Homemade insulated truck cap for camping. Cheap with a lot of learning curves. I started working on this project for some potential cold weather hiking in the White Mountains. Sadly I never made it.
Hi handsome ❤. I have a perfect addition to your truck camper. Cover it with landscaping fabric (weed blocker,black fabric) and titebond 2. Ratio is 3 parts glue / 2 part water. Then roll it ontop of the 2inch insulation butter and then apply landscape weed blocker , finally add another coat of glue. Good to go. God bless you. Im going to learn from your channel and project. ❤
Look up “poor man’s fiberglass” uses canvas and type 2 titebond wood glue. Can be sanded and painted. People are making camper trailers with it. Strong and fairly cheap hardcoating.
I want to thank you again for doing something unique there so many people get a regular pickup camper shell and think they're Geniuses because they put a bed in it or whatever the heck it is you are creating something that could be phenomenal from just from the standpoint in cold weather and even hot weather keep the heat out so God bless you for sharing this and doing it you're too many people actually do nothing on the internet and had nothing to discussion so for those people who want to poo poo this idea screw you because with little development and like I said the hillbilly fiberglass and all that this could be a viable way of doing things thanks again
Look up "sawfish kayak" for how to cover that foam for protection from wind, hail, and road debris. Build a wind deflector for the front using the same idea, and you'll get your MPGs back and be able to throw kayaks on the roof
Cool idea! You should consider gluing canvas cloth on formboard and painting with acrylic paint. Makes a super hard shell. Like your idea. Might steal it.... Happy camping!
Although you never made it to the hiking trip, you travelled quite a distance in your learning curve. You've made a simple, relatively inexpensive shelter, and if it meets your criteria then that's all that matters.
Ever think of doing the poor man’s fiberglass technique? Heavily spread wood glue on foam board then use canvas sheets on wet glue then more heavy glue on canvas sheets again it all saturates and seals then dries into a very hard shell thenbyou paint with acrylic paint and it becomes very strong and very insulated. There is a sanding process you can do before painting . But the whole thing helps smooth out and round off edges so adds a bit of aerodynamic quality. And is lighter than a truck cap. You can also use plywood that sandwiches foam board for more rigidity then do glue and canvas and glue technique. With practice it can turn out pretty good and much much cheaper than overpriced caps and campers
Good start but...I'd skin it with thin sheets of aluminum or as others have suggested "poor man's fiberglass". Go to a metal shop and have them bend a sheet to span the roof and come down the sides. Two sheets with some overlap would do the job. Seal the seams and screw it to your 2x4 joists. Add more insulation inside between the joists and then finish the inside with tongue and groove paneling. Cut off that extension beyond the bed and add a roof rack or some attachment points up top. Make your own awning by attaching a tarp to the roof and staking it out with some supports...that will keep you dry out back to cook or hang out...if it were mine anyway.
A nice set up I'm going with phone myself I'm going to put some photocells on top 2 and I might just use reflectors to optimize the photocells to the conditions of the sun I don't know yet I got a long way to go and I have all kinds of responsibilities around my house is so it's just a dream but God bless you for doing what you're doing. You might use that hillbilly fiberglass we can just get tarp material and use white latex paint or whatever it's Lou whatever you put it on there and we'll kind of holds everything together and actually reinforce it and the only problem I have is backing out I'm thinking about getting some remote TV cameras or something so I can see what the hell I'm doing and trying to back there's a blind spot when you're making a left hand turn from cars coming from the right. I have a go scuse me a Ford Ranger so mine's going to be a little smaller and I hope to taper it right down and extend the tailgate down and so I'll pick up some bed length and I'll have a door there that I flip up to get in and then I hope to take the window out and I like your seal with a bicycle seal so I can go through the window and enter the back from the cabin the other thing I found is that there's a Town & Country 2nd row seat that you can get for it's a Chrysler and it folds right over so I'm going to replace my front seat of my Ford Ranger and take that out and put this and then I can fold the front seat right down and pick up a lot of space the front seat now can go to about a hundred a 45 degree angle that said it's useless so doesn't help you sleep and it does help you do anything when I put that stat seat that illegal to climb through the window unfortunately I only have the XL model I don't have the extra room in the back I put lockers on the rear end so I'll have better traction and I'm getting some big big tires to put on there and so I should have better ground clearance I should have better traction so I can get to my junk land in Texas if you ever want some places you can camp I've landed Holbrook and up and Beryl Utah Holbrook is in Arizona and I still have 140 acres in hudspeth County which I'm trying to get to him there's a road to it but it's rough
Have you looked into hillbilly fiberglass using either closer or screening or something and latex paint or or sometimes glue it was straight and strengthen the thing up. I love the design discipline Simplicity of it I wanted to do something like that with my Ford Ranger but I want to taper it down and make it more streamlined and extend the tail out I have one of those luggage carriers in the back I'll have to move my license plate on the luggage carrier and put extra lights back there but I think reducing the drag and making it so I can flip it up a little bit as a ten when I want to my not be bad. I also found a seat it's from a Town & Country Chrysler with the second row seat it'll fit in my Ford Ranger and actually fold down fold over the seat that's there's a total waste that allow me to go to the window and get in the back anyhow thank you for your great your great video on that that camper shell
I like this idea. A lot of times these caps are too heavy to move around by yourself, but this one would be easy to move around. I also like Joseph DuPont and acme511's idea of the hillbilly fiberglass. If you do this, you will not have to use duct tape for the seams or disassemble when done.
