130 Station Wagon with side fold pop top build

Then onto the gas struts mounts. The rear was relatively straight forward. At the top the fibreglass roof was too thick for the standard strut ball stud mount so I used a M10 bolt with a "rod end" screwed onto the end of the gas strut. For the lower rear, I drilled a hole through the body capping on the tub, with 4mm reinforcing plates on both sides held on with two M6 bolts to reduce any potential twisting (probably overkill).

For the front lower mount, I drilled the windscreen support bracket lower bolt hole all the way through and tapped it out to M10 (standard M8). The top front mount was quite tricky as the standard rod end only articulates about 20 degrees, which wasn't enough when the roof folded over. Enter hours (days?) googling around for "high misalignment rod ends". The US has lots of options, mostly in imperial threads. This page gives a good summary - Suspension Joints Overview Couldn't find any in Aus, there are also "high misalignment spacers" which give more articulation but reduce the bore size from say M10 to M8. I wasn't patient enough to wait for ones to be sent and I already had a 10mm hole through the roof.

Anyways to cut a long and tedious story short I eventually came across a "female studded rod end" which articulate about 40 degrees. So I used a M10 bolt through the roof with a connector nut (rod coupler) screwed into the stud of the rod end. This improves the angle slightly and gives just enough articulation.

The struts are 1100mm long open length, 28mm diameter with 14mm shaft. They have 400N of pressure. I'm now on my second set of struts, as the first lot missed the 3rd stage of nitride?? coating (or some rubbish) and started rusting after 2 days. This next lot is not going much better. I'm thinking now I will just spend the extra (4 times the price) and get ones with a stainless shaft. On the front I also plan to clamp a length of poly pipe, cut in half, over the exposed shaft (similar to motorcycle front fork), to protected it when driving.

The struts were nearly impossible to compress by hand, despite 400N being around 40kg. I think it is because they have a dampening action aswell. But with a 2000kg ratchet and a smaller strap with a small hook, made it easy.

The roof is now effortless to flip over, the strut acting on opening and closing. It springs up around 20cm on either side when released, but once the mattress and canvas are up there it should be perfect. As seen in the last post I had to trim the ends off the front rod ends as the front strut is a little long. I took about 12-15mm off each as the strut ends only have around 10mm of thread length. It is just short enough now, allowing the roof to drop just below horizontal. A 900mm long strut would have been better here.

A big thank you to Allan (VNX205) who responded to my PM about Trayon bed support pole sizes within 9hours with exact measurements. Awesome. As a side note, my wife has now seen pictures of the beautiful strip plank kayaks he builds - http://www.aulro.com/afvb/fishing-sh...r-boats-9.html, and is keen for me to make some of those when this project is finally finished.

I had remembered from when we had our Trayon that the bed support poles are surprisingly flimsy looking, but obviously up to the job. Allan confirmed that the poles where 25/22mm OD with a 1/1.5mm wall thickness. I was able to get tube which slid into each other with 1.4mm wall thickness. I drilled out the smaller pole at 20mm intervals to take a 10mm pin to enable the bed leg to be adjusted for varying height ground. This was surprisingly difficult to do even when I borrowed a drill press. This then bolts and clips into the mounts on the roof. When the roof is folded over, one end of the pole unclips and swings down into position where the holes allow height adjustment.

Is it an optical distortion or do the poles have a slight bend?

I would be tempted to use steel not alloy poles if you are sleeping on this
Or consider sleeving the alloy poles with wider diam alloy

Also I would consider drilling holes in the poles at different places so you could put a pin in to stop the pole slipping on the friction hold - plus add a plate under the bottom of the pole as it will depress into the ground on all surfaces except rock - weld a pipe section on the base plate so the foot of the pole has a tube to slip into the stop it slipping off when wet/bumped

My 10c worth - looking frontward to seeing the full set up now

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Skiboy

Is it an optical distortion or do the poles have a slight bend?

