Jake Schultz: Challenging Camper Design |
| Gordon White | Tuesday, 16 June, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||
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At Boeing, Jake Schultz works as a Technical Analyst on the 787 Dreamliner design team. On his own time, Jake designs and builds his own airplanes, canopies, and truck campers.  About a year ago, Jake Schultz sent us an email to show us his upgraded truck camper interior and prototype for a pop-up canopy. On his camper, Jake had maticulously installed a beautiful copper sink, real granite countertops, and other high-end materials and touches. It was clear from the photographs that Jake was no ordinary modifier. Even more impressive was his custom designed and built pop-up canopy. When it turned out that Jake was a Technical Analyst at Boeing, a published author, and working on a full-size custom camper, we had to talk with him. TCM: How did you discover truck camping? Jake: In 1971 my family traveled from Wisconsin to the West Coast. We were in a Rolite, an aluminum folding hard-side trailer. Rolite also made a truck camper, but we were in their travel trailer. At ten years old, I was the right age to soak in America. We stayed most nights in the trailer and, every few nights, with friends, relatives, or a hotel for showers. I really appreciated having everything you needed with you and the Rolite was very innovative. That trip in 1971 was absolutely critical to my spirit of adventure.
We were towing a trailer for that trip, but I always liked the single vehicle designs. The truck camper is so versatile and you can use the truck separately. After I complete my airplane, I will be building a folding hard-wall camper. TCM: You’re building an airplane and a truck camper? Wow. Let’s start with the truck camper you currently have. Jake: Well, I still have my folding canopy, but I sold my Pastime truck camper. I really enjoyed renovating the Pastime, even more than using it. I put in a copper sink and thin sheet granite countertops to replace the formica. The couple who bought the camper were really blown away and kept telling me how they can’t believe the improvements.
TCM: Tell us about your folding canopy. That’s your own custom design? Jake: Yes. I have two patents on the folding canopy (Patent #s 7,281,744 & D542,730) The folding canopy folds up and down in about fifteen seconds. I call it the cover---^^^UP. A couple of years ago I showed the canopy and patents to truck camper manufacturers and GemTop. The guy at GemTop came out and said, “Um, can I go get our other engineers?” Their engineers said it was the most refined prototype they had ever seen. They eventually told me that they would like me to keep in touch, but they weren’t looking for new products at that time.
Now I’m focused on building an airplane, a 1931 Pietenpol Air Camper. It’s a simple two-place solid design with a cult following. I’ve finished the wings and they’re in my dining room. Some people think it’s a bit funny that I have the wings in my dining room. TCM: Well, you have to admit it’s a bit different. Jake: Sure, but here’s not enough room in my shop and it’s warm and dry in my dining room. When the airplane is completed, I’ll take a summer off to fly it around the country and explore air museums.
TCM: And then you will build a custom truck camper? Jake: My hope is to dive in and build the camper immediately after completing the airplane. I was in a brain-wrestling match about which to do first and I decided to build the airplane. I just love building stuff. TCM: Tell us about your idea for a custom truck camper. Jake: My goals are to build a collapsible camper with similar interior room to a non-folding camper, yet with hard-wall sides, light weight, and simplicity in mind. The design will have hard-wall sides and panoramic rear/side windows that are the folding sides. A skylight is over the aft region so there is full stand-up headroom in the kitchen area. The roof/cover will pivot at the front only for simplicity. The cabover mattress is only part of the bed. The dinette cushions get re-positioned to the height of the cabover mattress to make a large sleeping platform, which makes up for the lost headroom at the forward end. You sleep feet forward. I don’t want a refrigerator as I’m never that far from a 7-11 and can get ice once a day for an ice chest. I will build a module on the left side that will contain all of the camper systems. That module will include the propane, water pump, heater, inverter, and battery. By putting the systems in one module, systems are not running all over the camper. On the opposite side will be the countertops, ice chest, and wardrobe. The longest run of electrical or propane lines wouldn’t be more than three feet. The design is still evolving.
