Thought some of you might be interested in my home-made lifting roof project.

I've no particular RTW trip in mind - the van gets used for working out of on locations, and I have been in various pretty rough (and slightly exotic) places already with the 110 in my 15 years of ownership, but will be going to the north of Norway at some point soon, and then down to Morocco as well (been there before a couple of times) so decided now that I have a small boy that it needed to be made a bit more spacious and comfortable for three of us, and be able to contend with cold & snow and also hot climates too.

Rationale: pitching tents gets to be a pain. I've done plenty of it in several decades of travel, want to be freed of that chore with wet tents and setups in the dark or chucking it down rain or snow.

Roof tents are top-heavy and very expensive, and you're outside, which is nice when its nice, but not so nice when it's sub-zero and a howling gale.

So, a lifting roof seemed ideal.

Problem: expensive. Very expensive. As of writing this, about £6k to £10k depending on your wallet. Too much for me. And more than my 25 year old Land Rover cost me.

I gave it some thought and realized that for the DIY approach there are two 'construction' hurdles to overcome and one practical hurdle to consider:

construction on the drive at home with limited fabrication space & equipment means that the curve upwards at the back door, and the curve over the windscreen will require specialist skills to properly fabricate the shaped metal needed to accommodate the curves. And the practical problem is that removing the old roof to install the lifting mechanism will mean having the vehicle off the road for some time, which is a problem for me. And you need the means to easily lift it too, which I dont have.

Gave it some more thought and then realized I should just leave the existing roof intact, and build up out of the existing gutter line. Then bolt the 'new' roof to the curve of the old roof at the sides, and bolt through the alloy front and back, and fabricate a lifting mechanism above that on clean straight lines - ie not having to worry about curves at back door and windscreen.

I did a wander around the web and eventually found two easily available alloy extrusions that would allow the roof to work - one a Z section that gives a water-resistent upstand, to use for the lower section, and the other a long L section to use as the lifting bit. Crucially the combination of these two sections together leaves enough space to allow the fabric to pull inside when closed.










So then it was a trip to the city to buy the alloy sheets, get the local alloy fabricators to slice it to my cutting list, and do a DIY fit into the gutter.



Templates for front and back to get the correct shapes.






When cut it was all fitted to ensure it would work then lifted off and the local welder simply seam welded the corners for me. I got the welder to use their sheet bender to bend the front piece as this is fitted at an angle to follow the line of the windscreen for aerodynamics (on a shed!). At this stage it was light enough to allow me to lift it on and off on my own so I could still use the van.







Then the top section was formed, tacked and fitted - not without problems though - alloy is easily buckled by too much heat and it did go out of alignment and I had to rectify that.












At this point in early November things went pear-shaped. The unexpected I expected to have to deal with but this was not expected. My partner 'died' on the street. She's a fit 40 year old and suffered a cardiac arrest at work outside, collapsing on the road.

Luckily a colleague was able to do CPR until the local fire brigade crew who work nearby arrived in a few minutes to help, then two passing policemen from the nearby station got involved, and finally the paramedics arrived with a defib unit, which didn't work, so they did it again, and it could not restart her heart, so they tried a third time, but again not really doing the job.

So they had to get physical and manually kept her 'alive' as best as they could - problem now was they were so full-on in the back of the ambulance they could not actually drive it so one of the fire crew, a woman officer, jumped in and drove to the hospital.

It was a grim week, she was kept in an induced coma on life support, chilled to prevent brain swelling, but there were signs of some brain damage and I was asked to bring in our five year old boy, just in case.

Anyway she recovered amazingly well, walked out a few weeks later, and went back to work in January and has had a ICD fitted in her chest in case it happens again (they could not find any cause, no heart attack, no blood clots, her heart just stopped).

But to stay sane through all this I carried on as best as I could with my build.





Subframe assembly is from 19mm box section, that was welded in, leaving space for a roof hatch - campervan ones are flimsy and expensive, so I used a yacht deck hatch, which is immensely strong and relatively inexpensive, then attached the top sheet of 1.3mm alloy which was glued and riveted down.

By now it was winter and snow and rain and ice made life rather unpleasant so I took the lifting top into my garage -which has no space and I'd to work on it with the lid propped up vertical on its side.



