I had a recent inquiry to the overall dry weight of the camper. From my calculations and experience in loading the camper I would say somewhere in the ballpark of 600-700 pounds. I did not keep tabs on the weights of all inputs during the build. That would have been nice but there was enough detail to have to worry about in other realms so the calculations simply fell through the cracks.
I do know that the entire collection of sheetgoods (Nida-Core) weigh in at 32 pounds per and I had 10, minus the small segments leftover that were thrown away. Would have been 11 but ended up settling for a piece of 3/4" plywood- epoxied saturated and painted- for the backwall.
1) So the weight of 10 sheets of Nida Core = 320 pounds
2) one piece of 3/4" plywood = 30-45 pounds
3) must have at least 7 gallons of resin = 80-100 pounds
4) must have at least 40-50 pounds of cloth
(320) + (37.5) + (90) + (45) = 492
and my guess would have been around 600-700...so somewhere in the ballpark between 500-700 pounds
just right for the 1/2 ton with air bag helper springs...no issues in transit
I have never had a chance just yet, to actually obtain my truck total weight on a set of scales since the camper has been added so that's the best I have to offer currently.
-chris
Wow, that seems really light for the size. Are you happy with the weight vs strength?
ReplyDeleteAgain, it looks great. Great job.
Tim
Tim, yeah it does...it looks like a beast I agree. But, this is the reason I went with the Nida-Core panels for they are extremely tough and resilient considering their individual lightweight when compared to many other materials on the market. The secret lies in that polypropylene "Honeycomb" inert. The comb's cells are hollow but because of the hexagonal honeycomb structure create a very strong panel.
DeleteThey build yacht docks and corridors and such out of these panels. I went with this panels because of their light weight because all and I mean ALL of the North American manufactured units are at least 1200 pounds or better. I only have a half ton pickup. So I built my own.
Oh yea, to answer your question, I am extremely pleased with the strength. You could drop this unit off of some of the city skyscrapers and it could take the pounding...I'm serious..this is some super strong stuff.
I used Isophathalic Resin for all my laminating and corners. A lot stronger than ordinary polyester resin minus flexibility to ensure my corners and joints would not move on me during transit. Thus far I have had no issues and have driven many, many miles. No issues either when placing torque on unit such as when driving through dips located in driveways, when approaching at an angle. Those happijac spring loaded turnbuckles assist in those situations.
thanks, chris