My airstream has sheet aluminum riveted in place. The uhmv is the skid plate plastic? That would be cool but might be expensive. Aluminum sheet is cheap, light weight and easy to work with. Does the floor in the casita get cold?
Campers
- Thread starter johnbryanpeters
- Start date
Not doing anything wood because I don't care how much it's treated salt water (winter here, salted roads) doesn't dry and just does weird things to wood, and always gets in there. People still frame snowmobile trailers with treated wood and that shit always gets weird. Considering this will be on the bottom it's just going to exacerbate things.
Not sandwich board but looking at something like this as well
CoreLite® Board - High Density Foam Board
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uhmw on one side of a sandwich would be perfect
The boat I made from marine plywood 11 years ago doesn't look funny. It is more of a rain cistern these days but I can assure salt doesn't bother it. I can probably claim superior craftsmanship from your snowmobile buddies, but if encapsulated with epoxy or something like bedliner it will survive the elements.
Probably a lower cost but higher labor solution compared to UHMW sheet.
How much does it get pelted with gravel?
I know you can seal wood against water (duh, ships 800 years ago), it's the constant berating with road stuff that makes it different. I'm not treating an artisan piece of plywood for a decorative canoe, this shits gonna have rocks and racoon guts on it.
Plus this
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Old wooden boats work by absorbing water.
This is different. It gets bottomed out and dragged up rocks a lot. I have a layer of fiberglass on the outside for impact protection. Bedliner would seal and provide impact protection in one step. You could actually just apply bedliner directly to that foam you posted if you could install it without needing additional structure. Bedliner is essentially a High Molecular polymer that can be applied in liquid form.
Anyway, people make while campers using the same technique.
Edit: UHMW sheet is actually pretty damn cheap considering.
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Show me the belly of that thing! 
That's very purty agreed.
But I'd cry every time I caught the sunlight across that fancy finish at a glancing angle.
It will NEVER look like that again. I'm also going to guess that guy doesn't live somewhere where it's driven on intentionally graveled roads in the winter for traction. My windsheilds get pockmarked from driving here in that shit.
Those old boats that saturated themselves also didn't use pine plywood
That's very purty agreed.
But I'd cry every time I caught the sunlight across that fancy finish at a glancing angle.
It will NEVER look like that again. I'm also going to guess that guy doesn't live somewhere where it's driven on intentionally graveled roads in the winter for traction. My windsheilds get pockmarked from driving here in that shit.
Those old boats that saturated themselves also didn't use pine plywood
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It actually wears better than say a black car. Scratches and dings are easily repaired with a little polyurethane.Show me the belly of that thing!
That's very purty agreed.
But I'd cry every time I caught the sunlight across that fancy finish at a glancing angle.
It will NEVER look like that again.
Those old boats that saturated themselves also didn't use pine plywood
I just put it in my post but the reason I'm so obsessed with gravel is because they intentionally put that crap on the roads here for traction in the winter in lieu of salting. It chips paint, pockmarks windshields and generally fucks up everything driven in winter here.
A few years ago they got all concerned with 'native aggregates.' Which is even better because this mountain range is made of granite. So that of course only improved the issue.
My windsheild looks like it's own Andromeda galaxy when the sun hits it just right.
Being a Californian it seems you think that is unique. Have you ever heard of the North East?
They use ground up coal in West Virginia.
I used to replace my unbroken windshields ever 3-5 years so I could see at night, well see more than glare from the windshield.
I used to live there. And they used salt. Which is why no one buys cars from there.
Maybe that's changed but I've never lived nor traveled anywhere where they gravel shit as much as they do here. It has nothing to do with my 'california naivete' and more to do with the fact that I've driven all over the western mountain states in winter and can categorically say it's worse here.
And sand and gravel.
Where I grew up in NY every spring the town would send street sweepers through to recover and reuse the grit for the next year.
Where I went to college they just added gravel to the packed snow to provide traction. They never plowed down to the road level to prevent damage. You drove on ice/gravel matrix 6 months if the year.
That's great. How many wood cars you see driving around there in the winter?
here they just blow it all into the air so that it hits you in summer too
here they just blow it all into the air so that it hits you in summer too
Just put the plastic flooring tiles with wood grain up in there that way you are both happy?
hush you
I'm waiting for him to bring up the spruce goose for some reason.
I think he's almost there.
You keep forgetting the bedliner part. The bedliner being the stuff the gravel would touch. But I will be patient, because of you know, the concussions.
At this point, whatever I use it's going to have a piece of particle board held onto the bottom with some gorilla tape keeping there. Then once it's all waterlogged and nasty I'm going to mail it to you...........with the tape residue still on it! Oooohhhh
You ever use that POR (paint over rust) stuff? When I built the frame extensions for my flatbed I painted all the steel with it. It's like friggin powdercoat. Two seasons deep it's still pretty flawless. It almost seems like something similar to rino liner without the rice crispies.
You ever use that POR (paint over rust) stuff? When I built the frame extensions for my flatbed I painted all the steel with it. It's like friggin powdercoat. Two seasons deep it's still pretty flawless. It almost seems like something similar to rino liner without the rice crispies.
