FLIPPACK CAMPERS

[mattyj]

FYI the torsion bars are now listed on their website. Odd feeling to be able to effortlessly buy a part for my flippac online, instead of calling FRP several dozen times over the course of a couple months.

Although the website makes it look like they are in stock, Brian said they won't be ready to ship for another 4-6 weeks.

 

[homemade]

Free shipping, no tax, easy order, improved product, reputable company, no BS - hallelujah indeed.

I ordered one and when I get it I will probably replace the original and keep the OEM as a spare.

 

[SAW_George]

Hi Guys,

My name is George, I handle all of the Marketing for Sway-A-Way. The response to our Flip-pac torsion bars has been great and we look forward to getting parts into all of your hands as fast as we can! I will continue to update this thread as we get further along in production.

FYI the torsion bars are now listed on their website. Odd feeling to be able to effortlessly buy a part for my flippac online, instead of calling FRP several dozen times over the course of a couple months.

Although the website makes it look like they are in stock, Brian said they won't be ready to ship for another 4-6 weeks.

I've updated the website to show these as currently on "backorder", sorry for any confusion! matty is correct, these will ship in 4-6 weeks.

Free shipping, no tax, easy order, improved product, reputable company, no BS - hallelujah indeed.

I ordered one and when I get it I will probably replace the original and keep the OEM as a spare.

We appreciate it!

 

[OldieOverland]

This is great news! Thanks to everyone who made this happen. I will be ordering mine very soon :victory:

 

[austintaco]

I ordered mine a few days ago. Like others, I want to have it for when I need it. If I sell before the current one goes, it will be a bonus to the new buyer of the Flippac, or I might replace the current one with a new one like others have indicated. Brian asked me about the length of the bar on mine. I was under the assumption that all Flippacs had the same length of Torsion bars, since the lids are all the same size. Is that a true statement?

 

[mattyj]

That's what I thought as well but I can't answer definitively.

When I bought a replacement torsion bar from FRP (now also broken), they never asked me what vehicle it was for, and I doubt they were keeping track of which model I had.

 

[DVexile]

Woo Hoo! Right now my Flip Pac purchased in spring of 2015 has already had one torsion bar replaced. The current one could of course last 20 years or break the next time I look at my truck funny. I'll certainly be placing an order for a back up in the next month or so. Thanks so much for doing this!

I honestly think as a product the replacement torsion bar has some life in it for Sway-A-Way. Flip Pacs can last a good 20 years and fetch a decent price on the used market even with a broken torsion bar. I'd expect a good decade of low volume sales.

I'd love to hear from Sway-A-Way what they personally think of the torsion bar design and the most likely cause of failures. It seems to me an aggressive design for a torsion bar application but personally I bought knowing the risks and am willing to replace it a few times over the life of the Flip Pac.

 

[Jr_Explorer]

I honestly think as a product the replacement torsion bar has some life in it for Sway-A-Way. Flip Pacs can last a good 20 years and fetch a decent price on the used market even with a broken torsion bar. I'd expect a good decade of low volume sales.

I concur. There are still Wildernest campers out there and they made far fewer and they were all older than the Flipacs are. The Flipac is a brilliant concept that bridges the gap between a shell and a light, pop-up camper. Everything is a compromise (comfort of a 40' motorhome with slide-outs versus a shell on a pick-up off road). We love our Flipac and I'm sorry FRP didn't try to sell all the tooling for the Flipac to someone to carry the ball with better customer service before they folded.

 

[Arclight]

I concur. There are still Wildernest campers out there and they made far fewer and they were all older than the Flipacs are. The Flipac is a brilliant concept that bridges the gap between a shell and a light, pop-up camper. Everything is a compromise (comfort of a 40' motorhome with slide-outs versus a shell on a pick-up off road). We love our Flipac and I'm sorry FRP didn't try to sell all the tooling for the Flipac to someone to carry the ball with better customer service before they folded.

I feel the same way. If my truck got wrecked, I would immediately start looking for another vehicle to remount the Flippac on. It's the perfect balance of mobility and being able to sleep a small family.

Arclight

 

[mtnbike28]

I feel the same way. If my truck got wrecked, I would immediately start looking for another vehicle to remount the Flippac on. It's the perfect balance of mobility and being able to sleep a small family.

Arclight

+2

 

[wrdadventures]

can someone confirm that Flippac is no longer in business?? I was saving to get one, but may have to make alternative plans

 

[SAW_George]

I'd love to hear from Sway-A-Way what they personally think of the torsion bar design and the most likely cause of failures. It seems to me an aggressive design for a torsion bar application but personally I bought knowing the risks and am willing to replace it a few times over the life of the Flip Pac.

Here's a response from our Lead Engineer, Eric...

