidays. I don't know why I ended up putting family first but I guess something’s got to give. LOL!!! I have been making some progress over the last month and are now back into it full throttle. Thanks to those who asked if I had dropped off the planet or something.
Stage Sixteen – Completed Metalwork
All the folding and welding has been completed so I bolted up the battery tray with high tensile bolts and fitted the internal aluminium “roof rack” cross members. These were also bolted in place. I had some brackets made up with nuts welded to the undersides which I will fit to the truck tub and use to bolt the camper to the truck later on. These were all primed and the battery tray painted black and the brackets white to match the truck.
Once the roof rails were in place, the top was test fitted and the Roof Top Tent finally put in place. I could then drill the mounting holes through the top and the rails to make sure everything would line up ok. Then it all got pulled apart...again.
Heifer Boy
Adventurer
.
Stage Seventeen – Electrics
I have been spending a lot of time sorting out the electrics which was a total unknown to me as I've never done any before. But with everyone's help here and a bit of reading I bought everything I needed and gave it a go. I bought 1x 6 gang fuse block, 4x LED lights, 4x 12v marine outlets, 7x switches and lots of red and black wiring and I was in business. I also read up on joints and soldering techniques and this site http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=281500 was easily the best I found on how to do it properly. Here is my first attempt following his instructions. Everything joint is twisted, soldered, heatshrunk and taped. It took a while and I only made a few mistakes.
The end result was a real spaghetti of wiring but I spent the time bundling them up in pairs and then stuffed it all into some split tubing. It could have been a bit tidier but I am very happy with it overall. I already had heavy duty cabling and a 50amp Anderson plug from my previous set up so will just use this for connection to the truck. I am using an old Engel fridge cable directly connected to the fuse block but have a spare cable with a cigar plug on the end in case there's a problem or I take the fridge outside and need to use one of the external outlets. The waterpump is also connected through a switch so I can turn it off in case of a problem. I've tested everything and there's no voltage drop anywhere so you can't get much better than that. Yay!!!
Loads of other photos in my Photobucket album. See Post #1 for a link.
I also made up the switch panels out of alloy angle, drilled some holes for the external outlets and painted and bolted down the battery tray with high tensile bolts. The battery was also put in place and strapped down.
Once the wiring was finished and tidied up a bit I took the opportunity to cut some bootliner carpet for the storage spaces. I'm just going to stick this in place with double sided tape so if I need to change it or build some dividers to adjust the storage later on I can do it easily. I just pulled the carpet at the moment and will re-fit later.
Stage Seventeen – Electrics
I have been spending a lot of time sorting out the electrics which was a total unknown to me as I've never done any before. But with everyone's help here and a bit of reading I bought everything I needed and gave it a go. I bought 1x 6 gang fuse block, 4x LED lights, 4x 12v marine outlets, 7x switches and lots of red and black wiring and I was in business. I also read up on joints and soldering techniques and this site http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=281500 was easily the best I found on how to do it properly. Here is my first attempt following his instructions. Everything joint is twisted, soldered, heatshrunk and taped. It took a while and I only made a few mistakes.
The end result was a real spaghetti of wiring but I spent the time bundling them up in pairs and then stuffed it all into some split tubing. It could have been a bit tidier but I am very happy with it overall. I already had heavy duty cabling and a 50amp Anderson plug from my previous set up so will just use this for connection to the truck. I am using an old Engel fridge cable directly connected to the fuse block but have a spare cable with a cigar plug on the end in case there's a problem or I take the fridge outside and need to use one of the external outlets. The waterpump is also connected through a switch so I can turn it off in case of a problem. I've tested everything and there's no voltage drop anywhere so you can't get much better than that. Yay!!!
Loads of other photos in my Photobucket album. See Post #1 for a link.
I also made up the switch panels out of alloy angle, drilled some holes for the external outlets and painted and bolted down the battery tray with high tensile bolts. The battery was also put in place and strapped down.
Once the wiring was finished and tidied up a bit I took the opportunity to cut some bootliner carpet for the storage spaces. I'm just going to stick this in place with double sided tape so if I need to change it or build some dividers to adjust the storage later on I can do it easily. I just pulled the carpet at the moment and will re-fit later.
Heifer Boy
Adventurer
.
Stage Eighteen - Plumbing
At the same time as the electrics I was finalising the plumbing for the water system. A 20l jerry can will sit behind the fridge slide so I needed to finalise the jerry holder and rear storage box and sort out the hoses for this. I was going to use a hose quick connect on the filler cap but the proper food grade water hose is too stiff and space a bit tight for this. Instead I will just unscrew the cap and pull out the hose when I need to change the jerry. Now the hoses are the right length I can clamp all the joints properly and connect the water pump to the power.
Sorry no photos yet.
