 In 2022, we decided to get a Troopy - see why. Just before Christmas 2022, our All-Cab roof conversion was completed, and a 270 degree awning was added to our Troopy, along with a GVM upgrade, and side steps and rails. Six months later, we added an Alu-Cab shower cube and load bars...here's what happened and how it went. Getting the roof cut off your expensive new chariot is a nail-biting experience - just ask us. But we took a leap of faith and entrusted our Troopy to Sean and the team at Ironman South Dandenong. By Christmas, is was decked out with a new roof conversion, an awning, and Ironman upgrades. Six months later, we've tested it thoroughly - over the Nullarbor and back, so here's how it all went.  ALU-CAB HERCULES ROOF CONVERSIONWe think this is a real game-changer - opening up the roof not only supplies a roof bed (we call it the 'upstairs' bed), but it means that once you're into the back of the vehicle (yes, you hit your head a few times but then you remember how to get in injury-free), you can stand up, stretch, move around, and live and shelter in relative comfort. Our All-Cab roof conversion installation has been flawless so far - no water or moisture, not creaking or unexpected noises...good job, Ironman. Thanks But let's talk about the bed: it's a king single and we find it very squeezy. It's a seven centimetre mattress that's not great - we put a sheep skin on it and that's made it much better. It's certainly long enough for anyone with both sections closed, but we don't close the back section so sometimes lying diagonally helps keep your feet from touching the roof. There's plenty of room up there in the roof tent, but when it's windy it's really not a whole lot of fun, because the force of the wind really moves the whole vehicle around. The canvas is thick but when it's cold, it's cold up there. But with the windows almost closed, we have found it comfortable enough to give a good night's sleep. The canvas is dark, and certainly helps keep the light out when you need to sleep longer. There's not really anywhere up there to store your water bottle, your glasses, and other night time bits and pieces. So we tend to stuff them in a plastic pouch and stand them in the open window between the canvas and the fly screen and that works ok. Then there are the latches: these are on the outside of the vehicle and the word is that they are too fragile and snap. It hasn't happened to us yet, but we don't like the idea of this going wrong when we're far from a city, so we went back to Ironman and asked to have them swapped for new and better Alu-Cab latches. Let's hope they hold. There are reading lights up in the roof area, but we have found them to be fairly useless. And you need to be careful: when you pack the roof away, and you tuck the sides in, you can inadvertently turn them on, and that could be for a long time, so take care. A couple of USB charging points up there would be handy, but there aren't any. We have found that getting up and down to the bed is easy as long as you have no mobility issues. And our Cruiser Company rear bar has been an absolute boon for dealing with the back of the vehicle and putting the tent away. Speaking of which, we found that closing the roof was initially very difficult: we found it easy to open the roof, but we really struggled to get the roof to close without both of us swinging off the back like Tarzan. But as times gone on, and with load bars on top and the Max Trax up there, opening has become a little harder (but ok) and closing is much easier. So no real issues there for us.  ALU-CAB AWNINGDealing with the awning is very straight forward, although we do suggest that people of average height (say 165 cm or so) need a step to deal with the awning, and particularly if the vehicle has had a lift (which ours got with the GVM upgrade). So it becomes quite labour intensive to get the awning in and out. Also, we find that the left hand rear door of the vehicle just hits the awning strut, and this is not good. It shouldn't happen, actually, since the awning is designed the Troopy. But it did for us. But we had a problem very early on in that, for no apparent reason, and certainly not because of wind or rough handling, our rear awning bag zip just disintegrated. To their credit, Ironman readily replaced the whole bag when we contacted them. They also refitted the awning in an attempt to solve the problem with the rear door (it has a bit), and also advised us to use the in-built awning leg to help address this. ALU-CAB SHOWER CUBEIt's not cheap, but it's good quality. The shower cube is very easy to open up and put away. We have found though that the curtain can blow about a bit - be aware! Use tent pegs to nail it down, and get some thin steel ones in case the ground is rocky. We don't have a shower rigged up to the water tank (more on that later). We use a solar shower - just a simple solution. Of course, we can and do use it for an outside toilet too. We have a very usable and good value toilet, purchased on Amazon. It is a fold-away toilet that takes medium sized bin bags (we also use a small bucket inside it just in case the bag fails). It's a "chemical toilet" in that we use Poo Powder to turn the toilet's contents into a gel-like mass which can be disposed of in any bin. We have found this works very well. This video gives you a quick overview of the Troopy with its roof conversion and awning. VERDICTWe're pleased with the Alu-Cab products - they're not perfect but they're pretty close, for our needs. But we're really impressed with the customer service from the team at Ironman 4x4. We have found them very responsive and reasonable when we've had issues or questions. Highly recommended. Any thoughts or suggestions? Feel free to leave us a comment...(it's easy if you opt to comment as a guest).
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