Hard side pop up roof

[David Selvey]

I have a Landcruiser with a canvas pop up roof.

The stitching is starting to deteriorate and whilst I can get a replacement canvas from Germany, I would like to take the opportunity of upgrading to a hard sided pop up, something like this:


or this.

Does anyone know where I could get the job done or where to source the panels if I decide to tackle the project myself?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

David

 

[Ark]

I believe this is the build. Sorry, it's all in French.

A couple posts down the builder says that this is "Termolac" glued to "stirodur". "24mm overall thickness". Seems like an aluminum skin glued to a foam core. I am not sure about a US equivalent that matches that exactly but I would think Nidacore or Total Composites have products that are at least somewhat similar. You could likely accomplish the same results with a foam/honeycomb core fiberglass composite panel.

http://www.casa-trotter.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=7838&sid=6bcc61d4f125ab8e8f369a0739a129d1

That's a pretty neat design but I wonder about the strength of all those folding panels. Have you looked at a slide-up type camper design similar to an Alaskan camper?

https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/sönkes-hard-side-popup-camper.20822/
https://www.expeditionportal.com/fo...0-home-built-compact-composite-pop-up.168085/
https://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/new-alaskan-side-entry-flatbed-8-5-build.198730/
https://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/pop-up-a-frame-camper-la-roulotte.80666/
https://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/pop-up-and-pop-out-camper.22084/

 

[David Selvey]

Many thanks for taking the time and trouble to reply with all that information and links. It is greatly appreciated. Plenty of food for thought thank you.

I believe this is the build. Sorry, it's all in French.

A couple posts down the builder says that this is "Termolac" glued to "stirodur". "24mm overall thickness". Seems like an aluminum skin glued to a foam core. I am not sure about a US equivalent that matches that exactly but I would think Nidacore or Total Composites have products that are at least somewhat similar. You could likely accomplish the same results with a foam/honeycomb core fiberglass composite panel.

http://www.casa-trotter.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=7838&sid=6bcc61d4f125ab8e8f369a0739a129d1

That's a pretty neat design but I wonder about the strength of all those folding panels. Have you looked at a slide-up type camper design similar to an Alaskan camper?

https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/sönkes-hard-side-popup-camper.20822/
https://www.expeditionportal.com/fo...0-home-built-compact-composite-pop-up.168085/
https://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/new-alaskan-side-entry-flatbed-8-5-build.198730/
https://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/pop-up-a-frame-camper-la-roulotte.80666/
https://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/pop-up-and-pop-out-camper.22084/

 

[Ark]

David,

You are definitely welcome.

However, after I reread your post I realized that I got hung up on the last slide-in type camper you posted and totally missed the fact that you wanted to modify a Cruiser. Clearly a sliding pop-up won't work for that cruiser and it needs to be a folding design.

One pretty neat folding design that I saw recently was a modified camper shell on the back of a Tacoma. It's a little more straight forward than the origami that the Casa-trotter slide-in camper uses. In my opinion it's probably quite a bit stronger as well since two of the walls are hinged and are used as part of the actual lifting structure. (Although to my untrained eye it looks to me like it is possible for one side to pop up before the other side and the structure could twist?)

https://gearjunkie.com/custom-pop-up-camper-build
https://www.instagram.com/get.the.truck.out/

 

[David Selvey]

Thanks again! Perfect. Your previous message got me motivated again and I actually made a couple of models, one surprisingly close to the subject of your latest message. Watch this space!

Cheers

 

[Ark]

Well good! Looking forward to some design/build pics!

 

[Charles R]

I've been thinking about a hard shell pop up too. I first saw a really neat A-frame trailer that got me thinking about the design. Then i saw a "turtle back" camper conversion for an early Ford econoline, that kind of cemented the idea.

I'm thinking of doing it to one of my Grand Cherokees, with a simple right angle triangle design. I'm leaning towards a hinge at the rear, but a side opener could be interesting too.