DaddyJeep Crawler Hauler

[DaddyJeep]

As planned, I got the back wall of the slide out framed and even loosely put in a door. I took the door from the old pop up. It is a bit short so I may change it around a little. I am thinking about raising it so I don't have to duck to get in. There is already a frame at the bottom that will need stepped over so raising it 2" shouldn't be that big of a deal.

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I played around with heat bending the 1" foam some more. I found that a foil backer helped distribute heat around the back.

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I used up the rest of my scraps starting to visualize my compound radius.

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[ojgrsoi]

Pretty cool. The foil is an excellent idea.

[DaddyJeep]

I raised the door last night as high as I could. I even notched the one corner so it would fit in the radius in the top left. I no longer have to duck to walk through. The door is sealed up with liquid nails (I used up a tube I had on the shelf) and is screwed in from the sides with some self tappers. Then i made backers on the bottom corners and bottom center of the slide out for the wheels.

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I took my die grinder with a sanding disk and started cleaning up all of connections in my frame work. Since my work is not perfect I have to blend things so the ply will lay smooth.

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[Rhinoman64]

This is a pretty ambitious build, but looks like it's headed in the right direction. Maybe I missed it, but why are you trying to use heat to bend the foam? Wouldn't cutting kerfs into it be easier?

[DaddyJeep]

This is a pretty ambitious build, but looks like it's headed in the right direction. Maybe I missed it, but why are you trying to use heat to bend the foam? Wouldn't cutting kerfs into it be easier?

Everything I take on is ambitious. I sit in front of a computer at work. I need my projects in order to keep a little bit of sanity.

There is a topic over in the Foamies section on heat bending foam that I have been posting in if you haven't seen it. I was originally planning on kerfing, but the heat forming is something worth playing with. When I get some new full sheets I am going to play with heating the foam in an oven to the point it will bend easily. If the oven thing works it will be real easy to do all of my bends.

[DaddyJeep]

This build has been silent way too long. Well, that is about to change. I'm finally back to working on this and look forward to getting it done. I will be linking a video of the next steps soon. I picked up some materials over the weekend and am working on getting the floor pieced together at the moment. Then I can get the walls attached to the floors and start skinning. I picked up some Luan to skin it with. My local guy can't source any 1/8" birch ply unfortunately so at least the outside will be done in Luan. I will try again to find some birch for inside when I get to that point. I also got all of the 1" foam that I need.

[DaddyJeep]

Here is is... the much anticipated actual update. Well, maybe someone is anticipating it anyway.



I used my router to cut a 4" lap joint in three pieces of 5/8 plywood to build the base of the floor. I glued and brad nailed the three pieces together and then clued and brad nailed luan over top alternating the seams. Check out my video of building the floor.

https://youtu.be/A7pmOMNZ9_0

[Philip]

Question???

Instead of trying to cut and bend a lot of XPS to fit everywhere. Have you thought of installing the outer or inner wall covering. Then having a company come in to spray foam everything at one shot?

Doing the foam this way would glue the structure together a lot better.

[DaddyJeep]

That is probably not a terrible idea Philip. Even spraying it myself with Greatstuff could be an option.

[Philip]

That is probably not a terrible idea Philip. Even spraying it myself with Greatstuff could be an option.

I went the same you are doing now on my first build. After it was all said and done. I wished I had done the spray in foam. Your only trimming one time for thickness and done. With the piece together way. Every side and thickness needs to be addressed.

With a commercial company doing it. They trim to the top of the studs as part of the job. You might want to think hard about this option. That is many hours off your build time.

Whatever way you decide doesn't matter. All we want is pictures.

[OP827]

... Whatever way you decide doesn't matter. All we want is pictures.

Good to see you back on the build ! And yes, lots of pictures please

What is your plan for skinning, inside first, run all needed wiring etc. and then foam and skin outside? It should be easier to fair the foam from outside than from inside, IMHO.

[DaddyJeep]

... Whatever way you decide doesn't matter. All we want is pictures.

Good to see you back on the build ! And yes, lots of pictures please

What is your plan for skinning, inside first, run all needed wiring etc. and then foam and skin outside? It should be easier to fair the foam from outside than from inside, IMHO.

Of course it would be easier to work inside out... since I am doing exactly the opposite. I have not found plywood that I like for the inside yet. It will hopefully be 1/8" and be nice wood. Maple or Birch to keep it light in color. I am using Luan for skinning the outside because it was available. I have been focusing on video of my build as I am trying to grow my Youtube Channel. I would appreciate all the views I can get there. I will keep up in pics as well though, so don't worry. I have a few hours of video that I am currently editing so an update will be coming soon.

[DaddyJeep]

OK.... lets get an update here

I picked up some windows from a broken down camper. I got two of the larger ones and the one small one for $40.



I then cut out some frames using two layers or 1/2" plywood to match the walls. Once there are two layers of sheeting on there and the PMF and Butyl tape on the outside the inside edge of the window should be pretty close to flush with the inside wall. This will make it easy to make some nice wood trim.



I had a couple friends come over to get the frame onto the floor. The frame broke in a couple more spots during that process, but I got Humpty put back together and glued and brad nailed to the floor.



While sitting in the corner for way too long the frame was pretty out of square. To fix this I tied string to the bottom of the one wall and pulled the top of the other wall over until it was level. I am going to wrap the corners first which should keep it square.... I hope.



The slide out was pretty unstable as well so I went ahead and put on the first piece if Luan. I Kerfed it so it would bend, which worked pretty good, and wrapped it up over the top. I painted glue on all of the studs and shot in a brad every few inches. It really strengthened the structure.



The Kerfed radius from the inside.



The next video should be up in the next day or so. I have lots of editing to do.

[DaddyJeep]

I got my next video edited and up on the Youtube.... Check it out


https://youtu.be/MUdkngrWq4k

[DaddyJeep]

I'm making progress on exterior sheeting. One of the sheets of luan didn't cooperate and broke while trying to bend it. Apparently they are not all quite the same. They all seem to bend a little different. This is probably why most guys buy good quality plywood instead of luan. I did find some 1/4" birch ply as well as some 1/4" sanded ply at Home Depot... at 3x and 2x the price of luan respectively. I would like better wood for the inside since it will be stained, but we will cross that bridge when we get there.


Some progress pics for you. I would like to finish skinning the outside before I post another video.