Pickup canopies?

[PeterSibley]

Does anyone have any inspiring pictures of a homebuilt canopies ? I have a small Toyota pickup/ute and would like to build somethinga bit more inspiring than the usual white glass bubble...

[Paul Pless]

Try to find this book.
http://www.shelterpub.com/_home_work/_cover/HWCover.648h.jpg

It has an entire chapter on pickup truck conversions and camper tops. Pretty cool book for the other chapters as well.

What year and model truck do you have?

[DavesFlatsBoat]

Try Paul Butler's Version: http://butlerprojects.com/other/topper/index.htm
http://butlerprojects.com/other/topper/File0132.jpg

[Bob Cleek]

Ah, remember the good old days when this sort of interesting post was all there'd be in the bilge?

[Wild Dingo]

aaaaaaahhh you to eh Bob? man I miss those days when rare was the political warmongerin bullshyte threads remember the phartin budgie? no hang on that was the baked beans with the bb pellet budgie eating thread!! mmm maybe it was a canary? damned mamory! or the whatser name? your sheila the one who was a craft person extraudinaire that went to gaol for something or other... member you had the hots for her?? Martha somethin or other whatever happened there Bob? Did yous two ever get it on or did bein a gaol bird turn the tide of love? ;) and the invasion of the 100001 Bruces! Or Kens phartpowered ocean going sailboats? damn there were some good threads back then :D

[PeterSibley]

Nothing exciting Paul :D '86 one ton Toyota Hilux,7'6" aluminium tray.Whatever I build has got to be light and not eat too much horsepower, not much to start with ;) but she does 32mpg,that would be about 35 US gallons and gets my tools around just fine.This is to take a few products to shows and give me somewhere to camp other than a motel.

[mmd]

Yep, somethin' just ain't right when a miscellaneous topic not about boats has to come up to B&R to be heard above the pissin' & moanin' in the proper venue. :rolleyes:

I can't help you, Peter, but I hope you find the assistance you want here.

[Steve Lansdowne]

I have Butler's plan book, which describes his ideas on a canopy (top only) and a full camper which is a complete enclosed box. Worth the cost if you've no ideas how to start doing this. I also bought a CD on e-bay showing how a guy built a foldable camper for his pickup. Quite detailed drawings and many photos. I'm not sure who the seller was, but likely as not you can find him on e-bay. On this "pop up" camper the top raises up and sides fold outward beyond the camper sides for beds and the front and back sections pop up from horizontal to go vertical. In short, a solid unit that folds down for driving. Both of these sources note how you can customize the specifics for your particular pickup.

[PeterSibley]

I've got plenty of ideas Steve...its just that there some serious woodworking talent around here smile.gif I 'mos well ask!

[Lewisboats]

Originally posted by mmd:
Yep, somethin' just ain't right when a miscellaneous topic not about boats has to come up to B&R to be heard above the pissin' & moanin' in the proper venue. :rolleyes:

I can't help you, Peter, but I hope you find the assistance you want here.I don't know...Seems to me the skills to to build your own boat can easily be honed on something like this...no where near as life threatening if you screw something up. I would think that building toppers, campers, teardrop trailers and the like fits in quite nicely with building and repairing wooden boats as the skills needed for one pretty much directly translate into some of the skills needed for the other. I built a camper for my truck AFTER I had already built a half dozen small boats. The thing is...I had no experience with building the innards of a cabin-like area as all the boats had been open. Now I have at least some idea of the difficulty of doing interior work and will approach any boat I build with a cabin with that experience behind me and hopefully helping me. Were I to build a Teardrop trailer...I would approach it as building a boat cabin on wheels-both to give me more experience and to have a trailer that comes out uniquely my own.

Steve

[Lewisboats]

Oh, by the way...I LIVED in that camper for about 6 months during the fall/winter/spring a couple of years ago. I would sleep in the parking lot of where I worked. I would get off work, watch a DVD or two, have a couple of beers and go to bed in a quite toasty 65deg environment (regardless of the temp outside).

Steve

[mmd]

No offense intended, Steve, but by that logic this is a good forum for building airplanes too, 'cause that requires many of the same skills. And then we should encourage discussions on building home furnishings here 'cause many of the same tools and techniques are used. And then there is all the issues of marquetry and veneering to discuss. And ya know, the tools and techniques used in building aluminum boats are somewhat related, so let's open the forum to metal boatbuilding. Building foam-cored, f'glass skinned boats is much like strip-cold-moulded boatbuilding, so lets invite the fiberglass builders to participate, too!

No; on second thought, let's keep the forum on wooden boat building and repair focused on wooden boat building and repair.

[Lewisboats]

I'm thinking that bunks, galleys and heads are a little earthbound for airplanes, altho they translate directly into a camper, and furniture is a little more moveable than a fixed 'fixture' inside a boat or camper. If I am not mistaken, trailered boats are often used as campers on thier way to the water from dry areas.The 8 ft limitation of a Travel trailer is well the same as the 8 ft limitation of a trailable cruising boat, be it sail or motor. Why should craming the most liveablility into a Pickup topper not relate to the liveability of a cuddy cabin on a boat??

Steve

[Lewisboats]

I really should have said Home Built airplanes

Steve

[capt jake]

I don't have a pictre, but I saw a really neat Cedar strip canopy in Port Townsend this year. Looked like a pretty straight forward plan. Simular to the picture above.

[Lewisboats]

Originally posted by capt jake:
I don't have a pictre, but I saw a really neat Cedar strip canopy in Port Townsend this year. Looked like a pretty straight forward plan. Simular to the picture above.There ya go!!! what a way to introduce yourself to Cedar strip construction before plunging into that masterpiece Canoe??

Steve

[mmd]

I guess that if you apply the concept of "seven degrees of seperation" to structuring by topic anything is related enough to drop in here. :rolleyes:

[PeterSibley]

Well ...glad I'm allowed smile.gif Seriously, the skills and materials are pretty similar.......I'll build one that floats so it REALLY qualifies smile.gif

[ssor]

While everyone seems to be debating the validity of your request, I saw this idea in a Home Despot parking lot, the man had built a simple framework and covered it with a piece of fancy cloth and painted it with polyester resin.