It's not like I needed something else to do, the shop is nicely full and I could relax a bit in the evenings, but I have a few guys I promised to look into the possibility of doing a raising roof for. Doing one off custom work is fun, and challenging, but carries a pretty hefty price tag, and as a business it's a very slow way to get a return on your investment, so it's expensive for the customer and the business at the same time. So if we can design something that we can put into production, possibly inventory (probably), and apply the knowledge to the custom side, we end up with a win win situation and I like that a lot better. The enquiries for the small truck market were the catalyst for this product, and I like the amount of fun and practicality involved in executing it. It also follows our small trailer line up nicely. This is being done slowly and surely in evening hours, when the crazy racket of my day is over, it's like cheap therapy! It gives me time to do what I enjoy doing most, building things.....with my own hands.
The first raising roof unit we will be doing is going to be a slide in 6' camper designed for the mid sized truck market. The Tacoma, the new Canyon/Colorado...or the old ones for that matter, Frontier, etc. Construction of the lower half will assembled with our extrusions, the floor and lower walls will be PP honeycomb core panels, upper walls will be XPS core. The skins on this particular unit for the lower part (the section below the top of the box side) have .040 aluminum skins on the outside and fibreglass on the inside. Above the bed side skins are fibreglass on both sides, this adds a lot of durability to the bottom part of the camper which is subject to getting banged around, and good durability with better appearance up top. I was going to do a XPS cored panel roof section, but I'm really leaning to a one piece hand laid fibreglass cap, this will let me incorporate a sloped top section for a little better aerodynamics, build in the roof vent location with a little raise for water run off, and incorporate the insulation and interior liner. As well I can put some structure underneath for cargo tracking/roof rack mounting, and lift mechanism points. The roof will be raise (tentatively) with a hydraulic system, there's some good stuff I'm looking at that is light weight and strong/reliable. Roof capacity is going for a 500 pound rating, not that it is needed, but reliability will be very high.
The canvas is something I'm not going to play around with. No matter what, hot or cold, we are trying to keep the opposite, so a well insulated (relative description considering its cloth) canvas will be used. Looking at 18 oz canvas with 1/2" insulation and an interior canvas of the same weight. I don't know about windows in the canvas, I love the feature but it throws the concept out the window....There will be Seitz windows in the lower, and a max fan in the roof, might be enough. With the roof design, insulated canvas, it should stay warm, and hopefully condensation issues will be minimized.
The floor plan will be very simple, but very functional, make the little space as big as possible! The roof cross section will be a little higher but that will enable closing up with all the bedding in place, the sloped front should help minimize the drag created by the extra height. The lower section is not sculpted over the wheel well, so we lose a little space that we will have to make up, but that is one of the things that offset the cost of labor and materials, and enable a price point that is competitive in a production environment. Here are a few pics, dialogue is always welcome!
The mule, 2017 Tacoma Limited
The first raising roof unit we will be doing is going to be a slide in 6' camper designed for the mid sized truck market. The Tacoma, the new Canyon/Colorado...or the old ones for that matter, Frontier, etc. Construction of the lower half will assembled with our extrusions, the floor and lower walls will be PP honeycomb core panels, upper walls will be XPS core. The skins on this particular unit for the lower part (the section below the top of the box side) have .040 aluminum skins on the outside and fibreglass on the inside. Above the bed side skins are fibreglass on both sides, this adds a lot of durability to the bottom part of the camper which is subject to getting banged around, and good durability with better appearance up top. I was going to do a XPS cored panel roof section, but I'm really leaning to a one piece hand laid fibreglass cap, this will let me incorporate a sloped top section for a little better aerodynamics, build in the roof vent location with a little raise for water run off, and incorporate the insulation and interior liner. As well I can put some structure underneath for cargo tracking/roof rack mounting, and lift mechanism points. The roof will be raise (tentatively) with a hydraulic system, there's some good stuff I'm looking at that is light weight and strong/reliable. Roof capacity is going for a 500 pound rating, not that it is needed, but reliability will be very high.
The canvas is something I'm not going to play around with. No matter what, hot or cold, we are trying to keep the opposite, so a well insulated (relative description considering its cloth) canvas will be used. Looking at 18 oz canvas with 1/2" insulation and an interior canvas of the same weight. I don't know about windows in the canvas, I love the feature but it throws the concept out the window....There will be Seitz windows in the lower, and a max fan in the roof, might be enough. With the roof design, insulated canvas, it should stay warm, and hopefully condensation issues will be minimized.
The floor plan will be very simple, but very functional, make the little space as big as possible! The roof cross section will be a little higher but that will enable closing up with all the bedding in place, the sloped front should help minimize the drag created by the extra height. The lower section is not sculpted over the wheel well, so we lose a little space that we will have to make up, but that is one of the things that offset the cost of labor and materials, and enable a price point that is competitive in a production environment. Here are a few pics, dialogue is always welcome!
The mule, 2017 Tacoma Limited
