Raise the Roof or Not... That is the question

[ExpoMike]

Hi all,

So I have a question about a decision I am dealing with. We had a FWC popup prior to our current M1010 ambulance. Because of the popup, we had no problem standing in the old rig. The M1010 box is only 65" tall and we are both 69" tall, so we cannot stand fully upright to cook, wash dishes, etc.

I am debating whether to raise the roof about 8" or deal with the current height. The top of the box is currently 8.5' tall and I am not sure I really want to add another 8" to be over 9' (this is not including any solar or roof vent which will add to that).

How many of you have found it very important to be able to stand in your camper? Is it something that would be nice but not a big deal or is it something you dislike or regret not raising the roof?

Thanks!

 

[Herbie]

Wow, Mike. I'm shocked your rig is so tall with such low overhead, but I'm guessing the floor is pretty high. Scanning your thread it looks like you have an "almost flatbed" box - minimal wheel well humps.

My answer, as honest as I can make it: I thought standing room was going to be super important, and there are definitely some times I'm glad to have it in my rig, but we "use it" less than we thought.

With our pop-top, we theoretically have a pretty good standing area if you move the upper bunk boards out of the way. With the bunk stowed, we have an area ~4' wide by 4-5' long where there's plenty of overhead clearance. There is "furniture" in some of these areas, so you can't stand in the whole space, but having that overhead space definitely helps things not feel claustrophobic when spending extended time in the rig. With the upper bed in sleeping position, there's still a small area (maybe 15" x 24", between the front seats) where we still have standing room when the top is up. This is ALWAYS where I put my pants on, etc. Technically these things could be accomplished with the top down or sitting elsewhere in the van (with a roof lower than your 65" clearance), but since I have the clearance, I prefer to use it.

The thing about the bed boards being moved in/out of place is that it seems I'm the only one who does it. When (usually) I'm up and out of the van while everyone else is still asleep, my wife and daughter will spend the whole morning moving around the van in a hunch (and maybe moving into the aforementioned small spot to put their pants on!). Only after everyone is up and moving do I go back into the van and relocate the bunk. This definitely happens if the weather is bad and we're holed up inside instead of camping "around" the van. So, yes, we "get by" with less than standing height for a good chunk of the day, but if/when we spend significant time inside, it really is nice to be able to stand up and move around without hunching.

 

[kylethompson]

I’m debating this exact thing right now with my m1031. I have a hairbrained idea to do a hard sided cabover pop up, but the seed that started that idea was seeing an inventive pop up idea on this forum.

Somewhere in here someone cut the bottom out of a hard shell rtt and attached it to a matching hole they cut in their ambo roof. That might be worth looking at for you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Joe917]

I would not buy or live in a rig that I could not stand up in. 9'1" is nothing, we are 11'-6"!

 

[ExpoMike]

I’m debating this exact thing right now with my m1031. I have a hairbrained idea to do a hard sided cabover pop up, but the seed that started that idea was seeing an inventive pop up idea on this forum.

Somewhere in here someone cut the bottom out of a hard shell rtt and attached it to a matching hole they cut in their ambo roof. That might be worth looking at for you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah, seen that same build as well. It had gotten me to think but a couple problems I ran into which you might not, due to you having a flat roof. The M1010 has a curve to it. Middle of roof is 3" tall and curves down to 1.5" at the sides. I would need to build a frame through the roof for that to work. Second is, most of those were designed to be latched from the outside. There is no easy way to do that. Lastly, it would interfere with the solar panels I have to install. It was a very cool idea and for flat roof vehicles, a great option.