Offroad Pop-up

[mezmo]

Hi asorenson,

Great build design! It will be very interesting to follow your
progress on it. Have you determined how you will tie it down/
attach it to the trailer? Also how do you plan to lift and support it
when you demount it from the trailer? Something similar to the
pick-up camper jacks/supports? I'm sure you must have some
interesting takes on both matters - just surmising from all your
great work results so far!

An aside for iSpy:

Nice rig you have there. Did you build it out from a CT or is is a
CT manufacturer's design?

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

 

[asorensen]

Thanks for all of the responses. I like the popouts iSpy!
Mezmo wrote:

Have you determined how you will tie it down/
attach it to the trailer?
Also how do you plan to lift and support it
when you demount it from the trailer?

My plan for attaching to the trailer I have adopted from the pickup camper crew.
I think that the turnbuckles that they use to attach them to their trucks would work fine for my needs.
Something like this:

I willing be making my own jacks for the four corners.
If you look at the pics closely you can see the welded tabs to accept the jacks.



Well moving along a bit slower than I would have hoped. I was away for 10 days completing my Canadian Ranger DP1 training.
Curious? Look here:http://www.army.forces.gc.ca/land-terre/cr-rc/index-eng.asp.


I have finally got the parts for the trailer so I will be working on getting it rolling in the next little bit.

In the meanwhile I have gotten to the fun part of the actual camper unit and I have a few pictures to show my progress.

Putting the first panels on.

I glued them with construction adhesive screws will be added later for window trim and whatnot.


Cross bracing till the glue dries overnight.

Window and door cutout.

Getting a little extra help!

The loft area.

Testing out the benches.

More updates to come soon. I am trying to get this thing done for trip down the coast(Vancouver Island to California) for this summer!

Thanks for looking.

Andy

 

[KF5QBY]

That's coming together really nice.

 

[titanpat57-TNT]

Your son's look is priceless..great build...awesome job!!

 

[oregonguy-TNT]

I Love this build...Great Job! I'd like to make a full Aluminum frame trailer myself one of these days, and this one is very inspiring.

 

[asorensen]

A couple of quick updates.

I have got the roof cap completed except for the vent and trim. Looking at the pictures I am definitely noticing a lack of trim.
I have also started some wiring.
Here is a picture on the inside looking up:

I have mocked up the table and I am fairly happy with it.
The front support is a scrap that will be replaced so no fear on it being out of plumb and all that.
The table has as its rear support a hinged section that extends to form the rear section of bed. Kind of hard to explain but it works!

Here is a picture:

Also in that picture you may notice my copper pipe that I fought with. Notice the burn mark on the wood!
As well as on the rear corner is one of the four jacks that I made for putting the camper on and off of the trailer.
These are not for leveling but are removed during normal usage.

Jack detail:

I am putting in pretty long hours on this thing.
I am still, naively, hoping to be done for July second. I hope it doesn't kill me!

Andy

 

[CapN-SKO]

this one is coming along really well I love the loft I might need to borrow that idea I like your attention to detail

 

[asorensen]

A couple of quick updates with pictures.

I am flying along. All of the wiring is done so that I could start covering the exterior.
All of the upper exterior walls are covered with FRP now and I am finished the two lower sides as well.
I flipped the trailer over on its side to do the two sides to get gravity working with me. I added whatever I had handy to the top to get it as flat as possible. Here are a couple pictures:

You can see I have got a real good mess going on at this point! if you can believe it I still plan on being finished for July 2. We will see.


These jacks that I made really helped facilitate actually getting it down.

The flipping it over was fairly easy it is not as heavy as I thought it was although I have stripped most of the cabinet work to put the finish on it all

Not that exciting really but in the next couple days it is all going to start coming together.

Andy

 

[parnold]

It is looking great!

I'm really enjoying following this one.

 

[S. Heisley]

Andy,

You're doing a great job on your build and I think you're going to be really happy with it. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Heifer Boy]

Nice build

How does your roof work on the pop up extension you have built? I can see how the walls fold in but is the roof actually attached to any of them? It seems to be independent so do you just get in there and muscle it up one wall at a time?

I've often wondered how to do a 4 walled fold-up roof.

HB

 

[asorensen]

Well I have been remiss.
I spent two hectic weeks at the beginning of July and got the unit to a usable stage.
I was working like a madman (most nights bed at 2 or 3 or sometimes not at all) so the write ups sort of slowed down!

We travelled from Vancouver Island Canada down the I5 to Sacremento and then slowly back up the 101 on the maiden voyage.
I am happy to say it all worked excellently with no mishaps or flaws along the way.

