Ron,

I went at this in a more organized manner than you realize.

I've chosen several roads as samples, city streets, interstates, and blue
highways, all of them crowned different amounts, and measured the amount of
crown in each.  I then measured the amount of slope to my driveway (I live
on a slight hill) and the crown on the road in front of my house.  I
determined that, although the Westy spends a majority of its time in the
driveway(58%), most of that is at night ( I felt that I had to devalue that
time in my calculations - I chose a 50% value, or 29%).  It spends some time
in front of the house (if I'm home in the daytime, I usually don't pull into
the driveway)(28%).  I averaged in the Interstate(8%), blue highways(12%),
and city streets (22%)  (figures may not add up to exactly 100% due to
averaging up).

Well, after I did all of my calculations, I parked on a level skidpad,
pulled out my handy protractor, and whaddaya know?  The defrost lines just
happened to be at exactly the correct angle for my particular driving mix.

And you know what else?  MINE DOESN'T FLAP AROUND IN THE WIND!

Happy Friday,

Karl
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Bloomquist" <roadcow@mcn.org>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2000 9:15 AM
Subject: sticker alignment problems

> Yo Karl,
>
> You wrote: "I lined mine up with the defrost lines in the back window."
>
> Oh oh!  That means your sticker is crooked!
>
> Please note that the rear window is not flat, it is convex.  Not only
that,
> the window is mounted to the rear hatch which is also convex. You will
note
> that the top of the hatch slopes towards the front of the Vanagon.  This
> feature, combined with the convex shape, was an effort on the part of the
> Vanagon design team to vastly improve aerodynamics!
>
> But, the bad news is...the defroster line reference you used is not
> straight, relative to the ground.  They measures higher in the middle of
the
> window than at the sides of the windows.
>
> I solved this problem by applying the sticker to a piece of clear
Plexiglas
> just larger than the sticker.  I drilled a hole in the top middle edge of
> the plexi and suspended it with a short length of monofilament from the
> upper window rubber seal with a deck screw.  Be careful to not screw into
> the glass.  Now, no matter how un-level my choice of parking spot, my
> Vanagon.Com sticker remains level at all times.  I did notice there was a
> tendency for it to flap in the wind but the addition of several three
ounce
> sinkers, attached along the bottom edge, stopped that.  (You can adjust
> balance by your choice of sinker weight.)
>
> Better luck next time!
>
> Ron  (9:00 am Friday,out here in Californie.)
>