We live in a veritable Cambrian Explosion of camping options, ranging from a tarp on the ground to multi-million dollar RVs. Somewhere around the middle is the pop-up truck camper, but [Further Fabrication] wanted to build his own.
As is often the case, he saw the cool pop-up truck campers on the market, but balked at the cost. To make matters worse, the options out there weren’t really available in his country. After getting a solid set of measurements from the truck and some materials, he set to work.
The most interesting part of this build is probably the aluminum/plywood sandwich [Further Fabrication] chose for building the main structure of the camper shell. While many would’ve chosen a tubing space frame for the build, he decided to sandwich two layers of plywood around plywood beams and large rectangular aluminum tubing. These were affixed with a combination of construction adhesive and screws to create a lightweight yet sturdy enclosure.
The tent portion uses a 600-denier PVC-coated waterproof polyester fabric, sewn with nice YKK zippers, and features large windows with screens for excellent ventilation. The roof consists of two sections of aluminum composite sandwich, and the side panels were made from cutoffs of the roof material. Instead of the standard cam-lock used on most camper shells, [Further Fabrication] chose a solenoid-actuated system and more conventional grab handles.
We’ve covered campers several times, including a solar-powered RV, a truck camper that expands lengthwise rather than up, and several bike-based campers.
