Alu-Cab Canopy Camper Roll Call

[Steven_B]

It's time and ability more than anything else. Because for that price, you can buy the materials, the tools, and do it as I'm currently doing it: next to the truck, under the awning. It's not that hard, it just takes a lot of time because if you want to get it halfway decent, you have to do at least some "product development", which is very time consuming and can be frustrating.

Correct, I should have added ability as well. I can build a lot of stuff, it just takes a long time. Ask my wife about our 95% completed kitchen remodel

Sponsored

 

[cug]

Correct, I should have added ability as well. I can build a lot of stuff, it just takes a long time. Ask my wife about our 95% completed kitchen remodel

Same here, I'm basically doing some level of "product development" while I'm building the various pieces of my rig, and I'm also making the templates with measurements and explanations available. Doesn't mean somebody can easily replicate it, but for example, what takes the most time to build a simple rear panel for a storage platform is getting to this:

I could build another rear panel in half a day, including glueing on the carpet. Add another few hours to make the brackets and fit everything in the truck.

If I account for what I made per hour when I was still working, the 2500 are a total steal. Especially for such an elaborate platform and rear panel.

 

[Steven_B]

Yes I totally understand - I fall into that category. Barely had enough tools/time to build mine. But $2,500 is excessive and taking advantage IMO. But that's par for the market these days. I would be curious to know what the raw material cost is.

Plus as a business, they have additional costs like the building/shop payment, business insurance, employee salary and costs, tool maintenance (probably a large CNC machine) product development cost, and so on. In addition to making sure they make enough money to cover the overhead, they also have to do so to be able to sell wholesale/discounted and still make a target profit margin but also to make sure their dealers can still make a buck.

And to be clear, if I was in the market, I would build one myself. It would take a long time, but after several hours I could do it.

 

[chorky]

Depending on the wood and coating they use, it's around 200 to 250 bucks or less for just the materials. At least, that's what it cost me to buy the wood, the extrusions, and the bedliner needed to make it. I spend another 1600 to 1800 or so on tools and some more on other small things, but I'm also building the camper interior myself ...

The thing is: with a little bit of effort and creativity, the tools needed (!!) for building this are less than $500 new. To make your life easier, you'd spend some more, but there isn't all that much actually needed: a drill, a jig saw, the wood, the bedliner, a measuring tape and a square. Some time and additional wood to build jigs to make clean and straight cuts. But really, it's not too bad. I'm currently doing it and I have never done this before. Get a router and a track saw as well as a miter saw and you have all the tools you need, now just need the time and ability to build the thing.

Very true. I did mine in a weekend. And did a fairly basic job using birch, bolts, screws, and wood glue, topped off with a basic rust-oleum hammerhead paint. To make it super nice it would take a few more days. The tools (if you dont have them) are the expensive part.

Correct, I should have added ability as well. I can build a lot of stuff, it just takes a long time. Ask my wife about our 95% completed kitchen remodel

Oh share some pics - I need ideas hahah

Plus as a business, they have additional costs like the building/shop payment, business insurance, employee salary and costs, tool maintenance (probably a large CNC machine) product development cost, and so on. In addition to making sure they make enough money to cover the overhead, they also have to do so to be able to sell wholesale/discounted and still make a target profit margin but also to make sure their dealers can still make a buck.

And to be clear, if I was in the market, I would build one myself. It would take a long time, but after several hours I could do it.

Yeah I totally get that. Business have to make money, and a lot of supply materials are expensive lately. But still.....2500? Man that seems awful expensive for something a person could re-create on their own time for less than half the price. I would have no qualms if it were $1500, but like goose gear, sure they have the "name", but when places start charging 700 bucks for a box - thats just ridiculous.

 

[cug]

Very true. I did mine in a weekend. And did a fairly basic job using birch, bolts, screws, and wood glue, topped off with a basic rust-oleum hammerhead paint. To make it super nice it would take a few more days. The tools (if you dont have them) are the expensive part.

It actually took us multiple days of "a few hours a day" to get this rear panel done, from which we measured the above template:

The bottom of the panel won't be visible when the platform is in, that's why there is a bit of space from carpet to 8020. There is one strip of Gaffer's tape around the bottom of the panel (two layers, front and rear) to prevent rattle. It still has a bit of play, but the Thinsulate insulation behind it hasn't fully expanded yet. It looks pretty nice in real life. I'm happy with it and I'm anal as f...

 

[chorky]

It actually took us multiple days of "a few hours a day" to get this rear panel done, from which we measured the above template:

The bottom of the panel won't be visible when the platform is in, that's why there is a bit of space from carpet to 8020. There is one strip of Gaffer's tape around the bottom of the panel (two layers, front and rear) to prevent rattle. It still has a bit of play, but the Thinsulate insulation behind it hasn't fully expanded yet. It looks pretty nice in real life. I'm happy with it and I'm anal as f...

