tanuki.himself
Active member
although its more of a barge than a yacht......
A couple of years in the planning, and now 6 months into the actual build Campalot (".......its only a model" - Monty Python quote-ish) has finally made it onto the truck for a successfull test drive
Having spent much of the last 7 years on the road with accomodation ranging from a tent and air mattresses, via a rented C class (NZ) to a 5th wheel (Oz) and Class A diesel pusher (US, CA), our build criteria for this one were:
Min 5 ft North-South bed with proper mattresses
Internal toilet and shower
Fit on a European truck
Fit in a shipping container
We chose the Ranger 3.2 supercab to give us a 6ft load bed with more torque and a 1.2 tonne load capacity, but it would also fit on a Nissan Navara 2.5 king cab or NP300 2.2. We've built this primarily for shipping out to southern Africa, but also plan to take it over to northern Africa and the Atlas mountains, around the Baltic and the European islands in the Mediteranean and North sea and mountain ranges - basically anywhere that is likely to involve ferries or twisty roads......we may swap to another 5th wheel after for mainland Europe for a bit more comfort and space
It is inspired by things like the Lance 865 but narrower to fit on the smaller European trucks, and i couldnt afford a Bimobile. We also kept it demountable on the stock tub so we have a normal vehicle we can use the rest of the time, but i may eventually swap to a flatbed/utility body with storage lockers I can expand or shrink depending on the circumstances
The body panels are 2mm FRP over 30mm Styrofoam, strengthened with 30mm Tancast at the edges and specific fixing points, made to order by a UK supplier. They gave me a price that was competitive with what i would have been paying for materials to make my own over Nidacore, and i'm sure they are an infinitely better finish than I could have ever managed myself.
Enough has been written elsewhere about this type of panel construction, so i wont dwell on them, but there are a few aspects that I've not seen anywhere else that may be of more interest:
Pultruded fibreglass beam subframe.
Beams are 100x50 C channel or 120x70 I beam for the perimeter frame with the top outer flange cut off to give a support for the walls. I thought this idea would avoid thermal bridging and differential expansion issues over a metal frame. And besides, my welding is still lousy (see later pics)
Joints are wet hand layup of CSM and polyseter resin in female moulds. Working in Spanish summer temperatures this proved quite rushed as the resin cured so quickly, even with slow catalyst, and I could only make one a day after the sun went down. They then took a lot of cleaning up and trimming to give a consistent base for bolting together. If I were doing it again I think i would invest in a cheap vacuum pump and try resin infusion on a dry layup on a male mount, then encased in the female mould to give a more consistent finish with less subsequent cutting and grinding. Joints are glued with Sikaflex 252 and bolted with 6x6mm or 4x8mm stainless bolts
The main floor is then raised another 40mm over C channels. This should allow for water storage between the floor beams over most of the tub area to keep the CoG low. I'm going to try some marine bladders for water storage that will mould themselves to the available space, but if they don't work then I'll have to make and cure some custom fibreglass tanks to make best use of the space. i hope to be able to carry upto 160 litres of water like this.
Subframe weighs in at just under 100kg, and the panels should be around 360kg by calculation - i'll find a weighbridge to visit one day
more to follow.....
A couple of years in the planning, and now 6 months into the actual build Campalot (".......its only a model" - Monty Python quote-ish) has finally made it onto the truck for a successfull test drive
Having spent much of the last 7 years on the road with accomodation ranging from a tent and air mattresses, via a rented C class (NZ) to a 5th wheel (Oz) and Class A diesel pusher (US, CA), our build criteria for this one were:
Min 5 ft North-South bed with proper mattresses
Internal toilet and shower
Fit on a European truck
Fit in a shipping container
We chose the Ranger 3.2 supercab to give us a 6ft load bed with more torque and a 1.2 tonne load capacity, but it would also fit on a Nissan Navara 2.5 king cab or NP300 2.2. We've built this primarily for shipping out to southern Africa, but also plan to take it over to northern Africa and the Atlas mountains, around the Baltic and the European islands in the Mediteranean and North sea and mountain ranges - basically anywhere that is likely to involve ferries or twisty roads......we may swap to another 5th wheel after for mainland Europe for a bit more comfort and space
It is inspired by things like the Lance 865 but narrower to fit on the smaller European trucks, and i couldnt afford a Bimobile. We also kept it demountable on the stock tub so we have a normal vehicle we can use the rest of the time, but i may eventually swap to a flatbed/utility body with storage lockers I can expand or shrink depending on the circumstances
The body panels are 2mm FRP over 30mm Styrofoam, strengthened with 30mm Tancast at the edges and specific fixing points, made to order by a UK supplier. They gave me a price that was competitive with what i would have been paying for materials to make my own over Nidacore, and i'm sure they are an infinitely better finish than I could have ever managed myself.
Enough has been written elsewhere about this type of panel construction, so i wont dwell on them, but there are a few aspects that I've not seen anywhere else that may be of more interest:
Pultruded fibreglass beam subframe.
Beams are 100x50 C channel or 120x70 I beam for the perimeter frame with the top outer flange cut off to give a support for the walls. I thought this idea would avoid thermal bridging and differential expansion issues over a metal frame. And besides, my welding is still lousy (see later pics)
Joints are wet hand layup of CSM and polyseter resin in female moulds. Working in Spanish summer temperatures this proved quite rushed as the resin cured so quickly, even with slow catalyst, and I could only make one a day after the sun went down. They then took a lot of cleaning up and trimming to give a consistent base for bolting together. If I were doing it again I think i would invest in a cheap vacuum pump and try resin infusion on a dry layup on a male mount, then encased in the female mould to give a more consistent finish with less subsequent cutting and grinding. Joints are glued with Sikaflex 252 and bolted with 6x6mm or 4x8mm stainless bolts
The main floor is then raised another 40mm over C channels. This should allow for water storage between the floor beams over most of the tub area to keep the CoG low. I'm going to try some marine bladders for water storage that will mould themselves to the available space, but if they don't work then I'll have to make and cure some custom fibreglass tanks to make best use of the space. i hope to be able to carry upto 160 litres of water like this.
Subframe weighs in at just under 100kg, and the panels should be around 360kg by calculation - i'll find a weighbridge to visit one day
more to follow.....
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