Few things are as rewarding as the pride of building something for yourself. Jay Nelson teaches how to build a pop-top camper in his brand new course. Photo: The Inertia/Tyler Manson
If you’re interested in building your own pop-top camper or learning functional and sustainable design philosophy from a DIY icon, check out Jay Nelson’s Guide to Building a Pop Top Camper.
First and foremost when picking out a vehicle for a DIY camper conversion, I want my final product to be very easy to drive. Consider whether or not it could be a daily driver, even if you’re living in the city. If it’s a huge, big thing that’s hard to park and hard to maneuver, that doesn’t really interest me. That’s why I moved into building pop-tops, because I like the idea of (creating) something that can become a camper or can be flattened and serve as your daily driver van or truck.
Get a Trusted Mechanic
I always recommend finding a trusted mechanic. That can be really hard when you’re traveling hours from your home to look at a car. But every time I buy a car, I have a mechanic look at it first.
As a rule of thumb, I wouldn’t buy anything over a few thousand dollars without having it inspected and getting an outsider’s opinion. This will usually cost you a couple hundred dollars but it can be worth the investment. If there is a fixable problem, you can go back to the people who are selling and say, “Hey, it’s got this problem. I would like to knock off $500.”
Jay’s Build: The 1994 Toyota Previa
For this project, I chose a 1994 Toyota Previa.
I like cars that are kind of underdog cars. I used to see them and I didn’t like them. Then one day I saw a Previa, and I thought, “God, that’s kind of a cool car.” A few months later, I drove someone’s Previa, and I looked around, I was like, “This is actually a really spacious car.” The engine is underneath the seat, so it opens up a lot more space inside while still having a relatively short car. This made it a great fit since I wanted a small van that’s easy to park and drive around.
The problem with the Previa is that it’s very egg-like. That egg-like shape is probably the hardest car ever to build a camper on. See, when you build a pop-top, you start with your foundation, and that has to fit the car. The top has to be completely flat all the way around and the Previa’s shape can be challenging to work around in order to accomplish that.
Which Vehicle Should You Pick?
After using my Previa example you can probably start to imagine what kind of vehicle might be easier to work with. Pickup trucks come to mind because you’re just working with a square bed. The Chevy Astro van is another great one because it’s square and flat. Old eighties Toyota vans are great and so is the Honda Odyssey.
If you’re starting to catch a pattern here, a good place to start for your first pop-top is to find yourself a very square vehicle. Even old Volvo wagons from the eighties are great for this very reason, it just takes a little bit of creativity on your part.
Sunroofs
Some Previas come with sunroofs, but the one we used for this build in my Guide to Building a Pop-Top Camper didn’t. Sunroofs can be great because you don’t have to worry about cutting a hole in your roof. That job is already done for you.
The thing to remember is that the sunroof determines where you’ll enter into the bed. It’s not going to work very well if that’s in the middle because you’ll be climbing in and then putting a cover over it to sleep.
With the Previa, I cut a hole in the top at the very far end. This left me room to climb up in about six feet of space. For a person my size, six feet is about the minimum for a bed. Ideally, you should leave yourself about six inches past your height for the bed.
What Made Jay’s Previa a Good Camper?
This van has some nice features:
-One, it’s spacious. The motor is under seat, which opens up a lot more room for the length of the car. While the car itself is pretty small, the interior has a lot of free space for the whole family.
-It’s all-wheel drive, which is cool and can come in handy when traveling.
-I think it has really nice lines. I like the outline of the car and its curves. Naturally, if you like looking at your build, you’re going to enjoy it that much more.
-The seats go flat, which has the potential for a makeshift bed for the kids.
-I bought this Previa off of a dealer for $5,000. I looked for a long time, and there were a couple of things I wanted when I set out to find this car:
- I wanted all-wheel drive.
- I wanted to find something under 150,000 miles that was mechanically sound.
- Obviously, there could be no bad smells in the car.
- Eventually, I’d like to build a little table inside (with all that space). In the meantime, it’s pretty nice for the kids when you’re on the road.
There are a lot of old minivans that are really inexpensive. That’s what this project is about – taking something that’s more affordable and turning it into a nice little camper, versus going out and buying something really expensive like a Sprinter. I look at it this way: if I say “Okay, my time is worth a certain amount of money, and this project took this much time to build. What does that cost?” If I had the money instead of the time I could probably afford to go out and get a fancy camper.
But for me, it’s always about the project. I love the adventure of building these and I love doing it myself. I tend to spend a lot of time on my builds and that is an expense in itself. And in the end, there’s a sense of pride in doing it all yourself. It’s a really exciting thing when you go camping or when you hit the road in a vehicle that you converted. To me, it tops the feeling of buying something and using that.
If you’re interested in building your own pop-top camper or learning functional and sustainable design philosophy from a DIY icon, Jay Nelson’s 27-chapter course is a great place to start. Jay’s course is solar-powered by Goal Zero.
