Tradesman Truck Tops commercial style topper/shell

Thanks, I didn’t realize that was an option, mine looks pretty similar to yours but I think mine might be a little shorter. What height is yours?

 

My Tradesman topper is 26" high.

 

Thanks! I’m glad to find that out through here vs. rubbing the paint off. I might try a bicycle inner tube around the slider and make sure it stays on the glass, if that doesn’t work, I’ll probably abandon the idea. Thanks again!

 

I haven’t tried this myself but a buddy said he has stuffed a MTB tire between and inflated it more to hold in place.

 

Well.... my vent cover tore off in the last storm. Fortunately I was in the truck when it happened so I was able to put a tarp over the gaping hole before my interior got ruined. Glad that didn't happen when I was away from the truck!

For anyone else with the plastic vent cover, I have now replaced mine with this metal one:

$23 Ventline BV0534-00 Mill Dome Assembly for V2110 Ventadome

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0038AJNT8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It bolted right up and fits perfectly. I will eventually paint it but for now I'm just happy to have the hole covered up again.

 

That must have been a hell of a storm

 

I tried a few sizes and the 18” bike tube is the clear winner, frames the window perfectly, however, when the pressure is on it, I don’t feel great about sliding the powered cab window. So not a leave it and forget it solution, but on trips where I want the two windows open, it’ll be easy to pop in and out. Thanks everyone for the guidance, really glad I didn’t go with my initial plan which was to set the tube on the paint around the entire cab window.

 

I had actually been in worse with wind blowing in the same direction. Really surprised it hadn't happened before.

 

You aren't riding tubeless? Jeez

Looks like an awesome solution. I'm going to steal this idea for when I have my fly rods running into the cab!

 

Im just a simple girl with a simple truck. No need for those fancy high-society tubeless systems here!

Or you can get a telescoping rod! I feel real great about mine until I need to build it and break it.

 

I have noticed my vent will be open at times when I know it was shut.
I'm waiting for mine to launch.
Thanks for the tip.

 

Shoot, I totally forgot about this thread. I promised to upload more pictures and specs about my camper shell from Tradesman. Well, here it is, only about one and a half year late

I purchased the shell for my 2012 Tacoma access cab. I wanted something roomy yet compact which also offers enough security for all my stuff in the bed while being on the road. I went on a 5 month roadtrip across the South West.
The initial plan was to put the truck in storage after my trip and come back to the US once or twice a year to do more exploring. Unfortunately, things didn't turned out as planned and I had to sell the truck and camper and went back home to Switzerland.

Camper Shell Specs
- Height: 31'
- Width at the top: 51'
- Blank front wall
- Bare metal interior with no lights or insulation
- Maxxair Maxxfan roof vent (I brought it with me on installation day)
- Upgraded D-gasket seals
- Extra off road reinforcing package
- White


Rear
- Single rear cargo door 30' wide
- Clearance of 5' between cargo door and roof (to install the rear awning)
- No third brake light
- Tinted solid rear window 8x8
- Lockable double paddle handle for rear cargo door


Driver Side
- 30' side lift up door
- Folding T-handle
- Tool box
- Pet sliding window




Passenger Side
- Full length lift up door
- Folding T-handle
- Pet sliding window


Some on the road and camping impressions

 

And while looking at all the pictures.. Damn I miss that truck!!

Next: Build out of the camper shell

 

The build out

I had a lot of ideas on how to build the camper interior and made some nice drawings in Sketch-Up. The plan was to spend a week or two at my friends place where he would let me use his shop and tools to build the interior and do some mods on the truck. Long story short, my "friend" let me down and I ended up with a bunch of stuff to install and no place to go.
I sold some stuff online or on the road and had to come up with a new plan for my interior build.

I went to Home Depot, had some plywood cut to a certain size (can't remember the measurements) bought a bunch of big storage bins, zip ties, reflective bubble wrap and most important, a cheap home improvement kit with a cordless screwdriver and some drills.

