Avion truck campers - Hundreds of photos
Without going into too much painful detail, we had a mishap several week-ends ago. While working with sand bag crews on the Mississippi River, the truck and camper fell into the flood waters as a road...
Forum Discussion
Southedistoman, in creating Argo, the all-aluminum camper, I used 3M VHB tape to attach the new outside lower panels. It’s great stuff to work with and bonds like crazy.
As I prepared to put the new inner skin in, I considered using that same tape to attach the panels. To that end, I did a couple of sample sections, one using riveted skin directly onto the frames and another using the VHB tape to attach the skin. I took readings with my laser thermometer over the course of a warm spring day. The difference was not profound, perhaps a couple of degrees. That might be significant over the entire camper. I can’t say. What I can say is don’t use VHB tape to attach anything you think you might wish to remove at some later date. It’s way too sticky and can only be removed with chisel and a real effort. I did not end up using any insulation between the skin and the frames.
Consider that rivets, which are mostly on 3” centers, will transfer a lot of heat or cold regardless of any other insulation. The VHB tape uses an acrylic foam core with proprietary adhesive on both sides. It’s between .44 and .70 thick.
If I wanted to isolate the skin from the frame thermally, I’d use a 3/16” closed cell foam
strip, stuck to each rib with double sided tape applied to the rib to hold the foam strip in place. This would allow you to move the skin panel around before you rivet it.
Again. My personal conclusion was that insulating the ribs wasn’t worth the time. However I did use polyisocyanurate for the new main insulation as it has the highest R value per inch. And I’ve installed a Propex propane heater to deal with chilly days and nights. I happen to like hot weather...
Onward!
As I prepared to put the new inner skin in, I considered using that same tape to attach the panels. To that end, I did a couple of sample sections, one using riveted skin directly onto the frames and another using the VHB tape to attach the skin. I took readings with my laser thermometer over the course of a warm spring day. The difference was not profound, perhaps a couple of degrees. That might be significant over the entire camper. I can’t say. What I can say is don’t use VHB tape to attach anything you think you might wish to remove at some later date. It’s way too sticky and can only be removed with chisel and a real effort. I did not end up using any insulation between the skin and the frames.
Consider that rivets, which are mostly on 3” centers, will transfer a lot of heat or cold regardless of any other insulation. The VHB tape uses an acrylic foam core with proprietary adhesive on both sides. It’s between .44 and .70 thick.
If I wanted to isolate the skin from the frame thermally, I’d use a 3/16” closed cell foam
strip, stuck to each rib with double sided tape applied to the rib to hold the foam strip in place. This would allow you to move the skin panel around before you rivet it.
Again. My personal conclusion was that insulating the ribs wasn’t worth the time. However I did use polyisocyanurate for the new main insulation as it has the highest R value per inch. And I’ve installed a Propex propane heater to deal with chilly days and nights. I happen to like hot weather...
Onward!
