DIY Camper Shell - Welded Steel vs Brazed Aluminum vs Bolted Extrusion

I've been researching and looking into potentially making my own camper shell later this year. Through the process, I've been looking at various materials that I've seen shell's made from.

The vast majority are welded steel, while I have seen some of brazed aluminum as well as extrusion.

I was checking prices and was extremely surprised.

For 1" x 2" rectangle tube at a 6' length:

• Steel: $43
• Aluminum: $60
• Extrusion: $25

So the aluminum extrusion is actually the lowest cost, from what I'm seeing online. Has anyone built a shell with extrusion before that they can speak to experience? It does seem like it would be the most versatile, but with seeing so few out there, I worry I'm missing something.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on the three different building materials discussed?

And, to be clear, no I would not be putting on a roof top tent. Just a shell built for outdoor gear and camping.

Thank.s

 

I built a wedge camper so Shell+RTT.




Everyone welds a steel frame because it’s cheap, strong, and can be done with any MIG welder. Aluminum is much harder to weld and requires either an AC Tig machine or a spool gun (as well as the knowledge to use them) which is more than most folks have in their garage.

Unless you’re just building a box with all 90 degree corners the compound mitre cuts on the extrusion needed to make it match the truck body lines would be EXTREMELY difficult to pull of cleanly. It’s much easier to cut tube angles as close as you can and then fill any gap with your weld. The lack of angle options for the extrusion brackets (basically 45 and 90 degrees) would also make building anything other than just a box difficult.

I’d also double check your t-slotted extrusion prices. You sure about that?

15-series (1.5”x1.5”) 8020 starts at $0.72 per INCH making a 6 foot length $52 and that’s assuming you can get it locally and don’t need to pay shipping which makes it even more expensive.

https://8020.net/1515.html

I only used extrusion for the upper tent portion of my camper and spent over $1000 on just the extrusion and brackets. That was also pre-pandemic before the prices went up.

Also are your aluminum and steel prices from online? Typically they can be had much cheaper from local steel yards. It cost me less than $200 for all the steel tubing used in my camper.

If you haven’t stumbled across this thread yet there’s a wealth of info about DIY campers and also several members that built them just as shells without the tent portion. The bill of materials is extremely helpful and also has a cost breakdown.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-diy-wedge-camper.604686/

Why do you want to build a shell? If you value your time I’d think twice about it. If you want a project to customize its a super fun one but I wouldn’t go into it thinking you’re gonna save money. If you paid me minimum wage for my time spent working on my camper I probably could have purchased a few go fast campers in the time it took to build mine.

Good luck!

 

Thank you for the detailed reply. It's great to hear from someone that's done the build.

The extrusion price is from Tnutz, for the EX-1020 – 1″ x 2″ Smooth T-Slotted Aluminum Extrusion. From the research I've done, they usually come in much cheaper than 8020 and this piece, at 76", is $23.30.

I agree on the angles. I was looking at using some dynamic angle connectors, allowing me to set it to any angle needed, then bracing from there. Of course, it would likely be much easier to weld something together.

The price for steel I was looking at was from metalsonline. That does make me feel better that the steel would be much cheaper locally, as it shows for what you have above.

This is a very good question. I originally wanted a fiberglass camper shell but, after hunting for 6 months, I have yet to find one that properly fits my 1st gen access cab. I don't really need a tent on top, as I like my ground tent and having a camp setup I can leave and come back to, so it's primarily to have a customized shell. But the shell is needed, as I have a lot of fishing gear, etc. that I want to be able to lock up when I take out with me.

Chatting with folks, I'm starting to wonder if it would be more worth while and cost effective to just find one of those aluminum contractor shells and just customize it, although it wouldn't look as cool, lol.

Thank you again for your input my friend.