The following is a report from New Atlas.
If you’re an avid camper who drives a Tesla Model Y or a Rivian R1S, chances are you’ll love Fruble’s new Camper Kits for those EVs. Both kits feature pullout drawers for meal preparation and gear storage, along with optional in-vehicle sleeping platforms.
Called the Camper Kit Lite and Camper Kit for R1S, the two setups were designed by Canadian outdoor enthusiast/entrepreneur Jimmy Cheung. He is now marketing them via his Vancouver-based company, Fruble Fabrications.
It was just last year that we told you about Cheung’s original product, the Model-Y-specific Complete Tesla Camper Kit. That version is still available, although it’s now joined by the sleeker, simpler new Camper Lite.
At the heart of the Lite is a single vehicle-wide pullout drawer, made of lacquered 12-millimeter Birchwood plywood. This main component of the system is 40% lower than its two-drawer equivalent in the Complete kit. That said, Cheung states that it’s still tall enough to accommodate an induction cooktop.
A fair amount of gear can be stored in the drawer along with the cooktop, although once that drawer is pulled out, users can access much more storage space in the vehicle’s rear sub-trunk. The sub-trunk is also home to the optional sleeping platform, which simply consists of four sheets of Birchwood.
Once removed from the trunk, these sheets slot together to form a sort of hashtag-shaped frame which is placed on the back of the folded-down back seat. The Tesla’s sub-trunk covers are then laid on top of that frame to sit level with the drawer cover, thus forming the whole sleeping platform. And because the Model Y’s seats don’t fold completely flat, the plywood sheets have a tapered design to compensate.
The Camper Kit for R1S also features a single (taller) drawer, although two meal-prep platforms can be folded up and out to either side from that drawer when it’s extended. For additional access to a centrally located cooktop, users can fold down the front of the drawer.
Read the full story from Ben Coxworth at New Atlas here.