I used rubber tubes 50 years ago…. The tubes were 6 in by 50in…. Full length of the glass…. Able to pass threw window : cords, heater cord. My Lab was able to crawl thru too👍👍 B Deacon Manitoba Canada 🇨🇦…. ?? Is their a door above tailgate?
Nice foamie. Put twin air mattress in there and should make nice off -the-ground-camping. Necessity is the Mother of invention! Amazing what people can make with the pink foam! Next try close off the back end somehow?
If you throw a canvas tarp over the top and tie it down good, it should work fairly well. Left as it is, I would worry a little about it coming apart going down the road. The tarp would hold it together and keep that from happening.
I like this! I was thinking about something similar, using coroplast for the outside, for looks and an added layer with minimal weight. Your build seems too light somehow. How has it held up?
I'd make it even bigger by putting a roof rack on top of your cab and extending it further forward. You could also make it a little more aerodynamic too.
Using this foam product has become fairly common and when assembled and glued properly is durable. I suspect the dowels are overkill. Gluing with Gorilla glue is probably all you need (lots of this type of project on RU-vid). Nice job. This material can be painted with latex paint.
The internal ratchet strap attachment is very interesting, however; I believe the omission of a base plate to tie in the rafters @ bottom was a design flaw.
Also you could build up a a storage compartment in the front and just have a whole she can reach in and put clothes up there and I use that that foam in a can to smooth it all out and they showed her how to do that and cut down your dragon pick up a little with a very little weight and and pick up some aerodynamics
How does it perform in the heat? I'm going to cover the outside of my teardrop camper with Reflectix. I have high hopes in keeping it 20 degrees cooler in the direct sunlight.
Read the Reflectix website before assuming anything. It's stated by Reflectix, when properly installed, it requires a 3/4" air gap AND accompanying fiberglass batts to achieve optimum insulation. Without the air gap & fiberglass insulation you'll have a paltry 1.6 R-Value at most
I would think you will wrap it in PMF at least then you don't need to worry about the pink color or the duck tape. Once you mentioned the problem with the pink color and duct tape, i realized you're not planning on PMF or painting it. If you wrap it in PMF they won't even know it is pink foam underneath. Also you will add strength by PMF over the foam.
Sorry for the ignorance but what is PMF? Edit*** was having a hard time on Google with this. 3 videos in on RU-vid I finally heard it stands for Poor Man’s Fiberglass. I’m a poor man and I can’t wait to give this a try now!
Thanks! I didn't have a chance to take it camping yet. I did a leak down test and the pre-cut seams in the foam panels let water inside. :-/ I am going to fill the pre-cut seams with liquid nails for the first 4 in. That should solve the problem.
Loved the idea but foam board is too expensive so I used card board with wishes and dreams to hold it together. Side note if it rains alot where you live dont use cardboard :-)
I don't know man. kinda sketchy . I'd put a sheet of plywood on top of the wheel wells. it would provide storage underneath . Then you could have a larger mattress . I'd be worried about the cops pulling me over.
You could also beef up that connection with shish kabob wooden sticks their very very strong put them in that an angle and then you can always turn them off anyway you want but I think that might be another way of connecting the foam up and spreading the load around. Once again I really love your setup here and I'm going to try and incorporate some of this on my Ford Ranger. I was thinking that you could use some of the shish kabob sticks on angles 45° angles coated with the glue I guess what I do at sticking down most of the way and then take him out and then pour some glue down here and drive them down again and that would definitely increase the or spread out the stress of the dowels that you have which is a great idea but look into this hillbilly fiberglass and they they either use the tarp the cloth tarp that you can get and you paint it down and it connects everything up and we'll hide everything and then you can paint it white and reflect the reflect the Heat or you know you going to have half one side black and one side white and then depending on which way the Sunshine from in the winter time even when you're Park you put the the black side at at the against the against the Sun during the winter time and then in the summertime he has a white side facing the sun in fact if you put a thin layer of a thin layer of clear clear acrylic on one on one side you could that you can aim towards the sun you can put something about a half inch spacers and put the polka what to two or three holes and on the top of the bottom left it let the sun heat up the the area for you always plug up the holes depending how you cut it out on an angle anyway it's a great project you did hope to see more on how it turned out or how you we find it but look into that to hillbilly fiberglass which uses either either fiberglass
How about putting a little motorcycle battery in there and keep it charged when it is getting electricity and then you can run run the fans independent how's the car
Now just cover it using light 8 or 10oz canvas drop cloths using Glidden Gripper to bond it. This is called Poor Man's Fiberglass many videos about it. Then you'll be able to jump on the the top.
Do some more creative thinking! Not constructed robust enough if you travel very far, you underestimate the power of the wind on it when traveling. You might get bye with no damage for short distances but long distance would shred it! Shalom!
@@ravenfeather7087- not a traitor?!? Care to revisit which of our recent presidents is an ACTUAL traitor and international influnce peddling fraudster?
