Syncro tin-top or 2wd Westy?

[dillon schuh]

Im looking to buy syncro tin top or 2wd westy... You can buy one for the same price it looks like. My girlfriend and I are looking to take it camping and weekend trips. I really want the syncro but the westy interor is awesome. It really is a hard choice.. I know you can put the westfalia interior in the hard tops but is it really that awesome? I have looked on the forums and really cant fine all the cabinets put in in a picture? Any help would be great.

[shadetreetim]

My wife and I camp just fine in our tintop. Without Westy cabinets.

If you want and or need a Syncro, go buy the tintop. You can then modify it to your hearts content.
_________________
Tim Potts

Doing my best every time I drive it to dispel the myth these Vanagons have to be slow!


'89 Vanagon Bluestar/Country Homes 1.8T & .77 4th
'74 Jeep CJ5

[dillon schuh]

did you do any mods to your interior?

[danbar]

If you get a tin top with a rear seat that folds into a bed already all you need to do is pull out the middle seat, if it's still there and you'll have all the room you need for camping gear. Once you've camped in it a few times you will have an idea of what you want/need and can then go about modifying the open space to suit your needs. A westy interior is nice but for me it's a bit more than I need and I like having a little more room to move around. My tin top syncro came with an early westy joker rear seat/bed and I love it. It also has some custom cabinets with a fridge that I will probably modify or replace down the road.
_________________
'88 SCA High/Pop-top Syncro camper
'61 Meyers Manx

[Vango Conversions]

You'll get lots of opinions here. I work on quite a few of these vans and have driven all of the different configurations and my personal opinion is that for two people, a tin top with a carat interior is enough room for two people to camp in comfortably and it's much more flexible, allowing you to carry more people and or cargo when you aren't camping. The bed is also much wider than the full westy. Taking a hard right turn in a full west sucks, they're top heavy and heavy on the left side, pluss all the pots and pans slide around

If you think you might have some kids in the near future, the pop top is going to be pretty cool so your whole family can camp. I personally would much rather have the multivan interior without the kitchen though for the reasons listed above. Larger bed, lighter weight, and more interior room. Cooking outside keeps the smell down and a cooler works fine for a few days.

Syncros are cool but the maintenace is much more $.

PERSONALLY, given a choice between the two, I'd go tin top syncro. You can always add a pop top later.

I drive a 2wd carrat with a Subaru 2.5 the carat handles better than any other vanagon (on road that is) and gets better mpg than a westy or a syncro and they're cheaper to maintain. If I found a screaming deal on a syncro I'd go for it but if I wanted to do real wheeling, I'd get a jeep or a toyota. Syncos are expensive to upgrade and even more expensive to fix.

[shadetreetim]

Ours has the jumpseats and table. We pull the jump seats and use a plastic cabinet to store food/dishes. Cabinet goes behind the drivers seat.

Behind the passenger seat we use an Engel fridge. Probably the best camping accessory we have ever purchased.

We passed on the Westy's because of the lack of a full width bed. Haven't missed the pop top as I've never had one. We live outside unless we're sleeping anyway.
_________________
Tim Potts

Doing my best every time I drive it to dispel the myth these Vanagons have to be slow!


'89 Vanagon Bluestar/Country Homes 1.8T & .77 4th
'74 Jeep CJ5

[syncrodoka]

Go check them both out. Drive them, poke at stuff and kick some tires.

The lower bed in the westy is smaller but it has the addition sleeping up top but you have to get up there. Easy to make a BLT sammich and hot cocoa when the weather is foul outside but then your car smells like bacon and hot cocoa. You have the convenience of a kitchenette built in but it is always there so it takes up some space- is the trade off worth it for you?


The syncro can get you much further off road but how much wheeling do you really intend to do? The bed in the back is the size of a queen bed. You can fit random large objects inside like 4'x8' sheets of plywood without much difficulty. They get lower MPG but higher dude points for the cool 4x4 van.

They both have their plusses and minuses. What do you really need?

[Phishman068]

The myth that syncros cost more on a day to day basis is just that, a myth.
Long term even they could come out statistically even.
If you want to disagree, lets see the data.....
: )


With that said, I found years ago when I started into vanagons that a westfalia interior is what I LOVE, but the poptop is not what I need. I had a poptop and used it ONCE in almost 7 years.
But the interior, well once I swapped that in I loved it every day.

I now have the westy interior in my syncro tintop and absolutely love it for camping and day to day life. It's the bomb.
_________________
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=559766&highlight=winter+rust
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=482402&highlight=sunroof+syncro
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=569774
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6864936#6864936

"Along with the ability to go fast, one looses the desire to hurry."

[Love My Westy]

[Central Syncronizer]

My suggestion is to get a syncro sunroof van (assuming you can find one). You can always camperize it later if you want as the sunroof is the same size as the westy pop top opening. Huge.

The westy interior is great, but you'll find you hardly ever cook in there anyways. A Coleman stove set up outside is way more useful.

The oem fridge is small and you'll have most of your stuff in coolers if you are camping for more than a day or so. The sink is great but again is small.
_________________
Ongoing restoration/maintenance of my syncro double cab (and soon Westy):

http://88syncrodoka.blogspot.com/

[matt_j]

I got rid of my 2WD westy this year and I'm in the process of purchasing a tin top syncro.

The westy interior was almost useless for us. Never really used the fridge, cooking on the stove is ok sometimes (depends what you're cooking inside), and the sink/water tank was useless to us. Never used it once. I quickly realized all we had were cabinets in there that just rattled around on logging roads. The pop top was great but it only got used by friends when camping with us. It's kinda neat for standing room, but 4wd is far more important to me than friends sleeping in a neat pop top tent on the weekend.

