Glad to see your project coming along Matt. I'm sure the R-Factor of your walls is significant. Not to mention, downright strong! You're the only DIY composite panels I've seen and am fascinated by your results!
I’m so amazed by your creativity, planning, engineering skills, patience, and follow-through. And the forethought to consider all the small details to ensure it will work with the finished product is also very impressive. Keep it up 🤙🏼 I could not envision ever being able to do something like this 😂
Thanks for the compliments. There is definitely some planning involved, but it's more imagineering than engineering. Haha It's all kind of a big experiment and I get to learn new skills as I meet each challenge along the way👍
Great work Matt. I imagine you’re not taking orders yet for custom builds. Enjoying following every step. I also used the Foamular 1.5” thick all around my truck camper as we winter camp -20 C. We cover the single pane windows with foam insulation plugs. Nothing fancy. Your build is the way to go in my book.
Thanks Marc. I think I had a similar idea for the foam insulation plugs in the single pain windows. I should probably get the windows installed first though 🤔 Most of my insulation concerns were motivated by wanting to beat the heat, but I'm sure we'll have some chilly nights near a ski mountain at some point.
Brings back memories of building my LongEZ. I'm building a bicycle camper trailer pretty much the same way as the way LongEZ is made. But I won't be using fiberglass. That stuff is nasty. Cotton canvas produces even stronger composite. As a matter of fact, the the fillets you've been using on the corners with glass strands, is done with cotton flux in the construction of all Burt Rutan's creations. Looking forward to your next video.
I've been contemplating building a light weight pop-up trailer. Watching for how you actually pop the top! I built a panel insert and remove trailer on the lines of the old Apache trailers, with the basis being an old Coleman Pop-up camper. Using mostly 2 inch thick foam coated with poor-man's fiberglass. It works fine and is very light weight. But - takes a while to assemble and disassemble (about 45 minutes). Watching and enjoying your build. Amazing, Matt.
Hopefully I'll get the popup figured out sooner than later and will be sharing it in the next video. I think getting a good seal between the moving parts is going to be the tricky part. I'm hoping I can go from parked to ready to sleep in less than 2 minutes.
Labor of love my man.. Great work! I've been hooked watching episode to episode. You guys are truly an inspiration bringing your ideals to others. Much respect, stay safe and maybe see y'all out there! 🤙
Hola Amigo's.... I hope to see you on the road soon.... I'm solo overloading in Costa Rica (live Here) but I'm getting ready to travel all over Central. I may cross the gap and drive around Columbia, equator..... not sure if I want to risk Venezuela... Anyway safe travels
Right on. You’re a focused person to be able to do such an impressive undertaking. Are you keeping track of how much you’re throwing at materials? The design looks solid to be able to last for years. I’m almost done stumbling through building a rusty shit van and I wouldn’t ever let you inside to look at it. Lol Mostly found reused materials with a shit understanding of how to build. Good thing it’s an 80s diesel. Maybe I’ll catch ya around the bend down south one of these days.
It's defiantly been slower progress than I anticipated when I started the project. I am keeping track of my materials cost. I haven't added it up yet. Kinda don't want to😅 But I was planning on sharing that info once I get the basic camper done (roof, windows, doors installed) Hopefully, once I get this camper usable I'll be spending more time down south too. Thats the motivation at this point
Great work Matt. May be a naive question, I see all the frames etc, but no pillars to support the weight of the truck roof in an unfortunate event of a rollover. As you know all cars/ trucks come with an A-Pillar and B-Pillar. Thanks. Always enjoyed your work.
Cool to run across this video... I may have the opportunity to pick up this body style of Tundra that has quite a bit of damage from riding out an EF-3 tornado that completely leveled a brick strip mall 50 yards from where it was parked. As a result, the poor old truck doesn't have a straight body panel anywhere on it. LOL! Nothing terrible...just lots of dents and scratches. I was actually thinking about scrapping the bed and doing something similar to your project. I have even pondered cutting the back of the cab off and having a crawl through. I will have to check out the rest of your videos when I have a little more time! What do you think that your final camper weight is going to be? Are you going to need to add air bags or beefier springs? Thanks for sharing!
