Walk-in cooler / freezer panels for camper box construction?

[Chuckles!]

After seeing the new camper builds with nidacore, rhinokore, all of these fancy structural panels, I began to search for closer/cheaper/viable alternatives. SIPs are nice, but I came across insulated panels used to construct walk-in coolers and freezers:

They are similar to SIP, but skinned with aluminum walls. They usually have interlocking slots for construction. And there are lots floating around for sale for really good prices.

Any thoughts / advantages / disadvantages that you can see to building a camper box from these? It would probably need reinforcement with some angle channel along edges and corners. But I like the smooth alu finish and seamless wall construction.

Thanks in advance!

 

[YukonRob]

Are they comparable in lb/sf with the other products you mentioned? Seems to me that they would be quite heavy.

 

[Chuckles!]

Looks like they usually weight 2-3 pounds per square foot, depending on thickness. A little lighter than most wood-faced SIPs. A 7'Wx7'Hx14'L camper box would weigh about 1500 pounds, plus the edge framing.

 

[dwh]

I think they usually have galvanized steel skins, not aluminum. I've never seen a smooth one. Mostly they have a sort of stucco texture.

 

[BigAl]

We use these to build stabiltiy chambers at work, then we set them to 40C/75%RH. We use a lot of silicon to seal them up tight. No sure how hard it would be to keep them watertight on a moving vehicle?

 

[rambrush]

They can be skinned to what specs the customer requests. The framing can be 2x6 or 2x4 we used to build them with regular studs but switched to the foam density boards similar to the 2x 's.
The locks are cam style utilize a allen wrench to lock them down.

Worked for Kysor Panel out of Goodyear Az keeping the production lines running along,

 

[leighthom]

I never thought about building a walk-in cooler but it sounds very interesting. Until now I always preferred a chiller rental because I do not need this very often. So it was cheaper to rent it than to buy it. Have you already built the walk-in cooler? If yes I would love to see pictures or maybe you can even post a construction manual.

 

[Tony LEE]

I'm in the process of designing a 4m x 2.1m x 2m "box" for the back of the OKA and it will be built entirely of composite panel glued together. FRP skin both sides of a 25mm foam core.Aluminium angle glued on the outside of major joints for extra strength.

Fairly expensive at about $150 a square metre, but it comes cut to exact size and shape and rebated out for the joints so goes together very fast.

NB only 32mm thick because we don't have climate extremes (well, cold extremes anyway) to worry about. Another OKA owner built a similar box with 80mm walls and roof and 110mm floor, but that is on a round the world trip.

Peter and Julian - members here - have also built similar rigs and Peters has seen 150,000 km of rough outback roads without a scratch. Julian is half-way across China in his. Rugged stuff and looks good too. Put the right windows and doors in and there is no cold-bridging to worry about either.