I have used POR on the floor pans of my old Volvo. It is cyanoacrylate based, just like bedliner.
so I'm correct 
so I'm correct
Yeah, you should use it when you need protection from moisture and rock chips.
Imron Paint - Transportation Coatings - Axalta Coating Systems
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Would love to get my hands on some Imron paint, as it is purported to be just about the toughest out there, hence its popularity in heavy-use industries.
the reason I asked: I still have a can of it and don't have to buy anything new
I only have had good luck with POR on rough metal. Would prep the surface with some very rough abrasive wheels on the angle grinder to give it plenty of tooth. It would peel off good metal I hit with finer sandpaper.
Thread drift, where did you ’grow up’ in NY?
Outside Poughkeepsie, went to college at the other bend of the state in lovely Potsdam NY.
I lived in Lagrange but worked at a shitty department store in PO. It was a pretty fucking rough place. The year I graduated it held the title of highest per capita murders. Those were the good old days, back when Times Square was full of prostitutes, drug dealers and adult theaters.
Go give it a shake and see if it’s still liquid, POR has like an 8 minute shelf life once opened.
As for your belly pan situation, sheet metal is your friend. 1/8” aluminum is pretty damn cheap and easy to work with using basic woodworking power tools most people already own. It should hold up for a long, long time with zero paint/bed liner/tar or maintenance. Assuming you have the ability abd facility to cut it and fit it, that’s the way I’d go.
I'm doing this for insulation so not sure aluminum is the best option.
Your air gap is your insulation, if you want more R value than that add foam between. Wood is shitty as an insulator as well, UMHW plastic is pretty good, but for the price you may as welljust sell the Casita and buy a condo
Maybe if you used that foil air bubble insulation stuff against the floor then sheet aluminum. I would be worried about weight and anything that will hold/trap moisture. At least sheet metal will keep wind off it and provide an air gap. Air is a great insulator.
There's an entire market of panels with both some structural integrity and insulation out there right now because #vanlife so that's why I was asking about that stuff. I know the air pocket is the goal (hence my brilliant idea) but if there's something out there I can buy that also has some insulation, that much better.
my party wagon flatbed can tow a lot but I think a condo might be out of the question.
I'm also looking at some skirting options once parked but I don't have buckow's sewing machine.
How long have you been using those? I'm looking to add to my system, but have read very mixed reviews of the Renogy panels.
I put them up in 2015. Renogy has two types of Panels. Mono Crystalline and Poly Crystalline. Stay away from the poly version
Why?
When I was researching panels every reference indicated that mono crystalline out perform poly crystalline panels in sub optimal lighting conditions
a bit more
Monocrystalline solar panels
Monocrystalline solar panels are generally thought of as a premium solar product. The main advantages of moncrystalline panels are higher efficiencies and sleeker aesthetics.
To make solar cells for monocrystalline solar panels, silicon is formed into bars and cut into wafers. These types of panels are called “monocrystalline” to indicate that the silicon used is single-crystal silicon. Because the cell is composed of a single crystal, the electrons that generate a flow of electricity have more room to move. As a result, monocrystalline panels are more efficient than their polycrystalline counterparts.
Polycrystalline solar panels
Polycrystalline solar panels generally have lower efficiencies than monocrystalline options, but their advantage is a lower price point. In addition, polycrystalline solar panels tend to have a blue hue instead of the black hue of monocrystalline panels.
Polycrystalline solar panels are also made from silicon. However, instead of using a single crystal of silicon, manufacturers melt many fragments of silicon together to form the wafers for the panel. Polycrystalline solar panels are also referred to as “multi-crystalline,” or many-crystal silicon. Because there are many crystals in each cell, there is less freedom for the electrons to move. As a result, polycrystalline solar panels have lower efficiency ratings than monocrystalline panels.
Monocrystalline solar panels
Monocrystalline solar panels are generally thought of as a premium solar product. The main advantages of moncrystalline panels are higher efficiencies and sleeker aesthetics.
To make solar cells for monocrystalline solar panels, silicon is formed into bars and cut into wafers. These types of panels are called “monocrystalline” to indicate that the silicon used is single-crystal silicon. Because the cell is composed of a single crystal, the electrons that generate a flow of electricity have more room to move. As a result, monocrystalline panels are more efficient than their polycrystalline counterparts.
Polycrystalline solar panels
Polycrystalline solar panels generally have lower efficiencies than monocrystalline options, but their advantage is a lower price point. In addition, polycrystalline solar panels tend to have a blue hue instead of the black hue of monocrystalline panels.
Polycrystalline solar panels are also made from silicon. However, instead of using a single crystal of silicon, manufacturers melt many fragments of silicon together to form the wafers for the panel. Polycrystalline solar panels are also referred to as “multi-crystalline,” or many-crystal silicon. Because there are many crystals in each cell, there is less freedom for the electrons to move. As a result, polycrystalline solar panels have lower efficiency ratings than monocrystalline panels.
Anything you do in this regard is liable to add sufficient weight to be a problem.
it's a FB thing...
there is land rover FC101 with a LS engine in it....shows up as a defender....
FB only lets you choose from vehicles it has listed or some shit...