Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Nida-Core Honeycomb Composite Panels Arrived Today

It has been a little over a week since the order for (8)- 30mm Nida-Core H8PP Honeycomb Composite Panels was placed with Essential Composites down in Florida.  The 8 panels arrived today via transfer freight.  I was pleased, to say the least, on the very quick handling and shipping.


Essential Composites in Florida was a pleasure to do business with.  I spoke with Max, possibly the owner of the company, an extremely nice guy and he was authentically concerned about making the end-user happy.  He got the ball rolling immediately and supplied me with 1.25" (30mm) H8PP 4x8 Nida-Core Honeycomb Composite panels - fiberglass skin both sides, matte finish.

Prior to being forwarded to Essential Composites, I had looked all over the internet --high and low--for a couple of weeks, attempting to locate a distributor which sold 30mm panels.  To no avail.  30mm is really close to 1.25" standard, but the thickest panels I could find were 1" thick.

I was referred to Essential Composites by a third party non-distributor.

The fact that Max was such a highly concerned business man, courteous and actually cared, I would highly recommend purchasing panels from Essential.  Made for a very quick, smooth transaction and excellent communication regarding shipment dates,etc;  Just great people!  And if you're reading Max-- thank you sir.  We need more fine American business men like yourself. 

Some of the other distributors which I contacted, never returned a phone call-- not one phone call.  However,  Essential Composites was excellent in the realm of customer service and communication.

Do yourself a huge favor-- make appropriate arrangements ahead of time to have the panels shipped to a registered business address (friend's vehicle repair shop, woodworking shop, boatbuilder's business, etc;).  This move will cut your freight charge in half.  They only ship out on tractor trailers and will only ship to a business address.  If your residence functions as a business, then you may be golden.

Product review:  these 30mm panels are really nice, quality panels.  Rigid and extremely durable and chiming in at 32 pounds per 4x8 panel., 1 lb. per square foot.  These panels are definitely going to make a great custom camper I do believe.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Last Look at Truck Prior To Camper Addition

One last look at my Chevy pickup before the addition of the camper.  Wondering at this point what will she look like and whether or not she will be happy?



Brainstorming and Designing for Camper Shower

I must have a shower inside of the camper so I have been brainstorming a shower system, given the available floor space of the camper.

There is AutoCad and Solid Works which would assist in the design process but that requires honing an older skillset of mine, which I do not have time for.  Plus, its much more fun to feel the project with a primitive hands on approach.  My primitive approach allows me to feel the headroom and answer my needs about elbow room.  So, I constructed this contraption underneath my work shelter so I could feel the shower space.  I played around with strips of wood clamped to the corner post simulating the ceiling height and angles which be associated with the inside corner of the camper. 

Stress relief - I obtained some crucial measurements.  Now, I have a very good understanding of how I will go about building the shower for the camper.


Currently I'm still waiting on the arrival of panels, fiberglass, and resin...coming from the sunshine state.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Deciding on Camper Tie Down System

I have been brainstorming the methods and means of how I could anchor the truck camper in the bed of my pickup.  I thought of engineering some type of custom connection; but simply do not have the time currently to delve into greater depths in that department. 

I know my camper dry weight is going to be significantly lighter than any manufactured unit currently found in the US.  However, I still needed to account for yaw, roll, lateral and longitudinal movements of the camper.  I began looking at a few different systems available:
  1. Torklift system
  2. Happi Jac tie downs
  3. Brophy Stake Pocket tie downs 

I really like the Torklift system for it's engineering design thought and their usage of pre-existing factory drilled bolt holes in the chassis for mounting.  Torklift excels in the field but the entire system is just a bit overkill and unsightly for what I am trying to achieve.

There is even an amazing story (when on page - scroll down, story w/ pics) of a guy that was hunting sheep in Washington and accidentally drove his truck off the side of a steep cut and his camper remained in the truck during the rollover, which was using Torklift tie downs.  The tie down system was even used as a connection point by the wrecker crew retrieving the truck.

