Slidepods

[slidepods]

It has been ages since I took the time to post in the forum. Due to moving workshops and an extremely busy scheduled in the workshop I have hardly had time to think recently let alone take pictures and post them up on here. Anyway I am going to start a thread documenting some of the works we do, The guys and gals that do it and the workshop we do it from. I will also try to answer questions along the way for people if they have any.

Grant Wyness Slidepod Bus Feature-15

• slidepods
• 24 Nov 2016

So anyway to kick things off I'm Jonny the owner of Slidepods. Some of you will know me some of you won't but I'm generally the guy you end up on the phone to if you email or call in with a particularly technical question or seeking advice of how to tailor a van to your exact needs.

 

[Generaljake]

Hi Jonny, I'm off to Vandoc tomorrow to get my blackbery van back, hopefully all went well

 

[slidepods]

Certainly did.

 

[slidepods]

So here is a sneak peak of our workshop and the latest piece of kit we are developing...
We are all a bit scruffy as our new slidepods threads are off being embroiderd at the mo.
We are working on a universal pop top hoist the likes of which has never been seen before (the webbing straps are just a temporary measure). As you can see we go to great lengths to protect vans from swarf when fitting poptops. Experience has taught us that red hot swarf penetrates straight through masking plastic but paper provides great protection from it.

For the garage geeks out there that are interested the 2 post lift is an LMH4000 from Nussbaum and is currently the fastest 2 post lift on the planet and is approved by VW for lifting transporters.

 

[Roadrunner]

Thought you might have used some kind of suction cup set up like they ise when handling glass sheets and I would have had the crain slideing not fixed. Looks like a nice clean workshop

 

[slidepods]

Thought you might have used some kind of suction cup set up like they ise when handling glass sheets and I would have had the crain slideing not fixed. Looks like a nice clean workshop

We did think about suction cups however decided against them as they could mark fresh paint and we were worried they might let go in the event of a power cut. We find a fixed system is fine and we fit loads of roofs. The most important thing is having the ability to angle the roof using the lifting system to allow the hinges to be attached easilly.

 

[slidepods]

Second profile of the Slidepods crew....
Brett is the workshop manager at Slidepods and is a trained electrician. He oversees the day to day running of our team and is heavilly involved in product development. Brett has been involved with the company almost since the beginning and his T4 is an absolute one of a kind as you would expect!

 

[slidepods]

Mike has also been part of the team since the early days. As a conversion tech Mike is responsible for all aspects of van conversions, specialising in Webasto fitting and team morale. Your never likely to see Mike wearing a frown.
His T5 "Donovan" is a show quality LWB which Mike takes all over the country camping.

 

[slidepods]

Jon is also a conversion Tech but specialises in fitting SCA roof conversions. Jon is the newest member of our team but due to fitting a roof every week means he is already one of the most experienced roof fitters around. His T4 is currently off the road undergoing some crazy engine transplant.

 

[slidepods]

James is responsible for building all the Slidepods we make which keeps him extremely busy. Chances are if you had a Slidepod in the last 12 months James built it! He suffers form accute OCD which makes him ideal for his role and to date less than 2% of all the pods he has built have required attention for warranty works and most of these were due to faults in components manufactured by our suppliers. He is also a talented artist creating some absolutely breathtaking sculptures from steel.
James is more into 4x4 pickups than vans.... but then it takes all sorts!

 

[slidepods]

For those that are interested this is the link to James's website......
Home

Please take a look as he is an amazing talent and I have no doubt in time his work will become extremely collectable. I for one am extremely proud (and lucky) to have a unique peice of his work in my house.

 

[JAT69]

The lad is certainly talented, very impressive. I just need to decide which piece to buy.

 

[slidepods]

2017 has been a big year for Slidepods.
Both Jon and James joined our team as full time tech's, we moved workshops from our x2 workshops into a much bigger workshop with a dedicated office including hospitality area

We installed some cool new kit in our workshop including a nussbaum 2 post lift and a poptop winch system with lifting cradle (due for lola inspection early 2018). Also Jon tamed the new screw compressor when it was delivered....
We carried on trying out new things on our Slidepods....

