Lance truck campers TPO Nose construction
Lance has a video showing the strength of the TPO nose... ... and if you'll let the video continue to run Lances new water proof, sound absorbing side material is explained Click here...Very goo...
Forum Discussion
Travelnutz:
The leading edge of our roof has a radius/wrap down, where our TPO is fully exposed (at least 2 inches of it x 7 feet wide) to rock hits. I can see along the aluminum banding holding down the TPO many good-sized divots where rocks have literally gouged the aluminum (like a bullet hitting metal at an angle, but on a lower velocity scale). I'm certain that many a rock has hit that leading edge TPO radius, with absolutely no visible damage. Readers must also know that under our TPO (between the TPO and aluminum roof framing) is a full webbing sheet of industrial felt about 3/16ths inch thick, that forms an critical impact suppressor (this is an installation requirement written by the TPO manufacturer engineering applications people) against large hail and other high-velocity impacting.
On another parallel note of interest:
Some years ago (about 5 years ago) I was using a professional tree pruning stick (24 feet long), with a ~20 LB hardened steel razor-sharp pruning head attached, and was raising it up to about ~21 feet when the pruning head came off the fiberglass extender as was deploying the cutting lever. The head somehow bounced off a branch a few inches below the ~21 feet extension, and dead-fell right on top of the rear part of our camper roof, bounced a few feet up, and landed on the ground. I climbed up onto the roof of the Outfitter to inspect damage: one depression looked like it MAY have penetrated the TPO (I really couldn't tell if there was a breach) about 1/8th of an inch long; another imprint about 8 inches from the 1st, but the 2nd impression I was sure hadn't penetrated. Anyhow, I patched both depressions immediately (with my TPO repair kit). The IZOD impact strength numbers of TPO are extremely impressive (tested at -40C).
TPO is incredible strong, I'll tell you. It reminds me of the stuff called "Spectra" polyolifin I used on a Central American sea kayaking expedition I had done in the late '90s. The sails I had used (supplied by the Folbot Company (in the Canadian Maritimes) folding sea kayak owner, at the time) was made up entirely of Spectra, very similar in strength to TPO. Spectra is of course ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), which is at least 15+ times more abrasion-resistant than carbon steel (the Spectra material is only about 8~10 mills thick!). DSM, a European chemical company, supplies Spectra to ballistics protection and armoring manufacturers.
Silver-
The leading edge of our roof has a radius/wrap down, where our TPO is fully exposed (at least 2 inches of it x 7 feet wide) to rock hits. I can see along the aluminum banding holding down the TPO many good-sized divots where rocks have literally gouged the aluminum (like a bullet hitting metal at an angle, but on a lower velocity scale). I'm certain that many a rock has hit that leading edge TPO radius, with absolutely no visible damage. Readers must also know that under our TPO (between the TPO and aluminum roof framing) is a full webbing sheet of industrial felt about 3/16ths inch thick, that forms an critical impact suppressor (this is an installation requirement written by the TPO manufacturer engineering applications people) against large hail and other high-velocity impacting.
On another parallel note of interest:
Some years ago (about 5 years ago) I was using a professional tree pruning stick (24 feet long), with a ~20 LB hardened steel razor-sharp pruning head attached, and was raising it up to about ~21 feet when the pruning head came off the fiberglass extender as was deploying the cutting lever. The head somehow bounced off a branch a few inches below the ~21 feet extension, and dead-fell right on top of the rear part of our camper roof, bounced a few feet up, and landed on the ground. I climbed up onto the roof of the Outfitter to inspect damage: one depression looked like it MAY have penetrated the TPO (I really couldn't tell if there was a breach) about 1/8th of an inch long; another imprint about 8 inches from the 1st, but the 2nd impression I was sure hadn't penetrated. Anyhow, I patched both depressions immediately (with my TPO repair kit). The IZOD impact strength numbers of TPO are extremely impressive (tested at -40C).
TPO is incredible strong, I'll tell you. It reminds me of the stuff called "Spectra" polyolifin I used on a Central American sea kayaking expedition I had done in the late '90s. The sails I had used (supplied by the Folbot Company (in the Canadian Maritimes) folding sea kayak owner, at the time) was made up entirely of Spectra, very similar in strength to TPO. Spectra is of course ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), which is at least 15+ times more abrasion-resistant than carbon steel (the Spectra material is only about 8~10 mills thick!). DSM, a European chemical company, supplies Spectra to ballistics protection and armoring manufacturers.
Silver-
