Considering building camper from scratch...
Looking for opinions on building a new camper from the ground up, to bolt down to a flat bed. 99% of my camping is boondocking and involves going off road in the southwest desert, I haven't so much as...
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This isn't about proving that I can do it, or doing it better than the manufacturers. Or even any kind of "bent on doing it, come hell or high water!", lol. It's much more about considering all my options, and that after 40 years of experience on this big spinning rock, I've come to realize that there are better ways to learn than "the hard way". Though there's also a component of doing it exactly the way I want it, rather than settling on a "standard" floor plan of a commercially built camper (or pay MUCH more for a full custom job).
I've also learned that despite a lengthy session of several hours spent on the internet researching, that really was more like 5 minutes of research, and 4 hours 55 minutes of getting horribly sidetracked on YouTube and Wikipedia, that MANY of my projects ended up involving WAY more than I ever expected, in needed skills, time and money. Remember that "hard way" that I mentioned? Yeah....:B
So I'm attempting to avoid jumping into anything blind, and at least try to be as prepared as I can be before deciding one way or another. Admittedly, I'm not all that sure of what exactly to use for the main structure, as far as particular alloys and sizes of materials. I can certainly build stout, as my other big hobby is 4x4 rock crawlers. Currently working on a 4 link coil over suspension, and full drivetrain swap with a 4 speed automatic trans on a Suzuki Samurai. I know exactly how to set that up, but building with low weight in mind was never a concern.
My initial thought would be 1" square, .063 wall 6063 tubing would work well, and strike a decent balance between strength and low weight. I haven't even gotten to the point of doing even any rough drawings though, much less full plans to get an idea of how much material this is really going to take. Hence my posting - hoping to find someone that's been down this road already, and would be able to say that I'm on the right path, or "sorry, no...you're going to end up WAY over what you're thinking", lol.
I've also learned that despite a lengthy session of several hours spent on the internet researching, that really was more like 5 minutes of research, and 4 hours 55 minutes of getting horribly sidetracked on YouTube and Wikipedia, that MANY of my projects ended up involving WAY more than I ever expected, in needed skills, time and money. Remember that "hard way" that I mentioned? Yeah....:B
So I'm attempting to avoid jumping into anything blind, and at least try to be as prepared as I can be before deciding one way or another. Admittedly, I'm not all that sure of what exactly to use for the main structure, as far as particular alloys and sizes of materials. I can certainly build stout, as my other big hobby is 4x4 rock crawlers. Currently working on a 4 link coil over suspension, and full drivetrain swap with a 4 speed automatic trans on a Suzuki Samurai. I know exactly how to set that up, but building with low weight in mind was never a concern.
My initial thought would be 1" square, .063 wall 6063 tubing would work well, and strike a decent balance between strength and low weight. I haven't even gotten to the point of doing even any rough drawings though, much less full plans to get an idea of how much material this is really going to take. Hence my posting - hoping to find someone that's been down this road already, and would be able to say that I'm on the right path, or "sorry, no...you're going to end up WAY over what you're thinking", lol.
