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XXX/Rx/RnR
Samba Member
Joined: March 01, 2008
Posts: 408
Location: valley of the sun
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 Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 1:16 pm Post subject: pop top shocks |
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I coulden't lift my top without removeing my canoe from the top first,so I installed pop top shocks and now I can lift it with little effort! Supplier Jack Bombay (Samba User).
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ScottK
Samba Member
Joined: August 28, 2004
Posts: 1748
Location: Avilla America
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| Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 1:44 pm Post subject: |
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What brand of rack is that?
Cool idea. |
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skid
Samba Member
Joined: January 16, 2009
Posts: 1329
Location: Vancouver, BC
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| Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 1:45 pm Post subject: |
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That's pretty cool.
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'71 Westfalia |
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RatCamper
Samba Member
Joined: November 13, 2008
Posts: 3305
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 4:46 pm Post subject: |
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Am i missing something here or are those just gas struts?
Might be the go for the pop-top caravan. It just about kills me trying to lift its roof. |
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TomWesty
Samba Member
Joined: November 23, 2007
Posts: 3563
Location: Wyoming,USA
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| Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 4:55 pm Post subject: |
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Yup, gas struts. Nice install!
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BUSBOSS
Samba Member
Joined: January 21, 2009
Posts: 2161
Location: Northern California
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| Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 5:09 pm Post subject: |
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| ScottK wrote: |
What brand of rack is that?
Cool idea. |
X2 And do you have any pics or details on availability and install?
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All the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hood
1976 Westfalia
1970 Karmann Ghia Convertible (sold - but not forgotten) |
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WestyPop
Samba Member
Joined: February 08, 2005
Posts: 1734
Location: SoCal
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| Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 5:59 pm Post subject: |
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Nice work. Great to have some assistance as others have also noted http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=178584&highlight=pop+gas+struts
However it's the same big job for your poptop's hinge mechanisms to endure, whether you have hydraulic helpers or not! Remember to clean & lube the pivot & slide areas occasionally. Just sayin... !
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68 Westy
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XXX/Rx/RnR
Samba Member
Joined: March 01, 2008
Posts: 408
Location: valley of the sun
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| Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 9:05 pm Post subject: |
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| The rack came off a Xterra. There are many write-ups on these shocks in the Vanagon forum. Use the search for poptop shocks and you'll find Jack Bombay. Order from him @ $90 a set. Lower ball joint is 7 inches measured from the end of the bracket and is 4 inches from the bar running from the top of the bus to the poptop. These are spring loaded. I got the heavy duty set. Just use caution when drilling your holes. You cannot compress them by hand, their that stiff. The brackets on the bus where they bolt to the roof are slotted and you can move them back and forth so its a little misgiving if you miss your mark like I did on the drivers side. I was off by a sixteenth of an inch and I just tap the bracket back till the ball poped in the joint. Better to be short than long. These shocks rule! One of the best upgrades you can do. After installion I could'nt believe how easy it was to open. |
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XXX/Rx/RnR
Samba Member
Joined: March 01, 2008
Posts: 408
Location: valley of the sun
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| Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 12:24 am Post subject: |
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| I went to a local salvage yard where they had many different SUV's with racks on um and chose the Xterra because of the big feet that they have to spread the load out. Just placed the rack up there, marked, drilled and bolted on. $40 bucks, can't beat that. Saddles are Yakima for the canoe to set in. Of corse it will depend on where you get one at depending on how much the junk yard thinks they can get for the rack you may chose. I shimmed the middle feet with quarter inch rubber because of the curve of the roof on the Xterra. Looks good and will last for a long time. |
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towd
Samba Member
Joined: June 20, 2005
Posts: 2458
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| Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 12:47 am Post subject: |
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It wasn't that long ago some one posted pic of there shocks on the top. I think he had the mounted right on the steel roof and longer shocks. I wonder what they will do to the fiberglass over the years ( stress) and by years say 10 or more ...
