This is an awesome diy pop-up! I am working on building my skoolie right now on my channel. One thing I have heard about insolating is that you always want to minimize your thermal bridging. I think if your design could have allowed it, you could put the foam on top of the metal suports to reduce thermal bridging and also this would help with rigidity for the floor and could likely hold more weight.
Thank you! Yea thermal bridging was one of the main things that drew a lot of the design considerations and I discussed my material choices stemming a lot from this specific consideration in the longer format videos. In a perfect world I have just made the the entire frame, walls, roof and door from carbon fiber and a better more advanced foam and had 0 thermal bridging but that’s just not really possible in a driveway with what I have. I tried to consider ways of putting foam around the aluminum first before covering everything in carbon fiber but it’s already 96x56 inches on the exterior which is pretty bulky on top of a truck already so encapsulating the aluminum would just make that worse. The whole principle behind thermal bridging is the energy as heat will always try to find the path of least resistance so it’s just about making the path as small as possible. The whole aluminum frame is now raptor lined which should help a little bit especially because it’s a extremely thick urethane based rather than regular paint but all in all while potentially there may have been some optimization in my design to this end I think it’s working out pretty well and a lot of the efficiencies gained in thermal regulation from thermal bridging optimization are negligible in the cold especially because it’s such a small space and 2 bodies create a massive amount of heat. But on a bus where everything is already metal and body heat isn’t as impactful as the ambient air it’s exponentially more important and you’re definitely right it should be considered.
@@DIY_Davy well said! Great explanation of your thinking. I also have no idea where you live and if you plan on using it year round. I live in NY and love the winter so I have to plan for that. I'll have to check out your longer video on it!
@@kylethecreator I appreciate it! Yea while I probably will use it in the somewhat cold during the occasional trip here and there during the winter that’s definitely not my typical use as I’m predominantly a nice weather camper/“overlander” so will probably just bring along a heater for temperatures under around 40 or so. That being said I do have high hopes for the cold weather ability, just not as high expectations.
Great design👍👍...what I don't understans is, all that technical designand process, you did not bother making a wide work bench instead of working on a grass lawn😋.
Do you have any models that you completely finished with nice finishing touches. If so, let me know I'll buy one your price of 4000 is how much they should be. Thank you.
Thanks! There are quite a few things I would have done differently and I can’t go into all of them in a comment but I still don’t have a solution for everything. Now having tested in everything extreme weather condition I think I’ve pretty much come across every potential issue the roof camper will face. I would have probably made the overall length it a few inches longer to have a larger opening to pass through the bed and the camper while still maintaining the full sleeping length. I wish I had vacuum bagged all the carbon fiber components instead of the hand wet layup. I think this would have produced a much better looking and stronger overall construction overall as well as probably cutting down on composite construction time by a significant margin. I also wish I could have sourced aluminum extrusion for the frame instead of the tubing to provide more utility and look much nicer but there isn’t anything available off the shelf that’s not double the weight of rectangular tubing. But I probably could have found something lighter coming directly from China if I scoured for a week or so. Overall it gets quite a bit more hot than a fabric roof tent in extreme heats but really excels in the winter retaining a lot more heat and having absolutely no condensation on any surface inside the camper. It performs about the same as a fabric style tent in normal weather.
Thank you. Yes I had to take a break from social media for a while for school and work but I’m just about wrapped up with the “final” 3D model and drawings for plans to release along with my list of materials
Hi, has there been any progress/interest in using your design to make these campers commercially available? Love the design and can’t afford to buy the current rooftop campers on the market!
Awesome design !!! Trying to make a copy of this for myself nowadays... How did you insulate the tip of the triangle side walls I think there will be some gaps at the tips
Thanks! So like all the other panels the triangular panels have an exterior aluminum frame. I just welded that frame then traced the interior of the triangle the same way as the other panels. Because I also welded that inside edge of the tip as well I had to terminate the tip of the triangle with a very small flat section to match that. But after I glued all the edges of the foam to the aluminum any small gap like that was just filled up. Let me know if that answers your question
Can you use FRP honeycomb paneling instead of carbon fiber? Or was there a reason you went with carbon fiber instead? Thanks. Look forward to the CAD drawings.
Yea you definitely could, it was significantly cheaper for me to make the carbon panels the way I did, than to purchase really any kind of comparable composite panel like an frp honeycomb but if you had a good source that was priced well or just weren’t willing to laminate the panels yourself it would be a really good alternative to the composite I used. There are also polypropene honeycomb panels which I wasn’t super familiar with at the time of building. These would have been really good to use as the roof, door, and wall panels because they’re pretty cheap, light and strong enough for those sections. I’d be hesitant to use them on the floor without some added support or without going a little bit thicker on the core thickness. I have the complete CAD model and some technical drawings available on my website: diydavy.com if you’re interesting.
Hey I'm working on a similar hard-side roof thing! I'm interested to know if the floor felt ridged/robust enough being mostly that foam core carbon fiber sandwich Looks really good BTW!
