Shell Cost

ReluctantTraveler

ReluctantTraveler

Well-known member
Ozarker said:
Sounds like SF, California, I'm in Springfield, Mo. I've bought, held and sold real estate for 40 years in this area, prices doubled overnight and still lower than the national averages. Your box seems to be about $6,250 a sq. ft.!
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Well dang, when you put it that way! 😱

The number I’m getting is $337/square foot though.

157 sq ft for $53k = $337/sq ft
 
B

Bison Overland Campers

Member
ReluctantTraveler said:
A few weeks ago in another thread, some people had asked me what sort of prices I'd been quoted for a custom shell from Total Composites and Cascadia Composites. I promised I'd report back once I had more thorough quotes from everyone, and thought it would be better to make a new post.

For reference, here's rough layout of my proposed build...

View attachment 862421
That's an 11' floor with 2' departure angle (13' total length), 8' wide, with an 80" long cabover.

I also requested 6 Arctic Tern windows, an entry door, and two cargo hatches (one on each side of the dinette). I reached out to a bunch of vendors from both Total Composites and Cascadia Composites. I've also been trying to get ahold of Bison Overland but we keep missing each other.

Now, the good stuff...
  • Total Composites. Rough quote of $50-60k for the box, assembly, and door and window installation.
  • Cascadia Composites. ~$53k for the box, assembly, and door and window installation PLUS Reico Titan electric jacks, DOT light install, 440 watts of rooftop solar pre-wired, and a MaxAir fan and MaxAir bathroom wired and installed (basically all of the rooftop holes).
Cascadia's boxes are also 3" thick instead of 2", and the video I saw of someone beating one with a hatchet was really impressive! They're manufactured in North America, which could be a pro or con depending on your perspective, but it does mean you won't run into shipping delays and long waits. It's a pretty compelling product.

Once you start getting into having someone build out the interior for you, prices skyrocket to $120k+ (labor is a big part of the cost).

While I think $50k-ish for the box is a fair price, I'm still not sure its within budget, which means I may be considering the DIY framed plywood + foam board option again. The two things I haven't quite figured out with that approach are...
  1. How to properly reinforce the jack mount points.
  2. How to properly reinforce the cantilevered cabover.
Click to expand...

Lets chat, Bison Overland Campers quote should come in right around $40k for what you quote in the Cascadia quote.

Also we have both of those beat on material quality and strength. The Tensile strength of our panels are 6 and 10x stronger, and the Compressive strength is 5x stronger. We also believe our extrusions are superior, two piece aluminum extrusion, zero thermal transfer, zero expansion, and takes the abuse better than anything that's fiber based.
 
O

Ozarker

Well-known member
Bison Overland Campers said:
Lets chat, Bison Overland Campers quote should come in right around $40k for what you quote in the Cascadia quote.

Also we have both of those beat on material quality and strength. The Tensile strength of our panels are 6 and 10x stronger, and the Compressive strength is 5x stronger. We also believe our extrusions are superior, two piece aluminum extrusion, zero thermal transfer, zero expansion, and takes the abuse better than anything that's fiber based.
Click to expand...
How much?
 
rruff

rruff

Explorer
Bison Overland Campers said:
Also we have both of those beat on material quality and strength.
Click to expand...

^ I see the article here about the 5lb PET foam you use, good stuff! I don't know why anyone would use weak foam. I found that 4lb PVC was so much stronger and easier to work with that 25psi XPS (which is ~1.5lb?). In the grand scheme, the cost just isn't that much. https://bisonoverland.com/articles-1

I didn't see a description of the skins though. What spec are those?
 
Victorian

Victorian

Approved Vendor : Total Composites
I find those new types of foam cores fascinating.
Allow me to chip in as I'm not super familiar with PET (recycled coke bottles?) foams. How does the PET foam hold up long term after going through hot and cold cycles? With heat, will the PET get soft? I'm thinking about roof panels with permanent loads like A/C, Solar etc. Are they Chemical resistant to resins/solvents (field repairs with hardware store sourced acetone,polyster resins, bondo body fillers) ?

Over time (years) how will the PET change it's shape? With XPS and EPS we have seen shrinkage and expansion within the same panels during testing .
 
B

Bison Overland Campers

Member
rruff said:
^ I see the article here about the 5lb PET foam you use, good stuff! I don't know why anyone would use weak foam. I found that 4lb PVC was so much stronger and easier to work with that 25psi XPS (which is ~1.5lb?). In the grand scheme, the cost just isn't that much. https://bisonoverland.com/articles-1

I didn't see a description of the skins though. What spec are those?
Click to expand...
For sure!

We use a 1.5mm PolyDET High Gloss WR
 
B

Bison Overland Campers

Member
Victorian said:
I find those new types of foam cores fascinating.
Allow me to chip in as I'm not super familiar with PET (recycled coke bottles?) foams. How does the PET foam hold up long term after going through hot and cold cycles? With heat, will the PET get soft? I'm thinking about roof panels with permanent loads like A/C, Solar etc. Are they Chemical resistant to resins/solvents (field repairs with hardware store sourced acetone,polyster resins, bondo body fillers) ?

Over time (years) how will the PET change it's shape? With XPS and EPS we have seen shrinkage and expansion within the same panels during testing .
Click to expand...

No problem with temperature changes, 100% chemical resistant. Happy to have discussion on the differences in materials, but you need to be open to sharing the technical data on your materials and not hide that info.
 
LEMKER

LEMKER

Supporting Sponsor / Approved Vendor
Victorian said:
I find those new types of foam cores fascinating.
Allow me to chip in as I'm not super familiar with PET (recycled coke bottles?) foams. How does the PET foam hold up long term after going through hot and cold cycles? With heat, will the PET get soft? I'm thinking about roof panels with permanent loads like A/C, Solar etc. Are they Chemical resistant to resins/solvents (field repairs with hardware store sourced acetone,polyster resins, bondo body fillers) ?

Over time (years) how will the PET change it's shape? With XPS and EPS we have seen shrinkage and expansion within the same panels during testing .
Click to expand...
We agree. Yes, you’re correct that it is produced with recycled PET plastic, mostly from soda bottles. PET actually has a very high heat resistance compared to other cores, especially EPS/XPS. The primary application for PET core is wind turbine blades, which requires long life spans and high strength and weathering.

As for chemical resistance, it performs well. We require a high chemical resistance because some of the markets we supply carry very harsh chemicals inside our structure. Polyurethane also performs well in this regard. We found the chemical resistance of EPS/XPS to be very low as it dissolves completely in gasoline or acetone.
 
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