When Was The First Ever Pop Top Campervan?
- hello50236
- Aug 21
- 2 min read
With road vehicles being subject to a range of width and height limitations to ensure they are safe to drive on the road, installing a pop top is essential to have enough space to be comfortable when travelling off the beaten track.
Pop tops are a common addition to campervans and most conversions should at least consider it to allow for enough space to stand up comfortably or add additional living space.
Much like with the origins of the campervan itself, however, the origins of the pop top are not easy to trace, with prototypical roof tents emerging as early as the 1930s, according to a contemporary 1937 issue of Popular Science.
The roof tent itself became its own type of conversion, allowing vehicles that would not typically have room to sleep in to become a safe form of accommodation.
However, the pop top itself emerged alongside the rise of the campervan through contemporary conversion companies such as Westfalia and Dormobile.
Both of these companies would develop competing pop top designs, although it is difficult to determine which company was the first to make theirs.
However, the first campervan to have a pop top as standard was most likely the Bedford Dormobile from 1957.
The Dormobile had a side-hinged, red-striped pop top roof as standard, as opposed to the rear-hinged roofs that have since become the norm and were popularised by the Westfalia campervans of the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Both of these pioneers created the leisure market for vehicles outside of expensive one-off custom vehicles, and ensured that people up and down the country could have a vehicle for leisure use that allowed them to explore the beautiful sights that Britain and Europe had to offer.
The lifting roof was a major part of ensuring that this new type of vehicle was comfortable to live in, and it is why so much care is put into pop top conversions today.
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