I'm expecting the camper to weigh 1200 pounds empty. I will probably exceed the weight capacity of the truck by the time it is fully loaded for adventures, so I may replace the old worn-out leaf springs with a slightly higher rated, new set. Gonna wait to see how she sits when I'm done
Hey, Matt! I can't remember if you've covered this in a previous video, but do you have a rough idea of what you expect the dry weight of your camper to be? I know you've been thoughtful about weight, but I just can't remember if you had an estimate and what it would be? Thanks for posting! Can't wait for more!!!
I have a T100...and the issue has always been finding a camper to fit it. Nice way to to get around that problem. I wonder if you could build this with just foam and fiberglass? nice project.
You definitely could, but for my application ( occasionally off-roading down overgrown trails) I would want much thicker fiberglass than what I am putting over the wood. You may also need to consider a more structural foam. I think it would be an easier, faster way of doing it, but the cost may be considerably more depending on the materials you choose.
Awesome work Matt! I'm guessing that the bed can only be slept in while the camper is popped up? I'm lazy and have a lance camper I got for free and rebuilt / repaired kinda .lol
Free and easy... sounds like the perfect camper. The space between the bed and ceiling would definitely be uncomfortable when its not popped up, but hopefully everything goes according to plan it takes less than 2 minuets to go from parking to popped up and ready to sleep.
Build got put on hold for a while, but I'm back at it. The popup has proved to be quite a challenge. If the new plan works out I should have the popup done in a couple weeks. New video will probably be a couple weeks after that.
At least a few more months to get the roof and doors on, but it will probably never really be "finished". I have intensions of doing a lot of drawers and mounts for different things in the various compartments. There will be an electrical system and water system, storage under the camper, and awning... always more projects.
Hello from Australia! I have been looking for ideas how to build my slide-on for my Isuzu D-Max. Great channel! I will follow your suggestions. One question: if I have googled this correctly, then the T100 has a payload of 1580 lbs. How much do you expect your build to weigh? Waiting for your next video!
The Payload capacity for my T100 is 1950 lbs. I expect to camper to weigh 1200 lbs empty. We dropped some weight by getting rid of the original truck bed, but I think Ill probably still end up a bit over the GVWR when fully loaded
@@TheTravelingTogetherJournal Thank you! It looks very well done for sure and I will follow you with what I am doing. Albeit in a much simpler version, basically just a box wth a pop top, to go on the tray of my D-Max, 8ft x 6ft footprint.
kinda like what I'm doing except i cut the back off my honda passport...and i do not have your skill set or finances...this is reall cool.. I can't find to many builds like this ..and none the way im studding out my sedan delivery honda fishing mobile...great work
@@TheTravelingTogetherJournal yeah..except for the part its not running yet..its designed as to carry my fishing tackle here at my lifes twilight..i dont want to load or unload...just get in it and go..my third build..but I'm trying...
I have a truck camper that a tree limb went through the bathroom ceiling and it screwed it up - are you interested in roof ac, fridge 3 way, 3 burner stove , heater?
I bought a 6 Gallon kit consisting of 4 gallons epoxy resin and 2 gallons of non-blushing hardener for $404 USD. If I did the conversion correctly I paid $18 USD/ Liter
I'm expecting it to weigh around 1200 pounds empty. Lots of people make much simpler wood campers with lower quality glue and no epoxy. They usually have a heavier frame work sheeted with ply wood and painted. some are probably lighter, some are probably heavier. Unfortunately I'm not an engineer, so this is all based off what I think will probably be strong enough.
