Isolating a Foamie Trailer Body From Frame Vibration

[Chefsonora]

So I'm building a hybrid foamie/plywood frame body with a foam/plywood sandwich floor. My thought is to isolate the through mounting holes with polyurethane bushings sealed in epoxy (to keep from crushing the foam/seal).

Curious to see if anyone has tried any dampening between the frame and body with epdm/ neoprene tape and how effective it has been?

I'm building the body as a pod, so since it can be separated from the frame I want to consider mounting wear and vibration mitigation

 

[dt400]

I'm in a similar situation. I built a foam/fiberglass pod that sits on a custom trailer frame for off-road use.
My concern with any sort of tape is if/when the adhesive gets hot in the sun it may become soft and squish out. My plan, at least until I do a bit of testing, is to use a polyurethane or polymer modified adhesive. OSI QUAD MAX is the one I'm leaning toward now. It has great adhesive properties and stays very flexible.
I have bedlined the entire exterior of the pod to there is a bit of protection from that. Plan is to lay the OSI on the top of the frame rails, then put strips of either a poly visqueen or wax paper (whatever I can find that the OSI won't stick to) set the pod down and line up the bolts and let it cure. Once cured then remove the plastic from between the pod and frame. I may use so 1/16" shims temporarily to keep the OSI from being completely squished and leave a bit of cushion. I will use the OSI to create some bushings for the bolts with rubber washers under the heads to prevent cracking......At least that is the plan for now until I come up with a better idea.
Good luck with yours.

Darrell

 

[Falco-4]

Plan is to lay the OSI on the top of the frame rails, then put strips of either a poly visqueen or wax paper (whatever I can find that the OSI won't stick to) set the pod down and line up the bolts and let it cure. Once cured then remove the plastic from between the pod and frame.

If you do some testing of this, I'd be very interested in what you find. I had thought about using OSI to keep water out from between the frame and floor and reduce any rubbing between the two, but my hesitation was if I ever need to pull the camper off the frame.

 

[Chefsonora]

If you do some testing of this, I'd be very interested in what you find. I had thought about using OSI to keep water out from between the frame and floor and reduce any rubbing between the two, but my hesitation was if I ever need to pull the camper off the frame.

Im reluctant to go full adhesion to the frame (as I'm basically building a pod for the camper to test my design)so I'm thinking more of a floating mount with abrasion/ wear strips between the frame and body.

 

[dt400]

If you do some testing of this, I'd be very interested in what you find. I had thought about using OSI to keep water out from between the frame and floor and reduce any rubbing between the two, but my hesitation was if I ever need to pull the camper off the frame.

If you re-read my post you'll see where I mentioned using some kind of parting film, either wax paper or visqeen plastic, then removing it once cured. The adhesion to the frame is important but no bond to the pod.

Darrell

 

[dt400]

Im reluctant to go full adhesion to the frame (as I'm basically building a pod for the camper to test my design)so I'm thinking more of a floating mount with abrasion/ wear strips between the frame and body.

I built a foam and FG pod as well.

If you re-read my post you'll see where I mentioned using some kind of parting film, either wax paper or visqeen plastic, then removing it once cured. The adhesion to the frame is important but no bond to the pod.

Darrell

 

[Chefsonora]

I see what you are saying now, so you get the benefit of the rub resistance without having to stick it all down.

 

[dt400]

I see what you are saying now, so you get the benefit of the rub resistance without having to stick it all down.

Yes and hopefully a bit of high frequency vibration isolation.

Darrell

 

[philpom]

Boat trailers have somehow figured this out, check out what they do.

 

[dt400]

Boat trailers have somehow figured this out, check out what they do.

I'm not a boat guy so I'm not sure. But it always looed like they just used carpeting wrapped around the bunk boards.

Darrell

 

[philpom]

Boat trailers have somehow figured this out, check out what they do

I'm not a boat guy so I'm not sure. But it always looed like they just used carpeting wrapped around the bunk boards.

Darrell

I think that's basically it but it's waterproof, high heat doesn't impact it and it protects the fiberglass hull from damage by the trailer.

 

[Chefsonora]

The boat analogy is good to me though because I don't want to really hard mount the body to the trailer so that all of the stress and flex of the trailer is more dissipated.

 

[iamroot]

BTW I was thinking about this too over at Removable 5x10 Camper Body on HF 4x8 Frame but I don't have an answer yet. Was considering TPU 3D-printed gaskets, but I'm leaning toward some really thin foam tape mostly just to keep from rubbing away the paint.

I don't want to really hard mount the body to the trailer so that all of the stress and flex of the trailer is more dissipated.

You can't really "hard mount" and allow "the stress and flex of the trailer is more dissipated" without having a strong and compliant bushings like the bodies of frame-on-body trucks have, which then means your pod must have its own internal frame capable of holding all forces, then you might as well just mount a torsion axle directly to it and skip the "trailer" part entirely.