Composite pop up project
- Thread starter Jeep
- Start date
Mark,
I hope all is well. Glad you are getting some time to look at a lifting roof.
- I vote for a chest style cooler.
- A chuck box kitchen (thanks shirk) is probably most practical in smaller, and some large applications.
Don't forget the the larger truck guys ;-)
Although I'm aware that you would be able to scale up the dimensions when needed.
YES, a flatbed Hard side ... !
I hope all is well. Glad you are getting some time to look at a lifting roof.
- I vote for a chest style cooler.
- A chuck box kitchen (thanks shirk) is probably most practical in smaller, and some large applications.
Don't forget the the larger truck guys ;-)
Although I'm aware that you would be able to scale up the dimensions when needed.
YES, a flatbed Hard side ... !
Great idea with the chuck box kitchen, consider that done!
Great to hear from you Barry! All is well, busy but all good, how are you doing? A lot of what we discussed has kept popping up to the point that makes sense to take to market. We have a wide variety of stuff that is very modular, all kinds of cabinets, and components that we are going to be marketing in our online parts store that is only a few weeks from being launched. A lot of stuff we designed for and use in the camper builds and Sprinter conversions would make a home build a lot easier and with good parts, along with all of the lines we carry in manufacturing. We do have a distributor lined up in your neck of the woods too. The same concepts are getting applied to a lifting roof, so we can easily adjust body size
Cheers, and thanks for the input guys!
Mark.
Great to hear from you Barry! All is well, busy but all good, how are you doing? A lot of what we discussed has kept popping up to the point that makes sense to take to market. We have a wide variety of stuff that is very modular, all kinds of cabinets, and components that we are going to be marketing in our online parts store that is only a few weeks from being launched. A lot of stuff we designed for and use in the camper builds and Sprinter conversions would make a home build a lot easier and with good parts, along with all of the lines we carry in manufacturing. We do have a distributor lined up in your neck of the woods too. The same concepts are getting applied to a lifting roof, so we can easily adjust body size
Cheers, and thanks for the input guys!
Mark.
A rainy weekend made for a little progress, starting to physically lay out components and fit things in. It's a "short" camper for a long bed, designed to close the tailgate when loaded, so there is a challenge getting everything in but can be done. Looks like it's going to get a compressor fridge simply due to the length of a decent sized cooler, but cook top is going to be portable so it can be used outside easily. Looks like water capacity will be 77 litres, and a horizontal 20 pound cylinder is the propane source, easier than dealing with 2 10 pounders, 6 gallon DSI water heater, and 12 000 BTU forced air furnace from Atwood, looked hard at Propex but the tight spaces made the Atwood a better fit, draw is 1.8 amps so should work out just fine.
Dammit you're building what has been floating around in my head for months now.
For the chuck box check out the designs that Drifta has for his kitchens. I find most designs are pretty skimp on actual work space when you fold it out, Drifta seems to have prioritized designs that fold out into lots of work space.
Also for the interior dinette the table should be able to double as an outside table, cut down on one more item to pack along.
Lastly is the interior, the euro guys do a good job keeping weight down using flight case components to build out the interior. You can see good examples and the components here. http://www.4x4-innenausbau.de/ I think this would also keep the cost down vs lots of custom metal or composite work.
The other design that I've been thinking about is a flat deck design where the back wall still has the ability to drop a tail gate so you can carry sheets of 4x8 ply or lumber in it. I've got limited space and don't have the room to store a pop up shell off the truck as I don't want to tie up my whole garage, and still need to use the truck as a truck. This idea is more like a contractors bed/cap but the top pops up for weekend camping.
For the chuck box check out the designs that Drifta has for his kitchens. I find most designs are pretty skimp on actual work space when you fold it out, Drifta seems to have prioritized designs that fold out into lots of work space.
Also for the interior dinette the table should be able to double as an outside table, cut down on one more item to pack along.
Lastly is the interior, the euro guys do a good job keeping weight down using flight case components to build out the interior. You can see good examples and the components here. http://www.4x4-innenausbau.de/ I think this would also keep the cost down vs lots of custom metal or composite work.
The other design that I've been thinking about is a flat deck design where the back wall still has the ability to drop a tail gate so you can carry sheets of 4x8 ply or lumber in it. I've got limited space and don't have the room to store a pop up shell off the truck as I don't want to tie up my whole garage, and still need to use the truck as a truck. This idea is more like a contractors bed/cap but the top pops up for weekend camping.