Happi Jac camper tie downs seem to fit the bill for what the weight that i am dealing with.  Must drill fresh holes through the front truck bed wall and bumper to mount the brackets. Not a deal breaker.  Simple enough but very strong once installed.  Sounds like my winner. 

Initially I didn't feel comfortable with the the thought of using the Happi Jac tie downs without their torsion bar.  The torsion bar when used, runs horizontally across the face of the truck bed front wall, nestled between the bed wall and the cab.  Each end of it is sandwiched inside the black plated tie downs.  Many claim they have used the Happi Jac Tie Down plates successfully for much heavier campers and never used the addition of the torsion bar. 

I did run across some individual camper owners online which had sustained truck bed damage at the location of their plates, created during traveling with their camper.  But once again, they were carrying the large, much heavier, manufactured slide-ins.  I did not obtain the make or style of their plates or whether or not they made them.  The variable of whether or not a torsion bar was part of their tie-down systems did not come up and the posts didn't provide me with any clues regarding. 

I do worry about wind shear due to the lighter weight of my camper design.  This has long been the big issue with the Indy cars given their relatively lighter weights.  I plan on designing the camper with the cabover portion hugging relatively close to the top of the cab to minimize lift and design the nose of the camper with slant to increase downward pressure on the camper.  

The third tie down I ran across are the  Truck Stake Pocket Tie Downs  which I didn't even know existed but they are mostly used with lighter pop up truck style campers.

Some of the main choices I found.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Help from Nida Core 3M Purchasing Department- Florida; in locating a Nida Core Distributor

Since I have been having so much difficulty in locating a distributor online to purchase Nida Core honeycomb composite panels from, I decided to contact Nida Core themselves.  I called Nida Core in Florida and discovered their staff to be extremely helpful, professional and authentically concerned.  I can't necessarily say that about a few of the other composite manufacturers I have spoken with over the course of a few weeks.

I also discovered, until just recently, small business owners and individuals could purchase the panels directly.  That facet has recently changed.  "Why?"  I do not know.   But they were helpful and assisted me with locating a distributor online which could potentially handle my request.  That was a generous gesture.

Once again, I simply cannot say enough about Nida Core's customer service department.  Everyone I spoke with was friendly, courteous and professional.

If you run into difficulty locating panel suppliers, I feel confident in saying their customer service department would gladly assist you in your efforts.  Their contact information here

When I decided to prepare this blog, I did so with the forethought of sharing my work with others of like mind, which might appreciate such a build.  Sharing my struggles and setbacks may make someone's walk a little easier.  Not here to complain, but to provide solutions when and if I find them.  Makes both of our days brighter.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Contact Chris

       

Feel free to contact.  ~chris 



or use the form

Locating Nida-Core Panels for purchase

I have finally made a composite panel choice for the build.  Amongst the myriad of composite panels on the market, I'm going with Nida-Core composite panels for the camper.  Locating the blog of another, which had been very successful in building their camper out of Nida-Core panels provided a number of answers to some of my questions and turned out to be the extra nudge I needed.  Being extremely short on research time, due to demands on my time elsewhere, I went with it.  

Nida-Core panel usage comes with high reviews.  It's work-ability and structural strength is intriguing; they build road beds in some parts of the world using this stuff...as well as flooring inside of sea vessels.  I really like that standard Polyester Resin for fiberglass readily bonds to the panels and doesn't harm the polypropylene honeycomb inert.  Therefore, anyone which is familiar with your run-of-the-mill polyester resin, catalyst, cabosil, glass bubbles and chopped 1/4" glass strands used in fiberglass work, can work this Nida Core into a very durable, structurally sound and dependable project.

So the purchase decision has been made, now I'm attempting to locate a distributor along the eastern seaboard.  

I contacted numerous boat building suppliers and warehouses for the resin industry strung across the nation.  I have not been receiving the news I need to hear.  Currently I am still working on locating a supplier.   Most distributors want to deal in bulk...they like the larger stacks of green.   

But- I'm continuing to strike away; I shall keep you posted whenever i contact a good source for supplying small orders. 

chris

update:  Nida-Core 3M panels are still sold by various outlets but the manufacture has been bought out by Composite Essential Materials.  See my blog post regarding that news