How is the cab over section strong enough to hold both of you and the mattress without bending under the weight and resting on top of the cab or even breaking? It doesn't seem to have enough structure...I'm not being critical at all, I'm just ignorant. 🤪 I really want to make one of these myself and need to understand the structural part better to make sure whatever I build will work! I've seen people make their panels with ONLY the foam sandwiched between fiberglass. Did you consider doing that or not, and if not why? Again, I'm thinking that structurally your panels should be more structurally strong yet thin, whereas the ones I saw were two layers of 1" foam board glued together with staggered joints and then coated on each side with the fiberglass fabric and epoxy. Certainly you'd need either wood or metal to be able to screw things into like the air struts and drawer slides, but do you think the rest of it could possibly be made with that 95% foam board method I'm referencing or not? And if not could you explain why? Your build is TOTALLY inspiring me! I'm now subscribed and eager for your next installment. I've already learned a TON from this series, and your method of creating a hard side popup with the struts and latches INSIDE vs outside is fricken brilliant! No drag on the outside, yet very clean on the inside. Curious why you didn't mount the air struts you put in the middle all the way to the front so they're completely at the head of the bed where they're less likely to get kicked and damaged, as even though the front angles in to 60", it still appears there would be enough room to do that... Any and all explanations and/or responses to all these questions would be greatly appreciated! LOVE THIS BUILD! One more question: it looks like everything is getting a coat of epoxy, one layer of the fiberglass fabric and then another coat of epoxy. I've seen others double that, but obviously you don't feel that's necessary. Maybe the others are doing that because they're only using foam so that it creates more structure? If you know anything about that I'd love to hear your comments on that. Thanks!
I'm going to try to answer all your questions. If I miss something feel free to re-ask. also, I am not an engineer. everything I'm doing is an experiment. You can definitely build a camper out of just foam and fiberglass. Most builds you see on RUclips are using XPS foam board. It's not the ideal material for this but its a lot cheaper and more available than structural foam board. If I were going to build a camper like this I would definitely use a heavier weight glass than what I am using. The laminated foam board gets quite rigid and strong, but a single layer of 6oz cloth over xps core wont have much impact resistance when it comes to little rocks or anything hard getting kicked up into it. The main reason i didn't use xps foam board was because it wasn't available in California when I started my build. I didn't mount the airstruts all the way forward because the camper gets narrow at the front and they would have been in the way. It would have been better for the lifting functionality to have them all the way forward as you suggest but i didn't plan ahead for that. I think the cabover will be strong enough, but like i said, its all an experiment. the 1x2 stringers aren't particularly strong on their own, but glued onto the 3/8" ply underneath and the 5mm ply on top it becomes it becomes much stronger and then soaking all that wood in epoxy really adds to the strength as well. Try searching for videos explaining load bearing composite panels. I don't feel like im knowledgable enough to explain the physics here, but I remember watching some videos about it a while back.
@@TheTravelingTogetherJournal Thank you! Yeah, I just can't see how you could so the pop up hardware without at least some imbedded wood or metal to screw into. As for the impact resistance, I was thinking it might be a good idea to sandwich the forward leading edges of foam with something like thin diamond sheet metal or something like that. It would add to the weight, but only on those front edges. The sides would all still just be the foam/fiberglass combo. I watched Ambition Strikes' build where they built a kind of exoskeleton that they glued and riveted their panels into. They did steel sheet on the outside and plywood on the inside instead of using fiberglass. LOT more expensive and tools/skills I don't have! Anyway, thanks again.
@@carolewarner101 Fiberglass is pretty awesome stuff. You can make it thick enough to have good impact resistance, but you are adding weight and cost. You can also glass on hardware instead of screwing or bolting it on. we have 32 inches of head room in the cabover.
Stock truck was averaging around 19 mpg. with the camper it's averaging just over 15 mpg. I normally drive 70mph on the highway and I still do with the camper.
Cant Wait To See The Finish Product👍
Glued, Screwed and Glassed! 👊
Killer design. I LOVE it!! Nice job, thanks for sharing.
Good for you! I wish I had that kind of patience.
Glad to see your project coming along Matt. I'm sure the R-Factor of your walls is significant. Not to mention, downright strong! You're the only DIY composite panels I've seen and am fascinated by your results!
thanks John
@@TheTravelingTogetherJournal I'm subscribed and try to keep up with your projects
That method of construction looks super strong. While probably having good weight.
thanks. I'm happy with the results so far. Only down side is that it's very time consuming.
