Advice: Fabricator or....?

[czukie]

Hello all,

So I would like to turn the Leer 180 topper on my truck into a pop top camper. Essentially what I am looking for is standing room (around 6') from the bed of the truck to the top of the "roof", that is the goal. Something like a flippac meets westfalia top. Wilderness made this exact idea and called it the "Tip Top" but they are extremely hard to find.

Now here is the dilemma. I would, ideally, like to: cut the fiberglass topper's top --> add gas struts --> add canvas or other weather proof siding.

My budget would be roughly $3000 to put into cutting, fabrics, labor, etc. I would like to keep this camper on my truck at all times so a pop up camper is not a viable option and I don't like time/lack of weatherproof-ness that flippacs have to offer....SO should I go to a fabricator, boat shop, another place?!!

Please help and suggest any ideas that you may have

 

[Living The Dream]

This will be rad. You could sew your own canvas for just a couple hundred bucks. My recent video has most of the details you might need for that. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[video]https://youtu.be/h7Uk65unuc0[/video]

 

[dman93]

Go Fast Campers in Montana is developing something similar. There's a thread here on ExPo, one on Tacoma World and a website. No affiliation, but I'm very interested ... it seems like a well thought-out design from people with design, production and camping experience. Price is a little higher than your budget, but if you sell your Leer you may do OK. And, they plan to offer just the pop-up which is intended as a standalone RTT, but could perhaps be modified to allow access from inside your existing shell.

 

[WillBeck]

Go Fast Campers in Montana is developing something similar. There's a thread here on ExPo, one on Tacoma World and a website. No affiliation, but I'm very interested ... it seems like a well thought-out design from people with design, production and camping experience. Price is a little higher than your budget, but if you sell your Leer you may do OK. And, they plan to offer just the pop-up which is intended as a standalone RTT, but could perhaps be modified to allow access from inside your existing shell.

I agree, the Go Fast camper sounds like what you want.

That or you can go with the Topper Ez-Lift.

 

[czukie]

I agree, the Go Fast camper sounds like what you want.

That or you can go with the Topper Ez-Lift.

Thanks for the input folks!

So the gofast camper is option 2 right now as it is over budget and a bit taller than what I want.

Unfortunately I am fairly certain I could not stand under the EZ-Lift even when fully lifted (to my knowledge)

 

[shellbackcva59]

Having just rebuilt a FWC from the bare frame up, I see that to be an interesting project. Cutting the lid off your existing camper would require it to still have enough meat for a frame top and bottom. If you landed up having some complex and compound curves at the cut line, it might be very difficult to built a frame on each half that would allow it to close properly. You might need a second cap. leaving enough meat on each one to build a frame. It's unlikely that a fabricator would tackle the complete job. I would think you would have to find people for each phase, glass, framing, fabric etc. Probably cost prohibitive contracting it out, but a pretty cool DIY project, and for a lot less than $3000.

 

[czukie]

Having just rebuilt a FWC from the bare frame up, I see that to be an interesting project. Cutting the lid off your existing camper would require it to still have enough meat for a frame top and bottom. If you landed up having some complex and compound curves at the cut line, it might be very difficult to built a frame on each half that would allow it to close properly. You might need a second cap. leaving enough meat on each one to build a frame. It's unlikely that a fabricator would tackle the complete job. I would think you would have to find people for each phase, glass, framing, fabric etc. Probably cost prohibitive contracting it out, but a pretty cool DIY project, and for a lot less than $3000.

My initial plan was to contract out each part (just cutting and fabric install) unfortunately I do not have any fiberglass experience so the DIY project would be a challenge that I’m unwilling to tackle at this point

 

[gmacmt]

Hey Czukie,

I am one of the designers at go fast campers, figured I would throw my two cents in...

I would be pretty wary to cut the roof off a glass camper as it would be a pretty messy and sizable project to make it function the way you would want.

Maybe look for an aluminum canopy to work with, would be a lot easier to either reinforce the structure yourself, or finding a fabricator to work with you. Otherwise I might consider rehabbing a wildernest (or maybe a flippac) would work well since the roof already lifts. The flippac could probably be made to lift like a westy, or the standard wildernest could lift like a dormobile.

Heres a good example of an aluminum lifting top build...

http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/137366-Tacoma-aluminum-Pop-up