Off-Road Hard Sided Popup Trailer

[schanusa]

The body skeleton is reattached and floor set in place. Then its onto finishing the skin.

The upper portion gets skins cut to fit.

More cutting sheets of aluminum to fit then attaching using 3M's VHB tape.

 

[schanusa]

Between installing the skin I start working on the doors and latch.

The two doors allow access when the lid is up or down.

Inside view of latch and door jam.

Doors get skinned once latch, door jam and seals are in place.

 

[schanusa]

With the main exterior panels completed I move on to the lift system. I design some brackets for the electric lift rams to attach to. They are cut out via a plasma cam then painted. Each corner of the trailer body gets a pair.

The flat spot on top clears the body of the rams. The inner curve is the cut exactly to fit around the lower body's top edge. These are also on the upper lid/roof section.

Long sections of aluminum are bent to cap off the step on the lower body exterior.

 

[schanusa]

The roof section is then set on top before the exterior skin is attached. This is to align the electric lifts and have access to adjust them.

Electric rams are attached and given a first test. It was late when we finally got to test them. Thankfully they worked the very first time exactly how the should of. We did have to adjust them a 1/4 inch lower. A testament to designing everything on a computer first.

Here's a video of the first test. The battery we used was not fully charged, so took a bit to open and close.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX_9uropPuM&list=UUFHpv_6iLsf64dSqldmzGQA

 

[schanusa]

With the lifts working properly we finished skinning the exterior and installed the windows.

The door was trimmed with 2 inch wide aluminum strips for an outside edge for the weather stripping.

The split between the doors has weather stripping as well.

Final adjustments on the latch catch are made.

 

[schanusa]

All the edges then got trim. Attached with 3M VHB tape. This took a few days.

The final results were awesome.

One thing that wasn't finished on time was the spare tire carrier.

We finished right on the deadline. So we decided to have a couple beers. The next morning Jim had to begin his long drive back home.

 

[schanusa]

The next morning I followed Jim out of town. We hit a small trail to do quick testing and snap a few photos.

 

[schanusa]

Trailer looks a bit dirty since we forgot to wipe all our hand prints off before taking photos. After working 16 hour days strait for over a month, I wasn't all there mentally. This project is definitely one of the coolest things I've done and would like to build myself something similar one day.

From here Jim started building the interior out. I don't have any photos right now, though I'll ask him if he can send me some. The aluminum sheeting got a layer of high-density polyethylene (HDPE). Then a layer of polystyrene for insulation.

 

[crawlin91]

Excellent craftsmanship.

 

[88_Eddie]

damn that looks awesome, i'll take 6

 

[dieseldane]

Another great build, looks amazing!

 

[Gruss]

VERY COOL! Is the owner going to finish the interior?

 

[schanusa]

Thanks everyone!

VERY COOL! Is the owner going to finish the interior?

Yep. He's sending me a few photos of whats been done. I'll post them up when I get them.