Fitted Kingspan insulation first before I took it inside, then the wiring for lighting, and a thin ply top sheet. Then sealed various bits, rubbed it down and acid-etch primed it. Not easy so I borrowed space in a neighbour's garage to properly prime and paint. Not a fantastic job but it will be fine for my purposes.



















The weather was diabolical and a friend took pity on me and offered me space in a workshop/barn which was unheated and freezing but sheltered, so I could get on with it in reasonable comfort.




Ordered gas struts and started planning for those.





And seals for the edge between lifting top and lower edge.





Then a seal for the hinge (at front)



Got on with it under cover, got the sides bolted on and then planned for the old roof to be cut out.





Seals attached to lifting lid.

Strengthening timber on front to accept hinge screws



Then borrowed two mates to lift the awkward heavy roof into place.






And it fitted!











Got gas struts fitted.




and it did this to the fitting:




So got stronger ones and solved that problem.

Then fitted roof hatch.







And finally cut out the roof.






Lined the edge with pine.






Fitted slide-out sleeping platform.

Pipes to slip in to strengthen sleeping area.





And eventually it was worth a video clip.



Cant get this to work inline. Here's the link: http://youtu.be/zVp2VXq3xp8


Now - my plan is for fabric sides but I've used the external clips to hold the lid down for a reason - I can use them to clip in hard sides made of thin strong ally sandwich called Dibond used by signmakers. So I ordered up the material for that plus for a set of roof bars.

Roof bar construction - the idea is to use the angle material to cover the line of rivets on the top of the roof to completely seal them.



The two sections were bolted and glued together rather than welded because they would likely buckle.



Then fitted HD slides for a fridge and fitted that.







Designed to clear storage boxes lashed down at rear end.

Roof bars fitted - simply slipped in then a small hole drilled and tapped and stainless bolt fitted to stop them sliding out. I can use when I need them, remove easily when I dont.





Then got the ally I cut out of the roof and recycled it to form an insulated protective cover water tank to go in the inner wing.



No it goes on the INSIDE!




Bugger to fit though but it went in.










Cargo track on the outside for sand tracks, spare fuel/water etc.



Made a gas bottle holder out of some old steel.



Used another car to tie off to to keep it aligned.



Job done (almost - need to make a locking top for it).



And then onto the interior, sink and storage, just used cheap lightweight pine boards from B&Q



Using slides to make use of available space - small table.



Small sink on other side - nothing complicated - a simple Flipper suction tap and a drop through waste into a small holding tank under the wing.



And where I'm currently at is fitting the electrics - led lights, 100w solar panel, etc and the fabric for the sides will be cut up and sewn next week all going to plan.

Cost thus far is less than £1500 in materials. (not including fridge). Will need to update the spreadsheet to see exactly what its at.

Nice Job keep it up..
regards
Gren

Positively Brilliant!

__________________
Submariner
Life Member DAV
BMW MOA member
BMW Riders of Oklahoma

Cheers folks, it's progressing reasonably well. Small jobs eat up the most time - currently making small drawers above the fridge - three days so far and not finished!

Very good home build, nicely done, very glad to hear your partner is doing well, a bad situation that no one wants to go through, kudos to the team that worked on her and kept her alive.

Id love to have a similar 110 camper based on a station wagon, but the prices are ridiculous for the lifting roof conversions as you've mentioned. Ive been down the roof tent road also, your points are spot on, much easier to flip a few catches and pop the roof than faf around with a heavy tent. Ive seen a couple of roof conversions with the overlapping'hard' sides, I think they are much better than having material, the material traps water in the folds and can start to mold easily, especially in the UK climate.

couple of thoughts, will you fill the space between the front on the old roof and the new with anything ? without any insulation do you think there will be condensation building up in that space, especially on colder nights, maybe fill it with some spray foam over the aluminium ? or will you use it for storage?

Also will you lock the roof closed with padlocks mounted on the external clips ? if so you can put some Velcro around the padlocks and stick a patch onto the roof so they don't rattle(its a popular way to stop them rattling with aluminium motorcycle panniers with padlocks) Might also be worth fitting a couple of similar clips inside so there is no way the roof can be opened from the outside only.


The interior looks well thought out, how wide is the sleeping area ?

