bgordon's 5 week cardboard & fiberglass build

[mezmo]

Hi Barrie,

Good to see you are back on posting, and good hearing
that you and your's are all doing fine.

I'll be looking forward to following your new build - Ya
gotta 'top' the TD ya know!

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

[bgordon]

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with Barrie!

Mike...

Mike,

Believe it or not, but I cannot seem to get away from the Winter Warrior / Escape Hatch design. It is something that has haunted me since I saw your initial Escape Hatch many years ago. I know by now where the weaknesses and strengths are, and have tried - just like you - to redesign it many times over.

That is also why I am so intrigued by your latest build. Before I saw it a few days ago, I came up with yet another WW-type design - and strangely enough it looks very similar to yours - with the exception that the hatch is longer (a longer hatch makes for more standing room - especially for my six foot two inch frame).

See below. I basically copied the Sawtooth XL's profile and added the escape hatch. I placed the bed where I wanted it to be, and then drew the profile in such a way that I could stand in it (6 foot 2 inches). The rest is simply a copy and paste from other designs. Very rough! I did not even move the fridge! The actual layout would be something to this (second picture below) (which I did years ago...)

[bgordon]

Norm,

Thank you for the kind words!

My next build will be much slower than the first, which was basically a rush job to get everything ready for the holidays of 2010. At this point in time I am still looking at two different designs, and cannot make my mind up which is best. It is okay by me, because I am at the moment working on my LL.D. (Phd in Law), and trailer building is taking a back seat. I am itching to get building again though!

Kind regards,

[Forrest747]

I had pondered using cardboard with fiberglass a while back. we have huge sheets of double wall here at work.
My question is the kids bunks are they attached to the walls or how are they supported. Contrary to popular thought you still have to get your fiberglass supplies from a speciality shop. Easiest is just to order online. Lowes and HD do have fiberglass but its not the right kind. (I found out the hard way). No spars wow.
you didnt insulate it i notice how does it do in the heat or cold? How did you lay up the fiberglass on a bench or sawhorses you said you had some flex which caused all the sanding.
Your comment about neighbors getting annoyed with all the dust reminded me of Bill Cosbys Noah, RIght! where the neighbor come out and complains about the ark in his drive way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKdUaTHKOYU&feature=relmfu

[bgordon]

Hi Forrest747

I had pondered using cardboard with fiberglass a while back. we have huge sheets of double wall here at work.

Great! That is exactly what you need!

My question is the kids bunks are they attached to the walls or how are they supported.

The bunks are freestanding. I welded a frame for the upper bunk, with four legs as support.

Contrary to popular thought you still have to get your fiberglass supplies from a speciality shop. Easiest is just to order online. Lowes and HD do have fiberglass but its not the right kind. (I found out the hard way).

Mmmm, I did not know that. From the forum comments I gathered that all fiberglass supplies were easily available. Thanks for clearing that up!

No spars wow.

Yep. And the strength is amazing!

you didnt insulate it i notice how does it do in the heat or cold?

Strangely enough the cardboard is an excellent insulator. When we went camping in winter it was nice and warm. Camping in summer was HOT. The reason is that there are four breathing people in a small space. It heats up quite fast! Because we had the side tent, we ended up sleeping with the one door open!. I think air conditioning will really help in summer!

How did you lay up the fiberglass on a bench or sawhorses you said you had some flex which caused all the sanding.

I had a huge flat table that I made for building the side walls. Sawhorses wouldn't have worked. The table is 12 foot x 5 foot. Huge!

Let me explain about the flex. Firstly, after the trailer was made, it was so strong that there were NO flexing parts at all. The flex came in when the panels were made. For example, the flat part of the side panel between the door opening and the front curve started to sag after I fiberglassed the one side. After fiberglassing the other side, it straightened out somewhat, but there was still a slight sag. Although the sag was tiny, The surface was not perfectly flat anymore, and I needed to use body filler to flatten it completely. If I had used masonite instead of cardboard, this labour intensive exercise would have been avoided.

Hope that answers your questions!

Kind regards,

[mikeschn]

Cool, we need more Winter Warriors in the world. South Africa sounds like a good place to have one!

Are you still thinking masonite? Did you ever think about triple wall cardboard?

Allow yourself more time to build a winter warrior, because it does take more time! But it'll be worth it, and you shouldn't outgrow it. (Unless you keep growing your family!)

What I find funny about all my redesigns, is that when it came time to build it, I sat down in front of my CAD program, and drew something that I never thought about before. So all that redesigning was for nothing. Or was it. Well, I guess I know where some strengths and weaknesses are!

Mike...

P.S. Barrie, did we ever talk about the knurled knobs to keep hatch sides from splaying out?

P.P.S. How about the offset hinge so you don't end up with a hole in the side when you open the hatch?

Believe it or not, but I cannot seem to get away from the Winter Warrior / Escape Hatch design. It is something that has haunted me since I saw your initial Escape Hatch many years ago. I know by now where the weaknesses and strengths are, and have tried - just like you - to redesign it many times over.

That is also why I am so intrigued by your latest build. Before I saw it a few days ago, I came up with yet another WW-type design - and strangely enough it looks very similar to yours - with the exception that the hatch is longer (a longer hatch makes for more standing room - especially for my six foot two inch frame).

[mezmo]

I posted this last night in the Foamie section in their Cardboard Camper thread
and just wanted to include it here for reference in the only actual built cardboard
camper thread in the Build Journal section. There is a posting in the Foamie section's
Cardboard Camper thread where the poster was told by a distributor that it can be
shipped in a 4ftx4ft size if wanted. [Hopefully easier and thus cheaper to ship.]

http://www.boiseinc.com/hexacomb/custom.html

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

[conn.rod]

that is a cool idea,save weight,money and recycle(if you are into the last one)