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A project log for CamperCycle

A rather large project that spans multiple disciplines. Despite of a chronic illness that leaves me fatigued a lot of the time.

timescaleTimescale 03/17/2024 at 21:100 Comments

While available materials is a large restriction, in essence the real restriction is weight. This thing must be as light weight as I can make it within the feature list. This of course greatly effects the types of material and techniques and the way to implement them.

Of course a long steel frame will not weight nothing. Neither will a battery, a motor or for that matter "me"! but even here gains are to be had.

For example, while the frame will be the heaviest part most likely, it will not be as heavy as the combined weight of a bicycle frame AND a camper frame. These can share structural parts between them. It also means with will be a lot shorten than the combination of a bike and trailer.

Another principle is that, where possible, an element should have at least 2 functions. If it is structural for the frame, there is no reason for it to be part of the seating system, wiring infrastructure or support for mechanical systems like the tank steering system (yes... going to do that). The seat of course transforms into a mattress and the hull is both protection, mounting area, surface for system integration like electrical, aerodynamics and making it look cool.

So the hull has many functions, but also, like our skin is the biggest organ, this is the biggest part, but it can not weigh a ton. After a lot of research, I decided that I'd make the bulk of the hull out of laminated XPS foam. People build boats out of it, so this should be doable and it is cheap. I still have to do the gluing, shaping and laminating experiments, but the core concept seems sound. Where needed sturdier re-enforcements will be added, but the whole shell should not weight more than 10 to 15 Kilograms and that is probably a high estimate. that stuff is really light!. (and even if re-enforcements are needed, I'll try to make those double as cable routes.

The seat matrass system will be wood foam and fabric and the center console and cooler will also be XPS.

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