I've been thinking about adapting this to the roof of my van...

[EMIEVEL]

This particular shell is selling for $950 obo. That beats the hell out of a Sportsmobile top, doesn't it?

I'm not sure what I'm getting into though. I don't want the whole shell on top of the van, just the tent part of it. I'm definitely going to need help...like hired help.

Can it be made to look cool and not hacked?

Would I be better off going with Sportsmobile (price-wise?)

Has anybody done this? (as I typed that I realize I didn't do a search!)

[EMIEVEL]

OK, I searched! I saw some people had similar ideas but nobody really comparing prices.

Are the Wildernest camper tents pretty good? I'd hate to go through the expense and work to find out they fall apart.

[dangerous toy]

i have an old windernest, but i have a 7' mini truck one and its on a custom offroad type trailer. i think it would be sweet on a van, the hardest part would be the spring assembly that is molded into the hinge side runs all the way down to the top of the bedside, so you would have to cut that out of the nest and figure a way to attach it in the van. im probably not making any sense and youve probably had a close enough look at one to see what you would need to do. the room in them is quite impressive, it would be much more roomy than a SM pop top, mine is old and beat to shit but it still functions properly, i say got for it!

[scoobasteeve]

My dad did a camper conversion to a 4x4 Ford van and he adapted a poptop from a VW bus.



But he wasn't satisfied with it so he found a poptop off of a Eurovan




Here's a link to his build thread. It's got some more detailed pics on the installation of the poptop if your interested.
http://sportsmobileforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=2650

[wilez5150]

kinda cool but you will have to stand on bullets back to reach the latch's to open it

[scoobasteeve]

Originally Posted by wilez5150

kinda cool but you will have to stand on bullets back to reach the latch's to open it

That's one reason he switched to the Eurovan poptop, all the latches and hold downs for it were accessed from the inside of the van. The other reason was it was much easier to lift up, the first one was almost a two man job to raise.

[Johnny Quest]

there was a guy somewhere on here that made a westfalia pop top work on an XJ. def some good fab ideas

[mwstudt]

Originally Posted by wilez5150

kinda cool but you will have to stand on bullets back to reach the latch's to open it

Originally Posted by scoobasteeve

That's one reason he switched to the Eurovan poptop, all the latches and hold downs for it were accessed from the inside of the van. The other reason was it was much easier to lift up, the first one was almost a two man job to raise.

All VW/Vanagon/Eurovan's had latches on the inside. None of them came with latches on the outside. Chances are, when they adapted the top. They had to remove the fiberglass where the latch was. I've been into VW Bus's for along time and have never come accross one that had exterior latches. Lifting them up it also quite easy, my wife does it all the time. Trying to close it on the other hand is the hard part. You're trying to pull on 4 garage door springs.

That is a badass van though. That is hopefully going to be the next project of mine.

[Hawkz]

A flippac may work better, but then again it may not. Something that pushes up may work better on a van than folding forward or to the side...

I have a flippac on my Dodge, but I've been thinking about getting one for a mini truck and trying to build it to fit my Jeep TJ. Like you, it would be a lot of fab, but worth it if I could make it work...

www.flippac.com