I’m so amazed by your creativity, planning, engineering skills, patience, and follow-through. And the forethought to consider all the small details to ensure it will work with the finished product is also very impressive. Keep it up 🤙🏼
I could not envision ever being able to do something like this 😂
Thanks for the compliments. There is definitely some planning involved, but it's more imagineering than engineering. Haha
It's all kind of a big experiment and I get to learn new skills as I meet each challenge along the way👍
Great job so far! You're really testing your patience with all that glass work! 😄🤙
You are doing an awesome job
You are quite the craftsman Matt well done!!! Hope to see this new camper in person some day!!!
Thanks Matt. I'm looking forward to the day I can drive it somewhere and use it 😁
I just found your channel. I saw the T100 and had to like and subscribe immediately.
All time favorite truck. Wish I never sold my 98.
Very nice work. Love the build quality. Thanks for sharing.
Great work Matt. I imagine you’re not taking orders yet for custom builds. Enjoying following every step. I also used the Foamular 1.5” thick all around my truck camper as we winter camp -20 C. We cover the single pane windows with foam insulation plugs. Nothing fancy. Your build is the way to go in my book.
Thanks Marc. I think I had a similar idea for the foam insulation plugs in the single pain windows. I should probably get the windows installed first though 🤔
Most of my insulation concerns were motivated by wanting to beat the heat, but I'm sure we'll have some chilly nights near a ski mountain at some point.
Cool camper and great ideas. We are looking forward for the next videos
Digging the CAD integration into the video 🙌
Thanks for the input
Brings back memories of building my LongEZ.
I'm building a bicycle camper trailer pretty much the same way as the way LongEZ is made.
But I won't be using fiberglass. That stuff is nasty. Cotton canvas produces even stronger composite.
As a matter of fact, the the fillets you've been using on the corners with glass strands, is done with cotton flux in the construction of all Burt Rutan's creations.
Looking forward to your next video.
Good luck on your build!
Wow! Impressive work Matt! Looks like it's coming along Fibertastically. hehe.
😂
Great to see an update from you guys. Thanks!
Great job,good head work!!!
I've been contemplating building a light weight pop-up trailer. Watching for how you actually pop the top! I built a panel insert and remove trailer on the lines of the old Apache trailers, with the basis being an old Coleman Pop-up camper. Using mostly 2 inch thick foam coated with poor-man's fiberglass. It works fine and is very light weight. But - takes a while to assemble and disassemble (about 45 minutes). Watching and enjoying your build. Amazing, Matt.
Hopefully I'll get the popup figured out sooner than later and will be sharing it in the next video. I think getting a good seal between the moving parts is going to be the tricky part.
I'm hoping I can go from parked to ready to sleep in less than 2 minutes.
Great project can’t wait to see what else you do to it. Excellent work my friend big shout out to you from Mexico.
Thanks Juan!
Bad ass can’t wait until next time!
New build update is out: ruclips.net/video/GV-bG3O56RY/видео.html
Matt, that's just amazing! Finally got around to watching this episode. Can't wait to see it done and on the road!!
you and me both 😅
Glad you are making some progress. Great design and attention to detail. I will be glad to see the finished product.
Thanks Franklin!
Matt what’s going on man I need the next episode. This build is amazing!!! Keep up the great work dude
The next build video should be out in a week... maybe two😅
The new build update is out: ruclips.net/video/GV-bG3O56RY/видео.html
Labor of love my man.. Great work! I've been hooked watching episode to episode. You guys are truly an inspiration bringing your ideals to others. Much respect, stay safe and maybe see y'all out there! 🤙
Thanks for taking the time to share some positivity, Jeremy.
This is a really cool build Matt. Nicely done and filmed.
Well done Matt! 👍im Loving the build and editing 😀
Thanks Cory! Glad you are enjoying the build videos
This is great video for sharing, keep sending new update. keep safe and stay connected, sending my full support as always...
