New From CO

This is the place where you can introduce yourself, and include a photo if so desired.

Re: New From CO

Postby aaronf » Mon Jun 17, 2019 2:23 pm

Next up is the electrical for the exterior lights. I did not run any interior electrical; we have a few battery operated LEDs that work well inside.

Power at the hitch comes from a flat 4 connector and goes under the frame toward the brake lights. There are also a few yellow and red running lights on the sides and front. The foam proved very useful for running wires. I cut a small channel for the wiring and then covered it with PL Premium to be sanded smooth before the PMF was applied. I decided to run ground wires back to the ground on the flat 4 connector. Hopefully this will avoid loose ground issues common with lights that are grounded to the frame.

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Re: New From CO

Postby aaronf » Mon Jun 17, 2019 2:40 pm

Prepping for the Poor Man's Fiberglass. This was very tedious and took a lot of time. I went over every inch of the trailer with 40 grit sandpaper. All holes and divots filled with PL Premium or spackle. Every bump had to be smooth or it would show. Make sure to wear a mask when sanding the XPS foam! Notice the wood inset at the top of the wall to give a solid mounting point for the roof lifting struts.

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The back wall is sanded smooth and you can hardly tell where the foam ends and wood begins.

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I also perforated the foam with small screws to create more surface area for the glue.

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Re: New From CO

Postby aaronf » Mon Jun 17, 2019 3:01 pm

Starting the PMF on the roof. One benefit of the roof being overbuild is I can stand on it without any issue.

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We purchased a large roll of cotton duck canvas from bigduckcanvas.com. It was on sale and fit the entire roof without any seams. We decided to use Titebond III, mostly due to the longer working time. I don't remember how much we used but it may have been an entire gallon for the 67 sq ft roof. One half at a time poured on, rolled out and then rolled the canvas over it. We smoothed out any bumps or bubbles with plastic putty trowels. My advice for those of you who are considering doing this is to have a plan and get everything you could possibly need staged before pouring the glue. Once the glue is poured the timer starts.

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Detailed shot of the corner. We didn't fill the canvas with glue except for seams and overlaps. I later cut this bump down with a sharp chisel and sanded it smooth.

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Re: New From CO

Postby aaronf » Mon Jun 17, 2019 3:10 pm

I have very few pictures of applying the canvas on the body of the camper. We did the same process as the roof. Rolled on Titebond III and rolled the canvas down the side. It was challenging to get it smooth and wrinkle free. The walls are 11 ft long and 4ft tall so we ended up stapling the canvas to the wood at the top of the wall, applying the glue onto the top 1/3 of the wall and rolling the canvas onto that. We worked down in thirds and that seemed to work okay. I wouldn't want to do the entire wall in one go. There's no way I could have done this alone, 2 people minimum.

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Re: New From CO

Postby aaronf » Mon Jun 17, 2019 3:30 pm

We decided not to fill the fabric weave with glue, mostly due to the cost, and instead used cheap oops paint from Home Depot. I don't remember how many coats it took to fill in the weave, but the fabric was thick and absorbed a lot of paint. Maybe 3 coats, I don't remember exactly.

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Last coat before the final coat.
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Final two coats are premium Behr outdoor paint, I don't remember the exact one and don't want to check the garage right now. The guy at the paint department could not wrap his head around what we were using the paint for. I did sand the camper before the final two coats to knock down any high points on the canvas. This seemed to remove some of the textured appearance.

Lights are all installed and work perfect. There is also a piece of trim along the bottom, the front is not installed in this picture. The trim is roof flashing painted black. Beyond cosmetic factor it provides a drip rail that sticks down so any water running down the side of the camper drops to the ground and doesn't get pulled under the floor.

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Re: New From CO

Postby aaronf » Mon Jun 17, 2019 4:05 pm

I don't have any pictures of what came next but it was the most stressful part of the entire build. The roof. I could not come up with a lifting mechanism design that fit inside the camper and was able to securely lift the heavy roof. We tried using 4 gas struts, like the ones that open a SUV tailgate, to push the roof up. I designed 4 folding wood arms at each corner, similar to what I had seen inside popup truck campers, to guide the roof in an up/down motion while the struts did the lifting. This proved to be extremely unstable. At one point, while lifted nearly 4 feet above the camper walls, the roof began to fall to the side. My wife ran for cover while we fully expected the roof to collapse and rip one of the walls down with it. Amazingly it stopped just before crashing down and the walls didn't budge an inch. After multiple failed attempts, I resigned my dream to have a popup roof and converted to a clamshell design.

Failed design
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I purchased a heavy duty 6 ft piano hinge from a local welding shop. The front of the camper was modified with a 2x4 and steel angle running laterally inside the camper to support the huge hinge. Lining up the hinge was very tedious. It had to be mounted to the trailer body first and needed to be perfectly square. If it was off by the slightest amount the far end of the roof, 10 ft away, wouldn't line up with the camper when closed. Lots of measuring and marking and it came out perfect.

