Lots of questions, I understand! If it wasn’t for the folks on this board I wouldn’t have mine today, and I really like it. Plus I couldn’t get a call back from FRP, so I just showed up at their door.
The first flippac I saw was in San Diego on a Tacoma and the guy said his 10 yr old son liked sleeping on the hammock part – but like others have said he had it pulled over tight, not hanging like the pic I posted. I leave it hanging like that and throw my clothes in there for now, until I can figure out the cabinet build. I put the table/board in so I can set things on it once settled in for the night (this was really a pic of my dog ...)
When it’s really cold I put a small propane heater on the board and it’s within arm’s reach to turn it off when ready to sleep. I could put my other stuff on the fabric directly but wouldn’t feel safe with a heater there. The tent holds the heat in pretty well, I’ve never woken up because of cold. I spoke with a guy in AK before buying the rain fly to see what he thought, he says it greatly improves heat retention, and works well in the rain. I haven’t used the stormcover yet (it never rains in socal! except when it pours ...) but expect to get weather on some upcoming trips, so we’ll see. Condensation on the inside is about the same as with any other tent.
Are you thinking about this for your Tacoma? 6.5ft bed? If so, Vince can probably better answer your question on the height to the sleeping area. My truck bed is almost 2 feet deep, then add the height of the shell. I believe fiberglass-master Louie added some height inches to his shell when he did his amazing mods (can’t remember where I saw that), but he has a nice convertible bench/bed inside to step up. Vince has cool cabinets/seats all around.
On mine it is 4 ft from the surface of the truck bed up to the sleeping area – so for me, I need a step. You can put one foot on the little shelf over the bed rail to step up, but getting down in the am is trickier cause I’m getting old and creaky. Plus it is a huge jump for my dog, she can do it but has bottomed out a couple times, ouch. I first put in a “floppy box” to help with that and storage, now I have raised the floor and set a storage ottoman on top of that so it’s easy. Getting up is definitely part of the interior design considerations.
Here’s the view looking down.
There’s a lip on the outside mine, so it’s easy to pickup. We just set mine on the driveway when removed since it wasn’t off for long. This is the only pic I have that kinda shows the lip. (floppy box here)
Cost for mine was $3800, $450 for the paint match. I *think* the smaller ones are about $3300 new, that is just a guess. Options – only option is a fold down pass thru window which I wouldn’t get again – you have to fold the window down to open the slider, stupid.
I’m changing that.
It doesn’t squeak (rubbery gasket underneath) or move around when driving offroad and the mattress feels very stable when you’re in it, even moving around up there. I don’t know how they do it but the torsion bar holds all the weight, and the stabilizer bars keep left/right motion to a minimum. It’s pretty bouncy (and not recommended) if the stabilizer bars aren’t pinned down.
Hope that helps, let us know if you get one. 6-8 wk lead time for mine, I had to wait for the stupid window.
