Just arrived home in Oregon from a 2500 mile round trip visit to Colorado Camper Van to get our new midsize poptop. I’m so impressed with the quality of Derek’s crew’s work. The guys worked hard to get this out for me as quickly as possible. I want to thank Mark for making all the arrangements and being so patient with explaining every detail before we headed out. And Derek was really welcoming on the front end. We shared some stories and ran into each other at the summit of Trail Ridge Rd in Rocky Mtn National Park. What a great bunch of guys!
The top is all I hoped for and more. The thing is huge! I’ve included a couple of pictures with measurements for those interested. I really like how you can sit comfortably up top, with 40 inches of height to play with. I ordered the bed in four removable pieces so they can be stacked up on their sides and kept out of the way for lots of walk-around room.
A really nice touch is the dimmable LED lights in the roof, with a switch to shut off the last two over your head when sleeping and a neat little wireless switch right next to your head to control the lights when you’re in bed.
The remote for raising and lowering the top is really handy, especially when making sure all the canvas is tucked in neatly. The bungies make quick work of that. And, I couldn’t be more pleased with the fit and finish on this job. It looks beautiful. Have to say that one of my favorite parts (hard to pick one) is the neat storage space you get up front when the extra-long top is up. Bonus room!
I want to give a special thank you to Ray (1Der) who guided me through the ordering process and made sure all went well. It can be pretty confusing doing something long distance that you’ve never seen before, and Ray was exceptionally kind and generous with his time. Thank you so much, Ray!
I hope the pictures are helpful to anyone considering one of these tops. I’m really loving it!
I wanted to get my Yakima equipment back up on the van but, since it’s higher now with the CCV Poptop, I needed as low profile on the Unistrut as I could get. Thanks to CCV for installing this beautiful powder coated aluminum strut. 110 inches long. Big thanks to @TeleSteve on this forum for putting me on to the idea of using just the upper parts of the A1 towers on this thread: (http://www.sportsmobileforum.com/for...art-25051.html) Finished the job yesterday and it looks great. Plus, it’s without a doubt the strongest rack connection I’ve ever had. A few pics:
THE PARTS:
I USED STAINLESS STEEL NUTS, BOLTS, AND PLATES. found a great source, helpful folks, at Industrial Pipe and Valve in Vancouver, WA. The only local place where I could find all the Unistrut or replacement parts: plates, t-nuts, bolts for channel, and short bolts to connect the shear bases to the plate from underneath.
THE FINISHED PRODUCT. I’LL BE ADDING OTHER THINGS AS I GO ALONG. BUT GLAD TO HAVE MY RACK BACK WITHOUT SPENDING A GAZILLION DOLLARS ON NEW TOWERS. JUST DISASSEMBLED MY A1 TOWERS FOR THE PARTS. BUT YOU CAN ALWAYS BUY THEM AT ETRAILER FOR A FEW BUCKS.
Why'd you choose to run the 3/4" round bars horizontally across the roof vs. running lengths of unistrut horizontally? Easier to stay with existing hardware/attachment hardware to the round bars? Strength of the 3/4" vs. unistrut? I'm considering switching from A1 towers + round bars mounted to gutters to unistrut and was thinking of getting rid of the round bars and just running unistrut across the entire setup.
Good question, NY. I’ve had a Yakima system for years and have a lot of accessories, so I didn’t want to change systems. I like the stoutness of the round bars - they hold everything. The vinyl coating is slippery making it easy to slide stuff up there, kayaks, lumber, etc. and doesn’t scratch anything or ding me with sharp edges. And they’re black, so they match. And I already had them so no out-of-pocket (though they’re not that expensive). And they stick up just a bit which might give me room for solar panels in between at a lower level.
Using Unistrut as your crosswise bar should work just fine if you don’t have any of those needs. I sure have learned a lot about the versatility of strut. So many ways to connect things.