Like many others, I've been thinking about making these for a while now.
But every time I crawl under the front of the van I can't see a really good
place to mount the thing to.  Maybe I'm thinking that they need to be
stronger than what is needed or wanted.   If the idea is to deflect "brush",
than it could be made strong enough.  If the idea is to protect against
kangaroos and deer,  it looks like all currently available products would
bend inward and still damage the front of the van.  If the idea is cosmetic,
then I guess almost any design would be okay.

I'm just speculating, but I would estimate that anything strong enough to
provide real protection would weigh 100 lbs or more.  A lot of weight up
front?

Also, can you really mount a winch (like in the picture) to it and pull your
van out of, say a mudhole... without ripping the whole thing off the van?
There has to be people out there with some real experience.......

If the vanagon were "body on frame" construction, it would be easy.

Just posing some questions.
Gary Lee
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/gary2a/rack/vanagonrack.htm