Thrifty Alternatives ..Building Foam Campers

[GPW]

BEER, Funny story , a friend got arrested for riding his bicycle on the road shoulder whilst balancing a plate of spaghetti ... Slightly Over the legal limit for blood alcohol level, the charge was Drunk driving ... Got railroaded by a young overzealous prosecutor , jailed (with Real criminals) , placed into a "program" ... Had to use my influence to get him off... Misplaced justice IMHO... seems no matter how many Beers you have , if you can ride a bike and balance a plate of spaghetti , you're OK ...

[depatty]

Looks like a good trailer frame for FoamStream to me.

[GPW]

DP , That's kinda' what I was thinking too !!!!!! A small HF 1195lb. folding trailer would work for the little one .... Have to wait for another 20% off coupon to pick up one locally ... http://www.harborfreight.com/1195-lb-ca ... 90154.html

FoamStream is all I can think of lately ...


Last night I got the band to help me move the cabin ... 4 people and one supervisor/flashlight man ... Everybody was preparing for a big lift and all were totally surprised how light it was ... Looks much heavier than it is ... even with full cushions inside , no problem ... However I did manage to catch the TV cable wire on the roof vent and rip it off the wall ... just the mount , the TV still worked .... first thing the wife ran and checked ....

[GPW]

So what happened ??? Looks like the site crashed this morning ...

[depatty]

Looks like it ate a post or two also.

[Conedodger]

For my sins i run just over 1000 web sites, many are club and charity sites which i do for free and its getting hard to keep them running. This week on one charity site it had over 5000 attempts to register from Russia, they bounced the IP's all over the world, Holland > Yahoo USA > UK > South Africa then Russia.

Its been a long week....

[mikeschn]

So what happened ??? Looks like the site crashed this morning ...

Yep, it crashed. They put in a new harddrive. Yes, it's possible that a post or two got lost.

Mike...

[starleen2]

So what happened ??? Looks like the site crashed this morning ...

Yep, it crashed. They put in a new harddrive. Yes, it's possible that a post or two got lost.

Mike...

like they say - sh. . .err stuff happens. if it's only a post or two then things went well

[aggie79]

DP , That's kinda' what I was thinking too !!!!!! A small HF 1195lb. folding trailer would work for the little one .... Have to wait for another 20% off coupon to pick up one locally ... http://www.harborfreight.com/1195-lb-ca ... 90154.html

GPW,

You're foamie is really cool. I like the camo and the design. The foamie part is icing on the cake!

HF often has 20% discount coupons in magazines if you can't wait. "Wood" magazine is one that they are in almost monthly.

Take care,
Tom

[GPW]

Mike , Guys, it got Scary after all the error messages ... maybe that was some kind of warning ... ??? Tried to log in from a different site , saw the Crash ... said Ruh Roh !!! So GLAD It's back ....

A79, Thanks , I'm checking now ....

[Wolffarmer]

Yesterday I picked up iron for my trailer. Don't expect to do much else untill end of july. Next few weekends will be busy making do-hickies for family reunion auction. Then a few weeks after that I will be in harvest and will be plenty busy.

Haven't decided on the axle yet, am leaning toward the flexride as with that I can change my mind about a whole lot of things until I start welding.

I kind of liked that Bolus trailer. Now if someone would come up with measurements for a forming jig. I could seen bending several layers of 1/2 inch foam to make it.

Pointy nose

Randy

[jakie]

I know there is a spot on this humongous site that shows how to set up the jig to do the curves a la SS2 . But I can't find it If anyone can help me I would sure appreciate it. It won't happen right away, but the ribs are something that can be made when time permits, and stored, until the great assembly day

[GPW]

Randy I was considering just kerfing the upper (bent) parts of the foam panels , then attaching the bottoms to the floor and just bend the top part over the upper ribs, and glue ... may have to have some straps to temporarily hold the foam in contact with the ribs till the glue dries...

This one would be a much more complicated build than the little one ... but not really difficult ... I think the look and the streamlining will be worth it ... and it still should be Very light ...

Jakie , that's my plan too .... first I'll make a full size foam "former" , and use that to bend the ribs over... put those on the side till we get the floor made , then attach the formers (2) , ribs and stringers , then the foam and canvas over that ... Should be pretty simple ... much like making a boat or vintage aircraft fuselage ...

I know this is Foamie heresy , but it would be possible to put thin plywood over the framing as a skin , which would solve the inside finish question (wood interior) but then we wouldn't have all that good insulation , and it would be heavier , and subject to the problems of wood ... Maybe the plywood and the foam glued over that ... heavier though ..

Here's Swampjeep's excellent treatise on bending with kerf cuts ... http://tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?t=44081

[GPW]

Sorry , not meaning to be OT , but if we don't have flames (propane ) in our Foamies , then electric is the way to go ... Found this cool article ... thought it might come in handy ... Just FYI http://www.marxrv.com/12volt/12volt.htm

[mikeschn]

Called the epoxy guy down in Florida. We told him what we were doing, and he recommended polyester resin. I said, I can't use polyester resin, it melts the foam.

He said "hold on". He gets back on the phone and says, "You're right, you need to use epoxy resin. But be aware, out in the hot sun it's going to warp and bubble, and you'll be very unhappy with it."



Is this stuff really going to warp and bubble? Did this trailer warp and bubble? http://www.goldbrand.info/motorcykelhusvagn2.html



I am currently frozen in space, practicing my paralysis by analysis!

What do you guys think?

Mike...