That looks really nice! I have been contemplating if I want to make one or not. Mostly to hang my medical box and flair box on

 

[cug]

It looks pretty good in the truck. We used carpet from O'Reilly, certainly not the best quality, but the only one I was able to source locally that wasn't simple felt but had some carpet haptic to it. Going to use some of that for the camper build as well.

One thing: if I were to do it again, I might (!) use 9mm plywood for added stiffness and cut the tongue for the 8020 with a router to size. The 6mm is a bit rattly and we took quite some measures to deal with this. Time will tell whether it was enough.

 

[cug]

Are you selling the mount panels that go between the load bars? I'm thinking of installing some of these Pioneer bars on the rear door and was thinking about this layout (not to scale, just ideas, which would still be lighter than a wheel):

The handle is in the high position since the door is turned to open to the other side.

I don't think I would run this very often, but there may be times when I need a good amount of spare fuel as well as the recovery boards. Still looking for other ideas where to put these, but I'll probably put the load bars on pretty soon to move forward on the door setup.

 

[813 Fabrication & Design]

Very true. I did mine in a weekend. And did a fairly basic job using birch, bolts, screws, and wood glue, topped off with a basic rust-oleum hammerhead paint. To make it super nice it would take a few more days. The tools (if you dont have them) are the expensive part.



Oh share some pics - I need ideas hahah



Yeah I totally get that. Business have to make money, and a lot of supply materials are expensive lately. But still.....2500? Man that seems awful expensive for something a person could re-create on their own time for less than half the price. I would have no qualms if it were $1500, but like goose gear, sure they have the "name", but when places start charging 700 bucks for a box - thats just ridiculous.

To be honest, the $2500 is very reasonable for what goes into making this setup. It is possible to make something similar and cheaper if you have the ability and tools. From the aspect of production, it has to be a product that is able to be recreated many times exactly the same using CNC. He 3D scanned my truck and I have the first prototype. He was so accurate with the design that the only adjustment to install everything was trimming the center section less than 1/8". As for materials, they import the plywood from Italy I believe, it is supposed to be the lightest plywood available. Something like 40% lighter than what is sold at big box stores but just as strong or stronger. Just the latches alone are approx $100+ at cost. Factor in the slides, coating, hardware, etc. the materials are not cheap and it shows in the quality of the product.

I actually get the same questions often on why my parts are more expensive than others. I am a small company and have no ability to compete with foreign products or the larger companies with 60K+ square ft facilities. I look at myself as a boutique brand. Small, but high quality. Being smaller, it also costs me more to produce parts as I am lower volume.

 

[813 Fabrication & Design]

Are you selling the mount panels that go between the load bars? I'm thinking of installing some of these Pioneer bars on the rear door and was thinking about this layout (not to scale, just ideas, which would still be lighter than a wheel):

The handle is in the high position since the door is turned to open to the other side.

I don't think I would run this very often, but there may be times when I need a good amount of spare fuel as well as the recovery boards. Still looking for other ideas where to put these, but I'll probably put the load bars on pretty soon to move forward on the door setup.

Yea, that should not be a problem. I don't have any of the plates in stock but I can have some made if you are interested. I could also add the RotoPaX hole pattern to make it easy to install. I can get them in raw aluminum or have them powder coated. Let me know! The load bars I have on the door are 30" wide FYI.

 

[cug]

Yea, that should not be a problem. I don't have any of the plates in stock but I can have some made if you are interested. I could also add the RotoPaX hole pattern to make it easy to install. I can get them in raw aluminum or have them powder coated. Let me know! The load bars I have on the door are 30" wide FYI.

That's awesome. Let's do the following:

I'll find the load bars first. I take it you cut them to 30"? Seems Rhino only has them in 24" and 48". I'll mount them and we can confirm measurements, since I have a slightly different door, mine has c-channel on the inside where your's has square tubing. Not that they also changed some of the other measurements. Just in case you haven't done that already. I need to confirm a whole bunch of things first since I also want to mount a table inside and I don't want things to collide too badly ... thinking about it, I can also just measure the c-channel distances, that should tell whether they'd fit.

Looks like I'd need 4 of the plates if I were to go with that layout I was thinking about or at least something similar. Definitely powder coated and Rotopax mount pattern would be excellent – I think it makes sense to have on such a plate, plus then I don't have to drill it myself ... although that wouldn't be much of an issue either.

