A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby KCStudly » Wed Oct 26, 2016 9:47 am

Rather than trying to cut your aluminum true and exact, might I suggest do in a rough cut and leaving plenty of extra to router off flush after it is fastened down?

Need to leave some wiggle room anyways because whenever wrapping sheet goods around a profile they always seem to walk a little to one side or the other.
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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby SCwood » Wed Oct 26, 2016 11:19 am

KCStudly wrote:Rather than trying to cut your aluminum true and exact, might I suggest do in a rough cut and leaving plenty of extra to router off flush after it is fastened down?

Need to leave some wiggle room anyways because whenever wrapping sheet goods around a profile they always seem to walk a little to one side or the other.

I'll be doing that for most of the skin, but the walkway along the bottom will get in the way of the router for the bottom edge of the sides. Then again, I'll have trim over the bottom edge so it won't have to be perfectly straight and maybe it won't be a big deal.


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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby Mushin » Wed Oct 26, 2016 12:40 pm

Really looking forward to seeing this completed! Really nice build!

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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby aseawood » Thu Oct 27, 2016 10:32 am

SCwood wrote:I also got a little crooked with the router when routing the inside skin, but it just adds more character, right?


I was thinking about how to trim this the other day. Since the inner radius was so tight I figured the router would get pretty wobbley right at the curve. I was going to suggest putting the router bit with the top bearing on and trimming from the outside, but I didn't. Most likely due to sabotage.

SCwood wrote:My brother keeps suggesting I dress this up as a rocket ship for halloween. I might if it's still around!


Why just Halloween? There are so many good holidays out there that need rockets!

Looking forward to getting the aluminum on! I'm wondering if the top should get skinned first since maybe we should practice on something that is a little less visible than the sides. Also, when routing the top I'm afraid the bit/bearing may scratch up the sides if they are already on. If the top goes on first it can be trimmed when the sides are just wood, and if the bit scratches the roof it will be much less visible.... idk if that makes sense.





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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby SCwood » Thu Oct 27, 2016 9:39 pm

Mushin wrote:Really looking forward to seeing this completed! Really nice build!

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Me too! Thanks!

aseawood wrote:Looking forward to getting the aluminum on! I'm wondering if the top should get skinned first since maybe we should practice on something that is a little less visible than the sides. Also, when routing the top I'm afraid the bit/bearing may scratch up the sides if they are already on. If the top goes on first it can be trimmed when the sides are just wood, and if the bit scratches the roof it will be much less visible.... idk if that makes sense.

I've been thinking about that too. The thing is if we skin the roof first then the aluminum will be cut flush with the wood on the side. If any moisture gets in there it'll roll off the roof and be inclined to go inbetween the wood and aluminum on the sides. The skin on the side of BOB was much easier to cut than the hatch. I bet we can do the sides first.
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A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby SCwood » Thu Nov 03, 2016 9:52 pm

Got the aluminum on!

I scoured some welding forums and it turns out cutting aluminum is easier than I thought. There's a circular saw blade made just for that purpose. The forums also said to wax the blade with beeswax, and I didn't have beeswax laying around, but I did have "feed n wax" that you use to polish furniture and applied some of that. I'm not sure if it helped, but it didn't hurt!

The blade:
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Made a jig of sorts to cut the aluminum on in the grass so we didn't scratch it:
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A little creative cutting, and everything came out surprisingly straight:
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After that we applied some contact cement to help hold the aluminum until the trim was on:
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A lot of builds suggest cutting the aluminum within 1/4" of the edge so your router bit doesn't clog up, and that's definitely what you need to do. We started making close cuts with a grinder, but that was slow going so we moved to a plasma cutter and it went pretty quick:
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A little routing. I went with full welding gear to use the router because aluminum in the face isn't much fun:
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one side done!
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The next side and the roof went substantially faster:
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Working on the hatch.
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And the hatch is on!
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Added some struts and the hatch is operational. 100lb struts wouldn't hold it so I had to go up to 150lb struts. And I also installed... a small sun. I was looking at a 2' light bar on amazon and a 3' one was only $5 more so I went with it. It's pretty bright.
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It looks like BOB is mostly done but I still have a lot of finishing touches to work on!
Last edited by SCwood on Wed Dec 06, 2017 9:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby Mushin » Thu Nov 03, 2016 10:05 pm

Well that went fast! Looks great!

