GEO-cab German Carbon Fiber Truck Camper

[DzlToy]

rruff has it right. Working with carbon isn't that difficult and it certainly isn't the uber-exotic material that it once was. XPS foam, carbon fiber cloth and epoxy resin to build a 16' x 8' x 8' box, costs less than 10 grand USD. In a market where multi-hundred thousand dollar campers, many of questionable quality, seem to be flying off the shelves, so to speak, carbon should be de rigueur. Replace XPS with polypropylene, phenolic or 5052 honeycomb and your costs increase, but not significantly when you consider the purchase price.

While it is certainly lightweight, compared to fiberglass and balsa, it is incredibly strong in tensile. So, you can use less carbon to reach your engineering targets, saving money, weight and even labour in some cases, as fewer layers are required.

Structural foams, VIPs, honeycombs and the like are in the same boat, IMO. Even the Europeans lag behind the marine industry on this one. Why does a 500k - 750k camper not have the best of everything? Because people will buy it with mediocre products and technology inside. Compare a 750k boat to a 750k expedition rig, built in the States and you will see what I mean.

I will be interested to see what GEO brings to the States.

 

[rruff]

While it is certainly lightweight, compared to fiberglass and balsa, it is incredibly strong in tensile. So, you can use less carbon to reach your engineering targets, saving money, weight and even labour in some cases, as fewer layers are required.

Actually I disagree with most of the points you made. Yes, it isn't that expensive... but carbon also isn't an improvement over fiberglass in a camper shell. It's only slightly stronger, and a little lighter for the same thickness. The main difference is that carbon is much stiffer than FG, but is anyone worried about their FG+foam box lacking in stiffness? If anything they are worried about it being too stiff to endure chassis flex. And in one very important aspect, impact strength, FG is superior to carbon.