Camper Van / Ambulance Pop Top On a Budget

[asander1]

Full size American vans (Ford, Chevy etc.) make great campers, but very few used vans come with a pop top or a high top that you can actually sleep in.



Even with a high top like this Ambulance, most people can't even stand fully upright inside, let alone have a bed that isn't in the main living space.

There are pop tops and high tops available for these from several well respected vendors, but they are fairly expensive:






A pop top with a bed is hard to get for less than 9-12k - which for a budget build where you might start with a used van for 5k doesn't make a ton of sense.

You might get lucky and find a wrecked van and pull the top off, but these are rare as hens teeth:




Occasionally pop tops from Westfalias show up on the used market, but these are also hard to find and not super cheap either:




Likely to be 1/2 way across the country from you as well...

Either of these budget options are very hard to find and still involve a lot of work to actually install. So here is another option that has been done a handful of times before but you don't see very often... a roof top tent with the bottom cut out and incorporated into the van roof:




Cheers to David - @Abitibi and others before me for the inspiration... https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/ambuland-build-thread.103768/page-26

Most hard shell roof tents are still $3,000-4,000+, but at least we are getting somewhere budget wise...








Now, check this thing out:




$1,500 delivered to your door, now we are talking! And something we can cut into without freaking out! Keep an eye out for 10% off coupons at various sites on this thing as well. This thread will cover the install I did with this into my Type II Ambulance van. Stay tuned...!

 

[asander1]

Here is a couple of after shots, and then I will go through the install process...

 

[asander1]

So in order for this to work, we need a flat roof surface to seal the base of the roof tent to... Type III box vans are flat on top...



But I prefer the Type II vans, in the computer they look flat...:



But in real life there is a ridge that provides strength to the large fiberglass top:



But otherwise it is pretty much flat! Great! Let's get back into the computer and see how the top might fit up:




Looks pretty good! The width of the Trustmade is perfect for the Ambulance top!




Just one tricky part where the tent mates to the ridge:



But some careful trimming should take care of it....

Now the fiberglass top would not be ideal to actually support 2 adults up there, but not to worry - this is my 4th Ambulance and under the fiberglass is usually a nice steel support structure we can build to:



These things are built to withstand a rollover:

 

[asander1]

Ok, lets get started!

First step - remove Ducati:



Step 2, remove the rest of the cabinets:







Ok, all clear!

 

[asander1]

Ok, now get the roof top tent...



Unbox it:



Looking good so far...



Let's see how the tent is constructed so we can figure out how to attach it to the van...



There is a stainless steel frame with 10 bolts that makes up the main support structure, we can use this to mount directly through the van roof...

Drill out the rivets holding the little straps on, these are used to keep the tent closed from the outside, but we need a flat surface, and will be securing the tent top from inside the van.

In order to access the bed and get additional headroom we need to cut the bottom of the tent out, after lots of measuring and planning:



We decided on keeping a ledge at the front and the back which fits the interior of my specific van and keeps some structure in the roof tent bottom. You can see there is a flat base around the entire perimeter of the tent that we will use to seal the tent to the van roof.

 

[Bikersmurf]

Full size American vans (Ford, Chevy etc.) make great campers, but very few used vans come with a pop top or a high top that you can actually sleep in.

View attachment 633650

Even with a high top like this Ambulance, most people can't even stand fully upright inside, let alone have a bed that isn't in the main living space.

There are pop tops and high tops available for these from several well respected vendors, but they are fairly expensive:

View attachment 633619
View attachment 633640

View attachment 633647

A pop top with a bed is hard to get for less than 9-12k - which for a budget build where you might start with a used van for 5k doesn't make a ton of sense.

You might get lucky and find a wrecked van and pull the top off, but these are rare as hens teeth:

View attachment 633648


Occasionally pop tops from Westfalias show up on the used market, but these are also hard to find and not super cheap either:


View attachment 633649

Likely to be 1/2 way across the country from you as well...

Either of these budget options are very hard to find and still involve a lot of work to actually install. So here is another option that has been done a handful of times before but you don't see very often... a roof top tent with the bottom cut out and incorporated into the van roof:

View attachment 633717


Cheers to David - @Abitibi and others before me for the inspiration... https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/ambuland-build-thread.103768/page-26

Most hard shell roof tents are still $3,000-4,000+, but at least we are getting somewhere budget wise...


View attachment 633718


View attachment 633719


Now, check this thing out:

View attachment 633720


$1,500 delivered to your door, now we are talking! And something we can cut into without freaking out! Keep an eye out for 10% off coupons at various sites on this thing as well. This thread will cover the install I did with this into my Type II Ambulance van. Stay tuned...!

Very cool option at a much more affordable price. Mine is just like David’s first Ambo. I’ll keep this in mind if my priority shifts more to camping and away from not getting any taller.

 

[asander1]

Ok, keep cutting the tent there are just 2 layers, the plastic base, and the faux wood bed...





