jonnyquest
Adventurer
You could put a pretty thick mattress in there and still have plenty of room.
"TrailTop" modular trailer topper building components
- Thread starter jscherb
- Start date
jscherb
Expedition Leader
I think there's enough room for a bed platform with storage underneath, I did this concept drawing early in the project:
jscherb
Expedition Leader
I installed a roof rack and rack basket on the TrailTop to do some more weight testing. This first photo shows the basic roof rack bolted to the top of the shell. When I built the shell, I added blind nuts to two of the roof cross-ribs for this rack, so the rack screws in from the top.
I use this basic rack for carrying things like plywood on my military trailer, it's got extension bars for that purpose, and it's also designed to be a base for a rack basket and a roof-top tent. The next photo shows the rack basket attached to the base rack, and loaded with a spare tire and a Hi-Lift style jack.
And in this next photo, it's loaded with all of the above, plus the 225-lb. gorilla.
The total weight on top of the shell is somewhere between 325 and 350 pounds, which is more than twice what the TrailTop shell weighs - the shell is only about 150 lbs. The gorilla also did some bouncing up and down while up there to simulate the trailer going over bumps with a load on the roof; no problem.
The shell supports this weight very nicely - there's no flexing, creaking or movement of the shell when I climb up there with all this weight. Considering that the only structure in the shell besides the TrailTop fiberglass framing parts and the 1/4" plywood skin are the three 2x2 cross-ribs in the roof, and considering this prototype is only bolted together at the moment, I'm very pleased with how the strength of the TrailTop assembly has worked out.
Next... the rack basket comes off and the roof-top tent gets installed. Photos later.
I use this basic rack for carrying things like plywood on my military trailer, it's got extension bars for that purpose, and it's also designed to be a base for a rack basket and a roof-top tent. The next photo shows the rack basket attached to the base rack, and loaded with a spare tire and a Hi-Lift style jack.
And in this next photo, it's loaded with all of the above, plus the 225-lb. gorilla.
The total weight on top of the shell is somewhere between 325 and 350 pounds, which is more than twice what the TrailTop shell weighs - the shell is only about 150 lbs. The gorilla also did some bouncing up and down while up there to simulate the trailer going over bumps with a load on the roof; no problem.
The shell supports this weight very nicely - there's no flexing, creaking or movement of the shell when I climb up there with all this weight. Considering that the only structure in the shell besides the TrailTop fiberglass framing parts and the 1/4" plywood skin are the three 2x2 cross-ribs in the roof, and considering this prototype is only bolted together at the moment, I'm very pleased with how the strength of the TrailTop assembly has worked out.
Next... the rack basket comes off and the roof-top tent gets installed. Photos later.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
Installing a roof-top tent on the TrailTop worked out great.
The supermodel lounging in the tent is my wife, and she's wondering why if we own a couple of trailers and the roof-top tent, we always stay in hotels when we travel
.
Upstairs for the kids, downstairs for mom and dad?
Windows are needed downstairs, but not having any actual windows handy, I printed one out and taped it on:
The tent all packed up for travel:
I'm confident that a properly assembled TrailTop will handle the stresses of both on- and off-road towing and camping.
The supermodel lounging in the tent is my wife, and she's wondering why if we own a couple of trailers and the roof-top tent, we always stay in hotels when we travel
.
Upstairs for the kids, downstairs for mom and dad?
Windows are needed downstairs, but not having any actual windows handy, I printed one out and taped it on:
The tent all packed up for travel:
I'm confident that a properly assembled TrailTop will handle the stresses of both on- and off-road towing and camping.
lqdchkn
:)
jscherb
Expedition Leader
The plywood I used for the TrailTop skin is inexpensive floor underlayment; it's got a grid pattern printed on one side (see the inside views of the shell), and the outside is primed, so it looks pretty good once it's assembled, even though it will need a more weatherproof final finish:
One cool way to finish off the exterior would be to apply a weatherproof paint to the plywood, and then apply a photo-mural, something like this one I found on eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tropical-Su...Stickers_Vinyl_Art&var=&hash=item4179640beb):
Here it is applied through a little bit of photo-editing:
There are lots of mural decals available on eBay. The seller of the sunset one above said they could print it at a custom size to fit this TrailTop perfectly for no extra charge.
I've left the TrailTop fiberglass parts in white for the illustration above, but you might paint the parts yellow to match the tub...
One cool way to finish off the exterior would be to apply a weatherproof paint to the plywood, and then apply a photo-mural, something like this one I found on eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tropical-Su...Stickers_Vinyl_Art&var=&hash=item4179640beb):
Here it is applied through a little bit of photo-editing:
There are lots of mural decals available on eBay. The seller of the sunset one above said they could print it at a custom size to fit this TrailTop perfectly for no extra charge.
I've left the TrailTop fiberglass parts in white for the illustration above, but you might paint the parts yellow to match the tub...
screwball48
Explorer
I think that those parts should be used to produce a "chuck wagon" prototype. Just sayin
jscherb
Expedition Leader
I think that those parts should be used to produce a "chuck wagon" prototype. Just sayin
Well the parts I just molded could be used to make one of these... Just sayin'
FJC Scout
Observer
I think that those parts should be used to produce a "chuck wagon" prototype. Just sayin
This... Lol
jscherb
Expedition Leader
With the new parts I molded I'm planning to build a proof-of-concept hard cover for a Jeep tub/Dinoot trailer:
The parts are laid out on the floor in this next photo; they're just clamped together and not trimmed to size yet:
In addition to being a hard cover for the tub, the hard cover will serve as a tent platform:
The parts are laid out on the floor in this next photo; they're just clamped together and not trimmed to size yet:
In addition to being a hard cover for the tub, the hard cover will serve as a tent platform:
jscherb
Expedition Leader
I haven't decided exactly how far I'll take this next proof-of-concept project, but here's where it might go:
Phase 1: Hard cover/tent platform as shown in the previous post.
Phase 2: Pop-up camper top. I've got a preliminary design for modular soft sides for a pop-up camper top, it's an interesting sewing project I'd like to do:
Phase 3: Using everything built in phases 1 and 2, build a clamshell roof-top tent. I'd make a base out of another set of TrailTop parts as a mate to the top.
Phase 4: And if I'm not sick of working on this project by then, I could make up some side panels to turn the same pop-top into a full camper:
Phase 1: Hard cover/tent platform as shown in the previous post.
Phase 2: Pop-up camper top. I've got a preliminary design for modular soft sides for a pop-up camper top, it's an interesting sewing project I'd like to do:
Phase 3: Using everything built in phases 1 and 2, build a clamshell roof-top tent. I'd make a base out of another set of TrailTop parts as a mate to the top.
Phase 4: And if I'm not sick of working on this project by then, I could make up some side panels to turn the same pop-top into a full camper:
jscherb
Expedition Leader
As I've written in earlier posts, one of the main design goals of the hard cover for the Jeep-tub/Dinoot trailer is to be able to support a roof-top style tent. But if an RTT is too expensive for the budget and you had the right size Jeep-tub/Dinoot trailer, the hard cover could serve as a platform for a ground tent. Some tie-down points could be added at appropriate spots to take the place of the tent stakes. My yellow trailer is a good size for many two-man ground tents:
The tent pictured is a Marmot EarlyLight two-person, which is 54" wide (the tub is 59") and 88" long (the tub is 89"), so it's pretty much a perfect fit on this trailer.
The tent pictured is a Marmot EarlyLight two-person, which is 54" wide (the tub is 59") and 88" long (the tub is 89"), so it's pretty much a perfect fit on this trailer.