 

[813 Fabrication & Design]

That's awesome. Let's do the following:

I'll find the load bars first. I take it you cut them to 30"? Seems Rhino only has them in 24" and 48". I'll mount them and we can confirm measurements, since I have a slightly different door, mine has c-channel on the inside where your's has square tubing. Not that they also changed some of the other measurements. Just in case you haven't done that already. I need to confirm a whole bunch of things first since I also want to mount a table inside and I don't want things to collide too badly ... thinking about it, I can also just measure the c-channel distances, that should tell whether they'd fit.

Looks like I'd need 4 of the plates if I were to go with that layout I was thinking about or at least something similar. Definitely powder coated and Rotopax mount pattern would be excellent – I think it makes sense to have on such a plate, plus then I don't have to drill it myself ... although that wouldn't be much of an issue either.

Ok, let me know when you are ready. I will double check, but almost positive that the spacing of the channel is the same, they just updated to the C channel to be like the Alu-Cabin.

Yes, I cut the bars down to 30" from the 48". They do not sell them in custom lengths.

For a different option, I am working with Freedom Coast Cycling and have custom 30" aerospace grade L-track in production that will be anodized black. I am working on some rear door bike mounts and will be using their fork mounts and L-track.

This is their L-track in the standard dark gray that they use.
https://freedomcoast.net/collections/bike-racks/products/logistics-track-l-track

Jeremy

 

[cug]

Awesome that you are working with a shop for this Alu-Cab accessory that, in my opinion, is something I'd LOVE to have. Taking the bicycle makes a lot of sense.

We have the L-track on our Land Cruiser:

And I find it more usable than typical c-channel the Alu-Cab has for things that are regularly put on and taken off. It's just so much quicker and there is even real quick connect hardware as well (not sure though I'd use it, since it's also "quick theft" hardware).

The downside is that the hardware is rather large. If that works with your panels, I'd be happy to use L-track as the flexible mounting track on the door.

Not sure about the black anodization – I have seen this turn purple too often. That's probably why most roof racks are not anodized but powder coated. A durable anodization that actually stays black seems hard to achieve. I'd take silver anodized over black, and given that the rear door hardware on the Alu-Cab is silver anyways, it's not even against the style.

Would be great to have a flexible load option for the rear door that's reasonably easy to install and comes with everything needed.

 

[813 Fabrication & Design]

Awesome that you are working with a shop for this Alu-Cab accessory that, in my opinion, is something I'd LOVE to have. Taking the bicycle makes a lot of sense.

We have the L-track on our Land Cruiser:

And I find it more usable than typical c-channel the Alu-Cab has for things that are regularly put on and taken off. It's just so much quicker and there is even real quick connect hardware as well (not sure though I'd use it, since it's also "quick theft" hardware).

The downside is that the hardware is rather large. If that works with your panels, I'd be happy to use L-track as the flexible mounting track on the door.

Not sure about the black anodization – I have seen this turn purple too often. That's probably why most roof racks are not anodized but powder coated. A durable anodization that actually stays black seems hard to achieve. I'd take silver anodized over black, and given that the rear door hardware on the Alu-Cab is silver anyways, it's not even against the style.

Would be great to have a flexible load option for the rear door that's reasonably easy to install and comes with everything needed.

Very good points! I will have to ask them about the anodizing and see what they say. I'll keep you posted. And SWEET Land Cruiser!!

 

[813 Fabrication & Design]

Awesome that you are working with a shop for this Alu-Cab accessory that, in my opinion, is something I'd LOVE to have. Taking the bicycle makes a lot of sense.

We have the L-track on our Land Cruiser:

And I find it more usable than typical c-channel the Alu-Cab has for things that are regularly put on and taken off. It's just so much quicker and there is even real quick connect hardware as well (not sure though I'd use it, since it's also "quick theft" hardware).

The downside is that the hardware is rather large. If that works with your panels, I'd be happy to use L-track as the flexible mounting track on the door.

Not sure about the black anodization – I have seen this turn purple too often. That's probably why most roof racks are not anodized but powder coated. A durable anodization that actually stays black seems hard to achieve. I'd take silver anodized over black, and given that the rear door hardware on the Alu-Cab is silver anyways, it's not even against the style.

Would be great to have a flexible load option for the rear door that's reasonably easy to install and comes with everything needed.

I spoke with my Rep at Freedom Coast Cycling about the anodized L-track. The blue I mention is a piece in one of their other products. FYI, this is what he told me:

"The l track is hard anodized. Hard anodize is a completely different process, and will not fade. The blue is regular anodize, which is affected by uv light. You cannot get the same colors in hard anodize, you are limited to greys, tans, etc. we have been working on a color for our adapters and knobs so they look good in hard ano, but you don’t need to worry about your l track."

Sponsored