"Judging by the original sample bar that was sent to us there are a few factors that work together to cause these to fail. The first thing is the surface finish is terrible. The second is there is what seems to be no effort to stop corrosion. There's a very slight chance it might have been plated originally, but if it was, the rust had already won and it would only be a matter of time till it broke. The third reason was the heat treat hardness (ultimate strength) was a little lower than you'd expect for that part (if you assume it was going to be made out of 4340). Now we didn't test what the material actually was but whether it was 4140 or 4340, the strength was lower than they could have pushed it to.

So on our bar we fixed all three of those problems. We centerless grind them to a 32 rms finish, we make them out of 4340 and heat treat them to a ultimate strength that's roughly 25% higher than the original, and lastly we finish them with powdercoat to prevent corrosion.

As far as the design itself goes, its really not that aggressive because bars that are really long and thin have lower stresses. Even with this bar going all the way to 90 degrees the stresses are a little bit lower than the what we see in most of our VW torsion bars. It's actually pretty clever because the packaging of that torsion bar is a lot easier and gives progressive resistance whether your closing or opening it. I can't comment on the rate and whether its too stiff or too soft because I've never opened or closed a flip pack, but to get the same affect with some sort of gas strut supported mechanism it'd be a lot more complicated, expensive to make, and hard to package.

-Eric T."

Hope that helps!
Best,
George K.
Sway-A-Way

 

[homemade]

Here's a response from our Lead Engineer, Eric...

"Judging by the original sample bar that was sent to us there are a few factors that work together to cause these to fail. The first thing is the surface finish is terrible. The second is there is what seems to be no effort to stop corrosion. There's a very slight chance it might have been plated originally, but if it was, the rust had already won and it would only be a matter of time till it broke. The third reason was the heat treat hardness (ultimate strength) was a little lower than you'd expect for that part (if you assume it was going to be made out of 4340). Now we didn't test what the material actually was but whether it was 4140 or 4340, the strength was lower than they could have pushed it to.

So on our bar we fixed all three of those problems. We centerless grind them to a 32 rms finish, we make them out of 4340 and heat treat them to a ultimate strength that's roughly 25% higher than the original, and lastly we finish them with powdercoat to prevent corrosion.

As far as the design itself goes, its really not that aggressive because bars that are really long and thin have lower stresses. Even with this bar going all the way to 90 degrees the stresses are a little bit lower than the what we see in most of our VW torsion bars. It's actually pretty clever because the packaging of that torsion bar is a lot easier and gives progressive resistance whether your closing or opening it. I can't comment on the rate and whether its too stiff or too soft because I've never opened or closed a flip pack, but to get the same affect with some sort of gas strut supported mechanism it'd be a lot more complicated, expensive to make, and hard to package.

-Eric T."

Hope that helps!
Best,
George K.
Sway-A-Way

Thanks for the information. Regarding the "rate" of the OEM bar, I think FRP or their torsion bar supplier at least had that part right.

 

[DVexile]

Here's a response from our Lead Engineer, Eric...

"Judging by the original sample bar that was sent to us there are a few factors that work together to cause these to fail. The first thing is the surface finish is terrible. The second is there is what seems to be no effort to stop corrosion. There's a very slight chance it might have been plated originally, but if it was, the rust had already won and it would only be a matter of time till it broke. The third reason was the heat treat hardness (ultimate strength) was a little lower than you'd expect for that part (if you assume it was going to be made out of 4340). Now we didn't test what the material actually was but whether it was 4140 or 4340, the strength was lower than they could have pushed it to.

So on our bar we fixed all three of those problems. We centerless grind them to a 32 rms finish, we make them out of 4340 and heat treat them to a ultimate strength that's roughly 25% higher than the original, and lastly we finish them with powdercoat to prevent corrosion.

As far as the design itself goes, its really not that aggressive because bars that are really long and thin have lower stresses. Even with this bar going all the way to 90 degrees the stresses are a little bit lower than the what we see in most of our VW torsion bars. It's actually pretty clever because the packaging of that torsion bar is a lot easier and gives progressive resistance whether your closing or opening it. I can't comment on the rate and whether its too stiff or too soft because I've never opened or closed a flip pack, but to get the same affect with some sort of gas strut supported mechanism it'd be a lot more complicated, expensive to make, and hard to package.

-Eric T."

Hope that helps!
Best,
George K.
Sway-A-Way

Thanks so much for this! Yes, very helpful and easy to understand. Glad to hear of the improvements you've made. I'm probably going to order one or two of these by the end of the year just for backup. My first FRP bar lasted less than six months and twenty openings. Who knows how long my second one is going to last. Will feel a lot better having one of your bars in the garage waiting

Looking forward to hearing a report from someone that has installed one the new improved Sway-A-Way bars!

 

[tacoluv]

Having placed the first order with Sway-A-Way for the Fippac torsion bar I hope to have one in hand in the next week. I plan to be going to Overland Expo East with new bar in place.