Stage Eighteen - Plumbing
At the same time as the electrics I was finalising the plumbing for the water system. A 20l jerry can will sit behind the fridge slide so I needed to finalise the jerry holder and rear storage box and sort out the hoses for this. I was going to use a hose quick connect on the filler cap but the proper food grade water hose is too stiff and space a bit tight for this. Instead I will just unscrew the cap and pull out the hose when I need to change the jerry. Now the hoses are the right length I can clamp all the joints properly and connect the water pump to the power.
Sorry no photos yet.
Heifer Boy
Adventurer
.
Stage Nineteen – Closing Up The Box!!!
With the electrics and plumbing sorted it was finally time to epoxy the top of the camper in place and seal the box up once and for all. Epoxy doesn't stick very well to aluminium so I used some Sikaflex on the 4 internal roof rails. Everything was mixed and spread in the appropriate places and the top was lowered into place for the last time. This was a big step as it's now finally a "box" and it's looking like the final product should. Yay!!
I wanted to get the electrics finished and the battery firmly in place before I committed to epoxying the lid of the camper in place so I didn't have to struggle with the battery fitting. I always intended to have the space to remove the battery if necessary but moving a 30kg battery around at arms length through the side door was never going to be easy. Once the lid was in place I quickly found out it would simply be impossible!!!
So out came the jigsaw again and I cut an access hole in the top, built and epoxied a frame in the hole and made up a hatch to fit. I'll screw this down with some pan head SS screws and seal up the gap with Sikaflex to keep it waterproof. I should only need to cut out the sealant if there is ever a problem with the battery but at least when I really need to I can get it out without breaking my arms off!!!
Stage Nineteen – Closing Up The Box!!!
With the electrics and plumbing sorted it was finally time to epoxy the top of the camper in place and seal the box up once and for all. Epoxy doesn't stick very well to aluminium so I used some Sikaflex on the 4 internal roof rails. Everything was mixed and spread in the appropriate places and the top was lowered into place for the last time. This was a big step as it's now finally a "box" and it's looking like the final product should. Yay!!
I wanted to get the electrics finished and the battery firmly in place before I committed to epoxying the lid of the camper in place so I didn't have to struggle with the battery fitting. I always intended to have the space to remove the battery if necessary but moving a 30kg battery around at arms length through the side door was never going to be easy. Once the lid was in place I quickly found out it would simply be impossible!!!
So out came the jigsaw again and I cut an access hole in the top, built and epoxied a frame in the hole and made up a hatch to fit. I'll screw this down with some pan head SS screws and seal up the gap with Sikaflex to keep it waterproof. I should only need to cut out the sealant if there is ever a problem with the battery but at least when I really need to I can get it out without breaking my arms off!!!
VanIsle_Greg
I think I need a bigger truck!
Nice build... looks great!
Heifer Boy
Adventurer
I'm still here guys. I've been busy filling and sanding and filling and sanding....and filling and sanding so that hasn't been very interesting. I have started fibreglassing the outside of the box though so that's cool.
The temperature here has dropped in the last few days to just above zero C so it's a bit cold to be doing much more laminating so I'll sit down and write up a proper progress report in the next couple of days.
The temperature here has dropped in the last few days to just above zero C so it's a bit cold to be doing much more laminating so I'll sit down and write up a proper progress report in the next couple of days.
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Heifer Boy
Adventurer
Stage Twenty – Trimming
Now the box is actually a complete box I trimmed all the overhanging edges with a router and then went around it a second time with a round edge bit. This is so I can easily wrap the fibreglass cloth over the edges and it makes it look a whole lot better too.
Now the box is actually a complete box I trimmed all the overhanging edges with a router and then went around it a second time with a round edge bit. This is so I can easily wrap the fibreglass cloth over the edges and it makes it look a whole lot better too.
Heifer Boy
Adventurer
Stage Twenty One – Floor Support and Filling and Filleting
Now the box is upside down I added a reinforcing strip to the front edge of the floor at the main door opening This is going to take a bit of abuse sliding the drawers in and out over it so I am adding a piece of alloy angle to the edge and reinforcing underneath. This reinforcement is just another strip of marine ply laminated to the bottom and filleted to finish it off which will also have a layer of fibreglass over it.
I also started filling in all the little screw holes and dents and chips with thickened epoxy and filleted the internal corners on the outside of the box for strength and to make a transition for the fibreglass cloth. I’m getting good at this now. I then sanded the whole box top to bottom. Then I did it again...then I touched things up and did it all again.
Why does filling and sanding always seem to take so long!!!
Lastly the whole box was coated with epoxy thinned with TPRDA to get good penetration into the ply and it got a light sand when dry. The end result was a very nice, flat surface ready for the fibreglass.
