Date:         Wed, 19 Apr 2000 17:48:37 EDT
Reply-To:     Ssittservl@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         S Sittservl <Ssittservl@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Re: To table or not to table
Comments: To: drew@bomb-proof.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

>  When I bought my Westy, it came without the front table and tablearm. I
>  want to know 1) is it worth having the front table for a family of four
>  (my guess: yes) and 2) where does the front table get stored while
>  driving?
>
>  Thanks,
>  Drew
>  83.5 Westy, Utah

We've got both tables in our '88 Westy, and we rarely use the front one -
maybe half a dozen times in 2 years.  We use the rear table all the time.
Typically, we eat with two people in the back seat and one on the porta-potti
( lid down :-) ) sharing the table, and one in the front passenger seat facing
rearward holding a plate on their lap.  It's usually not worth the trouble to
put
up the second table.  However, it's occasionally very useful to have, and if I
didn't have one I know I'd be saying "if only I had a front table, I'd use it
right
now" a lot more often then I actually use it.  If I didn't have one, I'd
probably
buy one.

As for storage: ours goes right behind the driver's seat - that is, between
the driver's seat and the sink cabinet.  It's resting on it's long side, so
the driver's seat can go all the way back and recline almost all the way
(I think we lose one recline-click over what we'd have without the table).
Very easy to get to there, and not in the way.  However, it's probably
part of the reason we almost never rotate the driver's seat - we'd have to
move the table out of they way first, and we're just too lazy.

The arm stays in its bracket, rotated so that the horizontal part is right
up against the sink cabinet.  There's a little cover over the horizontal
part to keep anyone (or the sink cabinet) from getting poked or greasy.
It's a tiny bit in the way there, but not much.

> From: SELTEN@CORE.COM (Thomas Czerniak)
>
> ... the table itself will slide into the space between the
> closet and the drivers rear window....

Good idea - I never thought of that.  I'm going to go home
tonight and try it out.

> From: Roq8cyans@AOL.COM (Rusty Johnson)
>
> Is the tabletop you have small enough to be swung over the cabinets to the
left
> of the back seat (above the water tank) and fit nicely?  If so, that is the
> *front* tabletop, IIRC.  The rear tabletop is larger, and will not fit into
> that space.

The larger rear table is designed to fit over those bins to the left of the
rear seat, as long as you turn it the proper direction (the pivot's not
in the center).  Ours scrapes across the rear seat back on the way in,
but that's not a problem.

                                                              -Steven Sittser