I spent a day in a nice camp spot in the forest and built my super easy and minimalistic interior and sleeping platform. So here's what I ended up with.




Basically, I put a sheet of plywood on top of the storage bins. I attached the plywood sheet with S-hooks on the factory tie down rings from the Tacoma bed. This allowed me to flip the whole sleeping platform up and have access to the storage bins. I used zip ties and another S-hook on the top of the shell to secure the plywood sheet in upfold position. And more zp ties were used to make a "hinge" for the lids of the storage bins.





I can't remember where I bought the mattress, but it was a mattress to use on top of a field bed and it just fir absolutely perfect on my sleeping platform. It also had the perfect mounting system to attach it to the plywood sheet. My storage and sleeping setup cost me about 150 bucks, was plain simple and everything was available at Home Depot.
I stored all my clothes in duffle bags I found at Big 5 Sporting Goods and bought some beddings at Walmart.






I also made some window insulation/blinds out of the reflective bubble wrap and attached it to the window frame with velcro.

 

Conclusion

Maria at Tradesman answered mostly all of my questions I had by email and the order process went smooth. They finished the camper on time, Installation at the factory took a while but went absolutely fine. They also installed the Maxxfan I brought with me.

I'm glad I went with a higher shell. I was able to sit upright inside on the sleeping platform (I'm just 5'8 though) and get dressed inside. I'm also glad I went with a full rear door, I would have hated to climb over the tailgate everyday for 5 months. But the full rear door also brought some issues with it.
English isn't my first language, I try to explain the issue as good as possible. They didn't use a D-gasket seal for the rear door, just some squared foam weatherstrip and no seal at all along the piano hinge. While the door was closed, it compressed the seal on the left near to the hinge flat and didn't even touch the seal on the right side where the handle sits. IMO, this could be prevented by installing the hinge a bit away from the inner door frame, use a D-gasket seal all around and make the door contact the D-gasket seal equally all around. I don't know if that makes any sense, so here are some pictures.


Here the door is fully closed and locked from inside, you can see all the light coming through where the door doesn't even touch the seal.


As you can probably imagine, I had a LOT of dust inside. It's not only the door, it's the whole unit on the rear that lacked proper sealing/weather striping. I sealed all the holes in the Tacoma bed (thanks to Tacomaworld) before I had the camper shell installed.
If you have the time, place and tools you could definitely address the dust issue much better by yourself. I have been a bit limited and bought a lot of weatherseal tape for the area around the tail lights and for the bottom between the Tacoma bed and the rear of the camper shell.
I also installed a bunch of D-gasket seals from Home Depot around the door frame, just look how much better that was.





Nevertheless, I once again had an amazing time traveling the South West. Aside from the dust, de camper shell did exactly what I wanted and expected from it. For the price of the shell the built quality seemed absolutely fine. The company was nice to dealing with and they can build pretty much everything you want.
If you have the place and time you can turn such a shell into a perfect camper.

Maybe this will help others to get an idea of what you get and ca do. I personally didn't regret my decision and purchase.

Happy camping, Neil

 

Here's a stupid and possibly embarrassing question.... have the same slider window but didn't realize its a drop down. Thought it was fixed. How do you drop yours down? Figured ask before I start yankin on mine to see if it drops.

 

I’m liking the 31” height of yours. When I did mine I was thinking wind resistance and such then I’ve gone and put sliders, bumpers, winch, full skids, etc etc etc and now over 6,000 lbs so what would have been a bit more wind resistance be at this point.

 

I didn‘t notice much more wind resistance with the roof rack and camper shell. I planned to use the traction boards as some sort of wind deflector, but it was absolutely fine without it. I never really cared about my mpg though, it‘s a fun vehicle

 

Not embarrassing at all! It was a type of window I had to request for the build, so not sure if all sliders are also drop-down, but here’s where the magic happens.

 

Well, it was a longshot but just as I assumed it would be an obvious bracket/clip, it looks like I got the bunk static position version. Back to suckering kids into squeezing their hands in there for cleaning... much appreciate the reply!