ultra lightweight floating popup camper

[coal_burner]

Oh I almost forgot

During the last 2 nights I made a foam and fiberglass roof panel. This required about 4 hours of actual labor, 22 hours of curing time between the top and bottom sides of the roof, and 11 beers (4 homebrew, 7 bud light).
Boy the smell of epoxy makes me thirsty

[angib]

How about two 2"x2"x3/16" square tubes, side by side? Strong enough and only 2" high.

Andrew

[coal_burner]

???????
I have a hitch that can attach to anything that is exactly 2" wide but I have no idea where to order one that can handle A pair of tubes that are 4" wide total.
A little bit of help sourcing this and i'me "down wit' 'dat"
IE: I like the idea but don't know where to buy it.


It's 10:30 friday night and i'm 17 beers into it. Can I count those as build beers because they are helping me recuperate after build sessions???

[angib]

I like the idea but don't know where to buy it.

I must admit I hadn't thought that far into it! It would be easy enough to weld one single tube into a slot cut into the ends of both tubes, but I suspect you're trying to avoid aluminium welding?

Andrew

[coal_burner]

I think I have finally come to A decision on my new tongue. It will be 2x2x3/16" square steel tube bolted to the bottom of the trailer. I found A local place that can bend A 6" offset into it so it will still fit my hitch and tow level. Filling it with spray in expanding foam should keep water out of it. I know that bending the tongue should weaken it a little, but does anyone (angib) have any numbers to show by how much?

The realtors have been showing my house alot over the past two weeks so I haven't been able to work on the camper as much as I would have liked to, but there has been some progress.
Here is A picture of my new roof panel being weighed. It is 5FT x 9.5FT and weighs in at only 19.4 LBS. I've done some simple destructive tests, and sample peices react similarly to 1/2" plywood (CD).



I figured that if the roof was made perfectly flat, it would eventually sag a little in the middle. Structurally, this was O.K. but aesthetically this wouldn't work. I decided to form the roof with just A little bit of A bow in it.

I started by cutting three pieces of tongue and groove foam panels about 4" oversized. (2 beers) I epoxied the panels together using 5 minute quickset epoxy.(1 beer)
This new 5 1/2 x 9 1/2 Ft foam panel was layed on the floor with A 2x4 underneath it in the center running lengthwise. A 2x4 layed on top of it on each edge assured that it would bow down 1 1/2 inches on each edge. (1 beer)
I layed fiberglass cloth on top of it and wetted it out with epoxy.(4 beers & lots of epoxy fumes)
The panel needed to be cut oversized to insure that There was enough room for the edge 2x4s to rest on it without getting in my way while wetting out the fiberglass. It worked perfectly. The roof panel wasn't stuck to the 2x4s or the carpet.(I accidentally did glue the trailer frame to the carpet once last year & it took a couple of hours to remove)
The next day, I leaned the panel up against the wall and epoxied 2 layers of fiberglass cloth to it.(6 beers)
here is A picture of the half wetted out roof panel on the second day


I'm planning on having 2 ft tall by 4 ft long windows (hinged at the top) on each side of the camper. I'm still trying to weigh the benefits of having A 2 ft tall by 3 ft wide fixed window on the front. Does this sound like A good idea, or will debris thrown up by the tow vehicle end up scratching it up & making it look ugly? Would another window Even be noticeable with the large side windows already there?

[Tcurr]

Build is coming along. 24 beers in a case 24 hours in a day coincidence?

[angib]

I know that bending the tongue should weaken it a little, but does anyone (angib) have any numbers to show by how much?

If it's just a couple of shallow bends, I doubt they will make any great difference. The most heavily loaded part of the tongue is right under the front of the frame and as long as you keep the first bend away from there by a bit, it will make no difference.

Andrew

[Randy S. Hager]

Hey that remided me of the airplanes that guy out in the Mojave desert makes. Yea Burt Rutan. This is the exact method of construction that was used in the making of his Voyager round the world unrefueled record holder. To help with heat creap as its known, you paint it black and leave it out in the sun to bake for a while. Just don't let it get above 180 degrees. Thats about were EPS melts. If you watch the build up of epoxy it should be light and strong. I've been into homebuilt aircraft for most of my life. I keep tabs on tax payers money by being an inspector on the Next Generation of Stealth Fighter the F-35.

