ultra lightweight floating popup camper

[Tcurr]

Build is coming along. 24 beers in a case 24 hours in a day coincidence?

 

[angib]

I know that bending the tongue should weaken it a little, but does anyone (angib) have any numbers to show by how much?

If it's just a couple of shallow bends, I doubt they will make any great difference. The most heavily loaded part of the tongue is right under the front of the frame and as long as you keep the first bend away from there by a bit, it will make no difference.

Andrew

 

[Randy S. Hager]

Hey that remided me of the airplanes that guy out in the Mojave desert makes. Yea Burt Rutan. This is the exact method of construction that was used in the making of his Voyager round the world unrefueled record holder. To help with heat creap as its known, you paint it black and leave it out in the sun to bake for a while. Just don't let it get above 180 degrees. Thats about were EPS melts. If you watch the build up of epoxy it should be light and strong. I've been into homebuilt aircraft for most of my life. I keep tabs on tax payers money by being an inspector on the Next Generation of Stealth Fighter the F-35.

 

[coal_burner]

Now that the lower half of the camper is done (except for the tongue), i,ve started assembling the cap.
I duct taped pieces of 1/2" foam around the outside of the camper to act as spacers, and allow me to use the bottom half as a form for the top half.

http://tnttt.com/album_ ... c_id=28884

I centered the roof on top of the camper and hung the foam walls of the cap using 3" deck screws. then I sanded all of the foam overlap down and rounded off the corners with a belt sander.

The screws are used primarily for dry fitting the foam sheets and clamping them together while A slurry of epoxy and glass balloons that is slathered between the sheets hardens and gived everything rigidity.
Most of the screws are removed after the slurry of "wet micro" hardens.

You can see where the roof panel on the left overhangs the wall before the sanding, and the roof and wall panel on the right are smoothed and rounded over, and ready for 'glassing.
The fact that my doorframe looks trapezoidal is just an artifact of the camera angle. the door itself will be a regular rectangular door.

On an intimately build related note: bottling my homebrew beer became tedious, so I now just make it in 5 gallon kegs. This has made it much more difficult to determine exactly how many beers this step of the build took me.


Progress will probably really slow down after the next couple of days, as Michigan is getting too cold for epoxy to flow and wet-out fiberglass properly. I could heat my garage, but with the amount of ventilation that I need to handle the epoxy fumes, I would probably burn through at least $20.00 worth electricity A day(the epoxy has to be kept above 60 degrees F. for 2 days until it cures).

 

[Bad-Dawg]

OK... I have to ask... Why do you want it to float? I mean if you want to camp on the water wouldn't it be better to build a Jim Michelak Campjon? It's a boat with large camping arrangements and is also easy to make. No reason you could not camp in it on the trailer too.

Just curious...

 

[coal_burner]

Originally, I was only trying to find something that was extremely light weight, and had A comfortable queen sized bed.
My tow vehicle is A 2005 VW Golf Diesel 5 speed stick that has only 100 horsepower.
I figured that the lighter the trailer, the less abusive towing it would be on my clutch.
foam and fiberglass seemed to be the lightest option.
After coming up with A torsion box deck design, I realized that the deck could displace alot of water, and the trailer might just float. I ran the math and lo and behold, it would float just fine. Floating and trailering require two radically different centers of gravity. Seeing how difficult this would be, I just had to do it.

now that i've pondered the possible uses, i'm hooked on the concept.

1- I could boat out to gull island in the middle of Lake St. Claire and be the only camper partying with all of the boaters (O.K. I like to be different)

2- I could camp out in the ultimate private campsite in the middle of an inland lake.

3- I could remove the top and drift down the rifle river while all of my friends are canoeing.

4- A floating firepit that attaches to the back would be so weird that it would be cool.

5-floating docks in the middle of a lake while camping are cool. My trailer could double as that.

I haven't come up with A number six, but i'm sure someone will, and i'll then just have to do it.

 

[Bad-Dawg]

Ahh, VERY clever! I know a guy that built a small boat the same way for fishing in ponds. He puts a 15 horsepower motor on it and it just flies along! With your low "transom"... Err door? Consider a trolling motor instead.

Light is good!

 

[angib]

After coming up with A torsion box deck design, I realized that the deck could displace alot of water, and the trailer might just float. I ran the math and lo and behold, it would float just fine.

Have you tried putting the weight of the trailer to one end? You may not need much draught (depth in the water) to float with the weight centred, but when you step on and off, you'll be moving a significant part of the weight (you, plus anyone else onboard) to the door and it would be a shame if the trailer then sank! If you need help with the calcs, let me know, as I am/was a naval architect.

Andrew

 

[coal_burner]

I finally received the videos that my brother took of me trying to capsize the trailer.

<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dDBqTJTE5m0"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dDBqTJTE5m0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object>

 

[coal_burner]

O.K. that didn't work

try this

I also tried to capsize the trailer by standing on the wheel and leaning back pulling on the wall, then jerking and bouncing up and down like a crazed orangutan. Unfortunately the camcorder wasn't running.

 

[coal_burner]

O.K. that didn't work

try this

I also tried to capsize the trailer by standing on the wheel and leaning back pulling on the wall, then jerking and bouncing up and down like a crazed orangutan. Unfortunately the camcorder wasn't running.

 

[Podunkfla]

O.K. that didn't work

try this

I also tried to capsize the trailer by standing on the wheel and leaning back pulling on the wall, then jerking and bouncing up and down like a crazed orangutan. Unfortunately the camcorder wasn't running.

Well... That was certainly different!

 

[Juneaudave]

Shouldn't be much competition for a camp spot with that!!!!

 

[Miriam C.]

Ok, I need one of these soooooooooooooooo badddddddddddd.

What a wonderful idea.

BTW try that in Missouri this time of year.

 

[Micro469]

You might want to think of putting a fold up deck on the sides so you can walk outside of it while on the lake.....

 

[coal_burner]

I am looking at putting A fold out deck on the back of the camper. It would be 5 Ft. wide (just like the camper) and about 4Ft long (just big enough for A couple of lawn chairs. My floating firepit would probably be A 3 Ft wide floating steel bowl, held away from the flammable foam and fiberglass deck by A couple of 3 Ft. long steel rods.
Having The deck (dock?) mounted ridgidly to the rear of the camper would really help with my bouyancy C of G issues.
I injured my shoulder A couple of weeks ago. The next part of my build is the lifting mechanism. The sling that my arm is in keeps me from using both of my hands to repeatedly lift and lower the top to work out the mechanics of the mechanism, so progress is A little slow at the moment.
This does give me more time to daydream about additions like the deck and firepit, and to work out my other arm.


Things that I have learned are reeaaalllly hard to do one handed.

1- manually lift to top of A popup camper
2- rake leaves
3- hang christmas lights from your roof
4- dishes
5- carry the laundry basket up stairs
6- hammer A nail
7- bench press
8- just about everything my day job has asked of me over the last couple of weeks.

 

[aggie79-HILO]

At least you have a reason for not working on the tear. I'm still stuck in the daydreaming mode and haven't gotten off my lazy arse to start my build.

By the way, could you provide a newb some info on fiberglass construction? I am thinking about using epoxy and glass over foam but have concerns about delamination. Did you remove the plastic film from the insulation? Also, did you "prime" the foam with epoxy before adding the glass and wetting it out?

Thanks for your advice.

 

[jeep_bluetj]

What were you planning on doing for the poptop mechanism?

Air springs? Cables?

Are you going to syncronize them? Cables I'd assume would essentially be syncronized via a jack-screw or winch.

 

[stugpanzer]

This is very interesting! Is the fiberglass technique very expensive? Can you give an idea of what this project has cost you to date? I am curious to see what the difference would be doing this method compared to plywood.

Thanks

P.S.

That is cost minus beer!

 

[coal_burner]

After A long winter of 75 hour work weeks with no camper progress made, I'm going to start work again where i can. I'm still working 55 hours a week so progress may be sporadic, but bear with me.