Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Anyone have some VHB and canvas (and T2) lying around that would be willing to test how well the VHB works with T2 coated canvas?

Just requested a sample of the VHB tape, so if no one out there has any, I'll be conducting some tests in a few days.

Just wondering, what is VHB?
Frank

It's an industrial adhesive tape by 3M.
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/3M-Industrial/Adhesives/Product/Bonding-Tapes/VHB-Tape/
It's used for all kinds of applications, including bonding panels on trailers without rivets.

Very High Bond adhesive tape.

I believe it comes in double sided.

Strong stuff, good quality typical of 3M products.

Steve, I have a whole roll of the tape. Will be waiting for your results. I was thinking about using it to attach awning rail and mount points for the solar panel.

Bonnie

While I'm sure I have some VHB tape laying around, I have no foam samples or canvas laying around to experiment with. While I have no doubt the VHB will stick, especially with a smooth surface, I wonder If Items attatched to the surface (solar panel brackets for instance) might cause the canvas to delaminate from the foam? My personal curiosity would be more for full perimiter mounting such as polycarbonite windows for a surface mount look like modern vehicles.

Bill

I have used 3M VHB tape for both holding the Kedar/awning rail and the mounts for our 185W solar panel. The Kedar rail has withstood a number of storms with the tarps attached, and no problem with the solar mounts BUT the solar mounts have a lot of contact surface area. I used the 3M cleaner in preparation prior to installing.



I talked with a 3M engineer prior to trying this. It would be no big deal if the if the Kedar rail fell off, it would be, if the solar panel blew off on the highway.

i have foam, canvas and tb2, but no tape.

JMHO, I don’t know if I’d trust the tape on canvas over foam , especially painted canvas... Seems the tape is SUPER Sticky and will adhere/bond with whatever Clean surface it’s attached to ... Might just pull off the paint ... Might take the canvas too ... It would appear that if we want to attach anything on a Foamie , we might resort to the previously mentioned (somewhere ? ) “Hard points” ... still the easiest and safest way (if properly done) to attach things ...
If you read over in the Cargo trailer section , you see some debate as to the use of tape vs. rivets for skin attachment ... Pros and cons for both , mostly “for appearances” ... tape Looks good , DIFFICULT to repair/remove ...

eaglesdare wrote:i have foam, canvas and tb2, but no tape.

Lowes has it. A few dollars for a small roll of the double-sided variety. Red packaging IIRC.

If it is not a smooth hard surface do not use this tape or it will just rip a chunk of paint or tb2 right off the camper and catapult whatever you had stuck out into the air. This stuff is made to adhere on smooth metal or plastic surfaces not paint or canvas.

I'm strongly considering the aluminum/foam panels that I mentioned in another thread as my flooring, and I'm playing with ideas of how to affix the canvas to it without wrapping the entire bottom of the vehicle. I know the TB2 won't attach to the enamel baked aluminum, so my thought was to saturate the edge of the canvas with the TB2, affix the tape to the edge of the canvas, and then to the underside of my floor panel. Might be more effort than it's worth, really, but I'll probably test it anyway. Still playing around with ideas, so if anyone has other suggestions...

That will require some testing. My gut says it won't work. Maybe bond aluminum skins to the outside of your foam then use VHB to adhere edge trim around the roof to wall joints. I just keep getting these thoughts that the tape will tend to concentrate loads in areas we don't want concentrated loads.

Bill