Thrifty Alternatives ..Building Foam Campers

[Wobbly Wheels]

Jack, the little bit of it that I've done has been with vapour barrier. I sealed it with Tuck Tape (the red vapour barrier tape) because that's about the only thing that sticks to the stuff. I used cheap yellow poly rope as a breather but I like KC's bubble wrap idea better. Those plastic spacers that keep the lid of the pizza box off of the cheese are great as frogs around the vac hose. For small jobs, an airbed inflator works great with the hose on the "deflate" inlet port.

I thought I saw a pic where someone used the inlet of a small compressor as a vac source ?

[KCStudly]

Make your own bag using 6 mil plastic sheet, blue tape and a shop vac (or even the household vacuum cleaner... just don't get caught by the other half!).

Substitute an old blanket for the bubble wrap (unless you can get bubble wrap for free ; expect a small amount of glue to squeeze out), use luan underlay and DF instead of Okoume and cedar; TB2 instead of 30NF; mail order kit, CL or found trailer instead of custom.

Scrounge if you must.

I don’t expect anyone to want to build another TPCE, in fact I would discourage it… to much dam work! But the techniques can be done much more thrifty and kept a lot more simple than I have done. Yes the tools are nice. They make things easier and help things come out more accurately, but there are lots of ways to get ’er done.

Thanks for the compliments, GPW.

In their purest form, foamies are small, light, quick to build and thrifty, but the sky is the limit of our imagination and the more we share our techniques and thoughts, the more likely it is that everyone can benefit in one way or another: be it in thrift of effort or in the wallet.

[kudzu]

Am going to tomorrow to get the 1.5" foam & Monday will pick up some of the 1" foam. The prices are too good to pass up even if it means some cleaning & more gluing. Plus I'll feel less guilty about using non-renewable resources if it's recycled material.

This is just the first camper, sort of my test camper, and will be made to slide onto a borrowed, 48"x72" landscaping trailer. Since it is small & has side rails I will be building it smaller on bottom & larger on top, overhanging the camper on all sides. Exterior dimensions will be approx 47"x96" on bottom, 58"x96" on top. A couple pages ago I posted a pic by GPW drew with a good example of what I want to do. Will post again as reminder.

I do want the floor to be insulated as well. So floor & sidewalls on the lower section will be a sandwich of plywood-foam-plywood.

We're not going to be going off-roading but the camper needs to be basically self-supporting since it will be taken off the trailer between camping trips. It will probably just be set on cinder blocks when not on the trailer.

What thickness plywood do y'all think would give optimal strength to weight ratio? Here's what I was thinking for the lower section:
Floor: sandwich of 0.25" ply - 1" foam - 0.25" ply with 0.25" ply furring strips used like little floor joists
Lower side walls: sandwich of 0.25" ply - 1.5" foam - 0.25" ply with 2x2's on edges. (not actual 2x2 but modern day 2x2)
Upper walls: 1.5" foam with canvas exterior skin & 5mm underlay for inner skin

The entire exterior, even the bottom, will be wrapped in painted canvas. The exterior bottom, lower wall & underside of shelf will get a double layer of canvas as additional wear & tear from will be expected. Paint touch ups & canvas repairs of that area are anticipated but care should hopefully make that minimal.

So? What do you think?

[GPW]

Runners on the bottom and sides to prevent canvas wear and tear ...

[Wolffarmer]

Shoot, you could take that camping. Slide the cabin off and do some contracting work with the trailer.



Randy

[KCStudly]

Sounds plenty good enough to me when it is sitting on the trailer (strapped or bolted down?).

On the 1 inch thick floor with 1/2 inch ply ribs (15/32 actual) ...I may get some resistance on this... I would suggest being careful entering when it is on blocks and not fully supported.

My floor is 1-1/2 thk foam with 2x2 and 1x2 sub-frame and 5 mm (3/16 ... 0.198 literal) ply top and bottom. If I push hard in a concentrated area that is not supported by the xmbrs, I can feel it give a little. The "1/4 inch" luan underlay that I have seen in the big box stores is really just 5 mm, the same.

I don't think you need to go any thicker with either the foam or ply (unless you decide to do a slouchy or standy), but I would consider placing some blocks in the middle as well as the corners, or perhaps putting some PT 2x4 creepers across the blocks and setting the camper on that when in storage. That way you won't have to worry about sagging the floor if you need to climb in while it is sitting on the blocks.

Or maybe I'm just all wet.

[kudzu]

Runners on the bottom and sides to prevent canvas wear and tear ...

Well, yes. Of course. That's obvious... um, at least it is now that you point it out.

Shoot, you could take that camping. Slide the cabin off and do some contracting work with the trailer.

