A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

[SCwood]

Love following your build! I have a trailer that's roughly 7x12 if I use the tongue and I may do dimensions very similar to yours. My only concern is finding aluminum big enough. What dimensions were your aluminum and where did you get it at?
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That was one of my concerns when I started building too. For a while I was going to go with Filon because I knew I could get a big enough piece but am glad I kept looking for aluminum. I found a local trailer repair shop that sold .040 aluminum off of an 8' roll, so I got one big piece - 8'x55' (I got extra in case I messed up). When you're looking for it try asking for "roofing aluminum." At first I asked for aluminum that would skin the side of the trailer and they seemed confused because it only came in narrow sheets. Then when I mentioned I was looking for the kind that comes on a big 8' roll the guy goes "oh, you mean roofing aluminum!"

[SCwood]

Almost done. Made some side tables:


Finished the galley cabinets:


And then pulled BOB out of the garage under the cover of darkness!


It juuuust cleared the garage:


Added a bed from Costco. It's 14" deep, which is deeper than I was planning on, but was about half the price of comporable mattresses online so I went with it.


And then went camping! BOB still isn't completely done, but is campable. Everything went pretty smoothly. BOB pulled waaaaay better than that blasted r-pod we rented a few months back.




Once we got back I went to work again and added a backsplash. It's tin ceiling panels that I painted and then distressed.




I still need to make a toolbox and finish a few odds and ends, but we're almost there! Happy Thanksgiving!

[MadMango]

Looks awesome, great craftsmanship!

[Captain Monkeyshines]

Nicely done! BOB is a great looking teardrop

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[KCStudly]

Fantastic job! Very nice.

[noseoil]

Looks great, really done well & nice job on finishing it!

[pchast]

That came out really nice!
You should have many enjoyable trips with it.....

[Dusty Mark]

Enjoyed reading your blog. You have an awesome camper! Enjoy using it...

[jonb8]

Do you mind answering a couple questions since are hatches are similar and were both using Franks design. Did you use the 1/4 inch peice of aluminum to offset the hinge? Seems like it'll lift the hatch too far.

[SCwood]

Thanks for the compliments everyone!

Do you mind answering a couple questions since are hatches are similar and were both using Franks design. Did you use the 1/4 inch peice of aluminum to offset the hinge? Seems like it'll lift the hatch too far.

No problem. I went with the flat hurricane hinge, not the offset one. When I was making the hatch though I second guessed myself and went and bought a 1/4" aluminum bar to try it out. It looked like it was going to work, but after I got all the aluminum and trim on the hatch sat too high, so I wound up taking it out. In the picture below you can see that my hinge does angle up a little, so maybe something like a 1/8" offset would be good? But BOB's been through a few rainstorms now and nothing is leaking so I'm going to leave it alone.


I made a toolbox for the tongue over the past couple weekends. It's pretty big so it can fit the solar panel and side tables. Started with a simple wooden box:


Added a lip to keep rain out:


Added some dividers to keep the solar panel and tables secure:


It took a little while to figure out this hole, but that's what a hole to fit a locking toolbox handle looks like:


Making a the latch to hold the hatch shut out of some scrap steel. I had to get in the toolbox to figure out how big this needed to be so yes, the toolbox can fit a person inside it in case anyone was wondering. Or a dead body. Whatever your need is:


I had some aluminum left over from skinning BOB so I skinned the toolbox too. It was much easier to skin something small. I traced the box and then cut the aluminum to fit:


Added some "small D" automotive seal to keep things dry:


Skinned:


I used 4' piano hinge on the back:


Added some gravel guard just like on BOB:


4 t-nuts and bolts secure it to the trailer:


Some foam to protect the solar panel:


Everything in its home:


And finally mounted on the trailer:


I also welded some chain links to the trailer frame near each wheel. BOB will be kept at a nearby storage facility so I'm going to run chain from these points through the wheels and back in an effort to keep both the wheels and BOB from getting stolen.


And I read in the skinning section that boating people seem to like "sharkhide" for sealing aluminum. I got some and applied it. It's pretty easy to wipe on and looks like it makes a good seal. Time will tell how well it performs. One quart was enough to do all of BOB and the toolbox.


I think we're 99% done now! I'm making some curtain rods today and I think that may be the last thing to do.

[jonb8]

Thanks man, and in my mockup it does look to tall. Frank say's it works though...and he sold it to me and he's built alot more of these then me...

[S. Heisley]

Awesome work! Thanks for sharing.

[Johnysteam]

That is just great!. Thanks for uploading your story and work. It looks more professionally built than the commercial tds ive seen.

[SCwood]

It's been a while, time for an update!

BOB needed some curtains so I can sleep in late like I like to do. Originally I was going to use some screw-together black pipe to make them, but it proved to be too bulky and I didn't think it looked right so I made some out of 1/2" square tube:






Then I fired up the sweat shop... I mean enlisted the help of my wife to make some curtains. She also made some pockets to go near the doors to hold fan and A/C remotes, phones, etc. Next on the sweat shop list is cushion covers for the bunks.


A finishing touch in the galley:


I had to replace the gas strut mounts on the hatch because they were deforming. When I switched out the 100 lb struts for 150 lbs I reused the mounts that came with the 100 lb struts, mostly because the 150 lb ones didn't come with mounts. Turns out they weren't strong enough so I got some heavy duty mounts and everything's better now.


I added this level to the tongue at some point to help with leveling BOB.


Somewhat unrelated - I used the extra 2x2" square tube I had left over from BOB and an old pallet to make an outdoor coffee table. Let's call it BOB jr.


Then I got to work on some awnings. My grandfather found this thread and liked it so much that he very generously sent me some money to buy something for BOB. Thanks, Granddad! I looked at probably every awning out there - foxwing, bunduawn, eezi-awn, and many others. I really liked the idea of the foxwing and bunduawn, but with the galley hatch they just wouldn't work. And I liked the eezi-awn swift because it doesn't have guy lines, but at almost twice the price of ARB awnings I couldn't justify the price just for the lack of guy lines. So I went with two ARB 2.5M awnings, one for each side of BOB.

Knowing that BOB might go on some rougher roads I wanted some pretty stout brackets so I picked up some 3/16" plate steel and got to work


I broke down and bought a drill press to drill all the bolt holes through the thick steel. I should've done it a long time ago! It makes drilling holes in metal muuuuuch easier than free handing it.


Mounting the brackets proved to be a challenge as I didn't add extra blocking for roof mounts when I built BOB. I had to find the 1x2" roof spars by looking for brad nails in the ceiling inside and transferring those measurements to the roof. My first bracket was spot on. The second bracket, not so much. Luckily I started by drilling pilot holes and all my errors were covered up by the bracket. I filled the holes with JB weld and put plenty of sealant under each bracket. The last two brackets went off without a hitch as I could easily transfer my measurements from the first two brackets to the opposite side of BOB.


Brackets on:


One awning mounted:


(BOB got a little dirty in storage)


Two:


As my brother said, BOB has wings!






I've still got a few more ideas in the works, so more to come!

[jonb8]

Looks great, I really dig the 2 awning setup. I haven't even got to the point of looking at awnings yet.