Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2013 13:57:49 -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: Recommendation for Popup Tent. 85 Vanagon
In-Reply-To: <515B0E95.6080804@knology.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> I've searched the archives for recommendations with no luck.
> I see there are different materials. Which is best?
We have an article on this at http://www.busdepot.com/details/canvas/ that
may be of help to you.
We also have a new Bus Depot brand canvas that I highly recommend. This
product was born of my frustration with every aftermarket canvas I'd ever
seen. The worst of them is absolute crap, and even the best ones had various
shortcomings, particularly in the area of quality control So about two
years ago we decided to do our own, which went to market in the middle of
last summer. It took over a year just to find the right fabric, which is so
close to the OEM German one that you can hardly tell the difference side by
side. However I did make the side windows a bit larger due to popular
demand.
Apart from quality, my primary concern was consistency of fit. The German
OEM factory is astounding in their ability to get every canvas almost
perfectly right within a fraction of an inch. No - and I mean no -
aftermarket supplier that I've ever dealt with is as exacting. And we do
sell the OEM one, for those who want nothing less than the best. My goal was
to duplicate this quality control - and overall quality - a lower price. The
problem is that the original poptop canvas is nearly drum-tight as per
factory spec, which leaves absolutely no margin for error. If you pull it
just a little too tight on installation, or if the canvas is even an inch
too small, it won't fit properly. Half the aftermarket canvases I've seen on
Westies show signs of this - you can see the poptop lift arm knuckles
pushing out at the canvas when the top is up. So I approached this issue in
two ways. First, our canvas is just a tiny fraction bigger than stock. Only
by an inch or so, just enough to make the installation a tad easier without
affecting the finished result. This gives you just a tiny bit of "wiggle
room" if you haven't installed 20 of these before. Secondly - and this is a
first-and-only among poptop canvas - every single Bus Depot brand poptop
canvas is individually QC'd by an independent canvas specialist. Before the
canvas goes on our shelf, each and every one goes to a specialist who
measures it and records the results by serial number. If the canvas doesn't
meet spec, it doesn't ship, plain and simple. This is a level of quality
control that even the OEM canvas does not go through.
The overall result is that this is the first aftermarket canvas that I'd say
can hold its own to the OEM one, despite its much lower price. I wouldn't
hesitate to use one on my own Westy, and bank the savings for some other
project.
- 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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