@890man, yes that's very well possible! I've been doing the SF to Sonoma (where I've been building 90% of my car at a friend's place and at Mudrak's) a few dozen times...
I've been working day and night on my build and it's now in the final stages... I've never started a proper build thread because I knew I'd easily spend as much time writing about the build as building. Which would have made this 1 year project take even longer... But with nearing completion, I do wanted to post a bit of an update and a few random insights on my build and will gladly answer any questions you might have!
First of all: the goal of the build was to create a (very) comfortable home for myself with room to carry gear for my action sport addiction (climbing, mountain biking, kite surfing and skiing). I love the cold and I want to take this rig into the deepest of winter and use it as my basecamp. This is the main reason for me why I wanted a poptop: I can stand up inside the heated car, get dressed, get into my sleeping bag and even sleep at night with the heater on. Heck I can even get my ski boots on while inside of the car (and for the skiers among us - you know how hard they get when they're frozen...) It's made to go far, to go on dirt roads, cross creeks and small rivers and up mildly challenging trails but if the trail gets too hard, I don't mind switching over to my mountain bike and get to where I want to go the human powered way. Weight and top heaviness were not a big factor for me. It's not made to go fast through off camber turns or on over
I have spent a decent 45 days per year camping in the back of my truck just on weekends the last 3 years I've owned my first 80 with a very simple sleeping platform over the rear seats. I've decided to upgrade for a 6-12 month trip down to South America I'm going to embark on in the next couple of days.
We managed to hit the first snow in Tahoe a few days ago when we took the car to small shakedown cruise...
What are some of the other things I did:
- 25 Gal of water storage tank with a 3 stage (pre filter, 15nm active coal filter, then katadyn expedition filter) to make the worst of water drinkable (filters out giardia cysts and other micro organisms).
- Eberspacher Hydronic 4: provides fuel based heat by heating up the coolant and running it into the cab by repurposing the rear heater. From there I go to two heat exchanges (one near the kitchen and one in the tent up top) and to a 2.5 Gal hot water tank for showering/washing
- Long Ranger extra 43 Gal tank because with that much weight, about 6900lb without fuel, water & passengers we will need it.
- 200W solar on the roof with a dual battery system
- SMEV stovetop with 3 burners and a little sink....
- Kaymar rear bumper with heavily modified swingouts to carry a huge aluminum toolbox for light cargo and room for bikes on the back
About the roof itself: The initial tent I had built by a specialized tent shop was not a very good fit and we decided to toss it and redo it. I found an amazing upholstery guy in Sonoma who was willing to go through the pain (and yes it really was pain for me, my friend and him) to redo the tent. It involved cutting a plastic template first with the roof in place, then cutting the material with the plastic template, mounting the unfinished material then marking where to cut the lower edges and where to sew it together. Take it down, put in a few stitches to test, put it up, mark up adjustments to tighten fabric, take it down, sew some more, put it back up again. All in all, we put it on about 4 times before mounting it for the final time. In short: don't underestimate the complexity of building a tent. You want a very tight fit otherwise the flopping in the wind will be really annoying and any creases will be areas where condensation collects and water will start to drop down.
Other than that, I had to one other adjustment (picture of that will follow soon): the piano hinge that went along the entire front of the vehicle didn't hold up the weight of the roof. The problem was that the rectangular tubing that built the sidewalls of the roof pushed mostly on the outside and the weight wasn't balanced along the full length of the roof. We ended up cutting out the piano hinge completely and screwing on two burly stainless steel hinges with a 1/4pin on each side.
My two favorite mods on the truck definitely are:
- permanently mounted aluminum ladder on the side of the truck - because what's sexier than a bunch of aluminum on your truck?
- 110V with a magic bullet and a fridge in the car = smoothies wherever you are! (the three burner stove is a close seconds because pancakes & eggs at the same time.... almost as awesome as a frozen smoothie)
