Thrifty Alternatives ..Building Foam Campers

[GPW]

DON’T PANIC !!! Let’s see the pics first ...

[Rosey]

Wolf,
I am supposed to be going and picking up the lagging compound tomorrow.

[Wolffarmer]

Where did you get it from? If not a national chain what type of store?

Randy

[Rosey]

I called childers 800 number and they gave me numbers for their local distributors. It only took a couple of minutes on the phone

[eaglesdare]

pics of bubbles

[GPW]

Rosey , Sure hope this is the “Right Stuffâ€

[eaglesdare]

i am curious about that patch work thing, doesn't that take away from the "sock" effect? since it would not be a solid unit covering anymore.

[GPW]

The patch would have a generous overlap on the edges ... cloth to cloth is pretty secure , no matter what glue you use ... Do we need a picture ? I can do that in a minute or two ..

[GPW]

If you put it across the trailer , it might look like part of the design ...

Edit: You could paint it like a window with MM looking out ... maybe the duck too ...

[eaglesdare]

hey glenn, you know i like pictures! thanks that makes some sense to me.

[linuxmanxxx]

Louella is this the front wall that has delaminated? If so it might be due to all the stress it endures during the drive from wind rocks and such that could have caused this failure to happen. I have a reason for asking

[eaglesdare]

yes, those pics are on the front. i have not checked the rest of it yet. i sort of looked under the tarp, but did not see anything on the sides.

[linuxmanxxx]

Ok I'm thinking the front happened first because of all the additional stresses placed on it during travel which the other sides get little to none. This is actually a good thing and I think if you just wait and get some of the lagging compound and redo just the front you'll be good for the duration of the lifetime of your camper and maybe have to fix some small ones if they happen to pop up on the rest of the surface.

If you patch it I'm betting that it will happen somewhere else on the front and then you are just applying another patch until you finally have it all recovered again. Peel the front up to most of your front curve and just recover it and I'm betting you won't have to touch any of it again.

Now that's the beauty of this canvas type of build is that repairs are cheap and relatively easy compared to a standard build of camper.

You did bolt this down to the trailer rather well didn't you? If so I'd try a trip without the straps as that would put additional stress on the front every time you cinch them down tight and then release them later. If you bolted the floor down with large washers to spread the load, you won't ever have problems with the cabin separating from the trailer.

[GPW]

Steve, I was wondering about that too... those patterns of bubbling were ...curious ... Didn’t look like random bubbling which would have been everywhere huh ? ... Now I wonder if the straps were flapping in the breeze , beating on the front ???

You’re right , they’re so easy to fix... they never were intended to be Pretty works of trailer Art like everybody else makes , just Thrifty and Practical (hard tent)... so patching is OK !!! If it was me , I’d give the Whole trailer a careful inspection , see if there were any more problems ... if not just patch the front and don’t use straps ...

Eagle was just being Careful with the straps ... that was during the early days when we had a naysayer who said they were all going to blow off the trailers ... causing much Caution and concern , a theory that turned out not to be true ...

[mikeschn]

Is that because you didn't get enough glue on the foam, and it pulled away, or is it because there was something on the foam before you put the glue on?

Mike...

pics of bubbles