This Fiberglass Bolt-On Camper Was Designed To Replace The Rear Hatch Of A Saab. Let’s Mock Up A Modern Version

I’ve seen a lot of odd, borderline-impossible design briefs in my time. Ferdinand Piech’s requirements for the Volkswagen Phaeton (a car capable of being driven all day at 186 mph with an exterior temperature of 122 °F whilst maintaining the interior temperature at 72 °F) seems beyond belief, but it’s not as bad as this one: Design a camper for a standard sedan or hatchback which would give enough living space for at least two people, including areas for them to sit, stand, and sleep. This unit needs to be added or removed from the vehicle within approximately half an hour and should not require any significant permanent changes to the vehicle itself.

Whoa! I’m throwing down my pencils and going home. How the hell do you make that work? Oddly enough, some have already made this concept into a reality.

Bolt-On Car Camper History

The Kozy Traveler Kar Kamper shown below dates from around the sixties, a time when you could use that many “K’s” to replace “C’s” in the title of a product without embarrassment. This thing fit into the trunk of a standard American sedan once you unbolted the deck lid. It’s tall enough to stand in back, while there is sleeping space over the passenger compartment. Here is rare remaining example attached to an Edsel of all things:

Ginetta, a British company known for building racecars, made very few examples (possibly only one) of a camper based on a similar solution to fit to the “large” British Ford Zodiac sedan, albeit more aerodynamic than the Kar Kamper and involving removing of the sedan’s rear window. We don’t have rights to images of it so we can’t embed them, but have a look here.

But for Euro car geeks, likely the most well-known version this concept must be the Toppola camper for Saab 99 or 900 hatchbacks. The enormous hatch opening of this car allowed for a big standing space in back, and the interior seems especially voluminous for a camper on a car that really isn’t that large (certainly a hell of a lot smaller than the giant Edsel).

The Toppola is so prolific, you can add one to your Griffin small-scale car model. Here’s the CAD file:

Here are a few more images from Bilweb Auctions, where this Saab sold for about 15 grand (seems cheap!):

 

Obviously, the idea of a bolt-on camper is not impossible at all, or at least it wasn’t back in the day. What about with today’s crop of cars?

Back To The Design Brief

Let’s say that some entrepreneur somewhere decides that with the current RV market, he dreams of developing the next generation of this kind of camper, the Toppola II (Electric Boogaloo?). Can we make this idea work with modern vehicles?

Designing a Toppola to fit a sedan bodystyle today would be a bit like creating a saddle for a dinosaur; why make something for a type of car this is disappearing rapidly each year? Certainly crossovers would be the vehicle to adapt given their popularity, yet even there we’d need to be selective. A vehicle with a near-vertical rear back won’t work for our design, and I don’t want to make these exclusively for those hatchback SUVs that the #brands are giving the silly moniker of “coupe.” I want to utilize at least a little bit of the floor in the cargo area to hold much of the weight of this thing, and not overhang much, if at all. I picked a semi-fastbacked crossover as a basis, in this case something on the VW MLB Evo platform.

I don’t know how the Toppola was able to supposedly be installed in 30 minutes, but our design would incorporate some quick disconnects for the hatch hinges, wiring, and washer jets. We would likely need to incorporate the roof rack attachment points of the base vehicle for secondary fastening (or add something for vehicles that don’t have them).

Considering that the open hatch space is smaller than that of a Saab or standard-trunk car, the Toppola II would likely have to overhang at least a bit over the rear bumper. For some cars we might need to offer some additional support in the form of the trailer hitch-mounted brace, but in the Cayenne example we’re showing it wouldn’t necessarily be needed since the overhang isn’t too bad.

We could also take advantage of the now-popular feature that gives many campers additional space — the slide out.

The back of the Toppola II includes a sink, a cook surface, and microwave, but when the vehicle is parked you can slide this section out to expose fold down seats in a tiny dining/living area.

Above the passenger compartment is a sleeping area (which could, on some models, also include a slide-out over the hood of the car to increase space). The remaining cargo area of the SUV is still accessible from the Toppola II. If you fold down the rear seats this would be the “kids room” so to speak for the little ones to use as an additional sleeping area (but the rear seat remains useable for traveling).

To remove and store the Toppola II, I’ve considered the options I’ve seen for pickup truck bed campers like the StableCamper, which holds the camper in place for removal/installation and for storage or use off of the truck.

source: StableCamper

For ours, we might do something similar and add wheels; we could even add the option of allowing it to raise and lower to fit closer to the ground to fit into a garage and even allow room for another smaller car to park partially under it. Here you can see that the Toppola II unit actually allows enough room for the orthodontist who owns the Cayenne to park his 911 in the garage space next to the SUV. Dr. Tooth Straightener could even sleep in the Toppola II if Mrs. Tooth Straightener finds out about the trysts he’s having with his hygienist. Ouch.

source: Porsche

[Mercedes’ Note: A built-in jack system would be a neat trick. Bishop already covered one important reason concerning the installation and removal of the camping unit. However, you’d also want built-in jacks for when you’re in camping mode. Sitting in a camper swaying in the wind is no fun, so you’ll want jacks that can be easily deployed at your campsite. Perhaps something like jacks that are body-colored, store flush on the camper body, and electrically swing down when you reach camp.]

Is This An Answer?

The Toppola II would need a tremendous amount of engineering and development to reach production, but it certainly could fit a category of buyer that has yet to be catered to. If you want to go camping but don’t want to tow something, buy a stand-alone motorhome or put a tent box on your roof — your options today are still pretty limited.

I don’t agree with some people’s claim that there are really no new ideas. However, I do think there are many valid old concepts that have been forgotten over the years. Now that the camper craze (or Kamper Kraze?) is truly here, it might be time to unearth some of them.

All illustrations by The Bishop

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