Overnight: Pop-Top Sleeping Designed for The Ultimate Adventure Van

Van life is an extremely rewarding way to experience life in the outdoors, but do you know what makes it better? When you can share those experiences with your family or close group of friends. For every van builder out there, there is a delicate balancing act of space and function that must be considered when building a layout, and too often than not, accommodating multiple passengers is an afterthought.

With our van Approach, we brought group adventuring into reality with a layout that is focused on creating a comfortable and functional experience for the whole crew on a 170″ wheelbase chassis van. With Overnight, we set out to accomplish this same goal, but on the smaller, nimbler 144″ wheelbase chassis that is common with performance-focused Adventure Vans.

With the limited space that the 144 offers, we decided to go up and utilize a pop-top sleeping area to add that crucial extra amount of real estate. Featuring modular gear mounts, ventilation, and robust weatherproofing, the sleeping area on top of Overnight is a cozy 4-season loft than can easily be deployed at a moment’s notice.

Incorporating a Pop-Top onto an Adventure Van is no small task. Typically, the roof area is used for components such as vent fans, awnings, solar panels, and light bars, but adding a Pop-Top directly impedes where and what you can add to the roof.

This is how we decided to partner with Super Pacific to develop a Pop-Top ideal for an Outside Van. Working with Super Pacific, our design and engineering teams worked together to modify and integrate a wedge-style Pop-Top on to Overnight that compliments the natural flow of movement throughout the van and still enables a functional roof space.

This included repositioning the opening into the Pop-Top to allow for our forward combo roof rack and for the integration of a roof mounted vent fan. Typically, with Pop-Tops, the vent fan is integrated directly into the roof of the Pop-Top, which usually means that in order to use the fan, the Pop-Top must be deployed. By setting the structure and positioning the entrance further back, we were able to mount the fan directly to the roof, preserving its traditional positioning and functionality when the Pop-Top is closed.

The Pop-Top Tent is integrated seamlessly into the van, with trims and finishes that stylistically match the rest of the van. Lighting, USB charging ports, a 12v port and a dock for the Garmin Empirbus multiplexing system were added to the Pop-Top as well for maximum useability. Finally, a specialized collapsing ladder mounting system had to be designed and fit into the van layout in order to access the Pop-Top.