Date: Thu, 20 May 2010 10:17:06 -0400
Reply-To: The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject: Re: Totally NEW Add-A-Room for Vanagons - Answering your Questions
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTinIQdJXGIS4yBUi8y3K39hPNU8Tk7bZ4XLkpKzs@mail.gmail.com>
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> Looks good. Any pictures showing how it attaches to the van?
The tent can attach in various ways. On a Vanagon, you would generally
attach it via a pole clamped inside the rain gutter (a common method for
side tents that is very simple yet effective - see
http://busdepot.com/images/parts/J12003.jpg ). We have optional mounts for
Eurovans (which don't have rain gutters) that are linked from
www.busdepot.com/details/addaroom.jsp . If you have a stationary object that
can wrap a strap around, our velcro strap kit
(http://busdepot.com/details.jsp?partnumber=VSTRAP) can alternatively be
used to hold the rain gutter pole to the side of the vehicle. We also have
another mount that allows you to attach it via the rain gutter lip
(http://busdepot.com/details.jsp?partnumber=J12016). This is left over from
the Spacemaker tent and I haven't tested this one with the new unit, but
will try to within the next week or so.
> Will it work with an Apollo awning on the van?
> Will this work on pax vans as well?
I'm not familiar with the Apollo awning, and only somewhat familiar with the
Mercedess van. If you can email me a picture of the side door area of your
vehicle I can probably answer this.
> will the attached floor cover the gap under the vehicle so the
> entire space will be bug free? That has always been the most
> difficult obstacle to overcome in my tentative plans to fabricate
> such an enclosure.
There is really no way to achieve a perfect seal, especially if the same
unit is to be useable on a wide variety of VW campers. Not only are there
differences in heights and dimensions between Buses, Vanagons, and Eurovans,
but even within Vanagons there are significant ride height variations due to
taller Syncro springs, etc. This changes the exact location of the slliding
door. I have addressed this issue in several ways. First of all, the entry
door to the van opens a couple of different ways. You can roll just the left
or right half up independently, roll the whole thing up, or remove it
entirely. This maximizes the flexibility in lining the opening up to the
vehicle door. I was even able to get mine to line up such that I could still
use the passenger front door, which is rare on a side tent. Secondly, the
side walls that create the vestibule between the Add-A-Room and the Vanagon
are elasticized and can be staked down at the bottom, so you can get a
pretty good fit from tent to vehicle. I have placed a picture of this at
<http://www.busdepot.com/details/images/vestibule.JPG>. That still leaves
the area below the sliding door, which is pretty much impossible to seal. I
have included a wind break that can be angled to alter its height to match
your vehicle height, which will help fill in that area. It will not make a
perfect seal but it is better than most models which have nothing there at
all. When night falls and bugs are more prevalent, I usually attach my
sliding door mosquito screen (which we sell) or just shut the sliding door
between uses. Of course the canvas entry door also zips closed.
> Gonna pre order a brown one. what's the
> dimensions of it packed up and the weight?
Cutting weight means cutting corners, so this is always a tough call. I will
say straight off that I did choose quality over "lightweightness" on this
design. Although we have sold nylon dome side tents that are much lighter
weight and smaller, I rejected that in favor of a canvas-on-frame design
because it is FAR more durable and allows infinitely more configuration
options. This is built to last years and years without ripping or bending a
pole, and you can't do that and make it 15 lbs. My gold standard for
quality was a German Vanagon side tent that I have used for many years now
and keep coming back to. It cost me about $600 used when I bought it some
years ago, and it's bulletproof. I have used it hundreds of times over the
years (not to mention the use its first owner gave it) and it's as solid as
the day it was new. When the factory gave me samples of my tent for
approval, that is what I compared them to. I did reduce the fabric weight a
bit, because the original German tent (which nearly 100 lbs) was overkill,
but in general when weight loss meant quality loss I opted for quality. In
the end I shaved roughly 30 lbs off of the too-heavy German tent, plus added
a floor and other features, without a significant sacrifice in quality. That
is as much as could be done without cutting corners, but admittedly it still
makes for a heavy tent. If small and lightweight is what you want, we have
our Ezy-Awning, which is $119, packs tiny, and weighs nothing. I use both -
the Ezy-Awning for day trips and a side tent for weekend or longer trips.
Currently we're running a promo (www.busdepot.com/details/addaroom.jsp)
where you get the Ezy-Awning for $79 with purchase of the Add-A-Room.
The outer tent bag is roughly 4 x 2 x 2 feet when packed (this from memory,
not precise). However, inside that bag, the poles and the sleeping cabin
are in their own bags, so you could break them into three smaller lighter
bags instead of one big heavy one. The total shipping weight will be roughly
70 lbs with all accessories, but that includes packaging. As an alternative
to breaking it into three smaller, lighter bags, you could also reduce
overall size and weight by leaving some of the optional parts you didn't
plan to use (floor, sleeping cabin, awning poles) at home and just bringing
the canvas and frame.
While I didn't size it down much, I did make it faster and easier to
assemble. You still need two people to assemble it because it's a 10 foot
tent, but you can do it very quickly. Most of the poles are sprung together
so they can only go up one way. It will probably take you more time to get
everything out of the bags than it will to assemble it. You can have the
frame up in five minutes, and have the canvas on it in another five. (That
can take 20-30 minutes on some side tents.) At that point it's already
fully functional, and it's just a matter of configuring it as you want it -
putting the floor in or not, putting the sleeping cabin in or not, raising
or lowering various sides or extending the awnings, etc..
- Ron Salmon
The Bus Depot, Inc.
www.busdepot.com
(215) 234-VWVW
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Toll-Free for Orders by PART # : 1-866-BUS-DEPOT
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