The idea of 4WD, a wider z-bed, and the ability to seat more than 4 passengers appeals to me a lot more than a kitchen unit and pop top. Personal preference.

[shepherdsond]

Ha ha, so many different opinions - like politics!

Personally I love the Westy interior, we cook in it often and love to be reminded of our last great meal for a few hours by the lingering aromas, the sink is just big enough (water on demand!) and the fridge is awesome and runs for weeks on a full tank of propane. We are slim and the Westy bed is just big enough - and room for 2 more upstairs! The Westy allows us to escape for the weekend at a moments notice. My current van started as a syncro tin top. I installed a Westy interior but I found bending down all the time to be a pain - literally (OK I am over 50). So I put on a hightop. Altogether the conversion was expensive and a lot of time and does not look as good as a Westfalia - but it is unique and very practical. I have had many 2WD drive Westys and I loved them all. The syncro is nice but unless you can afford the entry price of a Westfalia or you have the time and funds to convert it I would go for a 2WD Westy. Just how much off road will you do? The 2WD Westy can get to some pretty remote spots.
_________________
87 Syncro Hightop Camper
3 knobs + solid shaft
2.2 Phase II Subaru
Hi-Top build thread:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=534517

[Texxxxx]

I like the room of the tip tops. I have two; one a Syncro. Both have the nice, big fold-out bed. I have installed swivel bases on both front seats in both vans and installed curtains. When my son and I used to go camping a lot in our 2WD, I would just load our stuff into two containers. They were convenient to access and could be moved around. Brought along a Coleman stove, of course.

Ran some 12V outlets from a second battery and put in a fridge for the trips; added a propane tank and Propex...you can see the thermostat on the pillar.

My son is 18, now, and the 2WD is his. I don't camp often anymore and mostly just do occasional day trips down the CA coast around Big Sur. I ride the trails with the Lost Burritos sometimes. Other times I like to pull over, swivel the seats, kick back and read, or go for a hike.

Syncrodoka is right...having the room to carry 4x8's has come in handy more than once.
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'85 GL w/2.1L "The Tardis"
It's A Vanagon Day

[insyncro]

[dillon schuh]

haha really different opinions! I know there are pics out there but does anyone have any pics with some original westfalia cabinets in their tin top? Really hard choice... And I am sure I wont be doing that much 4wd. They just are so much cooler.. How much for instal for the pop top? Also how hard to lift a 2wd to look like a syncro? I know there is a 2" lift at gowesty but is that enough?

[joseph928]

1987 Syncro tin top. $500 westy interior took one day to put in. TF-49,solar, sun roof, love it! Dillon go to my Gallery to see more on my tin top.
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1987 syncro westy tin top sun roof , GW2.3, rear locker, decoupler, Gary Lee tire rack & winch mount, lift, south african grill, big brakes , rhein alloy ,15 BFG AT, Fiamma 10 foot awning ,140 watt rear 85 watt front solar , mppt, truckfridge, automatic fire extinguishing system, tencent oil cooler, And a RMW SS exhaust! - 1971 bug convertible 1776 engine- 2010 Subaru turbo - 1993 Toyota 4x4 truck - 1999 Harley 95 CI, big bore, Andrews cams . Also 80-84- vans. Stock 65 sunroof bug.

[syncroid]

Get the syncro, save your pennies then take it to a place like NorthWesty and have him put a pop-top on it. To me that's the ultimate in cool and versatility. All the space below for people, plywood, removable gear, but when it's time to nap, you always have a clear space. Sleeping on the roof in my former multivan was always one of the best parts of every road trip. It literally adds that extra dimension to the van that now is more than a van, it's a tent, a house on wheels, your swiss-army-knife-home-away-from-home...

[juanb]

Interesting discussion. That Westy interior in a tin top looks great!
I have a full Westy and I love the pop top. But I like the tin tops too! My plan is to fully restore the Westy after this trip (body work and paint, it otherwise runs excellent), and then get a second Vanagon. I want an 87-91 tin top to play with. Either with the weekender center table, or I will make a table of that sort. I'll try to make this van "on the cheap", ie on my own, as opposed to what I did with the Westy, buying a nice van with a GoWesty motor and paying a mechanic to get it in even better shape. It will be used for some daily driving, solo weekend camping trips, etc.

Why have just one if you can have two? Collect them all!
_________________
1989 Westy AT, 2.2 GoWesty.
We drove it to Argentina: http://www.vanenvan.com

[Syncronicity]

I love our tintop Syncro and the full size bed. I'm with shadetreetim. It has plenty of room inside for sleeping, gear and sitting out bad weather. We spend our time outside and prefer to do our cooking outside of the van. With all of that being said I'd love to have a full Westy Syncro or 2WD some day. But given the choice between a clean tintop Syncro and a 2wd Westy at similar pricing, I'd have to take the Syncro, because Syncros are awesome
_________________
Tom, Juanita, Iggy & Abbey the Dirty Desert Dogs
2.1 L 87 Syncro
KD0ALU
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[bdcain]

westy
for us
cheaper insurance (motorhome)
can drink in it legally or be passed out drunk (no keys in ign)and
some places considered a house and a search warrant is needed(ive been told)
less parts to break ,buy ,maintain (love my armstrong steering and no ac)
4 wheel drive's can get stuck too
some folk like the eberspacher furnace built in(not me i pulled it out asap)