__________________
Cheers
Grif

'11 KTM 450 EXC
'09 Suzuki DR650
'00 Discovery Series 2 V8
'95 Defender 90 300 Tdi Overlander
http://gipperstravels.blogspot.ca

Hi Grif - aye we were lucky, spot-on care in the local hospital and after-care is excellent too. So we both might get to use the 110!

Yes the mould problem is going to be one to deal with. I've bought polyester material, which has an anti UV and anti mould finish, but I reckon it'll just be a case of lifting it often to ensure it's well dried. I've lined the outside edges of the lifting section with closed-cell foam to stop condensation.

The hard sides I'm making will have rubber gaskets and will clip in to provide a pretty robust and weatherproof exterior, but can be easily stored inside or on the roof when traveling.

The gap between the old roof and the new lifting one is storage, and there are none of the surfaces of the old roof left exposed to the outside so there should not be much condensation. If it turns out that the exposed alloy on the inside 'sweats' I can easily put some fabric on it. I'm fitting a couple of mapvents on the roof of the driving area in line with the window vents so that warm air can circulate up there.

I'm intending to put a small padlock on one or maybe both of the rear clips, but will have two clip-down devices inside at the back so that it's well secured.

The sleeping area is 1.3m (53") wide and 2m (78") long. I'm fabricating a hammock sort-of thing for my wee lad so he can sleep across the front. With the two front seats tipped forwards there's space for a 1.3m x 70cm bed. It can have a curtain across where the bulkhead is and he can have the front vanity light as a night light (I got an LED one from the yacht chandlers which has a red night light option). The idea is that he can go to bed and be well out of the way of the two adults so we dont have to climb over him or disturb him. I've got a chunk of closed cell foam mat cut to fit the windscreen - stops condensation and keeps it pretty dark, and bug netting on velcro that sticks onto the door windows so he should be secure, well ventilated and cosy.

Options for this I'm still wrestling with but it could be hung on a pair of chains hooked into the U channel that's just above the front doors. If I do that I can then use the chains as an internal security method and use them to fasten the doors from the inside, exit out the back door and put a big security lock on the back.

I'm trying to make everything do more than one thing. So the sleeping mats can be converted to chairs using a thermarest chair kit, and when sat on the storage boxes become decent height chairs. The sleeping platform rear section can be pulled out and used as an external table, hooked onto the outside, or sat on a stack of storage boxes.. The pine front that retains the set of four small stacking storage boxes can be pulled out and be used on top of the small pull-out table, slotted into either side to ensure stability, and will become a full size internal table sufficient for three of us to eat off.

Hi John, good to see you on here and read your build report.

Mike asks are you coming down to The Hubb in June?

Margaret

Hello M & M - I thought I'd put a condensed post here as some of the overlanding folks might find my build of some use - perhaps a good alternative to a roof tent.

Don't know about the HUBB - I'm tied up doing my home dad for our 6 year old, runs to and from school and all the other stuff, and Melanie is still unable to drive and is reliant on me for transport to and from work, so it might not be possible. I'm keeping an eye on it though!

Hope all well with both of you.
John

Very good build well done, Can I ask what make your roof hatch is and where you bought it as you are right about caravan ones!

Regards Graeme

Thanks Graeme - got the hatch from ForceFour, it's this one. It is very well made. Perspex is 11mm thick.

And I took a punt on a blind/bug cover thingy from Fiamma - here - and it fitted beautifully. Shop around I've seen them for below £30, but postage to my neck of the woods was more than the cost of the item.

Hi John,

fine job.

Many years ago I had a Series 2A 109 that I fancied doing a lifting roof conversion to but, as you say, the costs were somewhat restrictive. Being only 5ft 4inch (on a good day) I was able to get away with a smaller height increase, so I contacted Macclesfield Motor Bodies, who supplied me with a fibre glass high top roof, which was designed for the recently launched (at the time) 110 Landie.

I removed the whole roof assembly, left the over cab area untouched (for structural rigidity) and cut away the rest, leaving a 2 inch overlap, through which I could drill, bond and rivet the new roof, to the old structure.

I really should buy myself a scanner and find my old negs of the build but seeing your work has reminded me of the great experience that the build gave me.

Good luck with the rest of the project.

Regards

Reggie