Thanks! That's awesome! I have 3 floor sections 54x46, 54x24, and 54x12 each panel is 1 inch foam with 4 plys of 5.7 oz plain weave all with 1inch aluminum framing the border with an epoxy layer between the carbon and the tubing. The largest section is where my feet go so could really never have much weight on it to reference the feel. But my 54x24 and 54x12 inch are plenty strong enough to support 2 people (around 320lbs combined weight) with reasonable weight distribution and a mattress (ie. both people not both kneeling in the center of the same panel at once, etc.) That being said for a very short period we both happened to be kneeling in the same point on one panel and i heard a very faint crack. So while I'm sure it would be fine, I added an aluminum 1x1 square tube that slides in and out of the way along with the panels under the larger panel just for piece of mind because I had anticipated that potentially happening and have a channel that can house those supports on my roof rack. The same thing could be done by adding an additional support within the panel. So much strength is gained and lost to a lot of invariability especially when hand-laminating all the fabric because of this and the complexity of composite sandwich panels. So the subsequent material properties are extremely difficult to calculate for this type of DIY application and I really can't give you more than my specific layup and application works for me in my use case. Hope this helps.
That is great info! Agree to agree on the variability thing haha. But I'm not about to pay for pre-preg or actual foam core. Those prices are not for DIY-ers haha. Mine is wood, fiberglass (because I'm cheap). For core I'm playing with foam insulation like yours and a thick paper honeycomb sheet I found. Idk could save some weight or just be terrible haha. I'll keep you in the loop when I get a chunk of this thing built!
definitely, I looked into the vinyl foam core and already laminated carbon sheets and sure they’re better but not 10x the cost better. I’m sure some of the cheaper honeycombs out there could be used instead of the foam to create an equally strong or stronger panel for similar cost and lighter weight. I was after a maximally insulating and minimally thermally conductive camper overall so was drawn to the foam, but in retrospect the carbon and air between the layers with honeycomb would probably be plenty for insulating. Keep me updated, I would definitely be interested to hear how the honeycomb performs
This is an awesome diy pop-up! I am working on building my skoolie right now on my channel. One thing I have heard about insolating is that you always want to minimize your thermal bridging. I think if your design could have allowed it, you could put the foam on top of the metal suports to reduce thermal bridging and also this would help with rigidity for the floor and could likely hold more weight.
Thank you! Yea thermal bridging was one of the main things that drew a lot of the design considerations and I discussed my material choices stemming a lot from this specific consideration in the longer format videos. In a perfect world I have just made the the entire frame, walls, roof and door from carbon fiber and a better more advanced foam and had 0 thermal bridging but that’s just not really possible in a driveway with what I have. I tried to consider ways of putting foam around the aluminum first before covering everything in carbon fiber but it’s already 96x56 inches on the exterior which is pretty bulky on top of a truck already so encapsulating the aluminum would just make that worse. The whole principle behind thermal bridging is the energy as heat will always try to find the path of least resistance so it’s just about making the path as small as possible. The whole aluminum frame is now raptor lined which should help a little bit especially because it’s a extremely thick urethane based rather than regular paint but all in all while potentially there may have been some optimization in my design to this end I think it’s working out pretty well and a lot of the efficiencies gained in thermal regulation from thermal bridging optimization are negligible in the cold especially because it’s such a small space and 2 bodies create a massive amount of heat. But on a bus where everything is already metal and body heat isn’t as impactful as the ambient air it’s exponentially more important and you’re definitely right it should be considered.
@@DIY_Davy well said! Great explanation of your thinking. I also have no idea where you live and if you plan on using it year round. I live in NY and love the winter so I have to plan for that. I'll have to check out your longer video on it!
@@kylethecreator I appreciate it! Yea while I probably will use it in the somewhat cold during the occasional trip here and there during the winter that’s definitely not my typical use as I’m predominantly a nice weather camper/“overlander” so will probably just bring along a heater for temperatures under around 40 or so. That being said I do have high hopes for the cold weather ability, just not as high expectations.
Great skills set brother. Such an inspiration
I appreciate that!
Good job 👏
Great design👍👍...what I don't understans is, all that technical designand process, you did not bother making a wide work bench instead of working on a grass lawn😋.
Thanks! Hahaha yea i definitely should have, it probably would have saved me so time and frustration. I have one now though
Do you have any models that you completely finished with nice finishing touches. If so, let me know I'll buy one your price of 4000 is how much they should be. Thank you.
Awesome build. Now that you've finished. Is there anything you would have done differently ?
