Sportsmobile Penthouse Raised Roof

My wife and had a Sportmans E150 Van loved it!! No water problems no noise. Just a tip open a window or door when lowering the roof and the canvass should fold in with no problems. If you lower is with the van all closed the air will push the canvass out and under the seal of the top and your van roof. Get into the habit of walking around the van and checking the canvass before you lock it down and travel.

Just my experience....

I figure if I can rig a hose from a window to the fire pit.  I could use the penthouse as a bellows to get camp fires going.  If I do it I will have Joanne take a picture. :

LOL Thats great!! We actually used it as a bedroom for our son when he was young. All his toys and him, he loved to look out at the windows.

Everything in the back will be re-used.  Will have to trim about 1" off of the top of the four walls and the cabinet over the sink.  Will also need to add a top to the sink cabinet and the hanging closet.  They used the roof before.   I will loss 4cf of overhead storage.  In the fourth photo you will note the blue painters tape near the outer side walls.  That is the approximate finished opening width of the roof cut out for the penthouse.  I may reuse the overheads but they will need to be reduced to only a few inches deep.  Enough to hold a deck of cards or two.

The fourth photo on the right side shows (in blue painters tape) where a floor to ceiling bed rail cabinet will be made.  I will get an overall increase of about 6cf of storage when it is built - that is also accounting for a SECOND house battery being added.  We did not want any such cabinets in the previous design because of not being able to stand up.  Did not want a door in our face.  Now with our heads in the penthouse area most of the time the added storage will be nice.

Re-wiring and new light locations will have to be developed.

Well I have most everything out of the van.  Have one move wall to take out.  Who ever built this van ran some after thought 110 volt wiring through one of the walls.  So the wall and wiring were trapped together.  The hole in the wall was near the bottom edge so rather than removing wires I was able to open the hole to the bottom edge and remove the panel.  Never thought about taking this thing apart.  8) 8)

Joanne called Sportsmobile and confirmed our installation date.  We drop the van off before 4 pm on March 23rd.  They supply us with a car and a hotel room at the Holiday Inn and the van roof job is finished by 4 pm the next day - March 24th.      Looks like I will get my passenger swivel seat base after all.

I leave for Haiti tomorrow at 3 am in the morning  so I am done working on the van until I get home on March 20th.  Everything should be fine as long as I don't bring "Montezuma" home with me.   After I get the roof on I have some re-design ideas I want to explore and see about getting in before the start of our summer travels.

Lots of photos Please!!

Can't wait to see this going back together its going to be neat.

Got back from Meribalais, Haiti without any problem.  Left a week ago Friday at 4am and got back this Friday at about 11pm.  I was with the group called Haiti Outreach Mission (HOM) that is centered in the Detroit area.  I worked construction installed shelving and coat hanger bars in a orphanage.  It was good work.  Rested up over the week end and finished getting the van ready to go down to Indiana and have Sportsmobile install the new penthouse roof.  Will only take one day and we will be home Wednesday evening.

Below are a few pics of Haiti and the final prep. work on the van.  Will leave for Indiana tomorrow (Tuesday) am.

Looks like an old work van now LOL ;D

They are very close cousins.   ;D

We are at the Huntington, Indiana Holiday Inn right now.  Sportsmobile is putting us up here for the night for "free".  They also have supplied us with a car.  As soon as we pulled in at 2:30 pm they started opening the top with a can opener.  Wanted to know if I wanted to keep the roof fans.  Took me about 0.000001 seconds to respond that yes I want both Fantastic Fans.  I may be dumb but I ain't stupid.

Found the local quilt shop but it has been moved to another town.  Typical.

Len and Jo said:

They are very close cousins.   ;D

We are at the Huntington, Indiana Holiday Inn right now.  Sportsmobile is putting us up here for the night for "free".  They also have supplied us with a car.  As soon as we pulled in at 2:30 pm they started opening the top with a can opener.  Wanted to know if I wanted to keep the roof fans.  Took me about 0.000001 seconds to respond that yes I want both Fantastic Fans.  I may be dumb but I ain't stupid.