Now the box is upside down I added a reinforcing strip to the front edge of the floor at the main door opening This is going to take a bit of abuse sliding the drawers in and out over it so I am adding a piece of alloy angle to the edge and reinforcing underneath. This reinforcement is just another strip of marine ply laminated to the bottom and filleted to finish it off which will also have a layer of fibreglass over it.
I also started filling in all the little screw holes and dents and chips with thickened epoxy and filleted the internal corners on the outside of the box for strength and to make a transition for the fibreglass cloth. I’m getting good at this now. I then sanded the whole box top to bottom. Then I did it again...then I touched things up and did it all again.
Why does filling and sanding always seem to take so long!!!
Lastly the whole box was coated with epoxy thinned with TPRDA to get good penetration into the ply and it got a light sand when dry. The end result was a very nice, flat surface ready for the fibreglass.
Heifer Boy
Adventurer
Stage Twenty Two – Fibreglassing!!!
So now it comes to a stage I have been quite apprehensive about. It's obviously the final surface so I really don't want to stuff it up at this stage and although I'm comfortable enough with the epoxy now, I've never done any fibreglass lamination before. I was worried about how to actually wrap the box and what to do about joints in the cloth and corners etc. The main goal was to ensure that the joints in the box were wrapped properly as a lot of the boxes strength was coming from this.
So do I cut the cloth and tape the edges with say, a 50mm overlap and then infill the panels later or do I try and lay out large pieces of cloth and cover multiple panels in one go? Try and trim the cloth to do butt joints or just do lap joints and fair it later? I've been surfing a lot of wooden boat building sites (http://www.woodworkforums.com/f32/) again and asked a few questions on what to do and got excellent answers that both processes would be fine. So I'm doing a mixture of both but mostly large pieces of cloth. Everyone recommended that the lamination be done horizontally so I'm rolling the box around the floor to do just this and it makes it easy to lay out the cloth too. Other advice was that any overlaps be top over bottom to ensure waterproofness in the rain. Campers that can't be rolled around the floor are usually wrapped around the bottom working up to the top so you get a 'weatherboard' effect.
I started with the camper upside down and did the floor first. This way, hopefully by the time I get to the top and door frames I will know a bit more what I'm doing and any stuff ups won't be seen. The fibreglass cloth does not wrap around the edges from the bottom panel as the side panels are going to do this. It does wrap around the front of the main door frame though.
The cloth was laid out dry and trimmed to a basic shape and the epoxy mixed up. I poured the epoxy on and spread it out with a squeegee and brush. I took a lot of care at this stage as I didn't want too much epoxy. Just enough to wet out the cloth and ensure it sticks well. Inside corners and joints are by far the hardest part to get right. After a few hours the epoxy is still tacky I did the second coat just using a foam roller. By contrast, this was really easy. When this was dry I trimmed the edges with a Stanley knife and feathered a 50mm edge by sanding for the overlap to come later.
Then I flipped the box on its side, taped off the 50mm overlap using masking tape and laminated the side panel the same way as before wrapping over the bottom panel. When the second coat was dry I trimmed along my tape edge with a Stanley knife and pulled off the excess. Excellent. This overlap was also feathered flat by sanding.
Then I flipped it again and did the other side.
Then the bottom of the overhangs was done the same way and then the back panel. This overlapped all the other panels except the top. I did this as these corners and edges will be forced into the wind and rain when driving down the road at 110kph.
Last of all I covered the top wrapping over the front, back and sides to create a nice “hat” for the camper. This took two pieces of cloth so there is a joint down the middle.
Oh yeah…I did the doors too.
All this took me quite some time because of the change in the weather. Those of you in Australia will know that the South East coast has been getting hammered by freezing cold southerly weather system and the temp has dropped to freezing and below. Record low daytime temps have followed to and this is not good for epoxy. I’m just working in a cold metal garage so it’s been taking 3 days to get the epoxy to set hard enough to sand so I can overlap the next layer. At least I could do second coat wet on wet after a few hours but it’s taken me 3 weeks from starting the floor to finishing the top!!!
So now I have to lightly sand the whole thing again and feather the overlap joints flat and will then I will roll 2 more thin coats of epoxy over everything to fill the weave properly and seal the whole box up. It’s important that I get the edges between outside of the door and the inside of the frame coated nicely to weatherproof it well. Then it’s time to paint!!!
But after all that I might clean up the workshop a bit first... :Wow1:
So now it comes to a stage I have been quite apprehensive about. It's obviously the final surface so I really don't want to stuff it up at this stage and although I'm comfortable enough with the epoxy now, I've never done any fibreglass lamination before. I was worried about how to actually wrap the box and what to do about joints in the cloth and corners etc. The main goal was to ensure that the joints in the box were wrapped properly as a lot of the boxes strength was coming from this.
