Hi I'm technomadness and I'm a refugee...

[S Cello]

Subfloor = aluminum sheet? I saw that they had aluminum sheet in varying thicknesses when I got my aluminum angles. What kind of weight limits are you facing for your build out?
Is that two wheel drive? It sure is a beauty!

[CosmicVanna]

Sure is beautiful, all new, clean & shiny!

What about the cold factor of metals vs woods? Wood holds heat better whereas metals act like a heat sink. How would you insulate living space from the metals?
IDK, is just my thoughts & wonderings. It'll be interesting to watch as it's built up & see how Techno gets around it.

[Cammalu]

Cosmolite

Or

V-lite

Or

Rhinokore composite honeycomb panels

[Snikwahjm]

There were some thick plastic panels at the home builder place last I looked.

[RepublicOfTXPatriot]

It's beautiful Techno !! Congrats on pulling the trigger !! My thought was some cement board ?

[technomadness]

Subfloor = aluminum sheet? I saw that they had aluminum sheet in varying thicknesses when I got my aluminum angles. What kind of weight limits are you facing for your build out?
Is that two wheel drive? It sure is a beauty!

Yes you can get aluminum sheet in a large number of compositions and thicknesses. Man I sure miss the Bowing Surplus Store— I used to buy titanium and 7075-T6 there all the time... and no shipping costs!

One solution is a relatively thick (1/8-3/8) aluminum sheet. I’m currently researching doing custom composites using the polyisocyanurate as a foam core. Like the way Fiberglass sailboat hills are made. Only not using fiberglass.

Saw on YouTube people doing it with aluminum screen door material and fiberglass screen door material and using house paint as the binder.

And saw a reference to “the foamy community” where “people make travel trailers out of foam”—- would love some pointers if anyone knows of a forum for those guys.

I know the physics of composites reasonably well, but not the chemistry of various binders, so research and experimentation will be needed.

[technomadness]

Sure is beautiful, all new, clean & shiny!

What about the cold factor of metals vs woods? Wood holds heat better whereas metals act like a heat sink. How would you insulate living space from the metals?
IDK, is just my thoughts & wonderings. It'll be interesting to watch as it's built up & see how Techno gets around it.

This is a very good point. My intention is to build a metal cage in the interior, attached to the walls floor and ceiling, which will add strength to the body and be the mounting place for everything.

That cage will be holding insulation between it and the walls over the larger areas of the van— it will be well insulated.

But the attachment points are a place where heat loss can occur. The aluminum coins wick heat from the interior right to the body of the van thru these attachment points.

So my solution is to put UHMW (a very high density polyethylene) between the aluminum and the van, isolating them thermally. Over on the sprinter forum they like to use fiberglass for this, but I have experience with UHMW and it’s not brittle and a good insulator. While still being very strong in a compression application.

So the short answer is I’ll be isolating the metal from the outside.


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[technomadness]

Cosmolite

Or

V-lite

Or

Rhinokore composite honeycomb panels

Cosmolite seems to be a luggage.
V-lite PVC panels seems to be very similar to the polyisocyanurate insulation I’m using. Theybwould work if I made a composite out of them. Let me ask you this, if you took a 1”x 3” section of v-lite can you break it in half with your fingers? It’s hard to tell the structural strength of foam from the web.

Rhinokore is a great material from which to make composite panels. I see they will make panels for you. I tend to shy away from special order situations because of cost- preferring to DIY using commodity materials.

Do you know a good source of panels I can buy with something like rhinokore?

I totally believe in composites and an aluminum or ABS clad panel would be just fine. (Though now I know people are DIYing them with insulation I might make my own. 2” of polyisocyanurate is better than one inch of it and a structural subfloor above it... if I can make the insulation into a composite strong enough to not need a subfloor.



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[technomadness]

There were some thick plastic panels at the home builder place last I looked.

I’ve seen a plastic version of cardboard that was about 1/8” thick, unfortunately it wasn’t the right kind of plastic for this application.

In what section were the panels you’re referring to?


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[technomadness]

It's beautiful Techno !! Congrats on pulling the trigger !! My thought was some cement board ?

Was looking at that last night. Seems at least some people use it as floor underlyament. Will have to check it out next time I’m at HD.


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