Does anyone make a pop-top for a 40 series?

[SWCruiser]

There’s a link where one of the guys in the 80 section cut the roof and made a low profile rooftop tent which looked almost stock. I would imagine this could be done much easier on a 40. Detached the fiberglass section. Beef up or fabricated a rail system over the sides, back and windshield. Build a low profile bed with crossbars on the Interior. Use the fiberglass top as the roof of the tent. You could maintain the stock lines without having even worse cog.
I built an lx450 chinook and was toying with the idea of taking a 40 fiberglass top and adjusting it to fit on the chinook as the stock has weird lines and was built like garbage. The 40 top has ample space underneath due to the shape. You could also have the hinge over the back end. When extended horizontal the roof would also serve as an awning. Little more elaborate but depends on how much space you need up top.

 

[65swb45]

I stumbled on this pic when I was searching for a pop up tent, but can't make of the brand. You can see the patch left to the entry but when I try to magnify it's too pixelated
View attachment 2559669

That’s Radio Dave, also known as Trona Dave these days. One of the oldest expo rigs out there. Custom water tanks on the front bumper, yada yada.

Plays guitar too.

 

[mrjordann]

That’s Radio Dave, also known as Trona Dave these days. One of the oldest expo rigs out there. Custom water tanks on the front bumper, yada yada.

Plays guitar too.

is he on mud?

 

[FJ40SBC]

That’s Radio Dave, also known as Trona Dave these days. One of the oldest expo rigs out there. Custom water tanks on the front bumper, yada yada.

Plays guitar too.

Very sweet rig! Similar how I would like to build mine. I agree with mrjordann, wouldn't mind getting some ideas from his build

 

[FJ40SBC]

There’s a link where one of the guys in the 80 section cut the roof and made a low profile rooftop tent which looked almost stock. I would imagine this could be done much easier on a 40. Detached the fiberglass section. Beef up or fabricated a rail system over the sides, back and windshield. Build a low profile bed with crossbars on the Interior. Use the fiberglass top as the roof of the tent. You could maintain the stock lines without having even worse cog.
I built an lx450 chinook and was toying with the idea of taking a 40 fiberglass top and adjusting it to fit on the chinook as the stock has weird lines and was built like garbage. The 40 top has ample space underneath due to the shape. You could also have the hinge over the back end. When extended horizontal the roof would also serve as an awning. Little more elaborate but depends on how much space you need up top.

Geez I never thought about that! I've seen similar done to troopys too. That would definitely be the way to do it, may not cost much more than a hardshell rtt too. Finding the right fabricator would be the key. For what I had in mind, just keeping all of the bedding and perhaps the ladder inside would be ideal, but it being the actual top a low profile rack ontop would be sufficient.

Great, now I'm gonna be up all night scheming ideas

 

[tls3601]

How about modifying a clamshell style RTT by cutting a hole in the bottom rear section of it but retaining the lower “frame” of it. Then removing the fiberglass top and fabricating a better gasket/connector for mounting to the top of sides/perimeter???

 

[tls3601]

One problem is fiberglass top on the 40 is roughly 77 inches long lots of clamshell style RTT’s are 90 inches long. The external length dimension on the Alu Cab for example is 90.5 inches long. Fiberglass top of 40 is approx 62 inches wide in the back and about 56 inches in the front. Hmmm

 

[tls3601]

External width of the Alu Cab is 55 inches, close to width of the stock fiberglass top of front.

 

[FJ40SBC]

One problem is fiberglass top on the 40 is roughly 77 inches long lots of clamshell style RTT’s are 90 inches long. The external length dimension on the Alu Cab for example is 90.5 inches long. Fiberglass top of 40 is approx 62 inches wide in the back and about 56 inches in the front. Hmmm

Not only that, but you also have to consider the cost of buying the clamshell for parts and materials vs cost of custom fabrication. Unless you can pick one up a used one for a fair price, they average a couple grand new.

Just spit balling here, they're also designed to be sitting on top of the roof as opposed to being suspended underneath.. what would it take to reinforce the bottom so you don't wake up falling and becoming a pretzel?

 

[ducktapeguy]

There’s a link where one of the guys in the 80 section cut the roof and made a low profile rooftop tent which looked almost stock. I would imagine this could be done much easier on a 40. Detached the fiberglass section. Beef up or fabricated a rail system over the sides, back and windshield. Build a low profile bed with crossbars on the Interior. Use the fiberglass top as the roof of the tent. You could maintain the stock lines without having even worse cog.
I built an lx450 chinook and was toying with the idea of taking a 40 fiberglass top and adjusting it to fit on the chinook as the stock has weird lines and was built like garbage. The 40 top has ample space underneath due to the shape. You could also have the hinge over the back end. When extended horizontal the roof would also serve as an awning. Little more elaborate but depends on how much space you need up top.

I was planning on trying something similar when I first got my 40. I bought a spare hardtop and sides and drew up some plans, even made up a crude model to see how it would look

There were a couple of reason I decided not to go through with it. One, the rollbar sits above the sides, so just to clear the main hoop would have required extending the sides about 6". If you just wanted to have a pop up to get standing room then it's not much of an issue, but I wanted to be able to sleep in there like a RTT. Once all the flooring and space was taken into account the hard top would have had sit about 10" higher than stock.

The other problem was mentioned above. After all that work you're still limited to a 5'x7' space, which didn't feel long enough to be comfortable. Unless you went with a vertical pop up design, or lifting hinge like the old VW's, the usuable length would be closer to 6' since the hinge side would be too low. Overall seemed like too much work for very little benefit so I just bought a RTT instead.

 

[Racer65]

Seems like most of the pop-ups are in Australia. Just saw this one for sale on FB. Ad says "built by Trakka campers in Australia".

 

[TEakins]

I'm an old dude and there is no way I am not getting up to piss 3 or more times. So how about a wind sock and a hand rail to steady myself included in the package?

 

[-MaTTi-]

FJ40 Pics from "Back in the day" (70's, 80's)

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[Jonathan Hanson]

View attachment 2570614

FJ40 Pics from "Back in the day" (70's, 80's)

forum.ih8mud.com

What an astonishing photo. Some lost history in that pop top!

 

[FJ40SBC]

If only we could still drive by the toyota dealership and check out the latest 40 series model.

 

[Drake2]

Air Top - Autohome US

Professional grade AutoHome Air Top hard shell roof top tents provide more room to stretch out with set up in less than a minute

www.autohomeus.com

 

[fireball]

I've been tinkering with the idea of doing a poptop on the troopy.

There was a company in Australia called Trakka that made the poptop for the troopy's back in the day. I had a chat with them but their mould was destroyed a few years ago so they stopped producing them (last pic)

I've been looking on the net to try and find a company that may do a "kit" or the hinge setup etc but haven't found anyone....did find a few pics of different types of conversions (mostly in Europe).

There is a company over east of Australia called Expedition Centre that were keen on trying the conversion but they want around $10k.

I did have a look at the Alu-Cab company (originally from South Africa) and how they design their roofs and i think the easiest solution is to find a custom fibreglasser to get the roof done.

Id love to know who did the conversion for the 3rd pic (2 troopy's with the pivoting front hinge) and try to get in touch with them.

If anyone has anymore info or can point towards a company ......much appreciated!

View attachment 1746992

View attachment 1746993

View attachment 1746995

View attachment 1746996

View attachment 1746997

Bump! Anyone know the company that did the conversion in the 3rd pic?