For the portable kitchen, my idea in my next camper is to use a Partner Stove from Partner Steel Company in Idaho. My concept is to create a cutout in the counter with a regular propane valve that the stove could hook up to and then have a 15' propane hose stored in the propane box to use the stove outside. Best of both worlds. I have also thought about a latch system on the counter instead of a cutout -- pro would be additional counter space that is all flat without the stove in place and then the stove could be latched or secured for travel in rough roads. I have thought about the same for a sink. If you want to save wait, instead of sink just create a cutout in the counter that is the size of a standard camping dish tub. Use a standard water jug with spigot above the dish tub and you have a nice washing/ prepping station that could be moved inside or outside. Also no need for a pump, drains, etc.
The stove we will be using is Partner Steel. We use them in our trailers and they are a good tough stove, it will be set up to be used outside easily. I did think about a removable washtub, but also thought about dealing with a full tub, at night, when you don't want to deal with it (remember I'm lazy) so we deferred back to a sink. You can store a tub in the sink, and with a pressure water outlet at the rear (Bullfinch shower port), you can have it outside too. That stuff will be coming up pretty soon as we are working on the roof and that will be taking a little time to do the first one. Here's a pic of the propane locker and appliance mounting rings installed, propane cylinder is a 20 lb horizontal tank in the front box followed by the furnace and then hot water tank. When dealing with a 6' box you don't have a lot of room to play with to keep in compliance with standards, but we worked out a pretty good inside layout, and managed to defer some weight over to the passenger side so we should end up with a nice balance.
Cheers,
Mark.
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Mark
Thank you. You build nice looking products! I live in my camper for work several months of the year even in -40 C.....I had two custom Phoenix Pop Up Campers built. As much as I love my custom Phoenix Campers built exactly how I wanted, I'm very happy to see a Canadian alternative. I offer my dreams ideas in hopes to keep a close eye on your products for future purchase. Have you considered a hard-sided pop up with walls that fold out similar to a A-Liner, Rockford or Chalet A Frame trailer? I highly recommend an Aluminum Cap. so the strength to load a small aluminum boat or canoe is present. In my mind this is the second greatest features of a pop Up Camper next to the lower center of gravity. Hydraulic lifts are a great idea for snow loads and ability to leave your boat on top and still pop the top so to speak.
Since Dialogue is welcome…. these are a few things I had added to my camper & some I wish I had: Spec. the Camper design for air flow around piping & 20,000 btu furnace for all season use. Room for two large 6V batteries. Generator storage bay for up to a 2000 Watt suitcase style generator. Access to areas under camper next to wheel wells to stuff items with adequate sized access ports. Multiple Tie down points (6) to keep camper in place on rough roads with provisions to add extra tie down points to box of truck. Dedicated Porta Podi storage if shower stall with cassette toilet and shower are not optional. Interior anchor points. No tail gate length....i.e. allows another 1/2 foot. Rear latch to keep door secured without locking. Locks on campers never work in -40 C in my experience. Low profile aluminum lid (so boat does not break it or when removing snow) escape hatch size top vent as well as a fantastic fan over bathroom. 30 lb horizontal propane tank. ARB type electric fridge freezers on slide that is in location down low so access can be had with top down. Wiring provision for high mount back up camera & exterior lights able to be operated inside camper. Back up light tabs and front light mount tabs. Pop up area to have enough room for a 6” man to sit up in bed i.e. roughly 4' above bed surface. Ability to add a canvas tent or walls to an awning to back & sides of camper with wood stove optionable. Rear ladder designed to hold a chainsaw in case. Dark beige color hides mildew on pop up. Under bed storage with access to long items such as a rifle with pop up down. Option for diesel heater and cook stove. Flat deck model, shell model and flat deck shell model with barn style doors to fit in a ATV. The later model would be very popular in my opinion.
