Building Stuff With Extruded Aluminum.

[HoneyBadger]

I'm curious if any of you have experience with using extruded aluminum to build heavy duty stuff.

I'm seriously considering cutting off everything on my truck from the cab back and building a custom flatbed with an integrated Decked Drawer system. This would all be made from steel of course.
But then I want to build a custom camper of sorts on top of that. Think Go Fast Campers but on steroids.

My biggest concern would be the durability of a structure like that, holding a pop-up bed area on top, going over all the rough trails we drive.
Would something bolted together like that last very long? How durable is this extruded aluminum material?

Go Fast Campers seem to hold up. But what I'm cooking up would be much larger and have a bigger sleeping area on top as well as a fold out kitchen area and storage for tools and parts and electrical.
I know that the #Vanlife squad uses this stuff to build out the interiors of their camper vans. So I'm assuming it can handle some offroad abuse.

I have no experience with building stuff from extruded. I've been taking some free courses on the subject from the YouTube Certification Academy, but I'm not getting much info in the way of vibration resistance. But I'm assuming that with enough cross bracing anything could be possible here.

Any advice or experiences on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[nakman]

yeah.. it can totally be done. It's all in the attachment of the pieces IMO- the weakest is threads into the aluminum, stronger is channel nuts with gusset reinforcement, and even stronger through bolts with backing plates. Or maybe you'll just weld stuff?


Check out all of the bed rack systems, how those guys are incorporating 80/20 as cross bars mated to steel frames. Billie Bars comes to mind as one example...

there are many more also. hth!

 

[zgfiredude]

I have used 80/20 to build out my storage/fridge slide system in the rear of my 100. All of my use has been with the 1" variety, but it is quite strong and easily adapted if things change. Once you get into the "mode" of building with it, it gets easier. One big "however" is that it's not super light like you might think....the more reinforcements you put in the heavier it gets (duh). It IS lighter than other materials, just a bit heavier than you might first expect. The material itself is reasonable cost, it's the brackets, screws, nuts, etc that are impactful to the budget.

 

[Brucker]

Why do you need to use extruded? I would think standard aluminum tubing would be lighter and could be welded together easily to form the needed structure. Add in some nutzerts if more threads are needed.

 

[Capriblue45]

If you decide to go with the extrusions I found a company called tnutz on the web and they were good to work with with a great price compared to buying locally. They sell all the extrusions as well as a bunch of accessories.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Why do you need to use extruded? I would think standard aluminum tubing would be lighter and could be welded together easily to form the needed structure. Add in some nutzerts if more threads are needed.

My main reasoning is ease of use and modularity for future evolutions of the camper system and how it works.
I've dealt with welded aluminum tubing in high vibration scenarios and it didn't end well. But, in full transparency, it wasn't welded well. And honestly, I'm not a good aluminum welder.
So I want something easy to use and easy to modify in the future. Because, you guys know I definitely can't leave things alone.

 

[jps8460]

I’ve used 80/20 quite a lot. As mentioned above, it’s not as light as you might think nor does it end up as affordable as you might think.

I’ll echo Tim and say do whatever you can to avoiding tapping and bolting into the Aluminum.

If you have access to SW sheet metal and your inhous abilities combined with someone like oshcut or SCS I think you could manage the best of both worlds.

 

[MileHigh80Guy]

If you decide to go with the extrusions I found a company called tnutz on the web and they were good to work with with a great price compared to buying locally. They sell all the extrusions as well as a bunch of accessories.

Bought stuff from them years ago too, good site.

This popped up in an ad months ago, I have never been, but this is a local option too:

The T-Slot Store

VanLife, Roof Racks, Work Stations Trade Show & Point of Sale Displays Room Dividers, Machine Guarding

t-slotstore.com

 

[zgfiredude]

That local store charges $$$$$$$$, using Tnutz is the best path!!

 

[Hulk]

A few weeks ago, I designed a really cool stereo rack for my office using the TNutz extrusions and parts. Cost was $742.86 ChatGPT helped me get the cost down to $576, but that was still too much money to make it worthwhile.

 

[MileHigh80Guy]

That local store charges $$$$$$$$, using Tnutz is the best path!!

Good to know! Guess I skip that unless I need it immediately