Camper / RV Megathread - We like our wheels to be our man caves

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Camper / RV Megathread - We like our wheels to be our man caves

cakesmith handyman: Jul 22, 2007; Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

You can haul stuff bigger than 5-6'

# ¿ Jul 16, 2014 05:56

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 19:50

cakesmith handyman: Jul 22, 2007; Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

I can't play much in this thread yet as I only have a 4'x2'6" trailer to throw our camping gear on but I'm pretty much convinced I'm going to try to build a cargo/kitchen teardrop for next year. I don't want to try and sleep 4 on one so cargo and kitchen seems a good compromise, and easier to start.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2014 22:14

cakesmith handyman: Jul 22, 2007; Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

Jonny 290 posted:

if I could find a use case for one,

Do you own stuff? Because you can put stuff in them! :haw:

# ¿ Aug 4, 2014 23:24

cakesmith handyman: Jul 22, 2007; Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

Saga posted:

Question for UK or Euro camper peeps.

My wife wants to pick up a 4 bed Rv with kitchen / toilet, having seen the prices for package holidays during the school holidays. Can you get something that's not a horrible piece of poo poo for Ã‚Â£5-6 thousand? I'm thinking 10k might be more realistic.

Basically I have no motivation and less time to wrench on an Rv let alone deal with hosed up electrics plumbing or coachwork. So anything that turns into a project will be a bad investment.

Stuff in the lower price brackets seems to be Talbot Peugeot, Peugeot, Fiat Ducato, Merc 208D or DAF based. Any chassis we should particularly avoid?

Avoid daf. For that money you're buying something that'll need work or looks tatty, probably both. Buying in winter is cheaper though. Please bear in mind you're buying a commercial vehicle that doesn't get driven enough, with a flimsy box screwed to it full of electrics, plumbing and waterproof issues. Unless you double your higher budget you won't be happy.

Now if you were of the diy bent there are bargains to be had.

E: you could pick something up for 5-7k and spend the rest on having it fixed?

# ¿ Sep 7, 2014 22:35

cakesmith handyman: Jul 22, 2007; Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

spog posted:

Yeah, not to piss on your dreams, but I took a half-hearted look at buying one myself and realised that they hold their price stupidly well. To the point where people were asking £8k for a vehicle that I would pay <£1k if it were the base vehicle only.

That said, you may get lucky.

This is why if I had a motorhome it'd be one I built myself.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2014 12:53

cakesmith handyman: Jul 22, 2007; Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

If you do buy that, bank on a blocked egr system needing fixing.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2014 10:29

cakesmith handyman: Jul 22, 2007; Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

People make teardrops out off blue insulation foam, canvas, titebond glue and paint, total weight can be under 200lbs for a fitted shell.

# ¿ May 2, 2015 12:28

cakesmith handyman: Jul 22, 2007; Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

As above, buy basically put one 80+% of the weight of your car/truck behind it and try to brake sharply at speed, report back if you live.

Also a while ago I saw prices for those trailer panels, a 6x12 for the panels alone (no trailer, interior, appliances etc) was like $5000. Maybe when they come out properly they'll be massively cheaper but I wouldn't hold my breath.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2016 13:09

cakesmith handyman: Jul 22, 2007; Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

Zero VGS posted:

Is that a bad price, though? $5000 for something brand new that can be stacked and shipped to you on a single pallet? The cheapest hard-shell production campers of that size seem to run around, $20-30k plus delivery.

Sorry, I'm looking at this from the point of view of vs other home made/built options. Add the cost of a good trailer, etc to that and you could easily hit $8-10k. Compare to the cost of making your own large teardrop style camper and there's more labour but you can make something amazing for that price.

quote:

I'm not trying to be a smartass; if you know of some better values, I'm all ears. But it seems like a good price for such a bright idea; a camper that you can take apart and put in a large closet for the winter.

Taking it apart isn't a use case I'd considered but I can't imagine the contents, body and trailer will compact down that much, you may as well leave it assembled and weatherproof but that removes the modular benefit

quote:

Besides, I can only imagine the included appliances with campers are kinda poo poo; I'd imagine it's like PCs where picking all the components yourself is going to be a better idea than letting the OEM pick their own high-margin junk.

