intro/build thread and our poorboy attempt at a campervan.

[REF]

Yes, a minor drawback. I have a canvas that I feed into a C channel for an awning, have considered putting on a Fiamma, the wife would like one and no doubt would get used lots more than our current setup. So as it is, we rarely deploy our current awning and the lights come with colored lens covers, so they may be used for campfire lighting, but mainly for flooding the area with light while setting up, driving dark backroads, wildlife viewing....looking cool.

[Wanderer]

Originally Posted by shenrie

^^^ nope, no instructions, but its very straightforward. you basically cut an access hole, set the top/armature/frame assembly on top of the van and lower it into place so its seated properly in the raingutter, then trace around the outside of the frame. cut the skin on the line, then the frame drops into place where it affixs to the main structure. theres nuts and bolts in each corner, then you weld from underneith to the main structure and from the outside to the roof skin. i can get some closeup pix next time i raise the roof up if youd like.

How close was the cut to the front and rear edges of the roof? I'm looking to possibly purchase a van that has sunroofs fore and aft of the van and wanted to make sure that I had enough sheet metal/crossmember left on the van for a CCV top. Thanks! Dave

[shenrie]

^^^ in the front about 2' between windshield and topper frame, in the rear probably closer to 6-8" between rear gutter and topper frame. I can get exact measurements if youd like.

Originally Posted by JWA

I had to chuckle just a bit to see your friend Tony holding the saw, not a care or bit of concern making that first cut---after all its not his van is it?

Actually your friends are great friends indeed for jumping in with you.

Nice to show the shop too!

exactly. these guys love to cut up other peoples stuff, lol. everntually though, they will ask for help on thier stuff, so its a two way street. revenge is always an option...

Originally Posted by REF

Shenrie, great write up, need some pics of the top popped up. This is making me even more anxious about our CCV top install, even though we already have a SMB top on our rig. You must have gotten one of the last of that style tops that Derek did, his latest is more like the voyager/cruiser tops.

thank you very much, and ill get more pix of top in up position soon enough. should have yesterday when i was painting the frame and welds, but wanted to get it all sealed before the weather moved in. i beat the rain/wind by 40 min, lol.

and i believe he still offers the fiberine top if requested. ive been drooling over the video on youtube that he made of buckkillers rig so much that when it was time to spend the money, i just had to have the same setup. i just love the lines of the fiberine top.

heres a few pix for boywonder. ive painted it all now, but if you need more, just holla.

this is a pic of the drivers side front bolt and cutout around the frame.


this pic is of the passenger side front corner from outside. basically shows the stitch welding we did all the way around to the roof skin.


this is a pic of the bottom of the passengers side front bolt from underneith.


and heres a pic of the underside stitch welded to the main structure on passenger side.


dereks frame design fits perfectly between the cross support behind front seats and the very back of the van. theres a flange right in front of the rear cargo light that it butts right up against the frame from the back. so its really easy to get seated in the correct spot.

[REF]

I agree, I do like the looks of that top, I didn't even know it was a fiberine, I thought he was moulding them or having them done to his specs. Anyway, I had a very hard time deciding on the high profile top after he said he was no longer making (or offering) that one you got and had switched over to the "voyager" style top, which I'm not crazy about, but we're fixing the overall look with a custom roof rack to hide the boxy lines. Derek mentioned that he was better able to integrate the lift hardware and motors with the new voyager style tops and it also allows for a larger bed up top, plus the added space when its down. I wonder if the new ones he's using are fiberine? they look similar to ones on their website...
Like I had mentioned, I wasn't even considering a high profile top, this all started with wanting to replace just the canvas with his insulated fabric to replacing the entire top to his low profile top, and ending up with his high profile top after bringing the wife up there to check them out, Derek had a van done with the high profile top and in the end we both agreed that the added space it created inside was a huge improvement and we can leave the bedding up there without having to stuff it all in a huge dry bag every morning and take it out every eve.

[shenrie]

in his words: the new top is built around the lift, not the other way around like with the fiberine top. thats why he was able to make a wider bed. the new ones hes using are designed by him and he built the original, but has sourced them out locally (thought he said in loveland, but could be wrong) since.

i think i would have followed suit with his new top had i planned on a rack of some sort on top. however, im hoping to avoid needing one, so i went with the "pretty" top, lol. im with you on the rack hiding some of the bulkyness of that top. i look forward to seeing how yours turns out. they really do look spacious. we also want a bed thats ready for use without prep. i dont have the exact design drawn out or anything, but we are hopeing to have the bed raise and lower with the top for walking room when not in use, and be able to lower the bed down when we are ready for sleep. same mindset though. zero setup for sleeping time

the wife has no issues standing up with this top down and i just barely have to duck my head, so i think this will be perfect for us in the long run.

...funny how one plan quickly ends up being another huh? ive designed the inside of my van 100 times now. one of the main reasons i havent really built anything out yet and thee main reason we plan on living in it for a camping season before we really start adding permanent stuff.