Sponsored a world champion, Shauna Coxsey who is a fantastic person and a huge talent.

Most importantly with another year behind us we have all retained the passion for what we do 8 hours a day 5 days a week.

So what does 2018 hold for Slidepods??
Well our new CNC is delivered on the 2nd of Jan so expect to see plenty of design development then, a new website will go live before the summer, sadly Tracey leaves us in January to face new exciting challenges and is handing the reigns over to Alison and Helen our new office team our pop top lift should be lola approved making it one of the only lola approved dedicated poptop lifts in the U.K. We will be expanding our kitchen pod range and designing a side kitchen layout (if that is your bag )

Until then have a verry merry christmas from all of us at Slidepods.

 

[Vinci]

Seasons greetings to you all, thanks for doing my van. All the best to Tracey in her next position. Have a great 2018.
Ps with your new cnc thing, Any chance you might design a unit to house a Webastofridge to slide out both sides, with a pull out hob, possibly a sink. The unit would slot into the rails, and sit behind either of the front seats, without obstructing access, and of course be removable into the awning. Not much to ask!!!

 

[Chris You'll]

I'll be purchasing a slidepod next year for sure. I'm probably going to be looking for something bespoke or more technical, I'm not sure yet

I wanted to have a play around with my van (T6LWB) in 3d and do a bit of interior design. Do you guys know of an accessible 3d model that's available of the t6? TIA

 

[slidepods]

Seasons greetings to you all, thanks for doing my van. All the best to Tracey in her next position. Have a great 2018.
Ps with your new cnc thing, Any chance you might design a unit to house a Webastofridge to slide out both sides, with a pull out hob, possibly a sink. The unit would slot into the rails, and sit behind either of the front seats, without obstructing access, and of course be removable into the awning. Not much to ask!!!

Probably not to be fair. I don't believe in removable pods with fridges in as they are designed to be static and a compressor coolbox does the job perfectly already for less money.

 

[slidepods]

I'll be purchasing a slidepod next year for sure. I'm probably going to be looking for something bespoke or more technical, I'm not sure yet

I wanted to have a play around with my van (T6LWB) in 3d and do a bit of interior design. Do you guys know of an accessible 3d model that's available of the t6? TIA

Not off the top of my head but if you find one let us know

 

[slidepods]

Well our long wait is finally over!!!!
We have finally placed the last piece of kit in our new workshop (but haven't yet given it a name Bertha springs to mind). Its a brand spanking new Axzy CNC. We have been cutting our slidepods on a CNC since the inception of our business and all of our birch ply panels etc however due to us out sourcing the CAD design and the cutting on the machine it meant that product development was expensive and took quite a long time to perfect. I am now learning the CAD software (reasonably quickly as well) and having our own machine means we will be able to refine designs literally on the same day we prototype them. It also means that we should be able to limit future price rises of our products (Since we sold the very first Slidepod in 2015 to present day there has only been a total increase on any of our pod models of around 5% and that is mostly down to the fact we completely stopped using off the shelf Poplar and Ilomba (mixed core) pre laminated ply from companys like Superva and started to use much better pure Poplar core ply (which is around 20% lighter again) that is specially pressed for each individual customer to order, enabling us to offer and almost unlimited colour and texture pallet whilst at the same time speeding up production (hard to believe but true).

Anyway I digress! here are some snaps of the newest member of our team.... Please give us some name suggestions and I will cut out the best one from a nice big piece of laminated ply and affix it to the wall behind the machine for ever more
(not Cutty McCutFace)

 

[Chris You'll]

Not off the top of my head but if you find one let us know

Managed to find this, as below, but you need to be a registered member on the VWBB page. I'm sure you guys must be.

Im pretty sure I'll be able to change formats from that in to something usable and I'm happy to send you the results of my work....

Feel free to PM me.

Cheers Chris

 

[B19DRG]

Looks great @slidepods loving my van now it’s all quiet and lined Look forward to you getting up to speed on that bad boy machine to finish my van off , Dan