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I do plenty of travel trailer camping and I'm now interested in doing more winter camping so I'm looking at decent priced slide-ins and also considering building my own so I can customize it how I like and for those -40c or lower Canadian winters lol and basically just looking for some tips/tricks or advice for winter slide-in camping from you experienced fellas.
You would be hard-pressed to build a camper as lightweight and solid as a fiberglass one. I would say look for a decent Bigfoot or Northen Lite camper to your liking and make some upgrades. Some may already be 4 season with heated tanks etc. If you will be camping off-grid you’ll probably want something like a catalytic heater so a fan is not using up precious battery power. Solar panels and a lithium battery are great.
You would be hard-pressed to build a camper as lightweight and solid as a fiberglass one. I would say look for a decent Bigfoot or Northen Lite camper to your liking and make some upgrades. Some may already be 4 season with heated tanks etc. If you will be camping off-grid you’ll probably want something like a catalytic heater so a fan is not using up precious battery power. Solar panels and a lithium battery are great.
I'm a welder/fabricator so I was thinking of doing the frame in 1'' aluminum L channel with a lightweight particle board to enclose everything then spray foam the interior, particle board over that and then fiberglass the exterior. Just what I was thinking off the top of my head, but I'm sure there's better ways to do it so I'm going to research this more.
I'm a welder/fabricator so I was thinking of doing the frame in 1'' aluminum L channel with a lightweight particle board to enclose everything then spray foam the interior, particle board over that and then fiberglass the exterior. Just what I was thinking off the top of my head, but I'm sure there's better ways to do it so I'm going to research this more.
The better insulated units typically have a wall/roof/floor thickness of 1-1/2 to 2 inches. SpaceKap make a fiberglass commercial truck topper that you can customize to your needs.
It isnt hard to build something better than what is commercially available. Use red Cedar instead of pine for any wood. MUCH lighter weight and rot resistant. 1-1/2-2" thick walls or floors won't offer much over R-15 no matter the insulation.
I used Owen's Corning foam board inside the walls and Rockwool sound insulation for the floor and cielings since I had >3" space. The most important thing is to make it air-tight. I also have a Webasto diesel heater for heat and 800w of solar with 400AH of batteries. I can run my 500w AC and power my fridge and everything inside in the middle of the day and my batteries stay at 100%.
OBS460, do you have a photo of your homebuilt camper? What is the length and weight of it?
I dont have any interior photos because I was building it and my wife was the one documenting while I was building. In a month and a half I am 95% complete. Weight is unknown at the moment but it squats my DRW about as much as my 4000lb pin weight 5th wheel did. It is just under 12ft sitting on the truck. The interior length is 16ft and overall just under 19ft. The rear sits 32" behind the taillights. The entire frame is rough sawn red cedar 2x4 and 2x6. I put a metal roof on it because it's rated to 200mph the solar panel brackets are rated to 150mph. I used Owen's Corning self-sealing ice blocker on the entire roof. 7/16" force field plywood to sheet the outside, which I wouldn't recommend, wrapped the entire thing in Tyvek.
Solar setup is 8x 100w Renogy 16BB panels with a Renogy 60A MPPT solar charge controller, Renogy 40A DC to DC charger, 2x 200AH Renogy lithium batteries.
I dont have any interior photos because I was building it and my wife was the one documenting while I was building. In a month and a half I am 95% complete. Weight is unknown at the moment but it squats my DRW about as much as my 4000lb pin weight 5th wheel did. It is just under 12ft sitting on the truck. The interior length is 16ft and overall just under 19ft. The rear sits 32" behind the taillights. The entire frame is rough sawn red cedar 2x4 and 2x6. I put a metal roof on it because it's rated to 200mph the solar panel brackets are rated to 150mph. I used Owen's Corning self-sealing ice blocker on the entire roof. 7/16" force field plywood to sheet the outside, which I wouldn't recommend, wrapped the entire thing in Tyvek.
Solar setup is 8x 100w Renogy 16BB panels with a Renogy 60A MPPT solar charge controller, Renogy 40A DC to DC charger, 2x 200AH Renogy lithium batteries.
That is flippin awesome man.......seriously WOW 👌
Curious what the total cost was not counting solar and such?
These are all I've got on my phone. When I return to civilization to finish the trim on the inside I'll get more. Loft for King bed Shiplap walls and cieling Just installed the butcher block countertop so I had weight on it until the adhesive cured
Thanks! I didn't want to waste my money on something commercially produced that would cost 2-3x what I could build this for. I couldn't justify spending the same amount for something garaunteed to leak and rot. I've seen the skeletons of Lance and others and the fact they use 1x and staples to hold everything together I think this camper will be just fine. I used 7/16" sheathing and the outside shiplap paneling is 3/8" thick. The rough sawn cedar 2x4s are 1.75" so my overall wall thickness is 2.5". I have plenty of room inside for my wife and I plus our 2 small dogs.
I'm a welder/fabricator so I was thinking of doing the frame in 1'' aluminum L channel with a lightweight particle board to enclose everything then spray foam the interior, particle board over that and then fiberglass the exterior. Just what I was thinking off the top of my head, but I'm sure there's better ways to do it so I'm going to research this more.
Something to keep in mind: Aluminum will transfer heat out and cold in pretty easily. Maybe keep the aluminum as close to the outside as possible, then insulate inwards of it.
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