Fabricating a mobile lounge

Figure 1
Gorilla Fabrication, North Charleston, S.C., described the fabrication of The Absolut Elyx Water Truck Boutique as one of its biggest and most complex builds. The truck has a large oval exterior structure and requires a hydraulic system to move out additional flooring when the truck is stationary.

In this day of the mobile culinary movement with its food trucks and pop-up restaurants, is it any wonder that a major vodka-maker commissioned a fabricator to build a mobile lounge so that it could take its latest libations to the masses?

Is it any wonder they found the guys at Gorilla Fabrication to build it for them?

Gorilla Fabrication, formally started by buddies Bill Tillson and Dustry Brant in 2011, has carved out a niche in recent years fabricating food trucks. Their work has drawn attention because they can build a 21st-century truck or a rustic-looking ride. (They also are open to working with used trucks, the foundation on which the food preparation area sits. This can save money for those who don’t want to buy a brand-new food truck, the cost of which can soar beyond $100,000 very easily.)

The two first worked together in 2009, building furniture and props for a Charleston, S.C.-area event company. Brant said that led to some “backyard work” and eventually the duo’s first barbecue trailer.

“It got a lot of attention on eBay and craigslist,” Brant said. “Then we built one a little better, and our portfolio of pictures just built from there.”

The company’s website has a running tally of the group’s work: more than 200 grills fabricated and 50 trucks completed. A recent job proved to be a memorable one.

Absolute Learning Experience

Representatives from Absolut Vodka approached the Gorilla Fabrication team in mid-2015 about making a mobile lounge (see Figure 1) so that people could sample the company’s Absolut Elyx “luxury” vodka. This build was going to be a first in that it didn’t have 90-degree angles and it was going to have a moving floor.

The project started with a 2010 motor home frame with a Cummins diesel engine. When Gorilla Fabrication got the frame, the motor home cab had been replaced with a 1943 Ford truck cab, and the frame had been cut down a bit.

Brant said he decided to go with an oval shape, but he wanted to frame it with 2- by 3-in., 14-gauge square tube, something the team had worked with before. He drew out the design in CAD and cut the tubes on a CNC table. The ribs were then fabricated to hold the 18-ga. shell.

“Most of the side was completely open, so that took away from the structure,” Brant said. “I had to make it superstrong with a limited amount of structure.”

Figure 2
The rear of the Absolut promotional vehicle accommodates a bar and a boutique, where people can purchase limited editions of Elyx vodka, and in return, Absolut contributes money to help impoverished areas gain access to clean water.

There was no need for the team to use a roller when working with the sheet metal that formed the exterior of the rear structure. Brant said they tacked the sheet metal at the top and pushed it down flat, allowing the metal to loosely drape across the side under its own weight.

The lounge has a 4- by 12-ft. floor that slides out (see Figure 2) when the truck is stationary. Brant said he incorporated a hydraulics system with a 4,000-lb. capacity to drive the floor back and forth.

“It also had an automatic RV leveling system, so you could crank up the generators and make it mount its feet and push four outriggers to the ground to level it,” Brant said. “Two more buttons opened up the top and the slide-out. The stairs, which were on a hinge, folded down.”

The mobile lounge hit the road in the fall and made its debut among the beautiful people in New York’s meatpacking district in early November. It then made stops in Los Angeles and Miami.

“What’s so good about our shop is we’ll do anything—whatever project they’ll throw at us. We love the challenge,” Brant said. “Everybody’s real excited when the new projects come in, and there is lots of engineering to figure out and new looks to go for. It’s a lot of fun.”

It’s also fun to invite friends over to try out the lounge before delivering it to the client. Fabrication has its privileges after all.

Gorilla Fabrication, 843-789-4481, www.gorillafabrication.com