I still need to finish several things to make it up to my standards but it was pretty darn good for its first trip.

Unfortunately my wife, being in charge of the packing, forgot the charger for camera so I don't have any pictures from the trip but
I can bring you up to date on the construction.


The trailer was the next major hurdle.
I had decided on independent suspension with airbags and shocks so I needed to make up swing arms.

Here is first swing arm and the jig:

This is where the swing arm will sit.

With the airbag:

I planned to put shocks on as well but as I was running out of time I opted to try it without for the first journey.

The result was that I had to run the airbags with quite a bit lower pressure than I had initially planned. This was to deal with the rebound issues after which it towed quite nicely.

Needless to say the obvious solution is to fit shocks as well which I will be doing soon.

Anyways here is the trailer all painted up.

I will continue the further build pictures tomorrow night.

Andy

 

[CapN-SKO]

Wow your really out doing yourself with this build way to set the bar high

 

[oregonguy-TNT]

Very very nice! Your suspension looks great, and so does the frame! Keep the pics coming, I'm really enjoying your build.

 

[asorensen]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Heifer boy wrote:

How does your roof work on the pop up extension you have built? I can see how the walls fold in but is the roof actually attached to any of them?
It seems to be independent so do you just get in there and muscle it up one wall at a time?

You got it Heifer the roof is not attached to the walls. I had planned to attach it and had worked out a pretty good way to do it but then I decided it was going to be more work then it was worth.
At this point it works best to use two people to raise the top. One person inside one outside, so far not a problem because I have had my wife around, but I have been working on a slick one person method for when I am solo.


Carrying on with the build photos:


All of my wiring comes together behind the front upper bulkhead which became a electronics bay and storage location.

From inside:

From outside:

The outside skins went on very nicely:

Side and rear top up:

Side and rear top down:

I started working on the galley configuration also visible in the last picture. I am very happy with my camp chef oven stove which I have fastened in place with plenty of airspace around it.

The front skin going on:

This was one of those tasks that it would have been nice to have a second set of hands to help with but alas since it was 3 am I was alone!



After the skins went on it was time to put it on the trailer:

The corner jacks worked very well:

And I had to do a little run around with it up there. Here it is:

It looks much "cuter" then I envisioned while working on it. It had seemed quite large while working on it in the shop but behind the van the size seemed become much smaller.

Sorry about some of the picture quality. I munched the view finder on the camera so instead of having a "point and shoot" it is now a "point and guess".
More pictures to come tomorrow.

Andy

 

[Woodstramp]

Andy,

Like I mentioned earlier, love the truck. As to the camper...what can I say. Beaut of a job. Outstanding (and unusual) design and craftsmanship. Hope you and your family wring every ounce of "goodie" out of it.

(The way you built it, your great grandkids will still be using it.)

 

[CapN-SKO]

what kind of corner jacks did you use?

 

[asorensen]

Help! I think I would like to name my creation but I feel completely uncreative in that regard.
Do I need a name? Not that I am looking for a super creative name it is just that anything
I think of either sounds sort of silly or sort of pretentious.

So I am calling on anyone who is willing to through out a name idea,
without giving away your own closely guarded names because lets face it you'll need that name for the next one you build!

Here are a couple of updated pictures to hopefully get your creative juices flowing.

Thanks

Andy

P.S.

droid_ca asked:

what kind of corner jacks did you use?

I made the corner jacks and you can see them in a little better detail in one of the earlier posts but here is that picture:

Andy

 

[Woodstramp]

Andy, (name ideas)

Well, with all the labor/thought you put into your rig I'd suggest "Woohoo!" ...as in Woohoo...thank God it's finished!".

Or, with all that metal....."Lightning Rod".

But with the metal shielding it's occupants would be shielded from said lightning, so how about "Farraday's Holiday"?

[seriousness]....during your whole build I've admired your metal working ability. Especially since you chose aluminum. That gets to another name suggestion. Aluminum saved you a ton of weight, so how about "Lightfoot"? [/seriousness]

 

[mezmo]

Hi Andy/asorenson,

Absolutely great build!

Here're a couple-few 'off-the-wall' name offerings:

"ItFollowsMeEveryWhere!"

"Doppelganger", "My Doppelganger" - [A play on the German word for
'your shadowy self that is always near but hard to see' -and- your trailer
chassis is built for double-duty, and the TTT is always "near" when being
towed.]

"PopMyTop" - [Whatcha gotta do.]

"LooksAreDeceiving" - [Extra room from pop-top not apparent in tow.]

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo