Tradgrans..trailer build. Its now is a pop top, We have a tent and AC

high-and-dry

Active member
Okay first hinge for the pop top made, it works as it should and is nice and smooth in operation. It is an unbalanced lift to tilt the roof as it goes up, it is made of steel, so more than strong enough. I just need to cut the cross bars for the second one to finish it, it is so nice have a mill in the basement to cut the slots.

It took me an hour of searching on the internet for some kind of calculator to try and find some sort of ratio for the offset to get the lift I wanted. In the end just a couple of strips of foam board and some tooth pics to figure it out the hard way, trial and error. But I got it on the first try, for an acceptable lift angle and height.

three pics, open closed and in the middle and the last link is a short vid showing how smooth it moves.

IAAoerf.jpg

XHPp8Kh.jpg

P8RIKeG.jpg

 

high-and-dry

Active member
I can stand up inside, yippee.

I need to make the supports to hold it, paint every thing then make the tent. But at last I can stand up, in the center it is about 6' and on the right about 6'6" or so.

It lifts nice and smooth, lifting force is only 30 lbs or so.
CLQOBvC.jpg

0wIaFbb.jpg

EWIPqU9.jpg

HkgBPnt.jpg
 

high-and-dry

Active member
Okay we have a tent, I will remake it at some point as I have never done this type of thing before its not perfect ( it will never be )

The material is waterproof, and it velcros in place so its easily removable. There are 3 screen windows, one is completely removable for the AC. The ac sits on the part of the roof that is flat and covered by the top when it is down and it has clips that lock in place and around the lip of the opening so it cant fall. I have velcro in place covers for when I have the ac on or dont want airflow. If I need to run the heat the roof wont be up so I dont have a solid panel for the AC opening. I do need to make some strips that fill the opening against the ac, but thats easy.
Uo8uXLO.jpg

7IP6u41.jpg

0mRFYHo.jpg

7LNB35A.jpg
 

ITTOG

Well-known member
Okay we have a tent, I will remake it at some point as I have never done this type of thing before its not perfect ( it will never be )

The material is waterproof, and it velcros in place so its easily removable. There are 3 screen windows, one is completely removable for the AC. The ac sits on the part of the roof that is flat and covered by the top when it is down and it has clips that lock in place and around the lip of the opening so it cant fall. I have velcro in place covers for when I have the ac on or dont want airflow. If I need to run the heat the roof wont be up so I dont have a solid panel for the AC opening. I do need to make some strips that fill the opening against the ac, but thats easy.
Uo8uXLO.jpg

7IP6u41.jpg

0mRFYHo.jpg

7LNB35A.jpg

Looks good. I didn’t realize it opens side to side. That is unique.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

calicamper

Expedition Leader
Nice!! I’m convinced the high sided pop top that fits in a standard garage is going to be the new it design soon. Especially with fuel issues and high cost lol
 

high-and-dry

Active member
Looks good. I didn’t realize it opens side to side. That is unique.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I did that for a few reasons, one on the low side will be a bench seat one day so i dont need height on that side, two the awning attaches to the pop top so it gives more height, channels air flow, keeps the rain out etc etc. Also all the rain will run off the side away from the kitchen/pantry.
Nice!! I’m convinced the high sided pop top that fits in a standard garage is going to be the new it design soon. Especially with fuel issues and high cost lol
Calicamper, it fits in my garage with a few inches to spare.
 

opp

Observer
You and Jess are the men. It's great that you're willing to share your build and answer questions .I've been playing around with trying to make this extremely affordable way to build. Help get rid of these under $5,000 rot boxes. I believe the way that you did the top seam is quite the Cash Saver .
do you think that there's a way to use fiberglass angle instead of aluminum or Steel. As it cheap to make and the tooling is any thing that has a 90° angle
Do you think it work by not having to glue to the frame would save quite a bit of money talking small trailer the foot print of an teardrop maybe 5x10 as the biggest. Just wall to floor bounding . Thank you That back Hach is he coolest thing I seen
 

high-and-dry

Active member
You and Jess are the men. It's great that you're willing to share your build and answer questions .I've been playing around with trying to make this extremely affordable way to build. Help get rid of these under $5,000 rot boxes.
Awe shucks :rolleyes:
I believe the way that you did the top seam is quite the Cash Saver .
do you think that there's a way to use fiberglass angle instead of aluminum or Steel. As it cheap to make and the tooling is any thing that has a 90° angle
It could be done with glass, I did it with steel for several reasons. One being it allowed me to just bolt things like the hinges and top braces to it, two the latches that hold the top down are also bolted to the steel in the side walls. So it was actually a lot easier than trying to just embed plates to bolt to. Jess did the the embeded plate for his hinges, mine was much less planning.

Do you think it work by not having to glue to the frame would save quite a bit of money talking small trailer the foot print of an teardrop maybe 5x10 as the biggest. Just wall to floor bounding . Thank you That back Hach is he coolest thing I seen

I mean I guess you could bolt it to the frame, if you embeded some structure to bolt thru to spread the load out. Personally I want it to not go any where, ever.
 
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