How to: DIY Wedge Camper

.012" is what i'm planning on.
Alupanel and Dibond both have .012" thick panels.
I don't have the material in hand but I can't see any huge disadvantage from thinner aluminum skin since you're using aluminum stiffners.

 

Check out Montroy "M-panel"

It's $60 for a 4x8 and $100 for a 5x10

There's locations all over. You have to sign up for a business account, but it's really no trouble to do. Works fine for the roof and floor. It seems to lack quite enough stiffness for the side panels.

https://www.montroy.com/com/item.ph.../Matte+3mm+48"x96"+M-Panel+Aluminum+Composite

 

What is wrong with aluminum sheet? I've got about $500 in metal for my entire build. Around $1200 if you include latches, lights, hinges, paint etc. The whole idea was to build this thing for less than the $1800 quoted for the ARE topper. (plus tax). Just asking folks.
Zim
And no, I don't have a tent but I have a old Singer that I'd love to fire up.
Z

 

@Tacman19

Sick set up. Love the fixed sides with the access hatches. Nothing wrong with good ol sheet metal. Tough to make the topper roof with it though, likely not quite stiff enough.

The topper materials add up really quick. By the time you're done buying the aluminum extrusion it ends up about $700-$800. Including fabric, panels, gas struts, latches, etc. It tops $1000 easy.

 

good thing is you can always upgrade the hatches to something better down the road

 

Thanks. I'm at about $2000 now with the solar, battery and other electrical crap. It adds up.

Hatches on mine are 1/8th inch aluminum plate...lol. Only thing to upgrade would be the Chinese latches which suck. If I had a good finger brake I would have made them 1" thick double wall and flushed them like the Alu-Cab.
Zim

 

The panel material (alupanel, maxmetal, dibond, etc) are all stronger than an aluminum panel of the same thickness (maybe cheaper?) because of the Polyethylene core. So you can get a stiffer panel with the same thickness.

You could easily build you own canopy for cheaper, I think my frame cost about $80 in steel for everything and then panels are anywhere from the cost of a few sheets if you cut them yourself to $400-600 if you have a shop CNC them. Add in latches and gas struts and seals and you are still under the average price of a new fiberglass topper, with something likey stronger and more functional.

 

@Beak
Huge thanks for the assistance.
Ended up getting maxmetal (.015" thickness aluminum siding) for $330 with free local delivery.

 

I think you mean .15mm

 

Isn't .15mm thickness thin? I was looking at 3mm Alupanel.

 

Nope.. I just missed a 0 lol

3mm total thickness but different brands have different outer aluminum thicknesses.
Some companies have .008" some .012" and others .015" aluminum sheeting

 

I see, well I think I am going to start purchasing everything this weekend to start building. What size extrusions are you going with? I want to add a roof(sky box) for skis on the top so was thinking of both 3" instead of 4.5" and 1.5".

 

I think 1.5" would be plenty strong to hold that.
8020 has a cool tool that will help determine deflection under different loading and constraint configurations
https://8020.net/deflection-calculator

I went with 4.5 and 1.5" based on Ripcords Logic.
Also think it looks better personally.

 

Oh, nice! Should be sturdy, I don't see that size on their site, I see their heavy-duty .30mm stuff

 

FYI, you will need more than the 2 boxes of 25 5/8in stainless 5/16-18 screws. I am 12 short.

EDIT, I didn’t count the hinges, you would actually need 22 more cause I forgot about the hinges. So I think that should be 3 boxes unless it’s just me lol.

 

Well welding and grinding is all done. Got the lifting floor panel portion all done up. Modified ripcords panel files in fusion360 to fit the first gen as well as my custom floor.



Time to paint. I am unfortunately gonna be painting before drilling the rest of the holes as the weather is about to get cold and wet and I want my paint to be able to dry and to be able to have the garage door open to air it or without 30 degree temps getting in lol. I figure it will be fine if I just touch up all the holes with paint. I plan to also silicone every bolt that goes through or into the frame to keep all moisture out.



Panels should be done here tomorrow, hopefully. Extrusion is assembled, just waiting on extra screws to finish it. Then it is basically down to assembly and what will likely be the hardest part, sewing...

 

Are you planning to lift your floor? If so how are you going to do that?

 

With your lifting floor what bed are you going with?
Also I feel like I should be drawing my space frame up in fusion at this point

 

Does the roof add some stiffness? The 1.5” top portion of my bed is pretty wobbly.
The gas struts helped a decent amount but half debating a cross strut or something.

 

very simply is how haha. I didn’t want to think about any complex gas strut mount. The route I am gonna go is to either have a strap I can pull down from the tent roof frame to hang the floor in an upright position or I am going to drill some holes and make a prop rod similar to something like a car hood. The goal is to just be able to open it hang out or change in there if needed, so it doesn’t need to be fancy, just needs to move out of the way.

I am going with the megamat as planned, I am just counting on it being able to slide up as you tilt the floor up. We shall see!