Ambulance Pop Top Idea....a little crazy!!!

Deshet

Adventurer
Coming up with Ideas for the Minimod.
I have been trying to find a Sportsmobile Pop top for some time with little success.
I came up with the idea today to place a Pop up travel trailer onto the top of the Ambulance. (just the top section)
It is basically the same concept of a Sportmobile Top but larger.....Plus you get some slide out beds and appliances.
I have not used a pop up travel trailer in over 10 years so I am going off of memory on how they operate. I believe that I have seen Pop-ups with only 8' boxes.

They are cheap, fiberglass, and many have AC and heat. Let me know if I am crazy.

popup.jpg

pop up 2.jpg
 

Raul

Adventurer
If the dimensions fit, I think it will be great. Frame and lifting mechanism interference may be an issue. Ideally you would want to tie the lifting "legs" to the frame to make the assembly as solid as possible.

Looking forward to see the progress.
 

Deshet

Adventurer
It seems like you could almost remove the metal frame and mount it to the top of the ambulance. Some of these only weight 1500 pounds.

Maybe someone can photoshop what it would look like.

I think it can be done, just don't want it to look like the Clampetts or Fred Sanford

Thanks
 

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Abitibi

Explorer
That was one of the options I looked at when researching my popup roof but I found it too complicated compared to other options.

Especially when considering the ease of opening and closing... would you want to open from the inside or climb up? Is it even possible to open from the interior? At ground level a tent-trailer is ok but on top of an ambo that's another story!

Do you really need a popup roof or just extra height? The easiest way to gain extra height would be to cut the entire roof just below the rain gutter, extend each aluminum studs all around and re-skin the gap, voila!

If you need a popup i think the way I did it is the easiest and fastest.

Good luck!
David
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zuke

Adventurer
In order to actually use the appliances, You'd have to actually put the whole poptop up there, as the appliances are all near floor level (Heater is at floor level). Plus the lift mechanism collapses into the lower part.
 

86scotty

Cynic
You're just a little crazy, but that's ok. I would do David's idea above. It is amazing and much cheaper and easier than the pop-up plan.
 

Deshet

Adventurer
That was one of the options I looked at when researching my popup roof but I found it too complicated compared to other options.

Especially when considering the ease of opening and closing... would you want to open from the inside or climb up? Is it even possible to open from the interior? At ground level a tent-trailer is ok but on top of an ambo that's another story!

Do you really need a popup roof or just extra height? The easiest way to gain extra height would be to cut the entire roof just below the rain gutter, extend each aluminum studs all around and re-skin the gap, voila!

If you need a popup i think the way I did it is the easiest and fastest.

Good luck!
David
3483e57fbcfaec43d14ba1d539f2f0e5.jpg
48582c07526e0e154c49ad3f71aa0340.jpg
b35d3360a5ba4a3b6d6d7cd73b6759e4.jpg

What pop top did you go with? That looks nice. I mainly need the extra height.

Thanks,
 

Abitibi

Explorer
Looks like a James Baroud (or similar) RTT
It's a James Baroud XXL. There's plenty of info on my build thread or I can try to answer here.

But of its mainly for height I'd just raise the roof like I suggested earlier. I needed an extra bed hence why I went this way...

Cheers
David

Sent from my SM-G955W using Tapatalk
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Deshet

Adventurer
It's a James Baroud XXL. There's plenty of info on my build thread or I can try to answer here.

But of its mainly for height I'd just raise the roof like I suggested earlier. I needed an extra bed hence why I went this way...

Cheers
David



Sent from my SM-G955W using Tapatalk
5924d2071e9ba8b7caa2d180e33be347.jpg

I am not a welder or fabricator so the option you chose may be cheapest route for me.

I assume that a shop would charge around 100 hours of labor to raise the roof and then it would be top heavy and tall for the wheel base. I need at least 6'8" of clearance to standup....and no my long term plan would not be to roll in chair

Thanks
 

Abitibi

Explorer
I'd doubt it would take close to that just to raise the roof. If you can do some of the easy work yourself I'd say 5-10hrs max for a welder to do it all. All you need to do is gut the inside, cut the electrical wires and mark them so you can extend them and reconnect them later. Then you brace your roof from the inside to support it and use a skillsaw or whatever other decent saw (grinder for the 2x2 studs) to cut a straight line below the rain gutter.

Pre-cut all your stud extensions ready for the welder and get him to weld those extensions in. You can also have an insert inside each stud joints bolted in place so the welder doesn't have to align anything but only weld! Then re-skin. Hopefully it makes sense but it'd be very easy to do and I think a full weekend would be plenty to have it all done except maybe the paint.

Cheers
David
 

Deshet

Adventurer
I'd doubt it would take close to that just to raise the roof. If you can do some of the easy work yourself I'd say 5-10hrs max for a welder to do it all. All you need to do is gut the inside, cut the electrical wires and mark them so you can extend them and reconnect them later. Then you brace your roof from the inside to support it and use a skillsaw or whatever other decent saw (grinder for the 2x2 studs) to cut a straight line below the rain gutter.

Pre-cut all your stud extensions ready for the welder and get him to weld those extensions in. You can also have an insert inside each stud joints bolted in place so the welder doesn't have to align anything but only weld! Then re-skin. Hopefully it makes sense but it'd be very easy to do and I think a full weekend would be plenty to have it all done except maybe the paint.

Cheers
David

If you are a welder or know one with the talent to do it, I will put them up in an ocean front hotel for a week and pay the 5-10 hours of Labor to get the job done.
 

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