Super Sized Sixty Sovereign

[57Vintage]

I thought about doing the same thing - thermal imaging. Your photos led me to do some research. It appears shiny objects won't give accurate readings. Appears what the camera measures is the reflected temperatures not surface.

https://www.flir.com/discover/profes...ermal-imaging/

[nvestysly]

Originally Posted by truckasaurus

I thought a thermal imaging camera would reveal the insulation magic or show up flaws. It turns out in my hands it really just makes trippy images. I think it doesn't like reflective metal but I'll try again when it's got the AC running.

Originally Posted by 57Vintage

I thought about doing the same thing - thermal imaging. Your photos led me to do some research. It appears shiny objects won't give accurate readings. Appears what the camera measures is the reflected temperatures not surface.

https://www.flir.com/discover/profes...ermal-imaging/

In my w*rking days as a mechanical engineer in the electronics industry the subject of emissivity was a daily part of my routine. The article on the FLIR web site does a good job describing the issues surrounding temperature measurement with an infrared device.

There's no more accurate measurement of temperature than placing a probe directly on the object. However, physical measurement of the object is not always practical, particularly when you're trying to map the surface or a series of objects at one time.

One thing that may help with identifying hot and cool spots on the trailer skin is to take the measurement (picture) in the morning when the sun is not shining or even at night.

An interesting way to obtain a practical understanding of the effects of emissivity is to measure temperature of items in your freezer. Everything in the freezer will be within a few degrees of each other but they will appear to have dramatically different temperatures due to variations in emissivity. Plastic wrappers, cardboard boxes, metal trays, ice cubes will all have indicate a different temperature via infrared reading even though everything in the freezer is approximately 32 F.

[GPurcell]

Loving the build! Don't know if you've seen it yet but I've also done the boxed frame/Timbren suspension setup. Went with the 4" lift and 5200lb setup.

[truckasaurus]

Originally Posted by nvestysly

In my w*rking days as a mechanical engineer in the electronics industry the subject of emissivity was a daily part of my routine. The article on the FLIR web site does a good job describing the issues surrounding temperature measurement with an infrared device.

There's no more accurate measurement of temperature than placing a probe directly on the object. However, physical measurement of the object is not always practical, particularly when you're trying to map the surface or a series of objects at one time.

One thing that may help with identifying hot and cool spots on the trailer skin is to take the measurement (picture) in the morning when the sun is not shining or even at night.

An interesting way to obtain a practical understanding of the effects of emissivity is to measure temperature of items in your freezer. Everything in the freezer will be within a few degrees of each other but they will appear to have dramatically different temperatures due to variations in emissivity. Plastic wrappers, cardboard boxes, metal trays, ice cubes will all have indicate a different temperature via infrared reading even though everything in the freezer is approximately 32 F.

Thank you, that's interesting info, when it cools down I'll try heating the trailer and trying again at night :-)

[truckasaurus]

Originally Posted by GPurcell

Loving the build! Don't know if you've seen it yet but I've also done the boxed frame/Timbren suspension setup. Went with the 4" lift and 5200lb setup.

No I hadn't but now I've skimmed through it looks awesome. Also the murdered rims are a neat choice; I nearly went with black teflon Moabs.

I think with a lift and off road tires the cross brace is good insurance.

[GPurcell]

Originally Posted by truckasaurus

No I hadn't but now I've skimmed through it looks awesome. Also the murdered rims are a neat choice; I nearly went with black teflon Moabs.

I think with a lift and off road tires the cross brace is good insurance.

Thanks - I think we both can agree that overbuilding is better than the alternative lol.

I'm curious to see how your insulation test goes. I can't figure out what I want to put in my walls yet.

[CajunCan]

I was going through your thread and saw that you used what you called foamply. Where did you get this? Sounds like a good alternative to plywood.

[truckasaurus]

The stuff I used was called Formply, its a plywood product used in concrete forming basements etc. (I really wanted MDO, medium density overlay, as it's similar but with a thick phenolic layer, it was discontinued in my area at the time though). I'm a bit biased but I'd say it's a decent choice being really high quality, no voids that I found at all, none, designed and rated for below ground use and weirdly cheap. Here's a link to something similar. https://www.homedepot.com/p/3-4-in-x...5100/202562995

Mine's stood up insanely well, night and day compared to my previous trailer where I used the West system epoxy over exterior grade plywood.

[truckasaurus]

I thought I'd use some of the old junk interior to work through some layout concerns; glad I did. The flexible plan was to have upper cabinets running above the galley and back a few feet and mount the AC handler to the face of an aft cabinet. I'm going to modify that to have just ten feet of uppers, stopping short of the AC handler and making it's own support structure so it can sit 5" lower down, 8" further outboard, resulting in the face of both the uppers and the handler being pretty closely matched. The curb side is going to have a mid bathroom that extends 37" into the trailer so this way I can keep a decently open corridor feel. The curved bath wall is going to be a challenge along with the fiberglass shower enclosure so I'm putting that off for a bit, preferably until the AC is up and running :-)

I prefer the aluminum upper cabinet my Overlander had ('61) but I don't have a shop to make those so I'll be going with 1x2 Kregged frames maybe with radiused plywood ends. All tips welcome.

