Hondo Garage's New Thing

Dooods, After having this thing for about a month now, I finally climbed upstairs and put in the 2 extra cushions that were handed to me and not installed when I took delivery. I've been busy and this is literally the first time I've climbed up into the tent.

It is extremely spacious, airy, and comfortable. I can't believe how nice of a tent it is even without considering that it takes 30 seconds to pop open. And even being new and tight - 2 minutes to close.

1) I had to talk my son into getting out of it. He wanted to sleep in it tonight. First goal met!
2) It was a bit of a pain in the ass to close (only the 3rd time I've ever opened it up) but I got it closed with all the cushions in - kind of no problem. I stood on the edge of the truck bed so I could get enough height to put most of my weight on the lid. Then the pins slid in without problem.
3) Again, I can't say enough times how useful this makes the bed of the truck. It rains all the time up here and I need a canopy. WIth my fiberglass canopy that meant I could use about 1/3 of the bed without climbing into the damn thing. With the sides opening and the height a few inches higher - I actually use the truck as a truck at least 100% more.
4) Fit and finish is awesome. Way higher than expected.
5) The locks are a TINY bit of a pita. When you push the key in to lock them sometimes the damn lock pops open. It's a bit of a finesse, wiggle game to get them locked in the cold with gloves on. I'm going to spray them with boeshield in the next day or so and see if that makes things smoother.

Here's a pix in my alley. The view is so so. Unless you count my 8 year old son hanging out - then it's priceless.

 

I do believe I just met a rather nice fellow who said he was #361.
I seem to remember way back in the beginning GFC talked about doing a soft sided version similar to a softtopper. Don't know if they ever went through with that but that might suit your needs by being able to roll up the sides and rear panels.

 

They nixed the softtopper for now. I believe it was posted that it was because most all of the early folks wanted the aluminum panels. Factor in all the locking tent latch discussions . . .

 

Nope. Soft sides died. It was a cool idea but more people wanted solid sides so they changed their plan. I think you can probably get with no sides. But, honestly I think that if you got it as is you would never go back to being 'an open bed guy'. The opening sides is literally my favorite thing about this canopy.

 

Yeah thats what first attracted me. After all of these years not having anything on my bed I'm a little nervous but I think it's going to be a good change.
Last week I got to finally see one of these things in person. Blind cowboy met up with me and showed me around his gfc. Thanks man! I like it even more now seeing it in person. I opened every door and window and climbed through the thing thoroughly. I opend and closed the tent with no issue. It's a little tight when closing but no big deal. The thing is sweet! Can't wait to get mine.

 

Oh that's meeee last month!

 

One thing I will say in GFC's favor is that they quoted me a start date of 1/28 and my camper went into production 1/14. Not an earth shattering improvement, but 2 weeks is still 2 weeks.

 

Been following this thread since way back, seems to be the best place for gfc info. It was a long and painful wait, but as others said, totally worth it. I ordered in February or March, right before the end of the pre sale deal. I was 70something on the leaderboard and picked it up immediately after build completion in mid December.

I couldn't imagine starting a company with so much open to the public view. I think this added to my frustration of waiting. It was annoying watching builds completed before mine that were further down the list. I'd almost rather be kept in the dark and given a realistic completion date. I knew going in on a preorder deal it could be a long wait, but I had my hopes of a summer, then a fall pickup dashed.

Through the waiting process, I called the shop twice. Both times I hung up without leaving a message thinking I'd just call back and hopefully catch someone. Both times Graeme called me back within 30 minutes to ensure my questions were answered. They're definitely trying to improve communications. Sounds like they've had some staffing issues. Torrey has been awesome with responding to two follow up emails I've sent since pickup.

Last week, I was able to get in the maiden voyage to Utah. Powder day in Brighton, then headed south for some dirt before meeting back up with the family in Colorado. LOVE this thing! Stayed in a different spot each night for three nights. Love how easy it is to tear down and move on...just what I was hoping for. Just need to work on some heat!

 

Welcome. Great first post! Congrats on your GFC, looks awesome on that Tundra!

 

Thanks, loved it before I even picked it up. This is the design I'd been waiting for, plus some killer details I never would have thought of. The opening side panels are sooo nice.

Oh, also said before but worth mentioning again, Graeme is super awesome to work with. Super nice guy. Hope they can dial in the timelines, seems to be the biggest gripe folks have. Being too busy is probably the best problem to have for a new company though.

 

This thread needs more posts like this. Great pictures and great setup. Can not wait for mine to be finished!

 

I repurposed a boat rack. Works great! One tire strapped to the hoop and the front tire strapped to the leg of the beginnings of the bottom bed/bench.

 

I like it, unfortunately prob won’t work for a Tacoma short bed

 

Hi everyone, I'm hoping to spring for a wedge camper soon, and I'm really interested in the custom stuff that people have done with their GFCs. This thread does really not look fun to go through page by page, especially considering there seems to be a fair amount of toxicity... are there any bookmark happy individuals like myself that could point me to specific pages in the thread.

I'm interested in heating/ insulation, accessory mounting (tools/ traxx, solar panels), lighting, but really interested in anything the community has come up with!

Suggestion to the go fast guys or any savvy individuals, creating some indexing system would make the content in here much more accessible. Thanks for the help!

 

I was looking for that. Lol

Forgot to bookmark before. Done now! Thanks!

 

This is excellent, thank you for sharing. Still interested in any other bookmarks people would share from this thread, but that links looks perfect.

 

To be fair DoorDing had a killer indexed post but he deleted his account and so did the post. Ever since then it’s been a nightmare finding anything. I usually just use the search thread action if I need something specific. Ace’s posts are always fantastic; most original accessories of all the builds I’ve seen so far!

 

Nice. Nothing is ever really gone from the interwebs.

 

Thanks for putting that all together!

 

What's wrong with a good old 26'er.

I lust in bicycle shop windows looking at those sexa beasts.