[Arbslikewhoa]

Jeepagon (Cherokee Camper project)

Decided today that I would create a thread about my recent project. Since I usually get carried away working on the truck, i never really had the desire to take picture's as I progressed. And this being my first "build thread" I will try my best to keep it updated with in depth pictures and answers. :2thumbsup:
(ps. I'm sorry if the pictures are so large)

For the overall plan of the project, I will be installing a pop top off an older VW camper.
(I owned a vanagon for 3 years and it really was an incredible machine, you'd be surprised. I also enjoyed the pop top feature thus the reason why I started this project.

To

A reminder, looks are deceiving as far as these images go. Im trimming a good percentage off the sides of the fiberglass top and painting everything black. Its going to be much more low profile then how this picture shows it to be. No worries.

 

[Arbslikewhoa]

Purchased at a junkyard for $50.
Spent the day cleaning.....

 

[ajxj9197]

this will be interesting to follow! keep posting

 

[TrailWorthyFab]

Purchased at a junkyard for $50.
Spent the day cleaning.....

Did that thing float to shore? You had some work getting that clean. I'd like to see that on the top of your rig. Will the roof support it? Not empty but with your in it?

I think you are onto something here. opCorn:

 

[Arbslikewhoa]

Since I will be cutting a large section out of the roof, I purchased a roll bar off a 87? 4 runner for $27. Than Fitted it and had a friend weld up the new brackets. Since I am losing strength from the body, Im hoping the roll bar will compensate for the loss.

 

[ajxj9197]

that looks awesome ....how hard was that to install?

 

[Arbslikewhoa]

the roll bar?? piece of cake haha. I went to the junk yard for brake cylinders, and came home with a roll bar as well. I did some quick measurements and figured, worse comes to worse, I could cut and trim here and there to make it fit, but honestly, all I had to do was trim the two front arms up about 3 inches and weld the brakets on an angle to fit my wheel wells. Its tight around all the edges, slides right in, and fits practically perfectly.

 

[Arbslikewhoa]

This is one of the ideas I have about sleeping arrangments. The bus I took the top from actually had a hammock that connected front and rear. My old van had a hard wood bed that had to fold out making the top larger so it could fit. Going with a much lower profile pop top, I think this idea would work best.. that way I could just take the hammock down and close the roof when im done.

 

[1996BlackXJ]

That

Will

Be

Awesome

Keep up the work! Never heard of this kind of idea before! I wanna see it done!

 

[Arbslikewhoa]

I am also currently building a winch bumper for the truck... ( i like to keep myself busy )

I designed some bumper brackets and had tarco steel cut them out of 1/2" steel on their plasma cutter. I picked them up yesturday.

 

[Arbslikewhoa]

Just removed the light bar and rack off the truck. Definitly not an easy job with just one person. Having a bad night, nothings going right and im getting quite moody. So I decided to call it quits for tonight. Tomorrow morning im running over to the junkyard to grab the other half of the vw roof so i can start to measure and cut. Hopefully itll go a little better.

as far as the winch bumper goes.. One of the three bolts snapped connecting the steering box to the frame. So, im not really sure what to do now cause i feel the others will snap too.

 

[tofuzeppelin]

rock on man, i cant wait to see how this turns out

 

[ReconMill]

That will be awesome, it would look cooler if you could put the rack on top of it. Might be heavy though.

 

[Arbslikewhoa]

I was thinking about building a bar around the roof so i could still have the top aux lights.. plus then the bar could protect the fiberglass, but idk how that would look either. I'm just going to try different things before i do any severe destruction. i really wanted to put the roof on tonight but im so afraid of braking something more with my bad luck streak going....

 

[FitchVA]

i literally said "holy mother of god" when i scrolled down to see these

 

[jmundale]

looks really good - hope you never need to park in a garage though

those bumper brackets are seriously Beefy

 

[ReconMill]

i literally said "holy mother of god" when i scrolled down to see these

x2 holy crap i didnt see those. Those things probably weigh as much as my bumper. :laugh: They are awesome though, overkill, but awesome.

 

[Pumbaa]

Don't worry, its a Jeep. This looks like a crazy amazing idea. Just wait until you go on your next wheeling outing and people say "WTF?" You just smile and climb into your (hopefully) weatherproof sleeping cabin.

The light bar roof protection sounds good. I agree with you on waiting until the roof is on so you can fab it up to check the look.

Keep it up, this looks like a :trophy1:

 

[Sir_Ken]

I like the concept, nice job so far.:2thumbsup:

 

[EricsXJ]

Nice idea. Its pretty cool to see something that hasn't been done (to my knowledge) before! A lot of guys like the roof-top tents, and others have cut the top of the Cherokee off before but I have yet to see this done.

Keep going with it and I look forward to seeing pics of the progress!