Slidepod for the VW California Beach

[owen_h]

That's a serious looking bit of kit! Is the work held onto the bed? Vacuum ?


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[SlidePods]

Yes it is vacuumed down by suction so powerful it pulls through a sheet of 25mm mdf to hold our lightweight ply in place. With regards wastage we have always tried to minimise waste but now we are CNCing we are down to under 5% on per sheet which we recycle.

 

[sapto]

@SlidePods: i like the pics, like the idea and the light inside the pod is just great and usfull!

 

[sapto]

... oh and I forgot: your Cali with the great black awning, silver sidebars and huge wheels looks great too!
Have a nice wknd!

 

[SlidePods]

Thanks sapto. Just for the record we will soon be able to ship the Slidepods internationally if your ever interested

 

[sapto]

Thanks sapto. Just for the record we will soon be able to ship the Slidepods internationally if your ever interested

Sounds great! I'll keep in mind. Although a trip to collect the SlidPod would be more than a great excuse to travel to the UK!

 

[T6Beach]

Loving the look of this, we hope to come along to the Oxford meet and see it in the flesh

 

[SlidePods]

It would be great to see you there. I really enjoyed the last meet so I'm looking forward to the Oxford one now.
Hopefully the pod won't disappoint when you see it in the flesh. People seemed to like it at the last meet .... I think

 

[calikev]

I liked it very useful addition to a beach

 

[soulstyledevon]

Slidepod, congratulations on producing a great new British built product. The slidepod looks very well made and thought out.
Martins van below looks fantastic too

With regards to the other matter. I am a fully qualified electrician with nearly 20 years experience and I have mounted my hook-up in the exact same place as yourself. See my build thread in another thread. No problem with this location what so ever. For those that may have any concerns. It is possible to buy an engine cover which fits over the block. With this in place, it is absolutely 100% safe

Keep up the great work Slidepods ...!!!

Right I had said I would put some of the photos from the photo shoot for Martin Doreys new book (the campervan bible) up and I've finally got round to converting some of the shots from RAW to web sized images so here they are . Cant wait to get a copy of the new book as I really enjoyed the campervan coast and its recipes.

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[SlidePods]

Slidepod, congratulations on producing a great new British built product. The slidepod looks very well made and thought out.
Martins van below looks fantastic too

With regards to the other matter. I am a fully qualified electrician with nearly 20 years experience and I have mounted my hook-up in the exact same place as yourself. See my build thread in another thread. No problem with this location what so ever. For those that may have any concerns. It is possible to buy an engine cover which fits over the block. With this in place, it is absolutely 100% safe

Keep up the great work Slidepods ...!!!

Thanks for that. I think (hope) that the hook up matter has been put to bed these days.
Also thanks for the kind words about our Slidepods. There are a few product developments to be released before Christmas so keep your eyes peeled for them.

 

[SlidePods]

Just finished cutting the boards on the CNC for the new utility slidepod upgrade. Hopefully I will get a chance to assemble it this week so I can upgrade a few pics for everyone to see .

 

[SlidePods]

I mean upload a few pics.

 

[zeratul]

If you have the VW bike rack, this system would mean you'd have to unload the bikes before cooking?
For a quick stopover coffee, how would you do it if you have 4 bikes on the rack?

 

[soulstyledevon]

If you have the VW bike rack, this system would mean you'd have to unload the bikes before cooking?
For a quick stopover coffee, how would you do it if you have 4 bikes on the rack?

Good question.
You would have to empty the rack to open the tailgate.

 

[SlidePods]

Being a keen mountain biker I have already forseen this potential problem that our customers may encounter and have worked with an engineering company to be able to offer a suitable solution .
We can supply you with upgraded tailgate struts with a higher Nm rating that are capable of holding a tailgate in the open position with bikes still mounted. We can even specify the exact Nm to suit your needs.
We have had a test set on our demo van for around 6 months and they work perfectly . Ours are certainly capable of holding x2 mountain bikes weighing a total of 27kg as I regularly do this, I have never needed to mount more bikes yet but I suppose I should just to test them some time.
Obviously there is a trade off that to close the tailgate without the bikes does require a little more force but this is by no means a struggle as Jane (Mrs Slidepods) doesn't notice the difference. Believe me if she did struggled with closing the tailgate I would never hear the end of it (hope she doesn't read this).

 

[soulstyledevon]

I would not recommend that...!!!

I used to own the Volkswagen bike rack and did open on occasion the rear tailgate with 2 bikes attached. It was heavy to open but possible and it would just about stay open with the original struts.
However, as I found out to my horror. When I removed the rack. There were two tiny compression marks on the tailgate at the top where the rack sits.

So yes, you could upgrade the struts but the tailgate itself cannot support that amount the weight pressing on the panel.

 

[Annik]

We had the same problem as we used to always open the tailgate with the rack/bikes on it, we had two issues in the end.

First problem was once when coming out a supermarket in France the handle bars shifted when lifting the tailgate and put a dent in the roof !!

Next was taking it off in the spring to give it a clean we noticed the two dents/marks where it fits to the tailgate.

 

[SlidePods]

Ill have to have a look at my tailgate to see if its dented then....

 

[soulstyledevon]

Ill have to have a look at my tailgate to see if its dented then....

Its fine, providing your don't take it off

 

[SlidePods]

Taken the time to pop the bike rack off and have a good look at the tailgate panel today.... All looks absolutely fine thankfully but I will be keeping a watchful eye on it now.

 

[SlidePods]

Happy New year to all!!!! lets hope 2016 has a belting summer for us to enjoy

For anybody that is interested Slidepods will be exhibiting at the camperex show on the 8th, 9th and 10th of January at the Liverpool exhibition center. This is a great opportunity for anyone based in the North of England to come and see a Slidepod in the flesh. We will have our Demo Van on the stand and with a little luck a brand new T6 Beach 2 seat version with a Slidepod as well. If you are a VIP member and would like to come along I will add you to our Guest list for free entry .
Not only that we will be running a show special on any Beach or Multi pods ordered over the 3 days of the show
(we will extend this to VIP members ordering over the phone nationwide whilst the show is on).

 

[blondebier]

Sounds good Johnny.

Is there much difference between the T5 and T6 pods? Is the fit slightly different?

I saw you'd got a couple of videos on Youtube. Do you have any more?

I'm interested to see what the differences are between the Beach and Multi pods for a T6. Unfortunately Liverpool is a little to far to go for just the day or else I'd come up and have a look.

Our van has been built now and I'm counting the days until the 1st March.

 

[SlidePods]

The T5 and T6 pods are exactly the same. Its a shame you cant make it to Camperex as we will have a beach pod in a T6 2 seater and a multi in our demo T5.

We generally recommend to our customers that the pods that suit vehicles are.....

Beach Slidepod = X2 seat beach
Ultra Slidepod = X3 seat beach (or caravelle with multiflex board)
Multi Slidepod = Caravelle without multiflex board

 

[blondebier]

Thanks Johnny. The Ultra looks good.

Be interested to hear about the offers next weekend.