Since Dialogue is welcome…. these are a few things I had added to my camper & some I wish I had: Spec. the Camper design for air flow around piping & 20,000 btu furnace for all season use. Room for two large 6V batteries. Generator storage bay for up to a 2000 Watt suitcase style generator. Access to areas under camper next to wheel wells to stuff items with adequate sized access ports. Multiple Tie down points (6) to keep camper in place on rough roads with provisions to add extra tie down points to box of truck. Dedicated Porta Podi storage if shower stall with cassette toilet and shower are not optional. Interior anchor points. No tail gate length....i.e. allows another 1/2 foot. Rear latch to keep door secured without locking. Locks on campers never work in -40 C in my experience. Low profile aluminum lid (so boat does not break it or when removing snow) escape hatch size top vent as well as a fantastic fan over bathroom. 30 lb horizontal propane tank. ARB type electric fridge freezers on slide that is in location down low so access can be had with top down. Wiring provision for high mount back up camera & exterior lights able to be operated inside camper. Back up light tabs and front light mount tabs. Pop up area to have enough room for a 6” man to sit up in bed i.e. roughly 4' above bed surface. Ability to add a canvas tent or walls to an awning to back & sides of camper with wood stove optionable. Rear ladder designed to hold a chainsaw in case. Dark beige color hides mildew on pop up. Under bed storage with access to long items such as a rifle with pop up down. Option for diesel heater and cook stove. Flat deck model, shell model and flat deck shell model with barn style doors to fit in a ATV. The later model would be very popular in my opinion.
Thanks Runt, we are doing the small pop up with soft sides, and the next thing to follow will be a full sized unit with hard sides, the little unit is dedicated to the small truck market and will be in production in 2018, this will be finished towards fall. The roof is going to be composite with perimeter extrusions so no worry about loading anything on top, there is an option for a hydraulic lift although the manual system is pretty slick. The roof will be tapered at the front with a built in slope to shed water, and will be tall enough to leave all the bedding in place. Lots of accommodations for awnings, we are a dealer for Alu Cab, and there is not a better 270 degree awning, fits this unit perfectly. With the design and construction of the camper, you can pretty much mount anything anywhere, there is a full perimeter wiring chase as well. We are moving into a 80% production 20% custom environment in the near future so we can concentrate on our product lines, and leave room for customers to customize to a realistic degree. Pic of appliances installed, should see a little more progress soon, gotta get the people in the shop looked after first!
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I was just talking to my wife about building our own flatbed hard-sided pop-up because all the designs we've seen still leaves a bit to be desired. Hopefully your team would save us the trouble from having to build our own.
Our wish list:
I'm digging the space saving shower design earthcruiser uses on their pop ups. They use the side entry as a shower area with a slide out cassette toilet which maximizes the floor plan. We wanted a rear face to face dinnette that can seat 4 with panoramic windows so we could enjoy a nice view during inclement weather.
We tend to like modular designs since we constantly change our layout (in the house), this is also due to having 2 growing kids.
We wanted to build a mounting system that can allow for modular expansion within the cube. The mounting structure with the right module design can be a structural reinforcing component as well. Imagine having a T-track that runs along the entire perimeter of the inside of the camper on the interior walls and a “U” strip on the floor. This would help reduce production cost and provide customers with more floor plan options with minimal impact to the business. It's like cabinetry from Home Depot, they're standard sizes, the consumer just picks and chooses which module they want and where; then they just screws it down in their kitchen.
I'm sure your team will come out with a game changer design that will bring the pop up camper industry to its knees. My wife and i have followed real close on all your build threads. The amount of ingenuity, DOE and materials research that goes into your production is very exciting to see. Especially since I was in manufacturing of consumer electronics where we shipped billions in revenue per year. Now that we have a start up it's hard to find time to build stuff that is not directly related to our business.
Keep up the good work!
I was just talking to my wife about building our own flatbed hard-sided pop-up because all the designs we've seen still leaves a bit to be desired. Hopefully your team would save us the trouble from having to build our own.
Our wish list:
I'm digging the space saving shower design earthcruiser uses on their pop ups. They use the side entry as a shower area with a slide out cassette toilet which maximizes the floor plan. We wanted a rear face to face dinnette that can seat 4 with panoramic windows so we could enjoy a nice view during inclement weather.
We tend to like modular designs since we constantly change our layout (in the house), this is also due to having 2 growing kids.
We wanted to build a mounting system that can allow for modular expansion within the cube. The mounting structure with the right module design can be a structural reinforcing component as well. Imagine having a T-track that runs along the entire perimeter of the inside of the camper on the interior walls and a “U” strip on the floor. This would help reduce production cost and provide customers with more floor plan options with minimal impact to the business. It's like cabinetry from Home Depot, they're standard sizes, the consumer just picks and chooses which module they want and where; then they just screws it down in their kitchen.
I'm sure your team will come out with a game changer design that will bring the pop up camper industry to its knees. My wife and i have followed real close on all your build threads. The amount of ingenuity, DOE and materials research that goes into your production is very exciting to see. Especially since I was in manufacturing of consumer electronics where we shipped billions in revenue per year. Now that we have a start up it's hard to find time to build stuff that is not directly related to our business.
Keep up the good work!