off road camper build

[clivehorridge]

hi
hay clive, just thought i welded a bolt on to the chassie, im gonna have to cut that off and weld a nut on instead, unless i bolt on the outside support will look at it any ways.

Yep, it would need the nut on the chassis and a sleeve in the shocker rubber, so when you bolt it through the sleeve will be trapped between the outer support bracket and the chassis.


I had terrible problems when I fitted telescopic shocks to an old A30. I bolted them through the front face of the bottom suspension pan and it was fine for 6 months. Then it cracked the pan. I had toweld it back together with some purpose made brackets to take out the turning moment of the shocks. After that, it was fine.

 

[joe lane]

hi chris, will look in to it, blonde story sounds good, i would have to dye the wifes.

right camper build. yes the wood work,

this is our titan multi purpose work bench. great bit of kit would recommend any time.

im using 10x5ft marine ply on the sides, we put the two sheets together with clamps then cut to the required size
we are looking at this design

1.5 high x 2.550


we start with the base, im guilty of missing some pics here, the frame is made using 65mm x 40mm sitting on a 6mm ply sheet which is painted with a dunlop rubber coating, its for roofing and a good product, just dont ask me what its called the whole thing is glued to the frame and screwed, after drying its then turned upside down and fitted to the chassie using tech screws


when we built the chassie it was 5mm out of square just cant get there with wood,
insulated with 50mm poly its all i could get hold off, the timber cost me enough


we then fix a 12mm maring ply over the area, there is a small lip of 18mm on the outside to carry the sides, makes the seal a bit easier. the square we have is from an old build


just let me explain this picture, to fit this sheet which is 1.5 high, in the garage, we had to remove the wheels, and sit it on house bricks, its tall and this scares me.
this is paul he likes to make the odd appearance

its massive, paul says its because of the surroundings, the front angle is for a small window or windows, still trying to find some at a reasonable price, thought i would pick up some old caravan windows but the prices are stupid

this shows the rear departure angle, well thats the intention, im trying to develope a step that rolls over from the floor point

this is a pocket hole jig, never used one before and im impressed. we drilled two holes in one side and one on the other and again on the opposite end glued the two faces and screwed them in at 300mm centers, all the roof timbers were cut in a jig we set up

at this stage we fitted the bulk head, this comprised of a 12mm ply and insulation sandwich, i missed the pics of this part


the reason the timbers are 300 apart in the roof is, i want to fit my roof top tent up there the odd time , we take the grand kids away more often now,
thats all for now and i will catch you all later

have a good christmas gentlemen see you soon

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

This is the link I have about needing IVA and it links to other discussions about it. Just something to keep in mind for anyone planning to make a trailer now

http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=54249

I like your axle solution - does it have an auto release on the brakes for reversing?

 

[joe lane]

hi jon,

thanks for the link, the hitch has a button which is twisted and locked, and yes the axle is a good idea i would probably be using sankey running gear now with adapters, mind you i also looked at transit rear ends, its just the hub to sought out , well easier said than done. i did not want land rover hubs two spares would have been a pain.

later joe

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Reading a bit further in one of the threads that link goes to joe they're talking about 29th October 2014 being the date for caravan type trailers so maybe you'd be ok anyway. Best check yourself as I was only looking for normal trailer dates and obviously wasn't paying enough attention to the caravan/teardrop stuff when I looked into it a while back.

 

[joe lane]

hi jon,

to be honest i would rather be right anyway, there dont seem that much when you look in to it, the only problem i seen so far was the brakeaway cable, good read though, cant read it all as im now required to get all the pressies down the stairs, good night

 

[Paddler Ed]

One of the big things that I picked up a couple of years ago was that they don't like car/ute parts being used in the building of trailers; I was wanting to do a trailer that could be adjusted to carry bikes or canoes, but they have very different weight properties, and as such the canoe trailer would be massively oversprung when empty and would bounce it's way along quite happily, trashing the bikes if they were on it. I wanted to use Monroe Load Levellers, but was told as they were a car part they couldn't be used on a trailer...

 

[joe lane]

hello all

hi ed,

i hope that only applies to your part of the world with regards car parts, the weight i think is going to be positive,

right the build,

we have started to line the interior, using a 1 1/2 x 1" lathes these are not structual in any form but we took advantage of the placement we used 25mm celotex insulation, and finished using 4mm external ply, these are all glued and screwed , all the wiring is fitted into the roof space so no bother at the moment


at this point we were ready to cut out the opening for the door this is a new motor home locker door, very very expensive, which i got very very cheap it might be on the large side but will do me nicely i was fitting two doors at one stage but you lose a lot of wall space, which im planning to use for storage and other hide aways



i lifted the door about 75mm off the floor to allow for my bed , we offered the door and frame to the inside sitting on the 75mm spacer then drew around tight , then we removed and drilled 4 8mm holes, slid in 4 8mm bolts, then sat the door and frame on the outside sitting on the bolts, might seem a long way round to do things, but it worked perfectly, then we simply cut out with a jig saw