---

Thanks Keith. No, the poles are straight, not perpendicular to the ground in the photo in the previous post though, and the side fence is a bit wobbly! I had actually meant to attach this photo below instead.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Skiboy

I would be tempted to use steel not alloy poles if you are sleeping on this
Or consider sleeving the alloy poles with wider diam alloy

---

Each pole only needs to carry around a quarter of the roof weight. With us and two jumpy little kids that is still less than 50kg for each pole. But you are right, there is certainly not much to the bed support poles, but they are very similar to the poles used by Trayon. Our Trayon was 10 years old, when we had it and they were still going fine. I haven't been able to find any reports of Trayon poles failing. When I went to their factory a couple of years ago they were still using the same poles. I met Ken and Irene, the original owners of Trayon, last year and I mentioned the flimsy looking poles and I'm pretty sure Ken said a pole a could support 250kg with the weak point being the 10mm aluminium pin they use for adjustment shearing. I am using 10mm steel clevis pin, as they happened to have some on the counter at the bearing shop while I was searching for rod ends.

The poles when collapsed and clipped on the roof are approx 1.6m long. When in use the poles are extended to approx 1.8m (on flat ground) and so are effectively sleeved for the majority of their length, with only the top and bottom 200mm being a single pole thickness.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Skiboy

Also I would consider drilling holes in the poles at different places so you could put a pin in to stop the pole slipping on the friction hold - plus add a plate under the bottom of the pole as it will depress into the ground on all surfaces except rock - weld a pipe section on the base plate so the foot of the pole has a tube to slip into the stop it slipping off when wet/bumped

---

As per the dodgy cropped photo, the pole height is only adjusted by a clevis pin in a hole drilled at approx 20mm spacing in the smaller (inside pole). The height is adjusted by putting the pin in nearest hole, and it then rests on top of the larger pole allowing the pole to extend slightly when the roof(bed) is unweighted and the suspension moves. The photo in the last post (where the poles are clicked in) shows the hole I mistakenly drilled in the outer pole, the black bit is the pole end cap.

The photo attached shows the holes I drilled for about a metre down the inner poles. I avoided posting this photo as it is the only one I have of this process, and has the effects of me bleeding after stumbling over the drill bit set - sorry about that. Unfortunately the camera has gone AWOL for the last couple of weeks or I would take a better shot.

For use in soft ground I have plastic pole feet base plates which goes under the pole to spread the weight. This worked pretty well with our Trayon even in sand.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Skiboy

My 10c worth - looking frontward to seeing the full set up now

---

Thanks for your comments, I appreciate your thoughts. I'm really keen to get this finished too...

Ok you were clearly onto this already - I was worried it might slip down while on it then damage your truck

Well done

Onto the mounts and poles for the canvas section. I used these rounded "supa peg" corners, with 25mm poles with 1.6mm wall. I heated up the poles with the gas gun to melt the plastic enough to get it to go into the pole - it was a very tight fit. Trimming off the excess plastic when cool. This caused the anodising to craze slightly.

Also a couple of photos to give an idea what it will look like when finished. The poles will be sewn into sleeves on the canvas and as the roof is folded over the canvas will pull the poles into position. The centre pole has been shortened since these photos, and the one over the fold out roof section will be extendible to give more room. This pole has to be the shortest when closed down otherwise it hooks onto the others when closing. I probably should have given myself more room as space will be tight when there is 3 poles, 2 mattresses, bedding, and canvas up there!

Congratulations on an absolutely unbelievable build and thread. Having owned both fiberglass roof pop-tops (kombi and LC Troop-carrier) and now a 130 with a Carry me camper, I've got a good appreciation of the strength and weakness of these compromised solutions. Now that I see what your end result will be, I think you have found (and turned into reality) the ultimate family oriented 4wd camper solution. Great stuff. I look forward to seeing the final product. Best wishes, Tim.

This build gets even better each time I visit :D

Any chance of a photo of the bottom end of the poles where they pivot?

Steve

Indeed, you've certainly impressed me with your skills and determination. I agree that this flip-top design is a great concept. Interestingly, a search back through my posts will see I quizzed Mulgo about a 180 degree side flipped idea, but unfortunately he had other things on the go.

As I see it, the only down-side with your idea over a Trayon is the lack of being able to leave it behind. Despite this, the upside is a fantastic all-in-one design.

Nice work mate.

I've been watching the vinyl canvas cover on my roof top tent slowly deteriorate. I've often had thoughts of a hard top for it, whether a sliding or flip over, but it's never progressed from thoughts :D.............one day maybe.

Looking forward to your completed project.

Cheers, Murray