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Date:         Thu, 27 Apr 2006 06:55:06 -0400
Reply-To:     Stephen Steele <steeles@HORIZONVIEW.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Stephen Steele <steeles@HORIZONVIEW.NET>
Subject:      Re: shady boy (SB)  owners
Comments: To: Jake de Villiers <crescentbeachguitar@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To:  <71d9cdf90604262145p63669e60o642a39d5b83f8dc5@mail.gmail.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

I've owned my Shady Boy for about five years. It's the best addition that I've made to the Westy. My son (#2) has a brand new SB on his 87 Westy; used for the first time at EveryBus 06 last weekend. At EveryBus on a very rainy Saturday I took the opportunity to look at every SB in the campground. There were seven or eight; two Syncros parked parallel with sliders facing in and SBs overlapping; only one (Frank C.'s) had the optional corner poles; two of the eight were "new style", all the rest "old style".

My observations are that: 1) It was raining a lot and very hard at some times. Mild to moderate wind. 2) Old style had the corner ribs attached by a plastic clip and the ribs tended to bow out and away from the tarp a little. The tarp stayed a little flatter with these. 3) The new style have a fabric pocket at the corner ribs which held the rib under the tarp and caused the tarp to be a little more bowed horizontally. The ribs were held under the tarp completely by the geometry caused by the pocket 4) Essentially, every SB leaked at the slider opening when the pop top was up. The amount of leaking varied with the direction of the wind and rain. 5) The new style SBs tended to let the rain run off without pooling as much as the old styles. All SBs self baled. That is rain pooled onto the tarp until it self baled. 6) Only Frank's SB needed to be "dumped" because of the poles (?).

Solutions?

Temporary: Son#2 put his windshield sun reflector (vinyl/metalized dense core foam) over the SB case between the pop top and the lift up section of the SB case and it helped some. Suggested: A piece of foam pipe insulation placed between the case and the curve of the roof and extending the length of the open slider to deflect the splash and drip coming from under the SB case.

In the past I have just suffered with the dripping and kept a towel handy for occasional wiping of the under side of the case and slider opening. The SB rides out moderate wind with the tie downs in place to the bumpers on the corners. In heavier wind it is advisable to use the tie downs to pull the tarp down tightly to form a parabola curving slightly toward the van at the bottom... otherwise put it away as it will not weather strong winds without damage to it or the van.

Others' comments/suggestions?

Stephen Steele Chillicothe OH '89 Westy no name yet '91 Caravelle "Hans"... FS on the Samba '90 Carat "Parts" '74 MGB My first car...yep, I've kept it since '74 '93 Chevy S-10 '91 Jetta Diesel My daily driver '02 Jetta Wagon VR6 Wife's car Ex Vans/VWs: '81 Vanagon from 1985-1990 '84 Westfalia "Fritz" 2000-2004 now with Son #1 '87 Westfalia "Franz" 2002-2005 now with Son #2 '88 Jetta GL 1990-1992 '92 Jetta GL 1992-1998 '90 Jetta 1999-2003 '81 Rabbit diesel 1999-2003 '82 Caddy VW Diesel P.U. 1999-2004

on 4/27/06 0:45, Jake de Villiers at crescentbeachguitar@GMAIL.COM wrote:

> Now that you've brought it up Tom, how is the Shady Boy in the wind? > Wolfgang offered me a deal on one( he lives just a few blocks away) but I > have some reservations about it's robustness. I'd love to hear areview. >>>> Did anybody come up with a good idea on keeping the water from >>>> dripping off of the back of the case. It drips along the sliding door >>>> and down on the floor when the door is open. >> > > > > -- > Jake > 1984 Vanagon GL > 1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie" > www.crescentbeachguitar.com


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