I see some brands of SUV's with F/G rear gates the shock mount are ripping loose.. jeeps are real bad about that..
Are you also still using the stock supports ? |
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jackbombay
Samba Member
Joined: October 19, 2007
Posts: 2725
Location: Portland Oregon
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| Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 6:43 am Post subject: |
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Cool to see how you set up the shocks on your bus!
| XXX/Rx/RnR wrote: |
| Lower ball joint is 7 inches measured from the end of the bracket and is 4 inches from the bar running from the top of the bus to the poptop. |
Is it possible to drill the hole in the pop-top higher up? I see that just above where you drilled the roof steps inward, if the other ball mount was further up on that step the shock would likely hit the sliding bar part of the hinge mechanism, yea?
I just bring this up because with the shock mounted higher it would have a little more mechanical advantage over the top, but it sounds like yours is working quite well especially considering you have a canoe on the roof!
| XXX/Rx/RnR wrote: |
| Just use caution when drilling your holes. |
You can also use the drill bit to make the hole in the pop-top a little oval shpaed, the fender washers are big enough that you could miss by ~3/8" and the hole would still be covered.
| XXX/Rx/RnR wrote: |
| After installion I could'nt believe how easy it was to open. |
How does it open/close without the canoe on the roof? Is it hard to get down with the HD shocks and no canoe? That is typically the case with the vanagon westies.
I see with the different hinge mechanism on the bay window buses it is easier to mount up a shock to help raise the roof, for the vanagon Westies I ended up going with a bracket that gets bolted under the hinge to give the shock better leverage over the weight of the roof. The bay window roof hinge is so long though that an additional bracket is not needed.
I'm not all that familiar with the bay window buses, but I was told that there are a couple different types of roof hinge, anyone know which years use the hinge that XXX/Rx/RnR's van has?
| BUSBOSS wrote: |
X2 And do you have any pics or details on availability and install? |
I could certainly put together some kits (shocks, stainless exterior hardware/zinc plated "interior" hardware) for anyone interested, as a bracket is not needed the price would come down as well. XXX/Rx/RnR you can send back your unused brackets for a refund as well 
As for the strength of the fiberglass top, I can say that the Vanagon (is that a bad word around here? ) Westy tops are very tough, I attempted to do some destructive testing of the top by mounting one of the shock mounts through it and hanging from it, than I filled a backpack with rocks till I weighed ~280 pounds and hung from it and thrashed around as hard as I could trying to break the fiberglass, but nothing happened at all.
I have never checked out a bay window westy top in person so I don't know how similar the fiberglass is, I assume its pretty tough as well. Does someone who happens to have a both a bay window and a vanagon want to do a bit of inspecting and pull the seal down off the edge of the roof to check thickness and material type of the tops of the bay window top and the vanagon top?
| WestyPop wrote: |
| Remember to clean & lube the pivot & slide areas occasionally. Just sayin... ! |
The pivots on the non-slide bar take the full force of the shock when the roof is down so it would certainly be good to get that one lubed up and I'm sure its never a bad thing to give the slider a bit of oil 
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Gas struts to pop your top easily!
Pop Top strut kits now available for late Bay window Westies 
Samba ad here.
DIY artificial rain gutters (ARGs) |
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jackbombay
Samba Member
Joined: October 19, 2007
Posts: 2725
Location: Portland Oregon
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| Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 6:45 am Post subject: |
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| towd wrote: |
| I think he had the mounted right on the steel roof and longer shocks. |
Thats certainly another way to do it, with the vanagon kits I was wanting to avoid additional holes into the van itself so I based the kit off the rear hinge as sex drugs and rock and roll has done.
_________________
Gas struts to pop your top easily!
Pop Top strut kits now available for late Bay window Westies
Samba ad here.
