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Sorry for the late reply. For the fiberglass, I'd recommend sourcing it locally so you have someone to talk to. Same with the thicker metal components, I used a local supplier. Everything else you should be able to find at a hardware store or online...except maybe the 12v actuators which I...

Finally got around to taking some glamour shots last week. Enjoy! Fully popped. You can just make out the solar panel on top. The black cord that goes around the middle is just a piece of elastic that pulls the material in when the top closes. The back flap fully opens and mesh...

Thanks rayra, I think it's close to 40" inside. Plenty of room to sit up in bed!

Hey Jake, I ended up getting them from a lighting shop in Boulder but this was the product: https://www.diodeled.com/fluid-view-12v-led-tape-light.html I'd recommend a warmer temperature (maybe around 3000K) as it looks better on wood and gives more of a cozy feel. There's a weatherproof...

I finally found a company called Acme Tents in Denver who would take on this job. For not having any experience in a project like this, I think they did a pretty good job and were really friendly. I decided to go with 2 long screen windows along the sides and then another screen window at the...

@jakegrovephoto thanks for asking and thanks for the info. I wrapped up this project (v1 anyways) a little over a month ago and have just been super busy since then. I actually finished it about 2 hours before driving to Burning Man lol. Not sure if that made it really good timing or really bad...

Finally have an operational lift! Might not be the simplest design, but that's what happens when you design by trial and error. I ended up attaching 2 of my big gas struts to the back. This now serves 2 purposes: to assist in the lift and to help support my cantilever. I don't love that there...

@heidiurs you make a strong argument, I never actually considered cutting past where boll_rig did. I'm definitely going to continue to think about this as I finish up some other things...mainly how I'd reinforce it. I think I'll finally need to track down a welder. You're 74 burb is looking good!

Finished up the top of the interior! Inspired by all the #vanlifers I decided to go with wood paneling for the top, really liking that look. I started by laying 1/2" foam insulation to the top cavities. Just used duct tape to keep them in place until I could cover it all with wood. Next up I...

@CrazyDrei thanks! Can't say I'd recommend this approach but have definitely learned a lot. Not sure I could have done it any different though without more experience and/or better tools. Cut the roof and finished the top of the interior, update to come!

Totally. If I had had more foresight I could have probably started with 3-4 degrees. As it is I'll probably be closer to 1-2 degrees. I've been thinking about human power. Might be the best, simplest solution. I'm going to get it mounted and cut my hole and I think that'll give me a better idea...

@rayra I like the thoughts. I think ultimately the issue is fitting 40" of lift inside a topper that's only 6" deep. Hard to do without levering some force somewhere. Making one of the legs an actuator, you'd still be dealing with that low angle force. If you think about it at 0 degrees that...

@Hillbilly Heaven that's another good question. When the topper is fully lifted the scissor lift is definitely not going to be centered under that weight. However the center point of the topper will be between the arms of the "X" (not by a lot, but it'll be in there). I'm hoping that means that...

@rayra good questions, I might not have done a good job describing the evolution of my lifting mech. My original designs were using pneumatic gas springs to lift the topper, and you're right that the scissor lift, in that case, was just for alignment and motion control. This was complicated...

I made a little more progress over the past few weeks but have mostly been educating myself on physics, forces and levers...specifically what won't work as a lifting mechanism. I was able to get my modified lift to get the topper up, but as I was inching up the gas struts to get them in the...

I used some extra aluminum square tube I had to test the concept, thinking I might need to use steel (spoiler alert, I do), sandwiched that with steel bar and picked up some longer bolts so I could bolt it to the same bolts that are coming through from my rack. Next I drilled some rivet...

Thanks for the tips @rayra! Bit of an overdue update but I'm still making progress when I'm not out of town. I diverged a little bit from my original plan, I'm pretty happy with the stiffness of the part, so I didn't feel the need to run square aluminum tube across the width. I ended up bending...

Made some more progress over the weekend, which is exciting, but have started to shoot from the hip a little more and got a little sloppy on a couple things. I think it'll still keep out the rain and I don't think I've made any irreversible mistakes, but this really keeps my brain working. Okay...

Thanks for the tip @boll_rig. There are a couple dry spots from the first lay that need a little more resin, so I'll be sure to get at an bubbles as well. No real progress to report except that the Monstaliner paint arrived. I still need to pick up square tubing for my inner frame (am thinking...

I haven't seen my friends in weeks, lol. I've been manically working on this with all my spare time, would love to have it done for summer trips. boll_rig was nice enough to show me his setup the other weekend. His scissor lift is so stout that he ended up not needing any additional supports...