Would love to see how the pop up works when you are up to it. Thanks
New build update is out: ruclips.net/video/GV-bG3O56RY/видео.html
Nice work, looking forward to the next one.
Hola Amigo's.... I hope to see you on the road soon.... I'm solo overloading in Costa Rica (live Here) but I'm getting ready to travel all over Central. I may cross the gap and drive around Columbia, equator..... not sure if I want to risk Venezuela... Anyway safe travels
Wow! sounds like a great trip. Have fun and safe travels to you too.
Well done !!
Looks great. Keep up the good work
thanks Jason 👍
Bad ass dude 👏👏👏👏💫💫🤝🤝🏕
Your good !
Nice job
Right on. You’re a focused person to be able to do such an impressive undertaking. Are you keeping track of how much you’re throwing at materials? The design looks solid to be able to last for years. I’m almost done stumbling through building a rusty shit van and I wouldn’t ever let you inside to look at it. Lol
Mostly found reused materials with a shit understanding of how to build. Good thing it’s an 80s diesel.
Maybe I’ll catch ya around the bend down south one of these days.
It's defiantly been slower progress than I anticipated when I started the project. I am keeping track of my materials cost. I haven't added it up yet. Kinda don't want to😅 But I was planning on sharing that info once I get the basic camper done (roof, windows, doors installed)
Hopefully, once I get this camper usable I'll be spending more time down south too. Thats the motivation at this point
Continue on...
Haven't seen much of yous lately hope you are doing good
We're doing well. Thanks
The next build update should be out in a week... maybe two😅
Nice Dude!
Just Amazing🤘
I hope y'all are doing well.
Fun stuff... hopefully those chemicals won't be leeching toxic fumes later on, in your journeys...
I think we should be good. The foam and epoxy are meant to be used in boat building (confined living spaces).
Great work Matt. May be a naive question, I see all the frames etc, but no pillars to support the weight of the truck roof in an unfortunate event of a rollover. As you know all cars/ trucks come with an A-Pillar and B-Pillar. Thanks. Always enjoyed your work.
There is no intension of riding in the camper while underway. We will be in the cab with its unaltered A, B, and C pillars.
Cool to run across this video... I may have the opportunity to pick up this body style of Tundra that has quite a bit of damage from riding out an EF-3 tornado that completely leveled a brick strip mall 50 yards from where it was parked. As a result, the poor old truck doesn't have a straight body panel anywhere on it. LOL! Nothing terrible...just lots of dents and scratches. I was actually thinking about scrapping the bed and doing something similar to your project. I have even pondered cutting the back of the cab off and having a crawl through. I will have to check out the rest of your videos when I have a little more time! What do you think that your final camper weight is going to be? Are you going to need to add air bags or beefier springs?
Thanks for sharing!
I'm expecting the camper to weigh 1200 pounds empty. I will probably exceed the weight capacity of the truck by the time it is fully loaded for adventures, so I may replace the old worn-out leaf springs with a slightly higher rated, new set. Gonna wait to see how she sits when I'm done
@@TheTravelingTogetherJournal Nice. I’ll keep following along!
Awesome!
Thanks!
Hey, Matt! I can't remember if you've covered this in a previous video, but do you have a rough idea of what you expect the dry weight of your camper to be? I know you've been thoughtful about weight, but I just can't remember if you had an estimate and what it would be? Thanks for posting! Can't wait for more!!!
Hi Scott. I'm expecting the dry weight to be around 1200 lbs.
So it will probably be more like 1400😂
I have a T100...and the issue has always been finding a camper to fit it. Nice way to to get around that problem. I wonder if you could build this with just foam and fiberglass? nice project.
You definitely could, but for my application ( occasionally off-roading down overgrown trails) I would want much thicker fiberglass than what I am putting over the wood. You may also need to consider a more structural foam. I think it would be an easier, faster way of doing it, but the cost may be considerably more depending on the materials you choose.
Good video. Subbed.