Found the local quilt shop but it has been moved to another town.  Typical.

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Keep the pics come'n!...Have fun in Indiana!

Sportmobile wanted us to stop by between noon and one on Wednesday to get an estimate of when the van would be done.  I figured the job should take about 4 hours so I was expecting them to be done when we came in at 12:30 pm.  We found two quilt stores during our morning wait.  I watched and Joanne shopped.
Sure enough they were just vacuuming the van out when we got there.  We were on the road home by 2 pm.  Started putting the interior that we are re using back in today.

Wow! looking good . will your bed be up top?

That's the plan.  Sportsmobile could have provided us one for ~$500 if we wanted it.  Have heard some negative comments about the 2" foam they use.  We also already have Thermarest sleeping pads we really like and want to use.  So we will make our own platform.  It will store on the ceiling during the day and set on the van roof rails at night for sleeping - same as the Sportsmobile design.

I bet you can't wait to get it done and get to try it out.

Well some progress is being made ;D ;D  See photos below.  My "old" back end (the van that is) went back in with very little modification.  Was fitted for roof crown and I had cut the tops of straight across to fit below the penthouse bed.  Was getting things rolling along:  sink back in, water tanks filled w chlorinated water and leak checked, rear buttoned up.  Then as I tested the 110 volt electrical (ie: it was cold outside so I thought I would run the electric heater) the GFI tripped and tripped and tripped.  No matter how hard I punched it to reset it it would trip as soon as I turned the heater on......and then when I started to try and run the battery charger.  :-\ :-\

So I am draining the water tanks and pulling the sink cabinet so I can EASILY get at all the 110 volt wiring.  The 110 wiring was the ONLY thing that I had not touched (so I thought). 

Well anyway I have started making a bed platform.  I did not like the sharp pointed rope cleats that Sportsmoble uses to hang the bed from.  I know I would back into them when the bed was down and scrape them across my back. Or smash my head on one as I ducked under the bed at 2:00 a.m. on the way to the head.  Just like I had a magnetic attraction for my old SHARP cornered van ceiling light fixtures.  At least early in each year.  I did re-learn fast.  So see my "better mouse trap below.

1st Pic.  "Is it done yet?"

2nd  Pic.  Some progress...over confidently I put the toilet back in.  Maybe I needed a place to think while I was out working in the van.  Our sub-consciously I thought it might be a good safety feature after just getting back from Haiti. :-\ :-\

3rd Pic.  Snow, it snowed, but but but

4th Pic.  Bed IS stowed below the ceiling if you look really close.  Also note the toilet has been removed while exploring for the milli-amps that are leaking under the sink and tripping the GFI

5th Pic  Bed to ceiling attachment method

6th Pic  Close up of my better mouse trap.  As long as it does not snap on me.

Hey looks like you are moving forward now. I had one question on the bed. Are the S hooks the only thing holding the bed up to the ceiling when in transit? Just wondering if they bare strong enough to hold if you hit a big bump in the road.  Thanks for sharing looks good.

Sportsmobile says the bed should be supported by the bed rails when in transit.  The 'S' hooks support the bed only when stored at the ceiling level while camped.   Also I weighed the bed last night when I installed the supports and it weighs (as of now) 58 lbs which is about 15 lbs per corner.  Probably will be about 20-23 lbs per corner when completed and if stored with bedding in place (our plan).

I'm curious about the number and configuration of the bed supports.  Got pics?

Len and Jo said:

Sportsmobile says the bed should be supported by the bed rails when in transit.  The 'S' hooks support the bed only when stored at the ceiling level while camped.   Also I weighed the bed last night when I installed the supports and it weighs (as of now) 58 lbs which is about 15 lbs per corner.  Probably will be about 20-23 lbs per corner when completed and if stored with bedding in place (or plan).

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Looks really cool Len!

Is that a 'Ryobi' cordless drill lying on the passenger side bed?