Ok after plowing through this for several weeks I'm finally at the end and ready to throw in several thoughts and hopefully some good suggestions of how to make a foamie even better lighter and stronger still using mostly easily available components.
As you can see I have done a bit of building of campers and have learned a lot of what is right and what is wrong and will learn even more of both as I keep doing my endeavor of microcampers.
I am planning on using a lot of what has been discussed here to develop a product to be towed behind a motorcycle or toy cars like the new fiat or the smart cars and such.
Ok on with my suggestions:
1. Mike has proven that the tb2 doesn't stick to the foam for crap so therefore I have a product that will glue the crap out of the fabric to the foam and be very difficult to remove and it will NOT hurt the foam in any way. I have talked about it on a few other posts here for its properties to glue a lot of things together and it is very sticky where foam is concerned. It is 3M 30NF and the NF meaning non flammable. It is a 40 plus yr old contact cement that is neoprene with water base and is low odor and even certified green to california standards. You can go through RS Hughes or Fastenal to purchase it and it may be expensive but well worth it. I'd say use this to bond the canvas/cloth directly to the foam first.
2. After the canvas is on use tb3 and forget the tb2 everyone keeps raving about. tb2 will soften when exposed to water for a while because it is water resistant rated and tb3 will not do that and isn't that much more expensive. I'd do the outside with a 50% diluted tb3 mixture and seal it all good.
3. Floors people are using plywood or osb why? There are some very very good threads on here about using the sandwich core with luan wood frame and foam in between and weight reduction is 30% of plywood so why hasn't anyone even pushed people to use this? Luan is relatively cheap and you are already using foam so why even use heavy plywood? I use simple 1 x 2s inside my sandwich cores for floor and walls in the camper above and I can walk on the floor before the roof is on with very little bowing and when finished weight will always be spread to hands and knees or laying down so it's way more than strong enough.
4. Walls the 30NF bonds wood to the foam extremely well so you could easily do panelling or luan interior to make it look better as well as a much quicker build than doing the canvas interior but that would just be cosmetic and preference for anyone. I also found a plastics company in Austin that sells a thin white plastic the type that can't be outside can't remember the name, but anyways it holds paint really well (well spray can enamel not latex) and was like 15 for a 4' x 8' sheet and would make a great interior covering as well due to its properties for making cleaning the walls ultra easy and its ultra light as well.
5. Remember with 30NF for canvas adhesion (first barrier to keep anything away from the foam and then a good coat of the tb3 you have now isolated the foam from the outside and you can at that time play with using anything that would not break down the tb3 to transition your elements. Such as a fiberglass skin would be doable now without breaking the foam down (this would never be for me as I hate the mess no matter how light and strong it is just extremely toxic and messy). Any kinds of glue to transition to an aluminum exterior if you wanted ( I saw your question about this Mike and I'll try and test some of my aluminum skin directly to tb3 with the 30NF soon. The 30NF stuck the aluminum in stellar fashion to the luan so I would bet it would stick really well to the tb3 as well.
Here's some real thinking outside the box and what I'm about to do some experimenting with. Northern tool sells torsion axles rather cheap so think of removing your axles and going to a torsion axle which is a lot lighter than the full axle as well as would give a much better ride. They are available in 500, 1000, and 2000 lb ratings 1" bearings and only like 40 to 70 dollars in price range each. Using these and some aluminum cross braces should reduce the trailer weight a lot and gas cost more than these changes in the long run.
I know a lot has been harped on here about thrifty and cheap but sometimes cheapest isn't always best in the long run. Different thing with cheap and being economical in life. Build it spending a little more on good glue and a better riding trailer will pay off in spades over time.
I know the tb2 has met with success over a yrs time but it will eventually delaminate from the foam and bubble and break because it's not designed to glue that surface. Spending more on a nice water base contact cement like the 30NF will ensure 10 yrs down the road the canvas is still stuck as good as the first days it was installed.
Thanks to you guys for thinking outside the box already and being brave enough to tackle old mindsets and thinking about what things should be made of and look like this will keep evolving till time ends.
I'm a reseller for climateright AC units and if you guys want an AC that you can use and not have to install anything but some vents with outside clamp on hose access give me a message and I'll give you the specs and such. They are heater/ac combined and sit outside on the ground and have inlet and outlet hoses circulating air to the cabin so like I said the only thing to install is 2 hoses into the cabin. They are pricey but being heater and ac both kinda makes it a better absorption as well as not having to hack up your camper to get one into it. It took me 3 days to build in the window unit in the one up above and thats full time so about a month for you guys only doing weekends to do something like that so it pays for itself in time savings to go with the external unit plus now I am converting that space to a full height closet inside with my breaker box in it and accessible within the cabin.
A word of caution to you guys as my first camper was built off a carryon 4 x 8 from tractor supply and that is those 12" tires are crap and will throw rubber faster than you can blink or just completely blow up. My first prototype I got 13" wheels and put regular car radials on it and no problems at all and it actually rode much better. So you guys using the HF or other trailers with the 12" tires beware and if you have the 5 hole pattern there are plenty 5 hole 4 1/2" wheels available to swap out to and if you are fenderless in your build it wouldn't be a problem to switch them. I'm very serious about this because imagine if your tire blows and you have foam around it gonna tear the hell out of your camper or even worse could happen flipping the trailer or worse.
by eaglesdare » Sat Nov 19, 2011 12:09 pm 
