Off Road 'Foamie' camper

[uncleogre]

Last year, I registered my off road camper that I tow behind my sidecar, for solo camping. I made it with a foam core laminated between aluminum sheeting and plywood inner. I would like to share my build experience with the members. Is this the right section to be in?

 

[GTS225-TNT]

Personally, I'd say yeah, but I'm not a moderator, either.

Now.....quite interesting design and build. Longitudinal swing arm with short coil-over shocks. Appears to be exoskeleton shell framing, unless that's just aesthetic. No....it appears there's a stabilizing "foot" at the rear, incorporated into the vertical tube.

Looks like you need to post some additional detail photos.

Hmmmmm.....sidecar on the left.....are you U.K. based? Most sidecars in the U.S. are right-side mounted.

Roger

 

[Pmullen503]

Last year, I registered my off road camper that I tow behind my sidecar, for solo camping. I made it with a foam core laminated between aluminum sheeting and plywood inner. I would like to share my build experience with the members. Is this the right section to be in?
View attachment 1945267

Yes. I would love to see more.

The trailer suspension was done that way to keep the cabin lower?

 

[uncleogre]

Roger,
The suspension is based on a motorbike rear suspension with units from a DR650 Suzuki.
The exoskeleton is aluminium tubing and is to protect the body panels when I go bush and I mounted the guards off it as well as water tanks.
That is drop down legs at the rear to stabilise when I camp.
I am based in Australia.

 

[uncleogre]

Yes. I would love to see more.

The trailer suspension was done that way to keep the cabin lower?

PM,
The camper took a lot of design from bicycle campers and is also based on an Oztent Bunker, which was my main choice of camping before the trailer.
The sleeping area is 2.0m x 0.9m and I put the suspension outboard to get a track of 1250mm to match the sidecar track.

 

[GTS225-TNT]

Oh, boy......9/10's meters wide. Sounds a little claustrophobic for my tastes, but you didn't build it for me.
But.....if you had built it wider to follow behind the bike's track, it would have weighed about half again as much. For what you're doing, it looks like a good all-around package for your travels.

Hotels just keep getting more expensive.

Roger

 

[uncleogre]

Many years ago, I put up a post about a camper I built from a Cub Supamatic that I converted into a hardtop camper. I have moved on from that vehicle and got into sidecar camping.
I normally sleep in an Oztent Bunker when camping and after viewing bicycle campers, I thought it would be fun to build a trailer version using foam in the walls.

 

[uncleogre]

The starting point of the trailer was the living area followed the design of the Bunker at 0.9m wide and 2.0m long. I wanted to use 17" wheels. The sidecar has 8" travel on the bike and about 5-6" on the sidecar so I wanted about 5-6" travel on the trailer. I like going off road for my adventures.
I picked this shape from the internet.

 

[uncleogre]

The basic construction of the upper body is a 10mm foamboard inner. I bonded 3mm luan plywood on the inside and a 0.6mm aluminium sheet on the outside. I used Sikaflex 11FC.
The edges are glued and held together with 20mm x 20mm C Section. The C section is 3mm thick so the internal dimension is 14mm which gives a firm fit.
Where the panels are joined together, I used a 20mm x 40mm angle (3mm thick). This is glued and rivetted.
In the bigger panels where there will be some extra loading,(eg, the doorway)

I inserted a 50mm x 10mm box section to allow better fixing with rivnuts etc.

 

[Pmullen503]

Very cool. I like the gullwing door.

 

[uncleogre]

This is the camper in its natural environment.

And the grandkids enjoy camping in the backyard too.

 

[ghcoe]

More a traditional build than a foamie. Cool camper though.

With that frame you could easily do a true foamie and cut quite a bit of weight. My #2 build came in at 372lbs. That was a 4'x8'x4' build using 2" pink foam covered over with 10oz canvas. I used a Harbor Freight trailer for the base which by its self weighed 253lbs. With that you can see that the body of the trailer with manufactured door (28lbs), window (10lbs) and OSB floor (54lbs) came in at 120lbs total.

There have been some modifications to the trailer since its beginning, so it is probably about 575-600lbs now.

 

[uncleogre]

Thanks George,
I guess it was a bit rich to call it a 'foamie' but I wanted to cover it in Ally sheeting as I like to go adventuring in forestrys
My basic chassis is made of 50mm x 25mm RHS and the suspension units are outboard to keep the cabin area cleaner.

Total weight of the complete camper without cooking gear is a bit over 100kgs so am pretty happy with that.

 

[uncleogre]

I have just got back from a sidecar rally in Kilkivan.
Mid 30s C and high humidity, rolling thunderstorms and we decided to take the back roads to the site.
I have an onboard fan so it was comfortable sleeping.

Trying out a quick erect gazebo top for the camper, but it didn't go as well as expected.