TCM: Is that the kind of design or concept that you work on at Boeing? Jake: At Boeing, our mission is essentially to improve a current product or design a new product that is innovative and better - clean sheet of paper stuff. Since I do this for a living, I look at everything and ask, “How can that be made lighter, cheaper, and more compact?” TCM: Do you have any recommendations for truck camper manufacturers who are looking to build better, lighter, and cheaper camper designs? Jake: The first thing I would say, and this may sound corny, but if you’re not enjoying what you’re doing, do something else. The other thing I’d recommend is to challenge everything. Some things have been done the same way and they’re fine, other things you may want to challenge. For example, almost every camper has a table in the dinette made of pressboard or plywood that weights about ten pounds, or more. That’s insane. I took the table out of the Pastime and replaced it with a folding plastic table from Camping World. I used it for eating and then put it away to sit with friends. That might not matter with an F450, but it made a big difference with my Ford Ranger. TCM: Are there any current camper designs that have impressed you? Jake: I was very impressed with Lance’s new Euro-style 830. They challenged everything and I was really impressed with their thinking. I’m more into the game changing stuff. There’s a new product that’s an LED on a wafer thin plastic sheet. It’s about as thick as a sheet of paper. You’ll be able to peel and stick on your taillights with this product. When I saw that, I said, “Wow! That’s a game changer”. I love that. TCM: Where do you stand on the wood versus aluminum question? Jake: Until I owned the Pastime, I would not have given much credence to wood structure. But the Pastime didn’t leak and I had no problems. The sealants used with campers are getting a lot better. It is very possible to build wood campers well. I know Rex of Northstar Campers thinks wood is the way to go. You have to ask yourself if you plan to own the camper the rest of your life, or just want a nice camper for ten years. Unless you plan to keep your camper for a lifetime, your camper doesn’t have to be built to the same level as a composite airplane. You also have to look at the entire structure as opposed to just the frame. TCM: How involved are you with composites at Boeing? Jake: At Boeing, we’re completely immersed in composites. The 787 Dreamliner is about 50% composites by weight. The entire fuselage is formed with a tool that we wrap in composites resulting in a one-piece fuselage that will last a lifetime. TCM: Are you on the 787 Dreamliner development team? Jake: Yes. I’ve been in product development studies since 1994 that lead us to build this airplane. It’s going to fly for the first time in a week and a half. The maintenance costs for this airplane will be very low. Every day that a plane isn’t flying the airline loses a lot of money. That’s been an issue with aluminum-framed airplanes. Every few years, you need to tear them down and perform maintenance for about a month. With the 787, they will need less maintenance. That’s why we’ve already sold about 900 of them.
TCM: Tell us about the composite material you’re using on the Dreamliner. Maybe this will give our camper designers and engineers some ideas. Jake: The carbon fiber hoods made for tuner cars are essentially made from the same material; epoxy impregnated graphite fabric. At Boeing, we buy vast quantities of the material. They had to build factories for us to manufacture enough material and bring the costs down. TCM: Who makes it for Boeing? Jake: Toray Composites. TCM: Tell us about your book, A Drive in the Clouds.  Jake: Fifteen years ago I wanted to build an airplane that was designed by Molt Taylor. Molt lived near Portland, so I would go down on weekends to purchase plans and materials. He was selling his shop building after having a stroke and needed help. So I went down weekend after weekend and helped him sort through his archives. It became evident that someone needed to do something or all this information and history would scatter to the wind. So I asked Molt if I could write a book on his behalf. He said, “Oh, would you do that?” I spent several years organizing and cataloging the materials and interviewing him on tape and transcribing the story. He would pull out trays of Kodachrome slides, drawings, and photographs of everything he had. I also interviewed tons of people who were involved with Molt and his planes. The book was rejected by several publishers, but then we found one. We’ve sold most of the books from the first press run and got a lot of media exposure. People are still interested in the idea of a flying car. TCM: I’d like a flying truck camper too. Before we end our interview, do you think you would be willing to share your custom camper designs and construction with us? We would really enjoy following your progress. Jake: Yes, I would. Peter Drucker said, "The best way to predict the future is to create it." There has never been a book on flying cars, and now there is. That happened because I chose to create it. I have a truck camper in my head and I’ll build it. I am committed. This is part of me living a full life and making it a pleasant journey. TCM: That’s fantastic. Thank you, Jake. And please keep us posted when you start the new camper. Jake: I will. |
