Played with the Jeep pop-up concept years back. We started with the TJ but they are were a challenge. I'll get into it but first here was our project showtruck. (click the "Camper Top" box)
http://www.landrunner.com/workshop.html
Looks a little dated now, this was one of our early Maggiolinas. The "Adventure" is still in production but sold only as a special order, being about about four to eight inches shorter than the more current versions sold in the states. The reason why I bring it up is to observe the scale on the jeep with a short pop-up.
Some background, this project was more of a whole system approach with the TJ. First challenge was weight, this tent is 115 pounds, not bad but where we had trouble was with are the racks systems at the time. Some of the early rack systems at that time were over 120 pounds and we wanted something stonger, like a roll cage. Crossbars were alloy to keep the weight down but the key was Landrunner with their exo-skeleton rack that came out surprisingly light, less than 50 pounds if memory serves. It was a very thin walled large diameter alloy steel that required special mandrels for fabrication. The goal was to keep the whole package less than 165 pounds all in. Even at that, you still felt the weight with the standard suspension. OK on dirt roads but not so good on a reverse camber overlooking a canyon. The reason for the "Hummer" Landrunner thing was for suspension. If you wanted oversized 32 inch tires on a early TJ, you needed a lift. Instead of lifting the Jeep, we lifted the fenders and offset the larger tires slightly for a better balance offroad.
Jeep loved the tent and rack system. Weren't too crazy about the Hummer thing. The rack system still is rather unique, doesn't interfere, raise or lower the softop, put on a hardtop, even lower the windshield, no problem and is light and strong.
The concept never gained traction, don't quite know why.
Rich
