A folding wooden camper

[Paintsalot]

Either way, you're going to have an exposed edge, whether it's on the top of the lid or on the sides. If you treat the wood with a finish, I doubt it will matter much. The sides of the bench don't (and shouldn't) have to be 1/2" plywood. Your cabinet and bench sides should be 1/4" plywood with lightweight 1x2 framework. The top is 1/2" thick because you will be sitting and laying on it, but the sides don't have to be that thick. The strength is the sum of its parts.

Thanks Sharon for input. I looked again at bed slats using cedar. They would actually be lighter than the plywood- but too bendy. So I’m sticking with plywood plus pine 1x2 frame.
I plan to use 1/4” Baltic plywood for top of bed/bench. It will span 15” max- I don’t anticipate a lot of flexure. I will have to add blocking where there are hinges because the quarter inch plywood won’t hold the screws very well. I’ll leave the sides of benches open. If I need to add sides I can do it later. I know things might fall out, but I’ll have a bottom rail- see sketch above - the sides could even be just stapled fabric. But I like the convenience of it being open where I can just throw some shoes under there. I probably will keep the cooler in my car. I plan to bring some kind of potty bucket that will store below bench.
Good point about hinge point -I’ll make sure it’s out enough not to bind. If I bring it too far it adds more structure. I’m trying to go as minimal in weight as I can.
I won’t normally carry any art gear in camper because I work in oils- the smell of solvents is not great for sleeping quarters. All art gear in car.
I’ll probably have a kitchen box of some kind - I don’t do a lot of cooking. I plan to have an pole awning on one side- with a side table for cooking. I can probably use one of bed supports as the table. Or have a fold down kitchen box.
I’m prepping for an art show- so camper will have to wait some this week.
Cheers.

 

[Paintsalot]

With 1/4” plywood- it will need to be supported along all edges. The center bed supports will be glued to 1x2 framing, and the benches will have the lids that open, but are supported all the way around.

 

[S. Heisley]

15" bench top depth isn't very big to sleep on(?). You might want to increase that a bit, maybe at least 21"? Or am I reading something wrong? Also, why hinge the top if you're going to leave the sides open?

 

[Paintsalot]

15" bench top depth isn't very big to sleep on(?). You might want to increase that a bit, maybe at least 21"? Or am I reading something wrong? Also, why hinge the top if you're going to leave the sides open?

Haha. That’s pretty funny about 15” bed. No, it will be a tri fold queen mattress.
See sketch. The benches are 15 inches deep on each side and then there’s a 28 inch support across the middle, but I’ll put braces inside those so the plywood never has to span more than 15 inches anywhere.
That’s a good question about the top, maybe just to be able to see better what’s in there? But if I made the top fixed, it would make building it a whole lot easier!! And it would add stiffness to the trailer, which would help.
If I made the top fixed, I could just get some baskets and things like that that could be pulled out like drawers.
I will have to check with my wife because she said she thought lids would be nice. TBD.

 

[S. Heisley]

Okay, although some of what you are doing is a head scratcher for me, I figure since you've built things before, you know what you're doing and what you want. I'll just keep watching.

 

[KCStudly]

With lids, theoretically, you can still get inside when the bed is made up (unless the mattress spans across the center and benches... don't remember if that was depicted).

 

[KCStudly]

Sharon's point is valid, tho, if you leave a ledger along the outside of the hinge, when you open the lid it will go over center and rest open. If you don't the lid will be constantly trying to close on your head or hand, forcing you to use one hand to hold it open, or requiring fiddly catches to manipulate. KISS principle.

 

[Paintsalot]

With lids, theoretically, you can still get inside when the bed is made up (unless the mattress spans across the center and benches... don't remember if that was depicted).

I understand about the hinge.
Here’s an early plan sketch I made. The trifold mattress will stack at one end at right, then benches are accessible. This sketch is old- I don’t plan on doing a pull out kitchen anymore.
When bed is extended there will be no access to bench storage, except from sides below bed.

 

[Paintsalot]

-

 

[S. Heisley]

Are you off selling pictures? Are you okay? It's been a while since your last post.

PS. You have a potty inside the cabin! My hero!

 

[Paintsalot]

Are you off selling pictures? Are you okay? It's been a while since your last post.

PS. You have a potty inside the cabin! My hero!

