Poptop sketch

[publife]

I've had some variation of this design floating around in my head for a long time, but had mostly resigned myself to just having to wait until we have a proper tow vehicle and getting a fiberglass egg. Sadly, that remains the most likely outcome, but I noticed that HF had added a 5x10 to their inventory and my head wouldn't let go of the idea until I had it sketched out. I'm posting it here mostly so I know where to find it later, but I'd be thrilled to chat about it.

[publife]

The design is mostly 2x2 and 1x2 boards and XPS foam. The front area would be for the generator, gas, and whatever cargo makes sense to get the balance right. The depth of the cargo bay, the door placement, and the peak height point are all still up in the air - I haven't seen the trailer in the flesh, this is just my best guess based on HF's product info. The tallest portion of the back side panel will be 48" high no matter what, and I need the rear of the trailer to be at least 33" closed and 72" open. I've got 35.5" closed and 73.5" open right now with my guesswork, so I think I'll be able to stick to these angles even if I have to move the doors and the peak a bit.

On the sides, I'd use 1.5" XPS between the framing, with a layer of .75" XPS inside with the horizontal 1x2s, for a total of 2.25" foam and an interior width of 55.5" - which fits our full size trifold mattress with the tiniest bit of breathing room on the sides. The doors are the 28" x 38" models that are widely available on ebay/Amazon. The front and rear panels would be 3" of XPS foam on the exterior, plus the 1.5" between the 2x2s. The goal here is to have lots of room for the sweet radiused corner look I saw on facebook forever ago:

[publife]

Just logging some extra thoughts...

Re: floor - I might want to do one extra 1.5" stringer (instead of .75") in the rear so I could use 3mm 4x8 Okoume for all my skins - I'd double up on the floor but I'd want to place the two layers perpendicular and that rear section is too wide for one 4' sheet. I don't know if I'm going to be able to get high octane XPS - even the 15/25 psi stuff is by order here only a lot of the time - but I have it in my head that I could get away with 6mm if I could use 60psi. Sadly I don't have any way to test this out, I'd just have to add another layer of ply last minute.

Re: roof - it's probably unrealistic, but I would *love* to be able to mount some solar panels on that nice sloped roof. The final roof plan will try to keep those options open. I'm probably going to have to frame foam for the poptop gaps anyway, so maybe it'll be fine except for how much I'll hate having to place and pack them. My PV friends say the flexible jobs are just not worth the hassle and the frame sure wouldn't survive me driving around with kites on the roof, so it'll be mount-at-destination or bust. Probably bust, but we'll see, this whole project is something of a pipe dream. More importantly, I have absolutely no idea how to hinge this in an attractive way. I *think* I can hide it below a rounded foam layer from the front panel but I don't have the tech skills to try to model it well. I really need to make sure I've got this part sorted before I really get started. The 'lid' will have eaves, like shoebox style, but I think that means I'll need eyebrows for the doors if the roof hinge and the door hinge are on the same plane. I'll be able to figure that part out for sure once I see the trailer in real life.

Re: seal - I had it in my head that it'd be cheap and easy to use a pair of gaskets along the top of the 'body' frame and bottom of the roof frame (as well as on the gap filler blocks) but my first search says it won't be half as cheap as I thought. I'll do some more component searching later, might be ok with some silicone foam tape instead. I can definitely mock that up and put a tester in my roof rack. Probably a good way to test the latches I think I want as well.

Re: fiberglass - somewhere around here I have extensive notes on what I'd decided would be best. That'll be the most difficult part by a longshot - I'll bag individual panels, but I'll still have to do at least one wrap after assembly. I should probably pay someone who knows something to help, I only know enough to be dangerous and I shouldn't make my husband help. I'd kinda like to still have a husband to bring camping.

[tony.latham]

Re: fiberglass - somewhere around here I have extensive notes on what I'd decided would be best. That'll be the most difficult part by a longshot

It's not difficult.

https://youtu.be/BJZYGY2he1o?si=NQWY4RmptZ0D7rWj

Tony