Update #1: Materials & Testing

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:10]I thought it'd be kind of cool to show you guys some of the materials that we're going to be using. Uh why we used why we're using those materials and show you some of the testing that we've done.

[00:00:20]If you guys don't know me, I'm Derek with Camp Tano Tents. Uh we're waiting on materials to arrive and once those arrive, uh we're going to start building. So, so I thought I'd share just really quick because it's been a while since I've done an update and it's I've been busy and I swear I blink a month goes by now. So, um, few things that we're changing. We, uh, we ordered custom extrusions. These are offtheshelf extrusions. I don't know if you can see that. One of the things that's going to change is this going to be about an inch thicker. And the reason being is I want to be able to move the struts inside.

[00:00:55]So, it's going to be a little bit taller. And so you'll get a nice clean look and it'll protect the struts from, you know, weather getting caught on trees if you're overlanding, things like that. The other reason is I really want, as you can kind of see, it's it's a thin profile, right? It's a great thin profile, but I really want this to take no room out of the bed. So, if I lift this up a little bit, it'll will completely uh be flush and be able to hide the whole thing. And so, you'll be able to use your entire entire bed. Um, one of the things I use this just to kind of keep bungee cords right now just to kind of keep it flat, but we're gonna actually include a it's gonna be like a plastic infused cover so that you know if you're throwing stuff in your bed, you don't scratch that up and things like that.

[00:01:47]As far as materials go for the top, for the lid, what I used on the prototype, on my prototype, what's on my truck right now, is this material right here.

[00:01:57]And this is called aluminum composite panels. And this is it's pretty cool stuff. You can see it's got aluminum skins on each side, and in the middle it's got like a plastic composite, and that is what gives it its strength. So, it's it's it's fairly lightweight and fairly strong, but after using it, I've realized that it does have some drawbacks. Um, one of the things I really wanted uh was the lid to be loadbearing. I want you to be able to throw all your gear up there and stand on it if you need to and all that good stuff. And this stuff here is just not strong strong enough. So, we would have to um put crossarss in and all that good stuff. And that's fine, but that's just another engineering uh you know, problem you'd have to solve. But um and you know, makes manufacturing just a little bit more complicated. Um but one of the main things I realized is the first time I took this thing out camping, uh it was it was a weird weekend. I I got everything that weekend. I got super sun and and heat and I also got caught in a massive massive thunder, rain, um hail storm. And in that storm, what I realized is this stuff, not only does there's no sound dampening. I swear it amplifies every I could hear every raindrop and hail 10 times more. It was so loud. And then in the sun, it just it just bakes you out. It it provides zero insulation. Um, and so it's decent material, but uh and it's the most affordable option. Um, but I decided to move away from that. Next up, what I really wanted to use when I started this is this stuff here. This stuff is actually really cool. It's amazing. Um, this is called aluminum honeycomb panels. And you can see it's got, you would think, you would not think this is strong looking at, right? It's literally, you can hear it. It's literally just got like aluminum foil shaped in honeycombs between two aluminum between two aluminum skins. And um but this stuff is extremely extremely strong for for loadbearing purposes. Uh it will feel like concrete when you walk on it and it's really lightweight, but it's also got drawbacks. It's the most expensive option for one. And the drawbacks are it also has no sound dampening and it has no um insulation.

[00:04:18]So um you'll get roasted out on those hot days and like I said, if it's pouring rain, you're going to you're really going to hear it. What we went with is actually a really interesting material. And this stuff here, you can see I've been testing on it and stuff like that. You can you can uh bolt through it, you can rivet it, the whole thing. This stuff is called FRP panels.

[00:04:38]And what it is is it's fiberglass reinforced. You can kind of see there's a fiberglass pattern in here. And then in the middle, it's got a um a foam material and then skins on both sides.

[00:04:53]This stuff here is actually really really interesting. It is super strong.

[00:04:58]Um, and it's so you can you can walk on it. Um, it's loadbearing.

[00:05:03]It's insulated. Uh, I can't remember if I think it was our I can't remember what it is now. Um, but it's it's insulated.

[00:05:10]Um, and this is like your kind of medium tier option as far as, you know, this is your cheapest. This is your most expensive and this is kind of like right in the middle. And um but after testing and and and looking at everything, this one actually offers everything that we that we wanted. It it's strong enough to where you can walk on it. You can put stuff on it. Don't worry, it's not going to look like this. It comes in a bunch of different uh you know, comes with a bunch of different uh uh tops and stuff like that. Um it's impact resistant, so you drop stuff off on it and it just it you know, for the most part just bounces off. And so this is the stuff that we're going to go with. I'll show you some of the testing that we've done. And uh but this is really cool. Really cool. And and ours, this is a 3/4 inch. We're actually going with a 1 in to make it stronger. But next up, I'll show you some of the um the testing and stuff that we we've done with this stuff.

