German inflatables specialist X Gloo is on a mission to make all kinds of RVs inflatable. The company's inflatable pop-top design has already featured in some of the most show-stopping motorhomes and caravans of the past decade and shows no signs of slowing down. X Gloo has turned its attention to creating an inflatable pop-up roof for one of the most recognizable camper base vans in the world: the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter. And it's using the air-insulated walls to carve out one of the most stylish, homey pop-up bedrooms the camping world has seen.
Yeah, that PhotoShopped Sprinter photo above doesn't inspire much confidence that X Gloo inflatable walls will look all that great topping the Sprinter van, especially not when you could spec something as sleek as the trapdoor Super Pacific Cloud Cap or carbon-walled Redtail Skyloft. But the first interior photos of the ongoing project changes the narrative completely.
X Gloo is going beyond just making a standard pop-up roof with inflatable walls and instead crafting an elegant, four-season inflatable living pod that happens to sit atop a Sprinter. The inflatable walls are said to improve insulation, what with their baffles of still air, inspiring the company to create a homey space for wilderness living – summer, spring, fall and winter (or winter, spring, summer and fall for all you James Taylor fans).
Instead of the wedge shape typical of pop-up camper van roofs, X Gloo gives the Sprinter a more proper four-walled living pod. The roof appears to sit slightly lower at the front than the rear but still promises a tall, spacious penthouse for campsite living that peaks at 45 inches (115 cm) high.
X Gloo has outfitted its Sprinter pop-top like a mini-bedroom, complete with 53-in-wide (135-cm) double bed, ambient ceiling lighting and dual skylight hatches. Add a bunch of pillows and some well-placed accessories, and you can see how the space will serve as a more comfortable alternative to the average fabric-walled sleeper pop-top.
The new pop-up concept relies on X Gloo's 3DTEX pneumatic fabric, a multilayer textile construction designed to create a solid, sturdy structure when inflated. The company says that the fabric effectively insulates temperature and sound, stands strong against wind, and provides durable, UV-resistant performance over time. Based on the pictures, the fabric being used on the Sprinter walls has a flatter look, lending a more upscale appearance and feel versus the plasticky, near-garbage-bag-level sheen of previous iterations X Gloo has shown.
X Gloo showed a standalone version of the Sprinter roof at the CMT Show last month and is working on a van-integrated roof for reveal later this year. While it describes it as a "study" for now, it's also teased a planned debut for September to be followed by the start of series production in Q4 2025.
Given that the pneumatics-reliant design requires more systems integration than other pop-tops, usually with a push-button deployment system, we suspect X Gloo will partner up with a camper van manufacturer to integrate the roof in a Sprinter camper van model series. Perhaps an inflatable-top version of a Hymer Grand Canyon S.
We mention Hymer because it has made use of X Gloo inflatable pop-up technology in several products ... to magnificent effect. It wowed the 2019 Düsseldorf Caravan Salon with the boundary-breaking Vision Venture concept camper, before bringing the inflatable roof to market with the production Venture S B+ motorhome. Fellow Erwin Hymer brand Bürstner has also made impressive use of X Gloo tech, both in concept and production forms.
Beyond Hymer, Slovenian mobile living specialist Adria has also worked with X Gloo on a pop-up camper van. It showed its Ducato-based Twin Sports 640 SGX camper van with a vertically baffled inflatable pop-top at last year's Düsseldorf Caravan Salon. At the same show, it previewed its very first camper van based on a Mercedes Sprinter, slated for debut this year. Will that rugged Sprinter AWD "SuperTwin" be a launch vessel for the X Gloo inflatable Sprinter roof? We reckon we'll know by the time this year's Caravan Salon gets rolling in August.
Source: X Gloo
