Date:         Sat, 20 Feb 1999 12:24:34 -0600
Reply-To:     Marshall Ruskin <mruskin@PANGEA.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Marshall Ruskin <mruskin@PANGEA.CA>
Subject:      Ideas for Home-made Westy Tents!
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi Everybody:

My Personal Fraulein Direktor, Karen (AKA as my wife) and I are soon going
to do lots of travelling, and therefore a Westy tent would be nice. (We
already have a "home-made toilet", see the archives for info on this
Keywords: Marshall Ruskin, toilet!)

Now, I have seen the Westy tents on the web available through our listee
brother, and they seem to be extremely nice. Personally speaking, they are
too expensive for me, especially with currency exchange. (I am not saying
anything negative about their quality, I know it is great!)

Now, here are my thoughts about the solution to above problem (for a Westy
tent, not a new wife):

1. Standard mass-produced tents are very cheap;
2. Plastic tarps are available in every FLAPS, as is duct tape;
3. Use the above points to fabricate a van-joining tunnel with :

    3.1  under-sliding-door rain and bug panel;
    3.2 tunnel door with snaps or velcro etc for fixing door flap.

The general idea is to take a standard tent, and cut a sliding door access
hole. Cut edges are to be protected with a strip of duct tape folded over
outside and inside of cut edge. Then fabricate the tunnel out of cut tarp
pieces, using duct tape strips to  tastefully join all pieces required.

The one unknown (for me) is the the way said tunnel should be joined to the
van, ie: how is this generally done?

Has anybody tried this yet (fabricate a van tent, not get a new wife)?
Comments?

Cheers!

Marshall Ruskin
84 Westy