[CajunCan]

Originally Posted by truckasaurus

The stuff I used was called Formply, its a plywood product used in concrete forming basements etc. (I really wanted MDO, medium density overlay, as it's similar but with a thick phenolic layer, it was discontinued in my area at the time though). I'm a bit biased but I'd say it's a decent choice being really high quality, no voids that I found at all, none, designed and rated for below ground use and weirdly cheap. Here's a link to something similar. https://www.homedepot.com/p/3-4-in-x...5100/202562995

Mine's stood up insanely well, night and day compared to my previous trailer where I used the West system epoxy over exterior grade plywood.

Thank you for this. I just found some locally and I will be using it for my AS! My plan was to just epoxy normal plywood but I read a lot about that trapping in water if its not fully sealed. What was the rubber stuff you used to seal the edges?

[Bubba L]

That’s a good plan on the head lockers. Since our Dometic truck AC went out, we have ordered a mini split. I considered enlarging a head locker toward the rear of the trailer and placing the air handler in that. When operating we would open the locker door for air flow and return. I didn’t like the direction the air would be blowing so we came up with a different approach. Since I had the old Dometic air handler under the rear bed blowing into a duct trunk line with two registers, we’re thinking to utilize the duct. We will try placing the air handler under the bed with a return air grill on the face of the bed front. I’ll create a mock up plenum and funnel the air into the duct trunk line. We’ll play with it to make sure the CFMs aren’t restricted, and if it works, permanently finish it out. I look forward to watching how you install yours. Good luck

[truckasaurus]

Originally Posted by CajunCan

Thank you for this. I just found some locally and I will be using it for my AS! My plan was to just epoxy normal plywood but I read a lot about that trapping in water if its not fully sealed. What was the rubber stuff you used to seal the edges?

You're most welcome. I painted the underside with something like porch paint and did the board edges and both face perimeters with aerosol rubberized rocker guard. (I also used it to wet set the floor hold down screws).

[Krek]

Holy schmoly... I thought I had ferreted out all of "railroad threads" but missed this one. Spectacular work! We'll be following in a lot of your footsteps.

[truckasaurus]

I do not like prepping for paint, priming or painting. That said, I welded the bumper on a few weeks ago and today was paint day (below 90F) so the bumper got what was coming to it. Whilst I was at it I painted the mount for the mini-split too as it's now part of the tongue; this time I did it black. I think I prefer the tongue black and bumper silver, it seems to work well with the bullet shape.

I also installed a stainless steel boat exhaust outlet to the front of the trailer, a little weird for sure but it's just the right size for insulated AC lines.

It was over 3 years ago that Harold mailed me the bumper but wanted to send thanks again as I really like the shape :-)

No pics, but we filled the 1200 plus pop rivet holes with Sherwin Williams no shrink spackle ready for Kem Kromik primer. Exciting times....

[57Vintage]

Glad someone wanted it, hate to see usable vintage parts go to waste. I wanted to switch to the later model aluminum bumper to take a bit more weight off the rear end. Went from the original 8 gal BW tank to a 19 gal BW tank so any weight I could reduce was welcome.

Looks great.

[truckasaurus]

Just slowly making a little more progress and was laying a coat of primer on the walls and an invite to go camping in South Carolina popped up so without giving it enough thought we agreed. Quickly added a new 7 way, breakaway switch, some lights, cardboard window treatments and almost my entire collection of moving blankets topped with an inflatable queen mattress Amazon'd just in time and we made it. It was down to the 40's at night so I ran a little box heater with the roof vents open; it didn't kick in much at all which was a good sign.

It was a great experience and now I have family buy in for Airstream camping.

[Krek]

Sweet!

[Bubba L]

Brings back memories of the enthusiasm we had when ours was at that stage. It’s hard to resist. Good for you and it’s looking really good.

[truckasaurus]

So... I’m testing out a frame for the mini split interior handler and it’s melting my brain. Essentially it’s a 1x2 frame that I thought I’d skin on top with 1/4” ply (glued and nailed), pocket screw the frame to the skin then skin below with maybe 1/4” ply but just screwed so I can remove it or whatever. I plan to attach a front lip that’s flat where the AC will attach and then curve around to meet the wall. Additional supports will be behind the AC attached again to the end cap with pocket screws. What’s playing on my mind is will all that keep a 20lb AC unit secure?

[57Vintage]

My first thought is the lack of ribs in the end cap. What will this end be used for, bedroom? I'd want to build some 'arches' at the front and rear of the unit to take the load down to the floor. The complexity comes with the compound curves your trying to match up to in the upper areas.



As you can see I'll never make a living as an artist. You could probably use the 1X1X.063 aluminum angle I used for the banquette and form it to the wall arch and fastened it to distribute a lot of load (the compound curves would be a PIA). The .063 also comes in 1.5X1.5. Not sure how you would disguise the structure though.

I used the shrinker to go down to a 4" radius so you may be able to go up to .125 wall thickness.