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Attaching the roof to the hinge. Notice the rectangular canvas patches on the front of the camper. With the initial design to pop straight up I needed a way to clamp the roof closed so it wouldn't open on the highway. I completely forgot to build somewhere for the clasps to attach - can't attach to foam - and remembered after the canvas was applied. I cut a hole in the canvas, cut out a swath of foam and glued/screwed a piece of wood in there, glued a canvas patch over it and painted everything. Unfortunately with the change to clamshell none of that was necessary and now there are 3 large patches on the front of the camper. Oh well, live and learn.

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Last edited by aaronf on Mon Jun 17, 2019 11:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: New From CO

Postby aaronf » Mon Jun 17, 2019 4:28 pm

After the frustration and wasted time on the roof, this was a sight for sore eyes! It was coming together and we were feeling motivated.

This thing is tall! Over 8 ft of interior height at the highest point, and at 5'10" I can stand inside everywhere except for on the bed.
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The gas struts are 120 lbs each with an extended length of 44 inches. With the roof closed I have to lift a few inches and the struts take over and bring it up the rest of the way. It's a bit heavier on cold winter days, but not hard to lift at all. There are handles on the ceiling to bring it down. When lowering, the last few inches get a bit heavy but not hard to control. I'm very pleased with the way the struts work.

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Re: New From CO

Postby Rainier70 » Mon Jun 17, 2019 7:11 pm

Wow! Welcome and congratulations on a great job on your camper. :applause:

I think your intro should be moved to a build thread so others can benefit from your design.
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Re: New From CO

Postby aaronf » Mon Jun 17, 2019 9:36 pm

Rainier70 wrote:Wow! Welcome and congratulations on a great job on your camper. :applause:

I think your intro should be moved to a build thread so others can benefit from your design.



Thanks for the compliments. I'm not sure how to move to a different thread. If a mod thinks its necessary please go ahead and do so.
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Re: New From CO

Postby aaronf » Mon Jun 17, 2019 9:54 pm

The next step was sewing the canvas. Thankfully my wife is an excellent seamstress and we had access to a relatives industrial sewing machine. There's no way a household machine could have done this. We purchased 18oz. vinyl coated polyester from sailrite.com. I found a guy online who rebuilt his 4wheel camper and posted videos of how he sewed new canvas. I was able to meet him and check out his rig to get a few ideas of how to bring it all together. Check out his build here http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/topic/15594-total-pop-up-material-replacement-purchasing-to-finishing/#

The fabric itself is a non-breathable waterproof material. All 3 sides of the fabric walls have large windows. The windows have a layer of screen, a clear UV-resistant plastic flap that can be closed to restrict airflow and moisture but still allow light inside, and an opaque privacy flap that blocks out light. It was a challenge sewing the layers together in such a way that would be waterproof, especially if the wind were to blow rain through the screen onto the inside flap. We essentially followed the video in the above link save for a few minor changes. I'm very happy with the way it turned out and super proud of my wife for doing such a great job.

The industrial machine will sew through anything.
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Re: New From CO

Postby aaronf » Mon Jun 17, 2019 9:59 pm

Here is the panel for the wall above the door. This is how it appears from the outside.
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Privacy flap open to allow light inside but not airflow. This is how it appears from the inside.
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Clear plastic flap open to allow airflow.
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Re: New From CO

Postby aaronf » Mon Jun 17, 2019 10:09 pm

Lots of measuring.

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All together in one piece ready to be installed. It's heavier than it looks; I'm glad I got the 120 lb lifting struts. Also, look closely at the rear corners of the camper. There are two bars holding the roof up. Once the top is lifted those slide into place and support the roof in case something were to happen to the struts the roof won't come crashing down on our heads.
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Re: New From CO

Postby aaronf » Mon Jun 17, 2019 10:28 pm

Mounting the fabric to the camper wasn't too difficult. It fit well but required 3 people to get it in place and securely mounted. To create a tight waterproof connection we wrapped the vinyl around a piece of 1 inch aluminum flat bar and screwed that into the top edge of the camper body. At the roof the aluminum bar was mounted to the ceiling. Sewing vinyl is difficult to do well and challenging to get an even pull without ripples. I'm really happy with how ours turned out and think it looks better than some production pop-tops and rooftop tents I've seen on the market.

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Waterproofing the threads with vinyl cement.

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Re: New From CO

Postby aaronf » Mon Jun 17, 2019 10:33 pm

We wrapped the top with a bungee so the fabric is pulled into the camper when closing the roof. This makes it really easy to close and the fabric never gets pinched.

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Re: New From CO

Postby aaronf » Mon Jun 17, 2019 10:42 pm

Interior is all finished. Here is the bed in the sleeping position, don't be deceived by the pillows the bed designed to sleep side ways. The floral fabric above the pillows is a layer of thick foam that covers the steel angle and bolts that hold the hinge mentioned earlier.

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Bed in the up position.
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Another shot of the bed in the up position. With the extra vinyl we made custom sized duffel bags that fit under the bed for the 3 of us.
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