This is a great step by step builds of the unit. It's a shame that it did not work as a full pop-up. An excellent job and one of the best first attempt builds I have seen. A great example for first timers.
Thank you! Yes, I was originally disappointed that we didn't have enough time to problem solve the full pop-up. But the wedge has been working great! I do still want to spend some time re-engineering the full pop-up at some point though.
I recently built my own Wedge style pop up camper as well. Was planning to make it a full pop up but when that came crashing down under the weight i converted to wedge style as well. Couldnt be happier with the wedge style. I like the fact that the front is bolted down with hinges making it much stronger. Its much easier to raise and lower by myself taking only a few seconds, and theres no chance of it breaking when its up or opening when going down the road. It was also much easier to build! Also, i dont think im missing the little bit of extra ceiling space either. So glad I switched things up on my build and went to a wedge style. An added bonus is if you have a solar panel up top you can angle it towards the sun when youre popped up! Your camper looks amazing!
I'm still considering converting it back to a full pop-up this summer. But I have to agree that I love how easy it is to raise and lower by myself currently. And it is strong and secure! The solar panel benefit is a good benefit that I hadn't thought about yet. I am missing the extra ceiling space a bit though (although I could add a little more space to the wedge without fully converting it back to a full pop-up. My big problem is that my dog likes to crawl up there before the bed is fully pulled out and with the mattress folded over there's not much space for a 40 lb dog.
What an awesome job - congratulations to you & your team family members to help complete your deadline for travel even having to rework your upper roof area last minute - many many hours of hard work - but so awesome- love it - one day I hope to get working on mine - your project has been so inspiring 🎉❤😊
OMG Kate what a cool project and extra special that ya got to build it with your dad, well played! And I did see the Dempster vid as well and I’m curious what’s next in terms of adventures? Thanks for sharing and I hit that sub button in effort to help out and follow along. I enjoy this kind of content and respect your decision to take time to do what truly makes you happy!
Thank you! I really appreciate your support! And yes, it really was special to build with my Dad. I'm going to be spending part of this winter visiting some National Parks in Florida and South Carolina (but I'm not planning to drive the truck for that travel). Then I want to take the truck camper out to Utah for a month this spring. After that, I'll have to reassess finances and how much remote work I can do from the road to determine when/where the next big adventures is.
If you re-try the self-folding full pop-up, maybe replace the fixed-length "struts" with two concentric aluminum tubes, where one slides freely inside the other. Then put a spring inside. The spring may need to pull or push, I can't quite tell. But, you can design the concentric tubes so that they have a limited travel (kinda like a shock absorber) so that they will still have the effect of pulling or pushing the sides in place, but they will also have some give so that calculating the exact correct placement isn't an issue. Remember, there may be no mathematical solution for an exact correct placement of those rigid struts. With the exact pivot points of all these parts not being aligned perfectly, it may literally be impossible to pick the "right" place to mount those struts. Better to provide some flexibility in the system. You can also just try four solid rectangular sides. There is another popup camper video where he does that, though I can't remember which one. Too sleepy to try now. Then there is yet another where he makes two separate wedges, with a flat rectangle in the middle. That lets him pop up either the front, back, or both. Of course, that leaves you wing fabric sides, which is less secure.
That's an interesting idea to try and allow for more give with the fixed length "struts" so that they can compress or stretch to the correct length and allow more flexibility. I'll have to consider that further. Thanks for the suggestion!
I just finished my DIY pop-up camper build (Just posted the video actually) and I was committed to the full lift roof. Wow, was that ever difficult! I went through 3 different versions before I figured out a mechanism that would work. Glad that's behind me now lol Stoked to see your Alaksa Journey!!
What about garage door track and rollers on the front and back of the popup? I've been thinking of building something similar, can't decide between the wedge or full popup. I love your videos, a lot off great ideas.
Nice work. The full pop-up is an engineering challenge for sure. I like your approach... wish you had more time to perfect it. I hope you film and post the re-work if you end up doing it. Good luck and stay safe out there. TbT
Thank you! We should have more time this summer, so hopefully we can try again. But if not, your system looks like it works great, so maybe we'll convert the roof system to be more like yours. You have a great build!
Thanks for the recommendation. I have watched his videos (Travelling by Tacoma has a great build!) and agree that the fold up walls would be a great alternative solution.
Great job and build team. I've seen other pop up diy builds where the side walls fold down then the front and back walls fold on top of them (offset hinge heights) then the cap covers it all. Seems simpler than the origami walls, though I should go back and see the design part to understand better. Anyway, 🏆
Thank you! And yes, it would be simpler to have the roof go up first and then the walls fold up into it (rather than the origami style). I was hoping it would be easier to set up in the rain if it all went up together, but if we can't get the engineering just right this summer, your suggestion might be the way to go.
Mostly just due to time. I only had a couple of days to make the conversion and already had the material necessary to switch to a hard-sided wedge. I would have needed to purchase the fabric and construct a support system to lock the roof up (the original full pop=up walls were going to provide that support system).
I may have a solution... I am a bit of a maker, and one of the fun projects I like to play with is pop-up mechanisms in books, and I recently had a similar problem. Where your bolts/screws attach to your aluminium (struts?) that pull the walls up with the roof, they may need to be in a "slip" channel allowing them to slide from one position to the next. This is an example of what I mean ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HFtJ386rAOA.html at 4:10 on the back of the card you can see the pull tab mechanism has a circle that the arm for the hub goes through, allowing it to swivel in all directions (up and down at the same time as it is going left and right). This means the pull tab can have a straight in and out movement in the left and right direction. If it didn't have this, the arm from the hub would be pushing it down and pulling it up as it rotated warping the pull tab and prevent it from being a straight in and out movement.
I considered it, and it would be nice to have a little more space, but ultimately I wanted to have a pretty compact unit to drive around (or I would have just gotten a full-sized truck to start with). And I liked being able to use the back step into the truck and leave room for a potential tailgate swing arm. So just personal preference I guess.
We think we have a solution, and are hopefully going to be able to test that theory soon. Just need to plan a weekend to re-attempt the full pop-up. I'll update here with the results.