great fit, im pleased with it, i couldnt have got hold of a better door there is just enough for the interior ply to sit flush with the frame , might even get hold of some t strip to finish,



the roof were going to leave, i think we might sheet the internal roof and fix the insulation from above, then cover in a few anodised blue ally sheets, that i can buy local, in 4mt x1.5 sheets cropped to any size i need



i have to slide in one more sheet of ply for the storage, then the roof sheets , then i can close up the front, there are a few cupboards i need to fit in later, but these can go in through the door,

i have to sought out the ventilation, dont know what im going to use, sky light ? will it sit secure and stay dry on the front of the roof the bit that slopes down 45 degrees these were usually fitted horizontally on caravans and motorhomes, or do i get some kind of fixed vent, i know i have to have air passing through, just dont no what system,

still need to find a water heater, looked at the kampa geyser as chris stated looks ok, utube shows some good vids, i think i need one in a more permanent position.

any one got any experiance in solar panels, i want to buy right the first time, run a computer, phone chargers, lights, pump, fan, fridge, will fit a 12v diesel heater at some point.

ive got two gel batteries for the camper and i have three batteries in the truck, come to think of it i dont think ive put any pics up of my truck, you can catch them shortly.

later joe

 

[moggy1968]

awesome work

for solar you could try having a look at the Solar Electricity Handbook by Michael Boswell.
Solar is always a bit of guess work as you never know how much the panels will actually produce as it is dependent on weather, time of year, temperature etc etc. Ideally they should be inclined perpendicular to the sun, but on camper roofs they are nearly always flat so aren't working at their most efficient. Basically, you need to look at the consumption of all your electrical items you might have on overnight. A fridge is probably the biggest consumer. Then look at how long you might have to run your off your batteries without a charge (i.e. overnight and/or rainy days). When calculating battery useage bear in mind a battery will typically only discharge to around 20% and only charge to around 80%, depending on the battery, so you may only actually get 60% of the run time the battery states, and of course, battery performance deteriorates with age!

The amount of solar power you need then depends on where you intend going and how long you intend being stationary for (I presume the truck will charge the batteries when you are moving). I think the limiting factor will be the available roof space TBH. A 250W domestic solar panel is about 1660mmx990mm. I would say you need a minimum of 2 panels. to give you an idea, 3kw of panels (12 panels) on one of my installations (I own a solar company) today generated 5.48kw, that's just 456W per panel, and today was quite a sunny day. On Monday the whole system only made 93W!! On a summers day I would say you would expect about 1.6-1.8kw per panel, but of course that's optimal angled south facing panels, which yours won't be unless they have some kind of tilting mechanism built in.

You'll need a charge controller and most people seem to think an MPPT tracker is a good thing to improve performance, although these kind of vehicle based applications aren't really my thing, we do domestic installs. Depending on where you are in the country I can supply you with domestic panels at a much better price than you could probably buy them for.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Hi Joe, sorry that wasn't very clear... that conversation was with a couple of the big trailer manufacturers in the UK (Hayling Trailers and Burtech IIRC) when I was based there.

Here, anything goes it seems, BUT trailers are all registered and over a certain weight in NSW they are annually inspected.

 

[fridayman]

For solar I decided that 2x 185w domestic panels and a 40a mppt would be sufficient and give me some resilience if the corrugations killed one of the panels. The fridge/freezer (large 80l combo) runs off a 105AH AGM hard wired to the panels - with the freezer on it needs to be charged daily. The led lights (4x 1m strips) and phones/laptops/tablets run off another 100 AH deep cycle battery that lasts a week between charges. I try to only run my batteries down to 50%. Here in Australia the only time we had any problems was when we were stationary for more than a week in a completely shaded camp site with bad weather - then I just went for a drive to charge off the alternator and do some site seeing at the same time.

 

[joe lane]

morning moggie

awesome work

for solar you could try having a look at the Solar Electricity Handbook by Michael Boswell.
Solar is always a bit of guess work as you never know how much the panels will actually produce as it is dependent on weather, time of year, temperature etc etc. Ideally they should be inclined perpendicular to the sun, but on camper roofs they are nearly always flat so aren't working at their most efficient. Basically, you need to look at the consumption of all your electrical items you might have on overnight. A fridge is probably the biggest consumer. Then look at how long you might have to run your off your batteries without a charge (i.e. overnight and/or rainy days). When calculating battery useage bear in mind a battery will typically only discharge to around 20% and only charge to around 80%, depending on the battery, so you may only actually get 60% of the run time the battery states, and of course, battery performance deteriorates with age!

The amount of solar power you need then depends on where you intend going and how long you intend being stationary for (I presume the truck will charge the batteries when you are moving). I think the limiting factor will be the available roof space TBH. A 250W domestic solar panel is about 1660mmx990mm. I would say you need a minimum of 2 panels. to give you an idea, 3kw of panels (12 panels) on one of my installations (I own a solar company) today generated 5.48kw, that's just 456W per panel, and today was quite a sunny day. On Monday the whole system only made 93W!! On a summers day I would say you would expect about 1.6-1.8kw per panel, but of course that's optimal angled south facing panels, which yours won't be unless they have some kind of tilting mechanism built in.