[00:06:05]Now, as far as weight goes, kind of do the scale here. The aluminum composite is half a pound, 0.6.

[00:06:19]And this is a and for an 8 in x 12 in option. And the fiberglass reinforced panels is a little bit heavier at 08. The way that actually translates is for a six by foot six foot by six foot.

[00:06:38]So if you had a 6ft bed, this would be 43 lb. This would be 32 lb. So you're looking at this being a little bit heavier. However, by the time that you add all the cross supports and everything that you need for this, this would end up actually being heavier than this. So this does so much for us. It really just simplifies our our production. Um it makes it so much easier. So um I think that's pretty cool. Um, like I said, it's super lightweight, super super strong.

[00:07:15]Now, just for fun, you can kind of see on this one, I've already done some testing. This is the uh aluminum uh aluminum uh honeycomb panels. And so, I've got a nice big heavy screwdriver.

[00:07:28]And uh and you can see what that just did to it. It just dents so easy. So that's the most expensive. I don't think we even really need to do you know a whole lot of testing on that stuff. And so I mean you look at like you know that's just like I said that's the most expensive uh I barely I didn't even put any I didn't even put any uh force behind that. So, and and the thing is with this stuff is that aluminum is a really great um uh it conducts heat. And so, like I said, on hot days, uh it's just going to conduct heat and it's just going to go straight straight through, if not make it even worse. Next up, we'll do the aluminum composite panel. And this this stuff's actually pretty strong.

[00:08:17]It's not bad, but uh we'll we'll drop it about from 6 ft.

[00:08:23]And once again, you see that it just, you know, dents pretty easy. So, you drop a tool on it.

[00:08:31]You drop a tool on it and it's going to it's going to leave a mark.

[00:08:38]And lastly, again, just for fun here, we're going to do the same thing with the uh and this is unprotected. We're going to put a protectant top on top on top of it, but it'll give you an idea of the protection. So, again, six feet up and it just bounces right off.

[00:08:57]There's barely anything at all. Right.

[00:09:00]Same with the hammer.

[00:09:03]It's now I hit that way harder than the other stuff. So, it's just for what we wanted to do. It's just a it's just a much better material. Um so, um so next up, let's uh kind of test some of the load bearing stuff.

[00:09:34]All right. And lastly, just for fun, we'll do kind of a loadbearing test.

[00:09:41]Kind of show you.

[00:09:44]So, it's actually pretty strong, but you see I'm about 250. All right. 225. Whatever.

[00:09:50]Don't hate. Um about 200 21 uh 25 lbs right now. And so, it's pretty strong considering how thin it is.

[00:10:00]You notice that it it bent, right? You can see that it's completely bent.

[00:10:07]Then you throw the fiberglass material on there and you'll see that it just I mean I can jump up and down on it. It doesn't it I don't think it flexes at all. So this is it. This is stuff we're going with.

[00:10:29]And in closing, couple last thoughts uh about this material is uh one cool thing is that it's completely recyclable. So if you ever throw it away or whatever, um it can all be recycled. Uh one downside is that every single uh order of this is custom made. You can't just order it off the shelf. It's uh kind of been interesting learning about this stuff because this comes in so many uh form factors. Uh there's different kinds of cores. Some of those cores do really good in heat, some of them don't.

[00:11:03]Some of them do great in heat but aren't very strong. Some of them uh are horrible in heat but are really strong.

[00:11:10]And so um it's been a learning curve.

[00:11:13]And then even on the fiberglass reinforced plastic the skins, there's there's all sorts of different stuff you need to know about this. It comes in different grades. It comes in different form factors. All that. Um, there's different ways you can order it. You can order it with a, you know, top like this or like that. Um, you can order it gloss, you can order it raw. There's a bunch of different ways to order it. So, there's just there's a lot to it. Um, a lot of stuff that you need to know as far as like waterproofing and all that stuff. So, it's been a learning learning curve, but I think that we uh I think we landed kind of in a sweet spot. Um, and then, uh, we've been looking at ways just to, you know, give it a really good professional, uh, look in the end and also make it a little bit more indestructible. And so, we're looking at possibly bedlinining the top. Um, something like that. Um, couple other options as well. So, uh, that's it for now. I appreciate you guys, uh, tuning in and, uh, we will see you next time. I appreciate it.