Now you can take the cutout on top of the van and use it for basic sizing / layout, we know the ridge part needs to go no matter what, so cut that out first leaving some extra on the front and back for final trimming...



Now you have a nice sunroof - no going turning back now!!

 

[Abitibi]

Looking good so far, curious how the interior, bed and latching will turn out!

Good thing you kept some meat on the tent's floor. It will help with keeping the alignment when closing the tent.

I bet you enjoy the extra room, light and breeze. Totally transform the interior!

Cheers
David

Sent from my SM-G973W using Tapatalk

 

[asander1]

Cut out the steel supports that are in the way of the opening... we will be boxing in the opening and welding to what is left of these...



Note the welding blanket over the front seats to shield them from sparks...



You can see the outline drawn on the inside of where the opening will be.

Now take the stainless steel frame that is from the tent, this is what we will be bolting through to the van, so it has the 10 bolt holes already in it..



Position it exactly where you want the tent to live and now you can see exactly where it lays on the underlying steel supports. In my case we positioned it just behind the front one and just in front of a rear one, this way we could add a 2" box crossmember to each and have it fully supported on the front and back. Then we welded in more box to support the rails that make up the sides of the final opening:



Adding the box sections to connect to the side beams that will go in later on...

 

[asander1]

Steel frame from tent is clamped in place where it will go to check everything lines up properly:



You can see there is full steel support under each end now...

Now remember we left some meat on each end of the tent - so marking out the top where the actual opening is - measure 2x cut 1x!



Final opening cutout:



The reason it looks like a big plus + is we have the squarish opening that is in the tent with meat on the ends, but we also need to remove the ridge from the van, the full length of the outside of the tent base.

We will trim back the steel supports when we add the side rails...

 

[asander1]

Mock fitting the tent and now you can see the superstrut going front to back on both sides. This is welded into each of the side supports as well as at the ends, creating a super strong rectangle in the top of the van.



A bonus of the superstrut is that the collapsable ladder that comes with the Trustmade tent fits into the slots perfectly! so you can move the ladder around the van as much as you like.

Once you have the box structure installed, mark and drill the 10 holes in the van to match the factory Trustmade stainless steel tent frame. These holes go through the fiberglass hi-top, through the steel below allowing you to sandwich the tent solidly in 10 places to the van substructure.



You can see the stainless steel crossbeam in the Trustmade that helped define how big to make our actual opening..

 

[asander1]

Now we need to fine tune the front and rear cuts to match the profile of the end of the tent base:



From the side, before tightening:



Add butyl tape all around the base where the tent base will seal to the fiberglass top:





Edit - forgot a step - after you tighten down the tent to the roof and seal to the butyl tape, go around the whole thing with a generous helping of lap sealant. Especially where the ridge was (middle of front/back) and the tent doesn't overlap the fiberglass.



Looking great! Now add a superstrut cross brace at the edges of the opening..

 

[AbleGuy]

Great thread!

l have been wanting to do pretty much the same thing to a camper shell on my pickup, so it’s great to see how you are doing this mod.

1Q:
What’s your opinion about the quality of that RTT?

Like you, I’m certainly not going to spend $3’k on a RTT only to just cut it up. For that price I’d just be more tempted to find an older slide in pop up truck camper (although that really wouldn’t solve my “being able to park the rig inside the garage” needs).

 

[asander1]

Superstrut all around...



Bed platform is 3/4 Birch plywood cut into several panels to allow various configurations. There are short sections that cover the 'fixed' ends of the tent.






The original tent is secured on the outside...



But we want to be able to secure it and open it from the inside... so we made up some little tabs:



That attach to the 4 corners of the inside of the tent top:



Ratchet straps then run straight down through slots cut in the bottom of the tent, make a 90 degree turn through U bolts and into fixed ratchets. This allows you to open and close as well as firmly secure the top all from the inside of the van!



Now in practice, until I get a bungee, you still need to go outside to tuck the fabric back in, but we won't dwell on that~!

 

[asander1]

Great thread!

l have been wanting to do pretty much the same thing to a camper shell on my pickup, so it’s great to see how you are doing this mod.

1Q:
What’s your opinion about the quality of that RTT?

Like you, I’m certainly not going to spend $3’k on a RTT only to just cut it up. For that price I’d just be more tempted to find an older slide in pop up truck camper (although that really wouldn’t solve my “being able to park the rig inside the garage” needs).

I am actually very impressed with the quality of the Trustmade tent! Is is the best one on the market? Probably not - is it the best value though? I think so! and at $1500, it is awesome for this mod.

My friend has a 4k James Baroud and he was also impressed. Now you could upgrade the mattress, but otherwise the fabric is quality, the stitching is good, the materials are solid and well constructed. It also has a ton of features - 4 screened windows, 2 awnings on the sides, 6 pockets in the tent, a big net in the middle of the top. Overall very nice, and I have spent probably 40 nights in it...