Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2010 18:23:23 -0400
Reply-To: Jonathan Poole <jfpoolio@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jonathan Poole <jfpoolio@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: another victim - pop top lifting assembly weak spot
In-Reply-To: <7BFB4686-F8DF-493F-A663-F16FFAEC7568@shaw.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Oh no,, I may be wrong on this!! oh well,, in this case I'm going to blame
it on Friday,, if only it were always so easy..
I guess the worst thing is that this means that even though my top bar was
rattling up and down a ton that it wasn't the main source of wear on my
cross-bar and that I'm in for more wear in the future.. I had hoped that I
had found the problem and was home free..
Others may be able to disprove my theory too if they, unlike me, have had
long had secure/not wiggly/vibrating cross bars and also have significant
cross bar wear.
No matter the source this is not the strongest part of our vans and should
be looked into on all of em by now..
Thanks for the feedback Alistair,
Jonathan Poole
On Fri, Sep 10, 2010 at 6:14 PM, Alistair Bell <albell@shaw.ca> wrote:
> Jonathan,
>
> you're brilliant!
>
> well hold off on confirmation until I go and check the wear pattern and see
> if it matches the folded state.
>
> I just checked, in my case your explanation does not hold water, sorry. The
> upper strut, the one that wears the slot in the cross bar, lines up with the
> slot when it is extended in the upright, roof up, position. Its as if the
> wear happens at that last push to make the strut vertical.
>
> In folded state, the wear pattern does not seem to fit your theory.
>
> sorry :)
>
> but what you say makes sense, it might be the case in other cases.
>
> cheers
>
> alistair
>
>
>
> On 10-Sep-10, at 2:22 PM, Jonathan Poole wrote:
>
> Hello List,
>
> I can confirm the weakness in the pop-top cross bar joints from my own
> experiences with it on different vanagon westies.
>
> I'll add one finding that may not have been mentioned but that I think is
> important. In my opinion/observation the wear through the cross bar comes
> not from the lifting/lowering of the top as much as it does from the
> bars/lift assemblies vibration/movement while driving. I'm not totally
> sure
> of course, but I think that continuous small movements while driving far
> outweigh the abrasions incurred from infrequent top lowering/raising on
> most
> vans (how often were the tops with worn out bars really raised/lowered??).
>
> The way that I have addressed this partial source of the wearing of the
> cross bar ends is to make sure that the pop-top lift assembly/cross bar is
> fully seated against the top of the van's body when the top is lowered and
> latched. If there is any looseness or a gap between the lift assembly and
> the body then the bar will wiggle up and down when you drive. The mounting
> holes at the base of the two top support struts are elongated so that you
> can move the base forward or aft a little bit. By moving the bases forward
> you secure the hinge part of the hatch raising/support assembly more firmly
> against the van's body. I enlongated the holes a bit more on one side of
> my
> van to increase the parked tension on my own van so that I got rid of most
> of the annoying bouncing while driving that was also rattling against the
> pop-top a bit etc.
>
> I'm guessing that this description isn't too clear and that even if you
> followed it that this may not make sense so here is the simple test. Go out
> to your van and with the top lowered and latched push up on the cross bar.
> Is it snug in it's parked position? or does it easily wiggle up and down?
> If it wiggles up and down easily then it is probably doing so while you
> drive too and you may want to adjust the top, or the raising/lowering
> assembly as needed to keep the cross bar secured when the top is lowered.
>
> Jonathan Poole
> '83 AC Westy
>
>
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