You'll need a charge controller and most people seem to think an MPPT tracker is a good thing to improve performance, although these kind of vehicle based applications aren't really my thing, we do domestic installs. Depending on where you are in the country I can supply you with domestic panels at a much better price than you could probably buy them for.

looked up mttp found this interesting read http://www.solar-electric.com/mppt-solar-charge-controllers.html seems its not worth the money as my panel area is to small well looks like im running the fridge on gas, wasnt what i wanted, im still going to run up a test though see how much a weaco 80l does runs till it flattens the batteries
thanks for the heads up

ps: you mentioned pointing the panels at the sun, i used to run a 360 degree laser for displays it used a mirrored cone would the same thing work on flat fixed panels, just a mad thought

 

[joe lane]

well im back, but after a night playing cards with the kids im worse for wear, i managed to get a couple of hours in yesterday afternoon.





internals lined, just got to fit false wall to the left for the storage/shelves, internal lights, and another visit to timber yard,
thats the trouble with design, build, then design again

still, looking foward to turning it around, going to try a dry fit on the truck, see what sought of adjustments we need to level the thing up

later joe

 

[joe lane]

good morning,

got a few more hours in last night had to light the log burner it must have been the coldest night, i got finished walked round my truck and slipped on the path, nice morning though,
right, started on the false wall last night with the storage
we used a 9mm ply wall and the shelves are 12mm sitting on 18mm x 20mm ply rips glued and screwed.


first of all, set out the shelves, then transfer measurements over to false wall and cut out the holes with a jig and router





as you can see i have 3 pockets on each shelve, im not going to do any thing fancy with regards closure, im using some ballistic nylon fabric i have left over from tent build, we just bought an old German made commercial sewing machine im fixing the top with a small trim and using Velcro for the lower flap sought off rip up or down to open affair.


we had a visitor last night, said the camper looked more like the sorting carriage on the great train robbery, ( sense of humour, drives a land rover).
missing a pic some were of the wall up, will post next time

later joe

 

[joe lane]

hi again, im looking at a shurflo water pump at the moment, seems there is a few different, psi or litres per minute, i think i might have to buy the boiler first, some of these boiler wont work on low pressure,
later joe

 

[David]

I can do a real good deal on Flojet pumps as I have a trade account with the company below

http://www.dualpumps.co.uk/groups/FLOELEC__Flojet_Electric_Driven_Pumps

 

[moggy1968]

morning moggie



looked up mttp found this interesting read http://www.solar-electric.com/mppt-solar-charge-controllers.html seems its not worth the money as my panel area is to small well looks like im running the fridge on gas, wasnt what i wanted, im still going to run up a test though see how much a weaco 80l does runs till it flattens the batteries
thanks for the heads up

ps: you mentioned pointing the panels at the sun, i used to run a 360 degree laser for displays it used a mirrored cone would the same thing work on flat fixed panels, just a mad thought

there was a spirited debate on the horizonsunlimited forum when I suggested MPPT trackers only really worthwhile on larger systems. A few people shot me down saying how they reckoned they were the pups. I bowed out at that point as I don't really have the experience of smaller systems like this to argue the case, my experience is in larger domestic systems, but I have to say, tend to think of them as you do.

Solar doesn't react to light, it reacts to UV, so unless your mirror reflects UV no it wouldn't work.

 

[joe lane]

I can do a real good deal on Flojet pumps as I have a trade account with the company below

http://www.dualpumps.co.uk/groups/FLOELEC__Flojet_Electric_Driven_Pumps

will come back to you as soon as i know what im fitting, thanks

 

[joe lane]

This is the link I have about needing IVA and it links to other discussions about it. Just something to keep in mind for anyone planning to make a trailer now

http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=54249

I like your axle solution - does it have an auto release on the brakes for reversing?

hi jon, yep 29th October 2014 is the start date, but only for trailers classed as special purpose vehicles ie: must have sleeping, kitchen, storage, there was some other criterior

some usefull links draw bar strenghths http://www.angib.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/teardrop/tear61.htm
altenative draw bar http://www.angib.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/teardrop/IVA Drawbar Strength RevA.pdf
steel section index, properties http://www.roymech.co.uk/Useful_Tables/Sections/steel_section_index.htm

some handy info from that little link jon, many thanks

 

[joe lane]

there was a spirited debate on the horizonsunlimited forum when I suggested MPPT trackers only really worthwhile on larger systems. A few people shot me down saying how they reckoned they were the pups. I bowed out at that point as I don't really have the experience of smaller systems like this to argue the case, my experience is in larger domestic systems, but I have to say, tend to think of them as you do.

Solar doesn't react to light, it reacts to UV, so unless your mirror reflects UV no it wouldn't work.

hi moggie, shame, well worth the input any way

was thinking off solar myself one day, think its only worth it if you can store the energy, and i think batteries still have a long way to go yet
.
later joe