Awesome work Matt! I'm guessing that the bed can only be slept in while the camper is popped up? I'm lazy and have a lance camper I got for free and rebuilt / repaired kinda .lol
Free and easy... sounds like the perfect camper.
The space between the bed and ceiling would definitely be uncomfortable when its not popped up, but hopefully everything goes according to plan it takes less than 2 minuets to go from parking to popped up and ready to sleep.
nice
Any update on the build? No pressure for a new vid just super curious on the progress?
Build got put on hold for a while, but I'm back at it. The popup has proved to be quite a challenge. If the new plan works out I should have the popup done in a couple weeks. New video will probably be a couple weeks after that.
New build update is out: ruclips.net/video/GV-bG3O56RY/видео.html
Well done! Finally a new video. How long do you think you'll need to finish the build?
At least a few more months to get the roof and doors on, but it will probably never really be "finished". I have intensions of doing a lot of drawers and mounts for different things in the various compartments. There will be an electrical system and water system, storage under the camper, and awning... always more projects.
Hello from Australia! I have been looking for ideas how to build my slide-on for my Isuzu D-Max. Great channel! I will follow your suggestions. One question: if I have googled this correctly, then the T100 has a payload of 1580 lbs. How much do you expect your build to weigh? Waiting for your next video!
The Payload capacity for my T100 is 1950 lbs. I expect to camper to weigh 1200 lbs empty. We dropped some weight by getting rid of the original truck bed, but I think Ill probably still end up a bit over the GVWR when fully loaded
@@TheTravelingTogetherJournal Thank you! It looks very well done for sure and I will follow you with what I am doing. Albeit in a much simpler version, basically just a box wth a pop top, to go on the tray of my D-Max, 8ft x 6ft footprint.
@@silkeandtorsten Nice. Simple is good
I finally weighed it and go into detail in my latest video: ruclips.net/video/Bwbfe8-MII0/видео.html
kinda like what I'm doing except i cut the back off my honda passport...and i do not have your skill set or finances...this is reall cool.. I can't find to many builds like this ..and none the way im studding out my sedan delivery honda fishing mobile...great work
Thanks. sounds like you have the coolest passport around 👍
@@TheTravelingTogetherJournal yeah..except for the part its not running yet..its designed as to carry my fishing tackle here at my lifes twilight..i dont want to load or unload...just get in it and go..my third build..but I'm trying...
@@cag1763 nice. get in and go... that's the best
I have a truck camper that a tree limb went through the bathroom ceiling and it screwed it up - are you interested in roof ac, fridge 3 way, 3 burner stove , heater?
That's super nice of you, but I already scrounged up most of my appliances from some discarded campers in my area.
Matt, here in the EU we pay 45 USD/ litre for epoxy. What do you guys pay for it over there?
I bought a 6 Gallon kit consisting of 4 gallons epoxy resin and 2 gallons of non-blushing hardener for $404 USD. If I did the conversion correctly I paid $18 USD/ Liter
Is all that glue and epoxy necessary? This thing must super heavy, 2000lbs empty?
I'm expecting it to weigh around 1200 pounds empty.
Lots of people make much simpler wood campers with lower quality glue and no epoxy. They usually have a heavier frame work sheeted with ply wood and painted. some are probably lighter, some are probably heavier.
Unfortunately I'm not an engineer, so this is all based off what I think will probably be strong enough.
I finally weighed it and go into detail in my latest video: ruclips.net/video/Bwbfe8-MII0/видео.html
How is the cab over section strong enough to hold both of you and the mattress without bending under the weight and resting on top of the cab or even breaking? It doesn't seem to have enough structure...I'm not being critical at all, I'm just ignorant. 🤪 I really want to make one of these myself and need to understand the structural part better to make sure whatever I build will work! I've seen people make their panels with ONLY the foam sandwiched between fiberglass. Did you consider doing that or not, and if not why? Again, I'm thinking that structurally your panels should be more structurally strong yet thin, whereas the ones I saw were two layers of 1" foam board glued together with staggered joints and then coated on each side with the fiberglass fabric and epoxy. Certainly you'd need either wood or metal to be able to screw things into like the air struts and drawer slides, but do you think the rest of it could possibly be made with that 95% foam board method I'm referencing or not? And if not could you explain why?
