not a bad design. I am workin on a simmilar design for a truck to road trip to alaska. one of my ideas is to have a swing away tire carrier but on the backside have a fold down table for cooking and camping. for sinks and stuff check your local menards or other home center place for cheap scratch and dent stainless steel sinks or go to an rv dealership cause you might be able to buy some used sinks and other parts you need and a water tank. ill make a design quick and post it

 

Here's a link might give some ideas and help. http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...splay.php?f=42

 

that looks really cool, kinda an extreme version of what i have planned
if it was me i would look into a metal case or something for the propane tanks if they were to be kept on the interior to help reduce potential disaster.

vvv this guy knows his stuff vvv

 

Thats a cool site....gonna spend a bit of time on there now too...lol

to the OP...found this on the site Mike posted:

http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...ad.php?t=32757

 

This is harder than it looks. I set mine up (minus the sink) for sleeping in. Had a cooler in there, luggage and a small 8 gallon rubbermaid bin with basic tools for any minor repairs on the road. I was traveling for work, and my hi-lift and spare are mounted on the roof so those are out of the way, the ONLY way to get enough room to sleep in the back was to remove the seat part of the bench, leave it at home, and fold the seat forward. Im right around 5'11" ,6', and i could stretch out straight, BARELY, setup like this. height wise, you're going to be EXTREMLY limited if you put those kind of things in there. Dont forget, you need H20 but you need graywater storage too. Your sink drain should be higher than your graywater tank for proper drainage. Shurflo makes alot of great pumps and for minimal cash you could definitly have running water, the drain is the part i'd worry about.

I would stay 100% away from propane of any kind. You're better off getting a coleman single burner that runs on the little propane tanks and keeping a couple of those in your "camping stuff" so they only go when you go camping. It's just not a great idea. If you really want to have a propane couple burner stove, dont mount the propane in the truck. Mount the stove with a hose coming off of it, and keep an extra 20 or 30lb propane tank in with your camping stuff you can take with you, set outside the truck somewhere and hookup at camp.

Now, while typing that i thought of how to do your sink. reverse where your sink and H20 are during "sleep". If you put a hinge between them, mount the sink upside down, and use nylon flex hosing to the sink; you can put a pullstrap on it, so you grab the strap and it folds toward you (the back of the truck) and will end up sitting atop of your H20 storage and that would fix the graywater problem. If i can i'll make up a drawing, but you seem to have put some thought into this, so i think you'll probably get what i mean. It's how some pop-up camper sinks are done.

 

this is kinda what i was talking about
http://www.safaripacific.com/vehicles_mx2.php?x=rbumper

 

Ok been outta of town for work. I am 5'8" and I do not think it will be an issue if I can get the box to sit almost as high as the folded down bench seat. The propane was going to be the little coleman tanks for ease of use and refills and I agree I like the idea of putting them on my roofrack. I have started fabbing up the new one too it is wider and longer. Thanks for all the input guys, I will start this build most likely after the new year.

 

A friend told me to check this thread out a few days ago. Heres a picture of my pop top I built this year. Ive been really interested in putting a living space inside but couldnt find the needed space. Definitely interested in seeing what you come up with, and im loving the rear tent extensions off the back.

 

i want this xj!!!!!! wow!!! who would have ever thought to put a vw pop top on? this is genius!!

on a side note....you should really cage that thing with the roof chopped out. not only cause its a unibody, but a roll would crush the top down to the steering wheel. i would cage it just for piece of mind

 

I dont really see a problem where the tanks are now, atleast they wont be getting weathered like they would be on the roof.

and that mx2 is interesting. Ive been seeing this simular design a lot, so it must be effecient. although, for the cherokee, I think your plan of the rear tent will be a little better. And I realize your sleeping corders will be in the jeep itself, which I feel is much... safer??? depending on where you camp, excpecially if you plan on winter wheeling.

 

Cool idea! You could get most of what you need at a junk yard out of an old RV.