Thanks! There are quite a few things I would have done differently and I can’t go into all of them in a comment but I still don’t have a solution for everything. Now having tested in everything extreme weather condition I think I’ve pretty much come across every potential issue the roof camper will face. I would have probably made the overall length it a few inches longer to have a larger opening to pass through the bed and the camper while still maintaining the full sleeping length. I wish I had vacuum bagged all the carbon fiber components instead of the hand wet layup. I think this would have produced a much better looking and stronger overall construction overall as well as probably cutting down on composite construction time by a significant margin. I also wish I could have sourced aluminum extrusion for the frame instead of the tubing to provide more utility and look much nicer but there isn’t anything available off the shelf that’s not double the weight of rectangular tubing. But I probably could have found something lighter coming directly from China if I scoured for a week or so. Overall it gets quite a bit more hot than a fabric roof tent in extreme heats but really excels in the winter retaining a lot more heat and having absolutely no condensation on any surface inside the camper. It performs about the same as a fabric style tent in normal weather.
Hi Davy, will your design become available for purchase? Well done on your brilliant craftsmanship
Thank you. Yes I had to take a break from social media for a while for school and work but I’m just about wrapped up with the “final” 3D model and drawings for plans to release along with my list of materials
@@DIY_Davy Hello, any progress on this project for download or purchase?
Grateful
Hi, has there been any progress/interest in using your design to make these campers commercially available? Love the design and can’t afford to buy the current rooftop campers on the market!
Awesome design !!!
Trying to make a copy of this for myself nowadays...
How did you insulate the tip of the triangle side walls
I think there will be some gaps at the tips
Thanks! So like all the other panels the triangular panels have an exterior aluminum frame. I just welded that frame then traced the interior of the triangle the same way as the other panels. Because I also welded that inside edge of the tip as well I had to terminate the tip of the triangle with a very small flat section to match that. But after I glued all the edges of the foam to the aluminum any small gap like that was just filled up. Let me know if that answers your question
Can you use FRP honeycomb paneling instead of carbon fiber? Or was there a reason you went with carbon fiber instead? Thanks. Look forward to the CAD drawings.
Yea you definitely could, it was significantly cheaper for me to make the carbon panels the way I did, than to purchase really any kind of comparable composite panel like an frp honeycomb but if you had a good source that was priced well or just weren’t willing to laminate the panels yourself it would be a really good alternative to the composite I used. There are also polypropene honeycomb panels which I wasn’t super familiar with at the time of building. These would have been really good to use as the roof, door, and wall panels because they’re pretty cheap, light and strong enough for those sections. I’d be hesitant to use them on the floor without some added support or without going a little bit thicker on the core thickness. I have the complete CAD model and some technical drawings available on my website: diydavy.com if you’re interesting.
Link isn’t working
Hey I'm working on a similar hard-side roof thing! I'm interested to know if the floor felt ridged/robust enough being mostly that foam core carbon fiber sandwich
Looks really good BTW!
Thanks! That's awesome! I have 3 floor sections 54x46, 54x24, and 54x12 each panel is 1 inch foam with 4 plys of 5.7 oz plain weave all with 1inch aluminum framing the border with an epoxy layer between the carbon and the tubing. The largest section is where my feet go so could really never have much weight on it to reference the feel. But my 54x24 and 54x12 inch are plenty strong enough to support 2 people (around 320lbs combined weight) with reasonable weight distribution and a mattress (ie. both people not both kneeling in the center of the same panel at once, etc.) That being said for a very short period we both happened to be kneeling in the same point on one panel and i heard a very faint crack. So while I'm sure it would be fine, I added an aluminum 1x1 square tube that slides in and out of the way along with the panels under the larger panel just for piece of mind because I had anticipated that potentially happening and have a channel that can house those supports on my roof rack. The same thing could be done by adding an additional support within the panel. So much strength is gained and lost to a lot of invariability especially when hand-laminating all the fabric because of this and the complexity of composite sandwich panels. So the subsequent material properties are extremely difficult to calculate for this type of DIY application and I really can't give you more than my specific layup and application works for me in my use case. Hope this helps.
That is great info! Agree to agree on the variability thing haha. But I'm not about to pay for pre-preg or actual foam core. Those prices are not for DIY-ers haha.
Mine is wood, fiberglass (because I'm cheap). For core I'm playing with foam insulation like yours and a thick paper honeycomb sheet I found. Idk could save some weight or just be terrible haha.
I'll keep you in the loop when I get a chunk of this thing built!
definitely, I looked into the vinyl foam core and already laminated carbon sheets and sure they’re better but not 10x the cost better. I’m sure some of the cheaper honeycombs out there could be used instead of the foam to create an equally strong or stronger panel for similar cost and lighter weight. I was after a maximally insulating and minimally thermally conductive camper overall so was drawn to the foam, but in retrospect the carbon and air between the layers with honeycomb would probably be plenty for insulating. Keep me updated, I would definitely be interested to hear how the honeycomb performs
Did you model the Tacoma yourself or did you download the 3D-Model somewhere?
Tacoma Model was like $120 on turbo squid
What’s the computer app you’re using?
Fusion 360
We are making this in Shanghai, and hope get the chance to work together with you on this project.
silly editing
Are you the son of the tiger from the jungle book?