Your build is TOTALLY inspiring me! I'm now subscribed and eager for your next installment. I've already learned a TON from this series, and your method of creating a hard side popup with the struts and latches INSIDE vs outside is fricken brilliant! No drag on the outside, yet very clean on the inside. Curious why you didn't mount the air struts you put in the middle all the way to the front so they're completely at the head of the bed where they're less likely to get kicked and damaged, as even though the front angles in to 60", it still appears there would be enough room to do that... Any and all explanations and/or responses to all these questions would be greatly appreciated! LOVE THIS BUILD!
One more question: it looks like everything is getting a coat of epoxy, one layer of the fiberglass fabric and then another coat of epoxy. I've seen others double that, but obviously you don't feel that's necessary. Maybe the others are doing that because they're only using foam so that it creates more structure? If you know anything about that I'd love to hear your comments on that. Thanks!
I'm going to try to answer all your questions. If I miss something feel free to re-ask. also, I am not an engineer. everything I'm doing is an experiment.
You can definitely build a camper out of just foam and fiberglass. Most builds you see on RUclips are using XPS foam board. It's not the ideal material for this but its a lot cheaper and more available than structural foam board. If I were going to build a camper like this I would definitely use a heavier weight glass than what I am using. The laminated foam board gets quite rigid and strong, but a single layer of 6oz cloth over xps core wont have much impact resistance when it comes to little rocks or anything hard getting kicked up into it.
The main reason i didn't use xps foam board was because it wasn't available in California when I started my build.
I didn't mount the airstruts all the way forward because the camper gets narrow at the front and they would have been in the way. It would have been better for the lifting functionality to have them all the way forward as you suggest but i didn't plan ahead for that.
I think the cabover will be strong enough, but like i said, its all an experiment. the 1x2 stringers aren't particularly strong on their own, but glued onto the 3/8" ply underneath and the 5mm ply on top it becomes it becomes much stronger and then soaking all that wood in epoxy really adds to the strength as well.
Try searching for videos explaining load bearing composite panels. I don't feel like im knowledgable enough to explain the physics here, but I remember watching some videos about it a while back.
@@TheTravelingTogetherJournal Thank you! Yeah, I just can't see how you could so the pop up hardware without at least some imbedded wood or metal to screw into. As for the impact resistance, I was thinking it might be a good idea to sandwich the forward leading edges of foam with something like thin diamond sheet metal or something like that. It would add to the weight, but only on those front edges. The sides would all still just be the foam/fiberglass combo. I watched Ambition Strikes' build where they built a kind of exoskeleton that they glued and riveted their panels into. They did steel sheet on the outside and plywood on the inside instead of using fiberglass. LOT more expensive and tools/skills I don't have! Anyway, thanks again.
@@TheTravelingTogetherJournal How much headroom do you have in your sleep area with the top up?
@@carolewarner101 Fiberglass is pretty awesome stuff. You can make it thick enough to have good impact resistance, but you are adding weight and cost. You can also glass on hardware instead of screwing or bolting it on.
we have 32 inches of head room in the cabover.
@@TheTravelingTogetherJournal That's more than I thought!
How did the camper effect mpg ? Did you still run 70-80mph?
Stock truck was averaging around 19 mpg. with the camper it's averaging just over 15 mpg.
I normally drive 70mph on the highway and I still do with the camper.
How heavy would you say this whole build is?
I go into the weight of the camper and overall build in this video at 1:15. ruclips.net/video/Bwbfe8-MII0/видео.html
what do you think the camper part weights?
I'm guessing it will be around 1200 lbs
@@TheTravelingTogetherJournal ty
What's your estimated weight of the finished camper?
My estimated weight is 1200Lbs
Can I pick your brain? I have an s10 I wanna build out and would love some pointers. If you want I could give you my email.
I'm happy to try to help. Do you have any particular questions?
Great build. Keep it up!