notsobigjoe wrote:
StirCrazy wrote:
HMS Beagle wrote:
I have owned three Bigfeet: one built in 1986, one in 1996, and one in 2008. They were all built the same way*.
Yes, the interior walls are screwed to the sandwich shell, but the sandwich shell has the foam bonded in and paneling bonded to that before it is taken from the mold. The fiberglass by itself is too floppy to do that afterwards.
when I was there the only thing added to it while it was in the mold was the wood that got glassed in like at the jack mounting places, anchor points for interior finishings, and around the whole edge to enable the shels to be fastened togeather. it was a 4 pint lift out of the mold then onto a roaling bed which is where they used an adhesive glue to atach the cnc cut foam panels. I would imagin thluan is just atached to the wood mounting places and not nessasarly be part of any bonded system as it needs to be easy to replace and all the interior luan was installed before the top half was lowered into place so what you saw was a bottom shell with walls and a celing all built waiting for the top fiberglass and foam to be dropped down on top of it. struck me kinda funny, but made sence when I thought about it
maybe there building different now, might be the switch to a choped glass process much faster and easier then using glass cloth to build, who knows
Steve
Steve, I'm asking because I do not know. Is the shell molded at different thicknesses in the parts that secure everything both inside and outside, such as the corners for the jacks and where all the interior attachments are made or is it laid as one thickness through out? I ask because when I got out of the Navy in 85 I went to work at a Bayliner dealership in Endicott NY. This was Bayliner good years but with one outstanding problem. The floors and the stringers would literally rot very quickly because of the poor molding techniques. This was later fixed by pouring a thicker area around the flex joints to keep the water out. It worked. Curious if there are any similarities...
Joe
they were spraying a roof and a floor section while I was there. the gel coat is the same thikness throughout, and they they are using a chop gun and the way he explained it is it is all the same thickness for structural stength then after they get that done they place the wood around the seem and the rest of the anchor points and spray them in. when the one guy was spraying the shell, he kept using a poker to look at the thickness and he did that all over the place so it looks like ots all the same to me. and the cured one they pulled out of the mold from the 4 corners didn't flex at all. I the owner mentioned by using the fiberglass chop instead of the old matt and resin method as it is stronger, faster, and cheeper. I dodn't ask him if they used to tuse mat and resin, next time I go down there ill ask him. the wife wants to see the process before we decide which camper to buy. have it narrowed down to bigfoot, northern light, or adventurer.
Steve