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A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby SCwood » Mon Nov 07, 2016 10:29 pm

Thanks! Getting closer...

The lights are wired up and work, which is good because I forgot to test them before sealing the hatch up.
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Then I removed all the trim to apply sealant and install it for good. I started off with butyl tape and decided I hated it. I thought it would compress almost flat but it didn't. It added about 1/16-1/8" of space underneath the trim and messed up my hurricane hinge. So I scraped it all off and replaced it with OSI Quad. The Quad worked much better. I also applied some "gravel guard" from SoCal teardrops while the trim was off.
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Also added some door keepers that I got from SoCal. They held the doors open a little too well so I took a dremel sanding drum to them and loosened them up a little bit.
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All the trim and gravel guard on
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I also mounted all the service hookups. Why do I need two power inlets you ask? Well, one will actually be for solar power. I had originally planned on having two solar quick disconnects come out of a cable gland, but didn't really like the idea of the disconnects sitting out in the weather all the time, so I repurposed a 15 amp shore power inlet and will cut that up and use it for a solar inlet.
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Temporarily installed the fan to make sure it works. It'll have to come back off to get BOB out of the garage.
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Made a prop to keep the A/C hatch open. It folds back into the void when not needed.
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Went by a local upholstery shop to get some foam for the bunk beds/couch.

Couch mode:
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Bunk bed mode:
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The top bunk is mounted on a 4' piano hinge and then two latches secure the other side.
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That's it for now. Still more to do!
Last edited by SCwood on Wed Dec 06, 2017 9:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby dirtsailor2003 » Mon Nov 07, 2016 10:39 pm

That's one bad a$$ BOB! Looks great!


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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby KCStudly » Tue Nov 08, 2016 7:39 am

Fantastic job! :thumbsup: :applause:
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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby retep » Tue Nov 08, 2016 7:43 am

B.O.B. Looks fantastic!!! Your craftsmanship shines through. Well Done!

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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby MadMango » Tue Nov 08, 2016 8:55 am

Awesome progress and attention to detail! The black rock guard against all that aluminum looks very modern and classic at the same time.
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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby aseawood » Tue Nov 08, 2016 10:53 am

Looks great! I really like the look of the rock guard with all of the black windows and hatches. It would be pretty cool if you could find a vinyl shop to cut a graphic or logo into the rock guard. That would have probably had to happen before it went on though. Oh well, maybe for BOB II.

I'm interested to see how you made the hatch support. Looks almost like a plastic rod. Or maybe a chopped up gas strut that was too weak for the hatch?

Also, what did the sealant tape do to the hurricane hinge? Looks like the hatch still opens, or is it just stuck open now!!


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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby SCwood » Tue Nov 08, 2016 1:13 pm

Thanks, everyone!

aseawood wrote:I'm interested to see how you made the hatch support. Looks almost like a plastic rod. Or maybe a chopped up gas strut that was too weak for the hatch?

Also, what did the sealant tape do to the hurricane hinge? Looks like the hatch still opens, or is it just stuck open now!!


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The prop is just a piece of square steel I had laying around. I drilled a hole through it to mount it to the hatch with a screw, rounded the end so it would rotate, and then painted it black.

The butyl tape made the hinge sit up too high, which made the hatch sit up too high, which made the hatch not seal as tight as I wanted it to. It's all better now though.
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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby maximeismer » Tue Nov 08, 2016 3:43 pm

Love following your build! I have a trailer that's roughly 7x12 if I use the tongue and I may do dimensions very similar to yours. My only concern is finding aluminum big enough. What dimensions were your aluminum and where did you get it at?


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