[coal_burner]

Now that the lower half of the camper is done (except for the tongue), i,ve started assembling the cap.
I duct taped pieces of 1/2" foam around the outside of the camper to act as spacers, and allow me to use the bottom half as a form for the top half.

http://tnttt.com/album_ ... c_id=28884

I centered the roof on top of the camper and hung the foam walls of the cap using 3" deck screws. then I sanded all of the foam overlap down and rounded off the corners with a belt sander.

The screws are used primarily for dry fitting the foam sheets and clamping them together while A slurry of epoxy and glass balloons that is slathered between the sheets hardens and gived everything rigidity.
Most of the screws are removed after the slurry of "wet micro" hardens.



You can see where the roof panel on the left overhangs the wall before the sanding, and the roof and wall panel on the right are smoothed and rounded over, and ready for 'glassing.
The fact that my doorframe looks trapezoidal is just an artifact of the camera angle. the door itself will be a regular rectangular door.

On an intimately build related note: bottling my homebrew beer became tedious, so I now just make it in 5 gallon kegs. This has made it much more difficult to determine exactly how many beers this step of the build took me.


Progress will probably really slow down after the next couple of days, as Michigan is getting too cold for epoxy to flow and wet-out fiberglass properly. I could heat my garage, but with the amount of ventilation that I need to handle the epoxy fumes, I would probably burn through at least $20.00 worth electricity A day(the epoxy has to be kept above 60 degrees F. for 2 days until it cures).

[Bad-Dawg]

OK... I have to ask... Why do you want it to float? I mean if you want to camp on the water wouldn't it be better to build a Jim Michelak Campjon? It's a boat with large camping arrangements and is also easy to make. No reason you could not camp in it on the trailer too.

Just curious...

[coal_burner]

Originally, I was only trying to find something that was extremely light weight, and had A comfortable queen sized bed.
My tow vehicle is A 2005 VW Golf Diesel 5 speed stick that has only 100 horsepower.
I figured that the lighter the trailer, the less abusive towing it would be on my clutch.
foam and fiberglass seemed to be the lightest option.
After coming up with A torsion box deck design, I realized that the deck could displace alot of water, and the trailer might just float. I ran the math and lo and behold, it would float just fine. Floating and trailering require two radically different centers of gravity. Seeing how difficult this would be, I just had to do it.

now that i've pondered the possible uses, i'm hooked on the concept.

1- I could boat out to gull island in the middle of Lake St. Claire and be the only camper partying with all of the boaters (O.K. I like to be different)

2- I could camp out in the ultimate private campsite in the middle of an inland lake.

3- I could remove the top and drift down the rifle river while all of my friends are canoeing.

4- A floating firepit that attaches to the back would be so weird that it would be cool.

5-floating docks in the middle of a lake while camping are cool. My trailer could double as that.

I haven't come up with A number six, but i'm sure someone will, and i'll then just have to do it.

[Bad-Dawg]

Ahh, VERY clever! I know a guy that built a small boat the same way for fishing in ponds. He puts a 15 horsepower motor on it and it just flies along! With your low "transom"... Err door? Consider a trolling motor instead.

Light is good!

[angib]

After coming up with A torsion box deck design, I realized that the deck could displace alot of water, and the trailer might just float. I ran the math and lo and behold, it would float just fine.

Have you tried putting the weight of the trailer to one end? You may not need much draught (depth in the water) to float with the weight centred, but when you step on and off, you'll be moving a significant part of the weight (you, plus anyone else onboard) to the door and it would be a shame if the trailer then sank! If you need help with the calcs, let me know, as I am/was a naval architect.

Andrew

[coal_burner]

I finally received the videos that my brother took of me trying to capsize the trailer.

Code: Select all

<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dDBqTJTE5m0"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dDBqTJTE5m0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object>

[coal_burner]

O.K. that didn't work

try this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDBqTJTE5m0

I also tried to capsize the trailer by standing on the wheel and leaning back pulling on the wall, then jerking and bouncing up and down like a crazed orangutan. Unfortunately the camcorder wasn't running.