[JWA]

Looks good so far----nice install work!

Not sure what you have planned concerning treating the bare metal, both on the roof and added structure but I'd highly recommend a POR-15 material---in that application it would be outstanding. Hit the underside too----overlooked or missed areas left untreated can cause rust.

Sealing the top where your structure meets sheet metal look into a 3M flexible seam sealer, after the bare metal treatment. Despite 3M's relative high cost for what it does there's nothing better IMHO.

Anyway looking forward to more progress---and photos of course!

[shenrie]

^^^ well i wish you had posted that a day earlier, lol. i just wanted to get the exposed metal covered as weve been having a lot of rain/snow over the last few weeks and just rattlebombed it with primer. i can still use the 3m stuff, but the por-15 instructions said not to bother if it wasnt applied on bare metal either way, i appreciate the gesture and i would have gone that route if i had read that prior to painting.

i am planning on covering the roof, gutters and frame of topper with the roll-on bed liner after i get some existing rust spots taken care of. all the equipment that was installed on this van originally left lots of exposed metal after i removed it and theres quite a bit of surface rust that needs attended to.

i had forgot that my buddy had set up his gopro during the day of our install. he just sent me a timelapse of the day. turned out pretty good. we definitely need to make more of these kinda vids.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpA1cNBSHBM

[shenrie]

welp, got the canvas on for the most part. enough to take it camping this past weekend for a one nighter anyway. canvas can still use some dialing in to get some of the wrinkles out, but overall im pretty happy with the final outcome. its not perfect by any means...it was either tricky to install or we were over thinking it. regardless, wife is very happy (shes not as picky with end looks as i am), and everyone knows the saying, happy wife, happy life



the amount of room the ccv pop top creates inside is amazing...

[stanw909]

Now you just need a slideout on the drivers side and you'll have room for dance parties. Looks great. Great thread.

[shenrie]

^^^ it has been discussed, lol...

made some more progress, we assembled a bedframe.



added some plywood



now its just waiting for soft stuff



took pix with bedding in place, but those are on phone and i think it died over the weekend. not that you guys arent familiar with sleepingbags. end plan is to get foam in place for a removable pad. havent decided on thickness or density, but theres a few places locally that will make custom rv beds, so need to do some research and hopefully get something nice and comfy here real soon.

to test it out, we decided to do a trip. wife doesnt get off working till 7pm, but i was in the driveway waiting for her to pull up and we were on the highway and rolling by 7:30. a couple we camp with often was off at 1pm and went up ahead of us and grabbed a preplanned spot. we chose an area under a local dam called anderson ranch as most our high elevations are still covered with snow. we were trying to go in a back way to see some new views, but got lost. there goes the last little bit of daylight... so only new stuff we saw was unfamiliar dirt roads with lots of obvious flash floods directly related to last summers fires

we found our fellow campers and i was directed into a spot that he said i would love come daylight, so we parked, popped the top and got our drink on. enjoyed the usual around the fire activities with friends and crashed out. i woke up to rain. first thought was how much quiter the fiberglass top was compared to the vans metal roof, then all those areas with flash flood wash accross the roadways. the rain was light, but i was sleeping light just in case cause we were near water. then wifey started moaning and was struck with super bad ladyparts pain. this was right at twilight and im guessing about 4:30-5am. she stumbled out of bed and located some highend pain pills we keep in our first aid kit since she forgot her special pills. since i was wide awake, i decided to roll down all the windows and crawl back into bed and watch the sun come up so we could see our surroundings. as we lay in bed waiting for some light we were just starting to realize what a cool spot they parked us in. all we could say to each other was "this is amazing". our spot really wasnt anything special, but laying in bed and seeing our nice spot from the penthouse was everything i had hoped and imagined for. this was the moment. our view was 360 degrees of awesome scenery from our bed. our van is far from finished, but our journey is just now beggining. we could not be happier.

one of our fellow campers was tony. if youve read any of this thread, youve see his name and know hes helped with all the major parts of our build. once they were up, i walked up to him and shook his hand and said thank you. he looked at me blankly and said "what for?" i said "for helping us make our dream come true" and pointed at my van

anyway, enough sappy talk. heres a few pix from the campsite we were kicked out of












...then the sheriff showed up and let us know that camping in the area was closed due to flash flood issues and we were told that we had to be out by dark. signs stating this info had been ripped down. so we packed up shop and went hunting for another spot. place we wanted to go was called baumgartner hot springs about 30 miles away. we get 10 miles from it and find out that road is closed dec 1st to april 30th. instead of looking for a spot in another area, we backtracked 5 miles back and stayed in a little campground in a town called pine. not what we were after, but it was pretty much empty so we could still screw around with my new motorbike and teach the girls and tonys youngest son how to ride the bigger bikes.

heres a couple pix in the campground. not bad, but we really enjoy spots more remote so when we have atv's and motorbikes with us, we dont disturb our neighbors too much.