Perhaps The Ultimate SIPs [Structural Insulated Panels]

[Engineer Guy]

SIPs are used in the housing industry to build super-insulated houses. They're typically OSB bonded to rigid insulation and assembled on site to produce a dried-in house shell in a week or two. Windows and doors are cut in on site, and electrical is routed in on site.

I got a close look today at a similar product that got the juices flowing for my own panelized build someday. There were more used walk-in fridge/freezer panels stacked up outside a supermarket being remodeled than you can imagine. The construction was mighty intriguing: 2" to 4" Thermax-type insulation [R-8/inch] with textured galvanized bonded to both sides. Where panels met, there were 2x4s embedded at the panel ends. Male/female ridges notched into the lumber mated, and were snugged together with specialized latches. Walk into your local liquor store beer cooler and look around to see these same panels. Many commercial lite or ultra-lite trailers use the same panelized construction, but with R-4/inch Styrofoam.

The used panels were marked as 'Sam's Club'. We just had one close, as did a Safeway and an Albertson's. All 3 properties were gutted to 'entice' the next tenant. Some panels were cut apart with some sort of straight-cutting saw. I had only seen these types of panels before from a distance stacked up at an auto recycling yard.

Without too much work, it seems you could tastefully put some panels together over a homemade post & beam type of frame, and cut penetratons where desired to have yourself a superinsulated, metal skin shell to then customize. It's hard to believe that every one of these panels is going into the former Albertson's store being remodeled into a different supermarket, so some spare panels should be available. I can't move on any spare panels just now, but I wanted to pass along the idea. A few panels tastefully assembled on a utility trailer would be a neat CT project starting point.

[pete42]

If you can get the panels free then go for it.
If not I'll bet they are costly to buy.
But you do have another way of thinking about a TTT or tear.

[vreihen]

Sandwich core panels can be found in many other applications, such as cruise ship walls and passenger jet floors. My favorite so far is Lehigh University's Formula SAE car chassis from a few years back, which was constructed from folded panels made of foam with carbon-fiber skins. They routed some notches on the inside of each curve, and then folded it into shape around MDF bulkhead templates using ratchet straps and heat guns.

If you want to fabricate your own panels instead of buying them commercially, I wouldn't think that the tooling would be more than two big sheets of tempered glass and a container of release wax. As a side benefit, you get to choose your own gel coat colors.....

[angib]

As with so many lightweight structure ideas, finding a panel material is pretty easy - using it successfully is harder.

The four critical questions to be asked are:
- how will it be joined to itself at edges or at tees, like from bulkhead to sidewall?
- how will it be finished at exposed edges, like door openings?
- how will internal fittings be fixed to it?
- assuming 'conventional' construction will have to be used for the curved roof, how will roof beams be joined to the wall?

The answer to those four questions often seems to me to make it easier to make your own sandwich panels, ply-foam-ply with wood framing where required, than to use ready-made sandwich panel materials.

Andrew

[Engineer Guy]

As with so many lightweight structure ideas, finding a panel material is pretty easy - using it successfully is harder.

Absolutely true!

A few percolating thoughts were:

1. Regular Roof flashing could be used, with 'gummy' strips, at linear joints. This technique is favored by those building 'unconventional', non-TD designs. It's also used in slide-in Truck Campers.

2. In an ideal world, the panels with wood already sandwiched between the galvanized exteriors would make for solid framing. I'll try to get some pix posted, but that won't happen for a bit, due to pending travel.

3. Exposed ends would require u-shaped galvanized, etc., to cover them.

4. The reason I tossed out Post & Beam ideas would be to have that structure provide the strength, although the panels I saw look mighty sturdy. I wouldn't want to put an A/C unit on top, but they appear strong enough to withstand wind shear. SIPs certainly do so when used for Housing.

5. Roof panels would have to have a slight peak angle to them, since these panels sure won't bend.

6. I used 'tall', surface mount Baseboards at my new House to house electrical runs to avoid wall penetrations. Some sort of channelized construction, with runs through TD/CT Cabinetry or roof/wall junction trimwork, would have to house utility runs not under the floor.

Fun stuff to contemplate...

[Prem]

Engineer Guy,

Can you send me the twin sister of that gal you use as your icon? But only if she like to travel and camp.

Thanks in advance.

Prem

[satch]

Engineer Guy,

Can you send me the twin sister of that gal you use as your icon? But only if she like to travel and camp.

Thanks in advance.

Prem

[Prem]

[Engineer Guy]

Well, the important topics first. My lovely Wife, shown on the OR Coast, has no sisters. HOWEVER, they sure 'grow' some nice looking Polacks [as she calls herself] in MI, as personally verified during our trips to see my 'Out Laws'; the term her Dad used for the other Relatives of a marriage. I keep a Video I shot of her Brother's Wedding JUST to review some of the attendees now and then. Absolute knockouts! She wants to travel and see her Parents old 'Hood outside Warsaw, and I have no objection to taking the proverbial swim in that Gene Pool!

She does like to travel and camp [and shoot my Titanium Frame .357], having started her formative Tent Camping years at Camp Dearborn MI. While she's away on an 'active' Cruise [in-Port Ziplines and Horseback riding, etc.,] to the Caymans next month with a gal pal, I'll be doing my minimalist SUV camping around Lake Powell while re-using all the outdoor 'things' we've acquired over the years. My emerging checklist includes PVC pipe friction-fitted and lashed to the SUV roof rail w/tarp for an instant 'Tent'; an el cheapo Solar Shower; my hand crank Radio w/Weather info from the Page Airport; and trusty 'Astrofoil' for a space blanket outside, and for sleeping underlayment in the SUV. A 'side goal' is to make this a near-zero dollar outlay trip with plenty of pix taken, and creative RVers talked to...

Using Google to research around Page AZ has been great fun. Pull up embedded 'Panoramio' pix uploaded by visitors to preview locations, and 'flyover' amazing Canyons while checking out the few County Roads that provide 'rare' water access. It also makes it easy to see - to avoid problems - where the flash flood washouts are. Terrain elevation readouts and GPS coordinates are icing on the cake. Linked reviews of Restaurants and el cheapo Motels [solely for miserable weather backup] are super, too. What a great planning tool, besides debriefing Beach Campers, and RVers at Wally World, once I roll into town with the Pooch. Grandpa got me into Camping around Yosemite, and it'll be a nice flashback to cook again on his Coleman Stove. The great ideas absorbed from this Site will surely help, too. Weather history, shown here, helps, while not predicting the future:

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=page,%20az&wuSelect=WEATHER

Part of a low key trip 'objective' is to see what we really need in a future Camper that could be a tricked out CT, or a nice looking, custom, cabover-inspired Camper pinned onto my stout Utility Trailer occasionally. Plenty of trashed Cabovers on Craig's List to recycle components out of on the cheap...

No argument, gotta cut in some Windows & Skylights in any Camper... Some of those SIPS I saw are still there, so we'll see if/when they disappear before asking about and 'recycling' them.

[Prem]

EngineerGuy,

EXCELLENT IDEA! On your upcoming trip to MI or Warsaw you send me home a blond Polish gal who likes RVing. Thanks. You rock.

Re: Truck camper/Utility trailer/Cargo trailer.....

The fastest and probably lightest volume of camping rig to get on the road is a cargo trailer, IME.

I've got my Round Tail trailer sitting the in the driveway and a 5x10 v-nose cargo trailer that I bought from a friend sitting at the curb. They both need interiors built. I'm two years into the homebuilt and unique Round Tail and about 2 hours into the CT. And then there's the 4x money-invested difference

It could be worse: One could be building a hardwood inlay pattern woodie teardrop out of purple heart, hickory and bubinga with 6 coats of spar varnish.