Wolf, that's just the kind of thing my BIL would think of! Fine by me but we won't be removing the camper from the trailer this way:

Sounds plenty good enough to me when it is sitting on the trailer (strapped or bolted down?).
... but I would consider placing some blocks in the middle as well as the corners, or perhaps putting some PT 2x4 creepers across the blocks and setting the camper on that when in storage. That way you won't have to worry about sagging the floor if you need to climb in while it is sitting on the blocks.
Or maybe I'm just all wet.

Had thought of ways to either bolt or strap it down. Have decided on bolting. Considering also using a couple straps, run under the trailer, as additional protection.

Actually I had thought of making a little framework to sit on the cinder blocks. Though I confess that was because I thought it would be more stable front to rear & side to side. Was not considering sagging which, as with what GPW pointed out, seems obvious now that you mention it. I'm a bit dense this way.

Thanks all!!

[GPW]

Depending on the trailer floor (the one it came with ) , sagging might not be an issue... Especially with some runners attached underneath ..

[KCStudly]

Depending on the trailer floor (the one it came with ) , sagging might not be an issue... Especially with some runners attached underneath ..

True dat. I was more specifically concerned with when the camper is not on the trailer.

Research and asking questions here is like alchemy; makes dense objects less dense, and heavy TD's lighter!

[kudzu]

Well our schedule today didn't go as planned so now I've got to get all the foam on Monday. However, our travels did manage to get me up to a different part of the state when I visited a Craigslist seller from whom I purchased these:



The large one on the left, approx 36" tall, is a slider. The middle one, approx 30" wide, & smallest on right, approx 26" wide, both have two louvers operated by a knob on the inside. These are used windows pulled from a parted out travel trailer. The frames appear to be in good shape & all operate as they should. I am particularly pleased with the louver windows. Total price for all 3 was $55 cash plus almost $15 in gas for the long drive to & fro. I had budgeted $50 for windows thinking I would make them myself. This seemed like a much better way to do it. Well worth going over budget. (No doubt the first of many cost overruns.)

Is this thrifty?

[kudzu]

Do you think this would work? Quad Lock 2" thick panels - http://www.quadlock.com/insulated-concrete-forms/panels.htm

Someone is selling this because it wasn't appropriate for their construction needs. It's EPS as opposed to XPS. Each panel is 48"Lx12"H. It's $1.50/panel for 2" thick & $2.25/panel for 3" thick. They go together like Legos. It would mean more gluing but there would also be less cutting, I think. The catch is I'd have to buy a full pallet, 60 panels of the 2" foam. A pallet of the 2" is $90 as opposed to paying $250 for equivalent amount of 2" pink stuff from HD.

Ya think? Maybe? Or should I stick with the used pink stuff in 1.5 & 1" I mentioned earlier?

[Jack B.]

A, I would first compute the square footage to make sure I was getting enough area for my needs. Might not be so thrifty after all.

Secondly, I would think that the bigger pieces we build with the sounder the structure would be. Monolithic is a good thing when it's not applied to guv'ment. Start throwing together smaller pieces and you have fault lines to fail under pressure. Despite it's strength in compression foam is still pretty fragile. Start adding seams and you get (like in the christmas movie) fragile, which is french for fragile. I do stained glass and have learned that if you're using lots of pieces you have to stagger your seams and reinforce the internal runs or you get saggy pictures and bowed windows.

My opinion, it's probably worth the extra cost to work with full sheets and keep as much structural integrity as you can. Especially in the walls and front of the roof area.

Another topic:

I've been going back through the G-sters drawings and idea threads and I think the FoamStream is a pretty good way to go. You end up using quite a bit extra foam for the nose curvature but dang if that ain't a sweet suite to think on. Do a couple of the inner walls/arches in 3/8" plywood to help with twisting and racking control, not to mention giving you some solid places to screw and bolt things to. Door in the back, arced skylight, trap door on the bottom for emergency egress ( as in Lethal Weapon) . . .

I've been going to sleep thinking about how to pull this one off. I would like a standie big enough for two to live in with the great outdoors as the main part of the "house" and this could be the way to go. Now if I were only 5"3" like she is there would be no problems, except for getting things off the top shelf.

Jack

[GPW]

K, nice find on those windows !!!

Jack ... It’s Possible !!! Maybe some easier alternatives ...

[Jack B.]

Possible but not practical. If I want to be 5'3'" I would have to take 7" off the length of my legs. Nope, just not practical at all.

But if you're talking about the FoamStream, yeah I think for detail oriented person with PATIENCE it would be a great project to tackle. Not something that would work with quick and dirty me thinks.

Jack

[Wolffarmer]

Possible but not practical. If I want to be 5'3'" I would have to take 7" off the length of my legs. Nope, just not practical at all.

But if you're talking about the FoamStream, yeah I think for detail oriented person with PATIENCE it would be a great project to tackle. Not something that would work with quick and dirty me thinks.

Jack

Do like I did and put a hole in the floor. I can stand up in my tear drop.


Randy