Thrifty Alternatives ..Building Foam Campers

[Jack B.]

How did I not know about all this progress? I was laboring under the belief that it was still mostly concept. What other magnum opus am I missing out on? And to top it all off I've got another 123 pages to read.

Jack

[GPW]

Well, it all happened overnight, sorta’ ... in the last four months ... But not to worry ! Since I have a whole sheet of Blu foam left over , I take that as a sign to build another ... FoamStream V.3 Gotta’ be Thrifty !!!

[atahoekid]

That's the one I wanted to see built!!! I think it is a very cool design... Do you have the frame? I know you were collecting them at one point, do you still have them?

[GPW]

Still have that other trailer waiting ... Might be Nice to build during the cooler weather ...

[luneywan]

Finished at last.

I knew it was going to be tough when I was about a third of the way through and people were already talking about how long it took them to read the thread.

Took me five (5) weeks, and I was on vacation for two of them.

Now all I need is for my wife to agree on a foamy....

Luneywan

[GPW]

Lune' ... Now you know as much as we do !!! Congratulations !!! Now it’s all ‘salesmanship” ...

Thinking about #3 ... it seemed a bit long eh ? ... around 18’ ... so here’s a shorter more manageable size ... still @ 15’ it’s no small trailer ...

Next step is to completely re-design it to fit a 4’X8’ sheets of foam ... Thrifty !!! ... and we don’t want any leftovers , because then we’d have to build another one , and we’d be out of out of trailers ...

[GPW]

Here’s a basic layout drawing using 4’X8’ foam sheets .. Just seeing what will fit within those restrictions ... Really like the way the top goes toward the nose and flares out wider ... That should look Cool !!!

[Mary C]

Congratulations!!!you did it!! Now is the time to digest what you read and to plain your build but I warn you this is habit forming! Good luck!

Mary C.

[GPW]

A thought about trailer floors:

So far we've used plywood and OSB for trailer floors , both having their pros and cons. But common to both has been a sharp edge on the bottom where it contacts the canvas . It’s such a small thing to consider , but wouldn’t it be “better” to round off this bottom edge to a radius , which would lessen the stress on the skin at this point as it wraps under the floor ... Plywood is not so bad to do this with a router and round over bit , But OSB is pretty TOUGH... and doesn’t work so easily .. dulls a router bit quickly , and just laughs at my belt sander with the coarsest grit I can find ... Now thinking I should cut my OSB floor panels on a slight angle to at least pre- remove a good bit of what would be rounded ...
Any other thoughts on this ... ?

[Ned B]

A thought about trailer floors:

So far we've used plywood and OSB for trailer floors , both having their pros and cons. But common to both has been a sharp edge on the bottom where it contacts the canvas . It’s such a small thing to consider , but wouldn’t it be “better” to round off this bottom edge to a radius , which would lessen the stress on the skin at this point as it wraps under the floor ... Plywood is not so bad to do this with a router and round over bit , But OSB is pretty TOUGH... and doesn’t work so easily .. dulls a router bit quickly , and just laughs at my belt sander with the coarsest grit I can find ... Now thinking I should cut my OSB floor panels on a slight angle to at least pre- remove a good bit of what would be rounded ...
Any other thoughts on this ... ?

GPW, I'd bet that a 45°Bevel would be more than sufficient to ease the sharp corner off for the grade of canvas we're using. If the 45° doesn't ease it enough it Certainly is a better starting point than a 90° cut.

[GPW]

Yeah Ned , I was thinking any sharp edge, meeting canvas, if it rubbed on something (who knows? ) would slice the canvas at that point , and there goes the “sock” Some simple rounding of any kind would lessen the stress to a large degree. Easy enough to do before the floor is mounted to the trailer . We Do want these Foamies to last “forever” eh ? ...

[luneywan]

Congratulations!!!you did it!! Now is the time to digest what you read and to plain your build but I warn you this is habit foaming! Good luck!

Mary C.

Corrected you spelling.

[luneywan]

A thought about trailer floors:

So far we've used plywood and OSB for trailer floors , both having their pros and cons. But common to both has been a sharp edge on the bottom where it contacts the canvas . It’s such a small thing to consider , but wouldn’t it be “better” to round off this bottom edge to a radius , which would lessen the stress on the skin at this point as it wraps under the floor ... Plywood is not so bad to do this with a router and round over bit , But OSB is pretty TOUGH... and doesn’t work so easily .. dulls a router bit quickly , and just laughs at my belt sander with the coarsest grit I can find ... Now thinking I should cut my OSB floor panels on a slight angle to at least pre- remove a good bit of what would be rounded ...
Any other thoughts on this ... ?

Or we could add a rounded lip/ Maybe corner moulding. It's cheap and easy to work.

Just thinking, it would be good to round inner and outer edges. Spread the stress out to a greater area.

Just my 2 copper pieces.

[GPW]

Lune’ , quarter round moulding would work too ... Good idea !!! Less mess !!!

See, Luneywan is already thinking like the rest of us ...

[wagondude]

Or rabit the edge of the foam to leave 1/2" of overhang past the edge of the floor and just round the foam. But beveling the floor edge and then covering with the radiused drywall corner bead would probably be easiest. And we have seen how well that drywall edge works on a couple of trailers now.

BTW: three more pages till we break 400.