rockweasel
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This lock down has given me a chance to take a step back and approach the build of my off road camper differently.
Initially I copied the best I could the design of the CampBox
From what I can see it is a plywood box coated with LineX
It looks like the sides are made from one single sheet of plywood each. The whole camper is made from 5 sheets of ply and a tiny offcut.
LineX is very expensive but I found Raptor Truck Bed Liner used on a DIY camper build on YouTube. It is less expensive and a similar material. I have used this on the chassis of the camper and I'm impressed with how it has held up since last summer.
I built the base of the camper last year. It's a torsion box made of plywood and filled with insulation. The underside has a couple of coats of Raptor.
I am not a painter. I applied the Raptor using a textured roller. The finish is OK over the small areas that I covered on the chassis but I found it harder to achieve a nice coat without leaving roller marks on the underside of the base. The paint is quite thick and it goes off after an hour, so I don't have time to mess about.
The base of the camper did not fare well over the winter. The torsion box was sealed and the lack of ventilation caused mould to develop in it (I posted this on another thread.) It means I have to redo or tweak the base and redesign the other panels as the whole camper was going to be made of torsion boxes that I made "flat packed" in my small workshop and somehow assembled outside.
It was time to rethink the design. I can build a shed, so I can build a camper the same way. I'm considering using external CLS to build the framework**. I can build it outside on the chassis and throw a tarp over it when the weather turns bad. Rather than using plywood to line the inside I will go for tongue and groove. It's a bit more expensive but it has enough advantages to justify it:
1) I don't have to line the internal walls before sheeting the outside. I would never get a sheet of ply through the small radius door. I plan to build the frame sides flat in the workshop. I can cut the T&G to size when it is on the floor but leave it off. I don't want to fit it until the camper is waterproof. I'll leave a "letterbox" opening in the back of the camper under the number plate big enough to post the T&G through. If panels get damaged in the future it will be easy to replace them.
2) T&G comes in paler colours than ply. I want a light interior. I don't want to paint it.
3) I can make some of the T&G removable and run cabling behind it. No need to plan all my wiring in advance.
4) Ventilation behind the panels won't be a problem.
That leaves the plywood skin. I would have to buy or build a car port to skin and paint the camper. That's an extra expense. I'm not 100% confident that I could make a good job of the paintwork. Although I could give it coats of paint until I'm happy with it, it is not cheap: I reckon £130 a coat for me to apply it. I don't know how much a paint shop would take, but I'm assuming it would be out my budget.
Now comes to my question about using Buffalo board instead of plywood + Raptor. I did some quick sums for the materials.
9mm plywood + 2 coats of Raptor is about £400
9mm Buffalo Board is about £300
I've saving time, effort and money using BB. It is waterproof "out the box" although I'll have to seal any cut edges and screw holes. I'm planning on using edging strips of some sort on the joints for mechanical protection. The trade off is that I am stuck with a brown camper, but I can add enough coloured accents to distract from this. Our horse box is brown and it doesn't look bad. It's a few kg heavier, I reckon about an extra 20kg, but that's not much in the scheme of things.
At last the question: Are there any disadvantages to using BB as a skin that I haven't thought of??
TIA
** Let me say at this stage that I am not over concerned about saving weight. I'm not travelling huge distances. I do not want a featherweight aluminium can, I want a secure structure.
Initially I copied the best I could the design of the CampBox
From what I can see it is a plywood box coated with LineX
It looks like the sides are made from one single sheet of plywood each. The whole camper is made from 5 sheets of ply and a tiny offcut.
LineX is very expensive but I found Raptor Truck Bed Liner used on a DIY camper build on YouTube. It is less expensive and a similar material. I have used this on the chassis of the camper and I'm impressed with how it has held up since last summer.
I built the base of the camper last year. It's a torsion box made of plywood and filled with insulation. The underside has a couple of coats of Raptor.
I am not a painter. I applied the Raptor using a textured roller. The finish is OK over the small areas that I covered on the chassis but I found it harder to achieve a nice coat without leaving roller marks on the underside of the base. The paint is quite thick and it goes off after an hour, so I don't have time to mess about.
The base of the camper did not fare well over the winter. The torsion box was sealed and the lack of ventilation caused mould to develop in it (I posted this on another thread.) It means I have to redo or tweak the base and redesign the other panels as the whole camper was going to be made of torsion boxes that I made "flat packed" in my small workshop and somehow assembled outside.
It was time to rethink the design. I can build a shed, so I can build a camper the same way. I'm considering using external CLS to build the framework**. I can build it outside on the chassis and throw a tarp over it when the weather turns bad. Rather than using plywood to line the inside I will go for tongue and groove. It's a bit more expensive but it has enough advantages to justify it:
1) I don't have to line the internal walls before sheeting the outside. I would never get a sheet of ply through the small radius door. I plan to build the frame sides flat in the workshop. I can cut the T&G to size when it is on the floor but leave it off. I don't want to fit it until the camper is waterproof. I'll leave a "letterbox" opening in the back of the camper under the number plate big enough to post the T&G through. If panels get damaged in the future it will be easy to replace them.
2) T&G comes in paler colours than ply. I want a light interior. I don't want to paint it.
3) I can make some of the T&G removable and run cabling behind it. No need to plan all my wiring in advance.
4) Ventilation behind the panels won't be a problem.
That leaves the plywood skin. I would have to buy or build a car port to skin and paint the camper. That's an extra expense. I'm not 100% confident that I could make a good job of the paintwork. Although I could give it coats of paint until I'm happy with it, it is not cheap: I reckon £130 a coat for me to apply it. I don't know how much a paint shop would take, but I'm assuming it would be out my budget.
Now comes to my question about using Buffalo board instead of plywood + Raptor. I did some quick sums for the materials.
9mm plywood + 2 coats of Raptor is about £400
9mm Buffalo Board is about £300
I've saving time, effort and money using BB. It is waterproof "out the box" although I'll have to seal any cut edges and screw holes. I'm planning on using edging strips of some sort on the joints for mechanical protection. The trade off is that I am stuck with a brown camper, but I can add enough coloured accents to distract from this. Our horse box is brown and it doesn't look bad. It's a few kg heavier, I reckon about an extra 20kg, but that's not much in the scheme of things.
At last the question: Are there any disadvantages to using BB as a skin that I haven't thought of??
TIA
** Let me say at this stage that I am not over concerned about saving weight. I'm not travelling huge distances. I do not want a featherweight aluminium can, I want a secure structure.