DIY artificial rain gutters (ARGs) |
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tristessa
Samba Member
Joined: April 07, 2004
Posts: 3993
Location: Portland, OR
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| Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 7:45 am Post subject: |
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| jackbombay wrote: |
| I'm not all that familiar with the bay window buses, but I was told that there are a couple different types of roof hinge, anyone know which years use the hinge that XXX/Rx/RnR's van has? |
Those hinges (& that style poptop) is '74-'79 Westfalia. Riviera's are different, though I only mention it because there seem to be a *lot* of Riviera campers around where I live...
Glad to see someone actually *do* this. I was looking into the poptop shocks last year, ran out of time to do anything before a campout/gathering trip .. then had a catastrophic engine failure on the trip, so priorities suddenly shifted a bit...  |
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XXX/Rx/RnR
Samba Member
Joined: March 01, 2008
Posts: 408
Location: valley of the sun
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| Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 8:56 am Post subject: |
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| Hi Mike, To answer your ?'s No to the ? of mounting higher on the top. Hinge & shock would interfear with each other. And when the canoe is off, yes you do have to pull down to close the top. But not too much. No biggie on the doe for the Vanagon hardware I did'nt use. I'll be able to camp longer in my golden years. |
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werksberg
Samba Member
Joined: February 08, 2005
Posts: 2164
Location: Green Valley, AZ
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| Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 10:48 am Post subject: |
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On the Q about the fiberglass top thickness on all year of the Westy tops...all are 1/8" thick as I have all of them here and trying to have the money to make new molds and improved versions of them all.....
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jackbombay
Samba Member
Joined: October 19, 2007
Posts: 2725
Location: Portland Oregon
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| Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 11:44 am Post subject: |
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| werksberg wrote: |
| On the Q about the fiberglass top thickness on all year of the Westy tops...all are 1/8" thick as I have all of them here and trying to have the money to make new molds and improved versions of them all..... |
Thats good to know, that for the info
_________________
Gas struts to pop your top easily!
Pop Top strut kits now available for late Bay window Westies
Samba ad here.
DIY artificial rain gutters (ARGs) |
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sensimilla
Samba Member
Joined: November 10, 2009
Posts: 17
Location: Rockies
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| Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 7:35 pm Post subject: |
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Curious if anyone has tried putting gas shocks on an older bay with a roof that pops the opposite such as a 73?
Very interested in this mod but would like some info on mounting hole placement, pistion size...etc....
thanks |
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Desertbusman
Samba Member
Joined: June 03, 2005
Posts: 14654
Location: Arizona
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| Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 11:57 pm Post subject: |
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The way XXX/Rx/RnR has his bus outfitted with various goodies is pretty impressive. I'd think the biggest downfall would be when he has to head back to the big city and the normal routine. Some decent storms hit while at the campout and was real curious how much that rig rocks in high wind gusts. Raised it looks about twice as tall as in his pictures.
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71 Westy |
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XXX/Rx/RnR
Samba Member
Joined: March 01, 2008
Posts: 408
Location: valley of the sun
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| Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 2:10 am Post subject: |
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| Hi DB, Next trip we can swap buses and compare. Had a great time in Yuma couple weeks ago. Camped outside Prescott last weekend. Done a functional test on the Hydro-Flame furnace I installed under the bus. We can go up to Flag and ski Snow Bowl this winter if it snows enough. Are you up to that. Wishful thinking for a couple of old timers like us. I'm going to try anyway. Just want to keep having fun before my time runs out. Take care... |
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busdaddy
Samba Member
Joined: February 12, 2004
Posts: 53181
Location: Surrey B.C. Canada, but thinking of Ukraine
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| Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 8:18 am Post subject: |
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| sensimilla wrote: |
Curious if anyone has tried putting gas shocks on an older bay with a roof that pops the opposite such as a 73?
Very interested in this mod but would like some info on mounting hole placement, pistion size...etc....
thanks |
If you have lots of time on your hands here's some light reading on the subject by good old Nigel
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/search.php?search..._chars=200
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