Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 18:45:08 EST
Reply-To: Ssittservl@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: S Sittservl <Ssittservl@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: Westfalia alternative (was Re: A Ford Westy)
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> > From: S Sittservl <Ssittservl@AOL.COM>
> > Date: Tuesday, November 17, 1998 6:58 PM
> >
> > The nicest alternative I've seen to a Westfalia is the Sportsmobile...
> > They have a web site at www.sportsmobile.com....
>
> Date: 98-11-17 22:37:32 EST
> From: wdavidson@JPS.NET (Bill Davidson)
>
> Interesting site, thanks. But for my 2 cents:
> I've looked a lot of camper vans and my impression is that they are trying
> to make them like mini motor homes inside with all the conveniences. Once
> you cram all that in you end up with an isle down the center. It feels
> cramped to me. What I love about the Westys that I haven't seen in any
> other vans is two things:
> 1. the open space feeling inside compared to center isle designs.
> 2. all the windows in the Westy give an even more open feeling. I don't
> want to go to beautiful country and sit inside and look at the walls. I
> like light and an open view.
> That my 2 bits,
> Bill
> 90 Westy Syncro
> Lake Tahoe
When my wife and I were first looking at campers about a year ago, those
were the same criticisms we had of a lot of what we saw - the van
campers typically had tiny windows and felt very cramped inside. I think
part of the reason was that they were trying to maximize cupboard space.
The high hard-topped units often felt like you had your head stuck up
into this "slot" in the ceiling that ran between the cupboards. It was
claustrophobic even for one person.
We really liked pop-tops best: they let you park in the garage, and
they retain a bit of the "tent" feeling that helps make the trip
"camping" instead of "moterhomeing".
Another thing that was hard to find was any way to seat at least 4 people
facing forward - most van campers seem to be geared toweard just 2 people,
even when they can sleep 4. The Westfalia was one of the few that could
seat 4 comfortably.
I like the Eurovan camper a lot, but it seems to have a bit of the "small
window" problem. Visibility's good from the front seats, but not so good
from the back. When the shades are open, they lower the top of the windows
quite a bit. Plus, the rear passengers have no window at all directly to
their left - there's a cupboard there. I really like the visibility in
our Westfalia - big windows all around, and everybody's got a good view.
One of the things I liked about the Sportsmobile was that the straight-up
pop top has big windows on three sides, and the entire bed attaches up at
the (raised) ceiling when it's not in use. Thus, a standing person has
an unobstructed view in three directions from anywhere in the van.
Many of the standard Sportsmobile floor plans seem geared toward 2 people,
but a few - the "RB52" Westy clone, in particular - have forward-facing
seats for more. (The RB52 seats 3 on its back seat, for a total of 5).
When we were playing with the custom plan kit, we generally tried to
stay away from that cramped "long aisle" feeling, too. What I don't
like about the Westfalia floor plan is that everyone's always in this
one little 4'x4' square of floor space - there's no place else to "go" in
the van. (Even the porta-potti has to just sit right out in the middle of
things.) However, it does give a nice open feeling, and it turned out to
be harder than I had first thought to come up with a layout that improves
on it in a van-sized space. (Plus, it's great for hauling cargo.)
Just recently, I ran into another VW conversion company that has some
pretty interesting designs - Dehler, in Germany. I believe they were
originally a yacht company. Their web site is at www.dehler-mobile.de.
It's in German, so I used AltaVista (www.altavista.com) to translate it.
- Steven
