jeepdreamer
Expedition Leader
THis I like! Neat idea JS... and one more use would be maybe you could slip it over one of your "in use" tires to act as a step to reach the roof/hood??
How would you outfit this custom LJ?
- Thread starter jscherb
- Start date
jscherb
Expedition Leader
Thanks, glad you like it. I hadn't thought of it being a step, you could use it like that I guess - but the step wouldn't be all that far off the ground, check the photos, it's well below the center of the wheel. Maybe it's all some people would need though.
jeff
jeepdreamer
Expedition Leader
Or a quick place to sit then? Maybe if you had an awning off the side of the jeep it could be on the back wheel and save needing a chair? 
And while its not very likely to happen... maybe add a strap that goes underneath while its serving as a cargo rack. A "WOW, that was a huge bump" saftey to keep it from hopping off.?.
And while its not very likely to happen... maybe add a strap that goes underneath while its serving as a cargo rack. A "WOW, that was a huge bump" saftey to keep it from hopping off.?.
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jscherb
Expedition Leader
The ratchet strap holding it in place goes through the back of the spare carrier, no risk of that.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
I'm not really sure what a sand ladder is but I doubt it.
AmericaOverland
Explorer
Yes, it's been suggested a few times. I did a quick and dirty (and bad) concept drawing of it some months ago:
Because of the extra roof height in the hardtop design, I believe the entire tent structure could fit above the roll bars, so it wouldn't be too much of an imposition on the headroom.
But I'm not the best person to design this feature, I don't have any experience with pop-up camper design. Maybe if a company with camper experience wanted to take my top and create a modified version with a camper pop-up it could get built...
Do it. I would seriously consider buying this one. Right now, I'm thinking of a design idea that allows me to build a half-width sleeping platform (with the rear seat taken out and built just over the wheel well), that goes all the way to the rear of the front passenger seat moved forward and up over the center console, with access to the floor from tailgate to driver's seat all the way. The idea is to have storage under the platform and yet have enough space on the floor to get dressed. I'll have to see how well that works out. It's probably something I would look into this fall.
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AmericaOverland
Explorer
What happened to the full tops? They don't have them...
jscherb
Expedition Leader
They haven't put them on their web site yet because they're working on finalizing everything for production. I'm sure when they're ready to release them you'll see announcements.
They did show a pre-production unit about a month ago at the All Breeds Jeep Show in York, PA (I've posted this photo before):
jscherb
Expedition Leader
I've posted a number of Safari Cab camper concept drawings in this thread and elsewhere, but I haven't taken any of them beyond the concept drawing stage yet because I don't think I have the camper experience necessary to design a successful camper. If a camper company wants to team up with me and with Gr8Tops, I'm sure we could build something very cool; the Safari Cab modularity really lends itself to this type of application.
I have designed the Safari Cab to support roof top tents; the roof rack is tied into the Jeep's roll bar system so that none of the weight on the roof rack is on the roof panel itself, all weight is transferred to the roll bars.
Here's a composite photo/drawing I did a while back showing how a Maggiolina RTT might look on top of the Safari Cab:
I've been running a sleeping platform identical to what you describe in my LJ for about a year now. I have a factory hardtop and it would be nice to have more headroom, but it still works pretty well. I have about 6'3" of sleeping length and ample width. I can sit up (slouching) and get dressed on the side. It works pretty well and I'm about to add a full length drawer under it. I can post some pics if you like. I've been meaning to start a build thread.
Actually, the best non-popup idea that jscherb had for our use was the artic top.it looked to have about 8 extra inches of headroom in the back. But to be honest, unless something happened to my hardtop, I'd be hard pressed to get a new one, even for 8 extra inches of headspace. What I've got now works well enough even though his is vastly superior in just about every way. Now if jscherb came out with barn doors, then we'd need to talk.
AmericaOverland
Explorer
Please start the build thread! Or at least post photos, I'd like to see how it's done, as I didn't seem to get a favorable picture in my mind when I went out there with my tape measure.
Thank you!
jeepdreamer
Expedition Leader
Start talkin'.... sorta. JS DID make a way to do basically a single "door" using the factory swing out tailgate and mounting an upper to it. As much as I personally prefer a drop down tailgate over the swing out I do see the merit in his design. It eliminates the worst part of all designs, the hatch! Plus, while barn doors are neat in an old fasioned way... thats about all the plus I see in them. You now have two set of hinges to wear/adjust, usually a vertical disruption when looking out the rear view, and still have to walk around something as you travel around the jeep. Compared to the single swing which uses mostly existing parts, only have one side to adjust, and really doesn't create that much more to walk around... I just don't see the benefit of barn doors. Try reading through this post or the one of the retro build... I don't remember where he showed his single barn but maybe he will point you at it. Now he just needs to make them.
squint
Adventurer
Jeff, he is talking about the metal things that you throw on the ground when you are stuck in sand or mud. You basically drive onto them (they look like a short ladder) to get "unstuck". When I lived in Colorado, I always brought some carpeting along and that did the job very well. You don't ever see Jeeps in the U.S. with these. Usually you see them on D210's in Africa, mounted to the side of the roofrack. Many Jeepers think they are really just for looks these days, but perhaps if you were in the Sahara, you might need one. :ylsmoke:
jscherb
Expedition Leader
...Now if jscherb came out with barn doors, then we'd need to talk.
Here's what I call "barn doors"...
The hard barn door that's part of the current Safari Cab design:
And the "soft barn door" I've designed and built for use with the factory soft top:
Since you've used the plural, I assume you mean what's commonly called "ambulance doors" (the right side of the drawing below):
I've done most of the design for the mold work for both one-piece fiberglass barns doors (the current barn doors are just an "upper" that works with the factory tailgate) and ambulance doors. The thing that stops me from making the molds for the ambulance doors is that I don't think demand for them would be that high, because they're probably less practical than a singe full-width barn door.
This is a drawing showing features of the one-piece barn door, the ambulance doors, and for configuring the one-piece as a swing-up hatch. All of them use slightly different variations of the same mold, derived from the same master (so to build one means it's only an small incremental effort to build a different variation):
I've got about four different fiberglass mold projects I'm considering doing next, and the fiberglass barn door/ambulance doors is one of those projects, I just haven't quite decided what I really want to build next.