There isn't a massive aftermarket for better rv appliances, mostly it's oem stuff at enormous cost from a small number of dealers. If you tried to use home appliances they'd be too heavy and possibly unsafe. Equipping a camper piecemeal aftermarket will be stupid expensive unless you go used.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2016 17:58

cakesmith handyman: Jul 22, 2007; Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

Zero VGS posted:

I'm going for a pretty atypical setup anyways.

No poo poo :stare:

anything you bought built would have to be gutted to re-equip so you're better off starting bare. If you go through with this please give it it's own thread either in AI or the DIY subforum, it sounds pretty cool.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2016 16:52

cakesmith handyman: Jul 22, 2007; Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

Big K of Justice posted:

Engine is a Cat C10 /w Alison 4000 rated at 385 hp / 1400 ft lbs of torque.

Now I'm curious how the thing is going to run on grades...

I think it'll be fine.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2017 19:41

cakesmith handyman: Jul 22, 2007; Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

There's a growing trend to build what are called "foamies", teardrops built with extruded polystyrene walls skinned with fabric, attached with wood glue and painted over with exterior latex. Embed wood inserts in the foam before skinning and you've got hard attachment points. I'd go that route as people have built 4x8s that are so trivially light you can easily unbolt and dismount the body from the frame with 2 minutes work.

E: all the info here: http://tnttt.com/viewforum.php?f=55

cakesmith handyman fucked around with this message at 14:44 on Mar 28, 2017

# ¿ Mar 28, 2017 14:32

cakesmith handyman: Jul 22, 2007; Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

Zero VGS posted:

That seems smart, and the insulation would be fantastic, but I don't get why you wouldn't use fiberglass and epoxy instead of canvas and wood glue at that point; I'm pretty sure it's around the same price and would be even lighter/stronger.

Paint and canvas is referred to as the poor man's fibreglass but as you rightly point out it can be cheaper to actually fibreglass when you count the cost of litres of titebond. I think it's because people are a bit scared of fibreglass but paint and fabric sounds (and is) really easy to work with.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2017 22:07

cakesmith handyman: Jul 22, 2007; Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

Please do a full build thread

# ¿ May 15, 2017 10:26

cakesmith handyman: Jul 22, 2007; Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

I've no idea of the tow rating on that but wouldn't it have been better to get the camper you want then the rig that can pull it?

# ¿ Jul 14, 2017 19:22

cakesmith handyman: Jul 22, 2007; Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

DAT RAM posted:

I'm about to rebuild the side of the roof on my pop up cause the corner (approximately in the red area) is rotten.

Basically some of the caulking on the top went bad and some water got in. The roof and everything outside of the red box is solid, as is the matching opposite side. The challenge is trying to find a piece of wood long enough that's a solid piece, since it's about 12 1/2 feet long and has to be about a foot wide. I thought about just replacing the bad wood but then I'd be risking the structural strength of the roof, which is holding up that heavy rear end a/c unit. I'm open to suggestions about the wood.

At least I can work on it in the garage for the most part so I don't have to bust my rear end to get it done and worry about rain or animals getting inside.

I might gut it this winter and re-do the interior because of the lovely engineered "wood" that has soaked up water like a sponge and is falling apart. My wife, kids, and I use the poo poo out of it so it isn't going to hold up much longer if I don't give it some TLC.

How thick? And is it solid timber or plywood?

# ¿ Jul 20, 2017 14:43

cakesmith handyman: Jul 22, 2007; Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

Without knowing your situation it sounds not like you went over budget and more that your budget was unrealistically low. You won't regret the extra to get exactly what you want, you will remember you hate it every time you get in it or hitch it up.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2017 13:44

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 19:50

cakesmith handyman: Jul 22, 2007; Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

Fog Tripper posted:

So the wife stubbornly put her foot down and is sticking to her budget. Despite the fact that we both absolutely loved the TT, had everything we wanted and nothing we didn't. It was $4500 over budget.

I am done doing research for these things as this experience wiped out any enthusiasm I might have had. Besides, it was her idea to do this for our 50th birthdays year. Sound bitter?

Just pay for it and tell her you bargained a few grand off.

# ¿ Aug 2, 2017 15:26

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