So do I cut the cloth and tape the edges with say, a 50mm overlap and then infill the panels later or do I try and lay out large pieces of cloth and cover multiple panels in one go? Try and trim the cloth to do butt joints or just do lap joints and fair it later? I've been surfing a lot of wooden boat building sites (http://www.woodworkforums.com/f32/) again and asked a few questions on what to do and got excellent answers that both processes would be fine. So I'm doing a mixture of both but mostly large pieces of cloth. Everyone recommended that the lamination be done horizontally so I'm rolling the box around the floor to do just this and it makes it easy to lay out the cloth too. Other advice was that any overlaps be top over bottom to ensure waterproofness in the rain. Campers that can't be rolled around the floor are usually wrapped around the bottom working up to the top so you get a 'weatherboard' effect.
I started with the camper upside down and did the floor first. This way, hopefully by the time I get to the top and door frames I will know a bit more what I'm doing and any stuff ups won't be seen. The fibreglass cloth does not wrap around the edges from the bottom panel as the side panels are going to do this. It does wrap around the front of the main door frame though.
The cloth was laid out dry and trimmed to a basic shape and the epoxy mixed up. I poured the epoxy on and spread it out with a squeegee and brush. I took a lot of care at this stage as I didn't want too much epoxy. Just enough to wet out the cloth and ensure it sticks well. Inside corners and joints are by far the hardest part to get right. After a few hours the epoxy is still tacky I did the second coat just using a foam roller. By contrast, this was really easy. When this was dry I trimmed the edges with a Stanley knife and feathered a 50mm edge by sanding for the overlap to come later.
Then I flipped the box on its side, taped off the 50mm overlap using masking tape and laminated the side panel the same way as before wrapping over the bottom panel. When the second coat was dry I trimmed along my tape edge with a Stanley knife and pulled off the excess. Excellent. This overlap was also feathered flat by sanding.
Then I flipped it again and did the other side.
Then the bottom of the overhangs was done the same way and then the back panel. This overlapped all the other panels except the top. I did this as these corners and edges will be forced into the wind and rain when driving down the road at 110kph.
Last of all I covered the top wrapping over the front, back and sides to create a nice “hat” for the camper. This took two pieces of cloth so there is a joint down the middle.
Oh yeah…I did the doors too.
All this took me quite some time because of the change in the weather. Those of you in Australia will know that the South East coast has been getting hammered by freezing cold southerly weather system and the temp has dropped to freezing and below. Record low daytime temps have followed to and this is not good for epoxy. I’m just working in a cold metal garage so it’s been taking 3 days to get the epoxy to set hard enough to sand so I can overlap the next layer. At least I could do second coat wet on wet after a few hours but it’s taken me 3 weeks from starting the floor to finishing the top!!!
So now I have to lightly sand the whole thing again and feather the overlap joints flat and will then I will roll 2 more thin coats of epoxy over everything to fill the weave properly and seal the whole box up. It’s important that I get the edges between outside of the door and the inside of the frame coated nicely to weatherproof it well. Then it’s time to paint!!!
But after all that I might clean up the workshop a bit first... :Wow1:
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indiedog
Adventurer
Looking very good HB. :wings: I too am very nervous about fibreglassing. Looks like you are doing a great job.
I've always wondered if the epoxy is tintable? It seems a bit silly that at the end of it all a paint finish still has to be applied. That's not how kayaks etc are made so there's got to be a way, I think.....
I've always wondered if the epoxy is tintable? It seems a bit silly that at the end of it all a paint finish still has to be applied. That's not how kayaks etc are made so there's got to be a way, I think.....
Heifer Boy
Adventurer
Epoxy is tintable but it's just not used much. It's just a pigment powder that gets added when the resin and hardner are mixed. I guess you would have to be very careful with the ratios to get an even colour.
Fibreglass kayaks are built in a mould that's first painted with a coloured GelCoat then sprayed with chopped strand mat mixed with polyester resin to built up the wall thickness. Very different stuff and a competely different process. Unless it's a wooden kayak of course and then it's built the same way as my box.. or my box it built the same way as them... or something like that.
Technically I don't need to prime before I paint coz the epoxy does that job for me but I am because I'm painting it white and need a base colour first. It will show up any major bumps and hollows too.
But after all that I might clean up the workshop a bit first... :Wow1:
Nice work!
I hear you on the shop part, I've had some bit shop vac sessions to suck up foam dust from my sanding but my work bench it pretty messy with epoxy stuff, fillers, etc. Once I get this last round of sanding done I'll need to to a big cleaning session before glassing.
It's tint able with pigment powder as HB mentioned. However don't forget that UV can degrade epoxy as well which is where paint is again helpful, or if you wanted a clear UV resistant coat (I think they make some UV varnish or such if you wanted to pursue that route).