Hi Sharon. Yes-have an important art reception tomorrow night at the Dixon Gallery in Memphis! It’s an impressionist art museum.

I installed another window. All windows done.
I have started the bed frame- a ways to go on that.
I’m debating how to stop the PMF roof covering- at edge. I might wrap it over or under cedar trim. Or under aluminum flat bar.
More soon!
Thx.

 

[Paintsalot]

Final window going in.

I took this sample board below to Farrell Calhoun paint store. I started with Viking linseed oil paint on walls, but I was having trouble getting a consistent mix. You order the primary or secondary colors and then mix them from there. So now I’m going with an enamel for final coat.

 

[Paintsalot]

I got another end wall trimmed out today. This is the upper wall at the hitch end. The lower trim overhangs the lower walls to keep water out.

 

[S. Heisley]

Yay!

 

[Paintsalot]

Yay!

I forgot to mention I’ve ordered the external pop up arms!! And here is link: Link to pop up arms. They’re supposed to ship this week and it might be here in time for my birthday, which is this Sunday.
I got tired of sketching design ideas, pulleys, winches etc.
The roof should go up in less than a minute with the “spring” arms. The walls may take a few minutes extra. But I won’t have to set up any poles or pulleys or cables, etc.. and it’s always right there on the camper. I don’t have to get it out of storage. It doesn’t have the look of a traditional Vardo- but it sure will be practical. I asked them to change out the springs to a lighter duty spring. The spring it came with was designed for a 300 pound roof. My brother pointed out that it might be hard to get the roof down. So now the springs will be geared for closer to a 100 pound roof. I hope it works!!

 

[Paintsalot]

Added side rails to one end wall. The side walls will push against this trim.

This end wall now weighs 41 lbs. It’s ready to install.

 

[S. Heisley]

Paintsalot wrote:

I forgot to mention I’ve ordered the external pop up arms!! And here is link: Link to pop up arms. They’re supposed to ship this week and it might be here in time for my birthday, which is this Sunday.
I got tired of sketching design ideas, pulleys, winches etc.
The roof should go up in less than a minute with the “spring” arms. The walls may take a few minutes extra. But I won’t have to set up any poles or pulleys or cables, etc.. and it’s always right there on the camper. I don’t have to get it out of storage. It doesn’t have the look of a traditional Vardo- but it sure will be practical. I asked them to change out the springs to a lighter duty spring. The spring it came with was designed for a 300 pound roof. My brother pointed out that it might be hard to get the roof down. So now the springs will be geared for closer to a 100 pound roof. I hope it works!!

...I hope they work too! It reads like a good idea and I don't think it will take much away from your over-all design. It's worth a try!

 

[Paintsalot]

Well, the spring arms were supposed to ship last week, but they are still in process.
I’ve gathered materials to build the roof today and yesterday. We are lucky to have a lumber store In Memphis that specializes in Cedar.
I’m still debating on exactly how I will terminate the PMF roof at sides . I think I will probably just wrap the PMF over a cedar one by two.

I completed the two long walls today, all the plywood is on. Some of the trim has to wait until the walls are up so I can make sure it’s in the right spot. So tomorrow, I hope to install the upper walls. It’s going to take two people.

Below - I was looking at how to cut the arches that are at the end of the camper. I will build an interior backer arched frame that is Pine in one piece. The cedar I will cut from smaller pieces because it’s so expensive. It would take a 1x 10 x 10 cedar to make arches in one piece which would be probably $50 per board. But if I cut it in smaller sections, I can use just a cedar 1x 8 x 8. I just happened to have found one on sale a year ago.

Getting cedar

 

[Paintsalot]

Upper walls on. There were a few issues with the wall not lining up exactly here and there- side walls hitting hinges on end walls, etc.
I had to do some cutting and shift the walls a little bit and redo the hinges. It took three of us three hours to put it together. It’s 94 here and feels like 97.

At this point, I’m kind of wondering why I took on such a complicated project!! Frustrated.

 

[S. Heisley]

94 degrees with the humidity of the southern states is not for the faint of heart!

I always think that if you're running into problems, it means you're doing something good. Take a breather if you must but don't give up. It looks like you may be close to 80% done with the hardest parts, and hopefully the rest will work well and shine. It may not feel like it but I think you're beginning the home stretch to realizing your dream.