Tacoma aluminum Pop-up

[Rbertalotto]

Great build and I see Massachusetts plates and a Newport RI in your sig. Just down the road from me. (But now see VT / Tahoe)

Quick question, was all the work on the hinge necessary. Why not simply have it hinge at the front edge with a simple heavy duty piano hinge? Looks like just a few inches of extra height and fabric at this point. What did this gain you?

Love the square tubing bender!

Did you insulate the bed of the truck...-10 can get a might uncomfortable!

 

[mmiller001]

What an awesome rig! Very nice job on the the conversion. I really appreciate the simple shelving and the westy style pop-up. I'd to build one soon once I have access to a proper garage - in the meantime I bought a used northstar truck camper which is nice but I find its a bit heavy and the storage space is not ideal for snowboards.

 

[bellevue260]

A really nice product, and I agree with all the posters who wonder why this has not been designed yet by the manufacturers, I guess it's demand, it takes a lot of money to develop and manufacture. It looks like you did this to meet your own needs as opposed to development of a commercial product. Nice work!

 

[caribbeancanadian]

Amazing build. Wow that is absolutely incredible .

 

[miniorf]

Thanks ya all for the words of encouragement! Been full on with work this winter so unfortunately I have missed an amazing January and first week of February out west.... Just got my ducks in a row and huffed it to Boulder this weekend. At 170 k on the truck I wanted to give the front end some love before I left. New front axles, wheel bearings, Camburg uniball UCA to finally correct caster, and the ECGS's solid driver side diff out put shaft bearing. The truck drives much better!

Finally finishes off the inside of the camper this past summer with some 1/4 beadboard ply, alil hack but got the job done. Brightens up things nice and is a nice thermal barrier for the aluminum that always seemed to be big cold heat sinks. Ill get you guys some updated photos in this months adventures I'm sure.

mtntown can't build ya one sorry, just not in the cards for me these days, but if Tahoe gets some snow the beginning of next week Ill show yah the camper in exchange for a place to park and some one to go touring with....

Cheers

 

[miniorf]

Rbertalotto glad your into it! No bed insulation just a mangy rug... I had two main reasons for using that style hinge and placement location.

One big design criteria I had was keeping the upper portion of the roof as low profile as possible and that required the leading edge of the pop top to lift up in order to give my toes room while sleeping up top. I could have lengthened the top but that would have require a seam on the roof as I was only able to source 10ft lengths of the aluminum skin... Not a big deal, but seemed like that plan had potential for water to get in.

The second and I think far more critical was the fact that the front edge of the pop top is only supported on one end. If I were to have the hide on the leading edge I was sure I would have to figure out a way to transfer the load to the Tacoma's cab. Tacoma's without a boxed frame flex a lot from bed to cab. I was concerned that having a point of contact between the camper and cab would result in extra stress on a lot of the campers structure. Here is a diagram of how the hinges are centered over the forward vertical support of the camper.

Cheers hoped this helped explain a little of my logic....

 

[Rbertalotto]

Excellent explanation and sound findings........Thanks

 

[inv3ctiv3]

Such a rad build - have any more photos of the inside/sleeping area?

 

[mtntown]

Thanks for giving us updates... Im just checking this now almost a month late.. However March Madness is about to begin here in Tahoe.. 10 feet of pow forecasted this week.. I got a place with a nice wood stove. All I do is tour ( splitboard )... all my friends ski though. I will check this thread to see if you are out this way now. Going to be a great Spring in Tahoe!!!!

 

[calicamper]

Thanks for giving us updates... Im just checking this now almost a month late.. However March Madness is about to begin here in Tahoe.. 10 feet of pow forecasted this week.. I got a place with a nice wood stove. All I do is tour ( splitobard )... all my friends ski though. I will check this thread to see if you are out this way now. Going to be a great Spring Tahoe!!!!

Just starting to roll into the Bay. Fast mover took 20 minutes to go from blue sky convertable weather to looking for umbrella weather.. We need more snow pack!!!''' Dump baby dump!!

 

[andytruck]

Awesome.
That is the camper shell I have always wanted. Nobody makes this. I wanted to make myself but lacked some of the skills or time.
I had to buy a slide-in truck pop-up camper instead.
Why are you going back to work? You should manufacture these. They would sell like crazy.
The closest I have seen is the tent top things that bolt to the roof rack, and these are tents, not a hard top, and do not give standing room in the truck bed.
I'm curious why you left the bed liner in. For insulation?

 

[toyotech]

Awesome.
That is the camper shell I have always wanted. Nobody makes this. I wanted to make myself but lacked some of the skills or time.
I had to buy a slide-in truck pop-up camper instead.
Why are you going back to work? You should manufacture these. They would sell like crazy.
The closest I have seen is the tent top things that bolt to the roof rack, and these are tents, not a hard top, and do not give standing room in the truck bed.
I'm curious why you left the bed liner in. For insulation?

It's not a bedliner. Tacos comes with plastic/composite beds.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[miniorf]

It looks like its been good the past few days! A buddy keeps sending me picture updates.... I had to head back a week ago for a work trip down to st martin so really shouldn't be complaining. I look you up next time out out that way and lets get some touring done. Enjoy the snow boys

 

[miniorf]

Winter trip 2016

Had an amazing trip this winter out west, unfortunately my timing was not in sync with the big storms that rolled though the this winter. I had a few great days on Teaton pass but instead of waiting for the next system I took advantage of the high pressure and headed down to the dessert in Utah. Here are some of the highlights with the truck. Most of the sweet shots are complements of boll_rig

 

[mtntown]

Bummer... none of your recent photos are showing up in your post. Maybe too big of files? I don't know but I want to see those for sure. Snow or no snow, there is always something cool to check out and always a place to sleep with a custom pop top.