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Date:         Sat, 5 Apr 2008 13:22:42 -0400
Reply-To:     Edward Maglott <emaglott@BUNCOMBE.MAIN.NC.US>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Edward Maglott <emaglott@BUNCOMBE.MAIN.NC.US>
Subject:      Re: Sportsmobile
In-Reply-To:  <1a1401c894ce$19ca6ed0$5d01050a@cspfr2>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

My first VW van was a '71 sportsmobile conversion. I think it was as good or better than the Westy version of that era. Fit/finish/materials were not as nice as Westy products. It had a sink, counter, ice box unit right by the sliding door like the Westy. Hand pumped faucet, with a tank you could take out to fill. The whole unit came out pretty easily after you undid a couple latches. Not so for the Westy. The rear seat/folding bed was plain old vinyl covered foam as mentioned. Not so pretty, but functional and comfortably flat. The spare tire was moved to the front of the van so gave more room inside the back. There was a simple fold out table and a simple rear facing seat with storage inside it right behind the driver's seat. The pop top was much better imo. It went straight up and had a big flat padded surface to sleep on. The westies of that era had the sling hammock upstairs, which was so uncomfortable I never slept in. The poptop canvas opened to screen entirely on both sides and the front. I mean a *lot* of air up there. Getting the top to come down evenly was a little tricky, as it tended to come down angled and that wouldn't work. I seem to remember the poptop sealing pretty well too, compared to the '69 Westy I had, which would sometimes catch the wind on the leading edge and creep up a little.

Edward

At 10:30 AM 4/2/2008, you wrote: >They've been around awhile; they even have a splitty camper on their >homepage at http://www.sportsmobile.com/ . I have a picture of one of their >'70's bay window conversions and it is the tackiest thing you ever saw. Big >vinyl seat cushions, shag carpet, looks like from an Austin Powers movie. I >wonder if any are still around... Did they ever do Vanagons? > >Bryan


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