POD: Homebuilt foam core fiberglass skin pop-up camper build thread

[bee]

Kid pictures just make you want to smile.

Times like this I wish I took a few more material and engineering classes. This is beyond my level. If I remember right, the reason the question on shifting the ply popped into my head is because I actually have a source of random sized scrap premium birch plywood. I just picked up a load and it is mostly 3/8" thick. I am pretty sure I have more then enough to make all the interior cabinets and was wondering if it would make sense to use one sheet of it for the floor. Basically your design but wood only on one side. I wasn't sure how that would affect things. Actually after your answer I still don't know how that would affect things lol.

I figured I would learn how to fiberglass and have started a build based primarily off of yours and the guy who did the carbon fiber version (I forget his name). Mine will be a 7x7x10 box with a small bump out over the cab of a dodge diesel pickup. I plan on using it year round in pretty severe weather and went with 3” thick walls. I don’t remember seeing anyone going that thick, but I guess I will find out if its overkill.

To anyone thinking of doing a similar build, I bought my foamular 600 from menards if you have one near you, and 15 gallons of resin from aeromarine. At the time I bought the resin it was 1 dollar more per gallon then uscomposites, but it is supposedly non blushing which I figured might be worth it. In all the searching I only heard good things about both uscomposite and aeromarine.

I was going to get 9.6 ounce style 1800 boat cloth from ACT. I called before placing the order to ask about shipping. He said there would be no problem with shipping so I placed the order. A week and a half later I was wondering where the fabric was. I called a few times and just got the answering machine. A few days later when I finally got through he stated that he couldn't find it but would ship style 7500 which is basically the same thing, only a slightly more expensive yarn for the same price. A few days later I contacted him for the tracking info and he said he would get it to me and it had already shipped. I never heard from him again. After another week or so I checked my credit card statement. He never charged me. So I figured it was time to move on.

 

[pods8]

Keep in mind much of the reason I did 1/8" ply on the floor was more for impact/walking strength as opposed to specifically for panel strength (could get better weight/strength out of glass alone). I wanted that on both the exterior and interior of the floor. Are you comfortable without it on one side or the other? Also if you're doing that thick of plywood I would consider a reduction in the amount of fiberglass going over top. If you do a good scarf joint on the plywood or some other means of stitching it together well then I'd probably just do a single fiberglass layer over the ply to seal it up nicely and make sure its all tied together. All that said 1/8" ply only runs ~$10-12 a sheet by me. Just depends on what you want in terms of weight from the end product, with a dodge diesel you might not care as much. Edit: What style door are you doing, I'm running into the fact I need to stiffen up my floor if I keep the style of door I've currently got, if I box it out and just do a short door the floor will be fine as is though.

Are you doing a pop-up or fixed wall camper? Surprising Menards had foamular 600 (the box stores around me only carry 250), cool that it worked out. I could only get 2" thick sheets, are you planning to plane down sheets for the 3" walls or did you find 3"? In general the 2" walls should be around R10 which is pretty damn good for the truck camper market, I think windows and vents will be the main areas to focus on for cold weather.

 

[bee]

Thanks for going into more detail about the floor construction.
I am going to do a fixed wall camper so I don't expect to have the same issues with door flex that you ran into. I might be comfortable with having wood on just the outside of the floor if I am finishing the interior with a laminate wood floor product. Except for the size of the box everything including interior layout is still up in the air. In fact the bump out over the cab might just be storage and not for sleeping. It will only bump out a total of 3ft (just a reg cab) and will be tapered for some aerodynamics.

I actually found the foamular on menards website as a special order. I think they might have taken it off the site, but it is still available. I had to buy in increments of 32 for a 2x8 sheet 3" thick. My goal for this camper is 300 day a year use in all seasons including the rocky mountains of Canada. ( how often I actually use it is also up in the air, but this is my goal.) I bought the truck just for the Cummins diesel engine figuring I would use hydronic heat for those extended winters. I would still have propane for cooking and a backup catalytic heater. Though honestly with the cost of diesel at 4.19 a gal and gasoline only at 3.40 local I probably should have thought out the diesel a little more thoroughly. Especially now that I found out about vented cat heaters.
Even with a 3/4 ton truck weight is still a big concern once you factor extended stay into the equation. To me extended stay means extra water, battery power, and gear which gets heavy fast.

You mention windows and vents being a big issue and I agree. It just seems painful to buy RV double pane windows for $500 each for a tiny little window. I am considering making my own. Making a waterproof hinged window frame might be difficult, but I cant imagine sticking 2 pieces of glass together to be very hard. Of course I have never done anything like this before, my background is professional mechanic which is diagnostic repair work, not fabrication. I have never even installed a house window let alone made one. Luckily I have a friend who can do some welding and most importantly has a heated garage where the build will take place.

 

[pods8]

I'm going with the atwood 8012 which only draws 1.8amps, hopefully with the increased insulation in this build (verse a soft side camper) the run cycles will be spaced out more than in my FWC. That said 1.8amps isn't too much if you've got the batteries to handle it. (For your long term winter stuff you'd probably want a small generator to run every couple days to recharge though).

FYI dual windows are expensive but they're not quite that much. I had motion windows price me out a 15"x30" horizontal slider and they ran $325 series 1800 dual pane. I'm going to start out with the cheapish single pane kinro's I got and look at using at insulating curtains. I can always swap windows later if I feel the extra expense is warranted.

