VMI Offroad Pop-up Truck Camper - Anyone look into these?

[Keyne]

I just found this on Youtube. It is an aluminum popup truck cap from VMI. It looks nice. Has anyone looked into one of these? I wonder if it would fit on a Tacoma as an alternative to a truck camper (too heavy) or Flippack (VMI has a hard roof).

http://www.vmioffroad.com/products/expedition-vehicle-truck-conversion-2.html

 

[adam88]

At first glance it looks awesome. really cool.

But I watched the video and I wonder how usable it is?

It looks like it has zero insulation.... just aluminum walls. That's not good at all for any type of cold weather. And the water tank seems to be totally non insulated too.

Cool concept but not sure what their target market is? It requires a flatbed... but it has tapered walls and no overhang, so interior space is super small. Also it's really high up because of the flatbed.

 

[Camelfilter]

Interesting. Wouldn't work for my truck, my beds too short to sleep length wise unless they did an overhang. I have a 5.5' bed. With my FP and how it is a bit wider than the bed, I can sleep width wise with the top down if I ever needed to.

It would be very difficult to make the weight savings (vs my Flippac) cost effective anyways.

For me a hardtop doesn't matter, as the Flippac tent is very very sturdy. I've been in it amidst some pretty severe storms, one where smaller limbs were being brought down.

There is the cold/insulation factor which might be nice as compared to a pop-up, but that VMI lacks it anyways. Might even act as a heat sink in the winter.

 

[bob91yj]

Straight sides and have the pop up portion go up at both ends, and he might be on to something. Too many compromises in that design for my needs. It looks flashier than my vision would, but not as functional. Add a slide out bunk (like a pop up trailer) and they would really be on to something!

Thinking about this a bit more, anyone ever seen a small pop up trailer mounted on a flat bed (I've seen them on larger trailer/car haulers, red neck toy box)? Take the axles off, no reason it wouldn't work that I can think of.

 

[washington taco]

I have seen this Dodge in person and Mike from VMI built my front bumper. VMI does excellant work! That being said its not cheap. Its not a one size fits all it is custom built to your truck. I have spoke with Mike about this type of build and it starts at about 25K.

 

[washington taco]

If your going to Expo I would bet VMI will be there.

 

[robert]

Straight sides and have the pop up portion go up at both ends, and he might be on to something. Too many compromises in that design for my needs. It looks flashier than my vision would, but not as functional. Add a slide out bunk (like a pop up trailer) and they would really be on to something!

Thinking about this a bit more, anyone ever seen a small pop up trailer mounted on a flat bed (I've seen them on larger trailer/car haulers, red neck toy box)? Take the axles off, no reason it wouldn't work that I can think of.

Kinda sorta- it's not totally uncommon to find VW Samba trucks (the flatbeds) with various campers mounted on the back. I've also seen several several full -sized pickups with flatbeds that had campers with the axle removed but they always looked pretty redneck to me.

It doesn't seem like it'd be hard to do, but finding a quality camper then making it look decent aesthetically would be your biggest challenges. I haven't been overly impressed with most pop-ups as far as construction that looked like it would survive off-roading or even harsher roads.

 

[Keyne]

Kinda sorta- it's not totally uncommon to find VW Samba trucks (the flatbeds) with various campers mounted on the back. I've also seen several several full -sized pickups with flatbeds that had campers with the axle removed but they always looked pretty redneck to me.

It doesn't seem like it'd be hard to do, but finding a quality camper then making it look decent aesthetically would be your biggest challenges. I haven't been overly impressed with most pop-ups as far as construction that looked like it would survive off-roading or even harsher roads.

Always wanted to put a vintage (lighter) airstream bambi style camper on a Fuso.