 

[pods8]

New year, finally some new progress. Newest addition is 3mo old now and things are starting to get a bit more ironed out so I can start chipping away at this again. Got a few hours in on roughing in the roof structure. The center flat area is raised 2" from the rest to give the roof a bit of slope on the sides to hopefully sluff water off (I may try to put a slight arc in the top flat part too). The wide strips of wood are cedar (lighter and rot resistant, even though I'll have sealant on anything drilled into it) and are for solid blocking to bolt through for my 100watt solar panel (or whatever). I'll probably put it on the rear portion that is slightly angled down but I gave myself flexibility:

Also I've traded out my truck platform, here's the new rig (better brakes, payload, and larger fuel tank):

 

[pods8]

Anyone have any thoughts about whether to bother with a second vent and if so the placement? Here's a sketch of what is currently going on. As mentioned above the center square is slightly raised and the sides slope down slightly. The red X is the current vent I've framed in and is in the vicinity of the stove which is where I intended. The blue X is probably where the solar panel will go. Pondering if I should bother with a second vent over the bed or not, since the one over the stove is close to the bed. If there was one over the bed the second question becomes placement, I was quickly stewing on it with the wife and we though maybe one centered on the bed (both front/back and side/side) might be a decent spot since it would direct airflow down at center mass rather than heads/feet. Again though not sure if its really needed compared to use using a 12V portable fan to direct airflow if needed. I do not have the over bed vent on my FWC and can't say I've ever really missed it, however the PNW isn't that hot and some of the south west folks say they really like the second vent, don't want to hamper travels in hotter areas down the line...

Any sage traveler advice as I rough this together?

 

[AbleGuy]

For what it's worth.....
I had a second vent in my overhead cab camper that was centered in the middle of the overhead cab roof section. On starry nights, it was really nice to be able to look up and out of that vent and see the night skys. It also let me hear better when lying in bed.......hearing the noises of things that went bump in the night around my camp!

 

[turbothrush]

Glad to see your back at it.
I am also doing a fiberglass foam camper but it is a slide-in hardside. Am planning to do most of fiberglassing on the horizontal then joining the large pieces together. My goal is for a self contained camper weighing 1000 lbs dry.
By the way I used your idea of the 1/8 " plywood on the bottom. The white photoshop pic is the look I am going for. Keep up the great work !

 

[pods8]

Glad to be back at it!

Cool build. Glassing all the pieces back together can be time consuming but in comparison to trying to glass vertical and upside down panels I think it's effort well invested.

 

[chnlisle]

Will this be ready for you to go to San Ignacio Lagoon with us the end of March?

 

[pods8]

Will this be ready for you to go to San Ignacio Lagoon with us the end of March?

Haha, I wish! As in I wish I was done by then and also that taking a trip down there with you all would actually be feasible.

 

[pods8]

Finished roughing out the top. Need to glue all the pieces together (only the top flat part and part of the rear are glued so far) and fill in the gaps. It'll get faired out well before glassing. I built the wood frame for a second vent and it's sitting in the possible position, after things are glued together I'll settle on a place and cut out a hole for that and glue it in. I'll probably start on the sides after that and circle back the interior blocking/conduit I'll need to install. Weather has been quite cold and family is sick so still moving slow but at least its something which is good for my morale!

 

[IdaSHO]

Lookin' good dude :ylsmoke:

 

[Billhilly]

Nice to see you progress. Like you say, good for morale.

 

[westyss]

Anyone have any thoughts about whether to bother with a second vent and if so the placement? Here's a sketch of what is currently going on. As mentioned above the center square is slightly raised and the sides slope down slightly. The red X is the current vent I've framed in and is in the vicinity of the stove which is where I intended. The blue X is probably where the solar panel will go. Pondering if I should bother with a second vent over the bed or not, since the one over the stove is close to the bed. If there was one over the bed the second question becomes placement, I was quickly stewing on it with the wife and we though maybe one centered on the bed (both front/back and side/side) might be a decent spot since it would direct airflow down at center mass rather than heads/feet. Again though not sure if its really needed compared to use using a 12V portable fan to direct airflow if needed. I do not have the over bed vent on my FWC and can't say I've ever really missed it, however the PNW isn't that hot and some of the south west folks say they really like the second vent, don't want to hamper travels in hotter areas down the line...

Any sage traveler advice as I rough this together?

Wow! lots of work being done here! Just thought I would comment on the vent issue, typically air will want to flow "out" of the camper through the roof vent, not in, are you installing a fantastic fan? if so one should do the trick for air flow, just make sure a source of make up air is present ie, window. A fantastic fan does work very well and I recommend one, it can change the air in a camper your size in minutes.
I have 3" wall on my camper, but only at the base so that I can accommadate a hard side pop up, but as far as R value goes, in reality, 2" would be ample, dont forget that air will need to be exchanged constantly to avoid dying and condensation, so you never really want it totally sealed up, going to double pane windows will be in my opinion absolutely necassary to avoid massive amounts of condensation, might be nice outside but raining inside. A human body emites a huge amount of water vapour into the air that needs to get vented outside, so there is no chance of sealing up your camper so much that small amounts of BTU will keep it warm, once the bad air is vented and replaced with fresh (cold) air it will need reheating.