my girlfriend is 4' 9"... and when the rear hatch is up, she can't reach it
to close it..  also when im camping at night, and i have the rear hatch open
w/ bug screen in place, and it gets chilly in the middle of the night and i
want to close the hatch, i cant, without getting out of the van..

so here is the solution..its simple..and im suprised VW never did this on the
bus/vanagon -   look on the new Eurovans..  see the grab strap on the rear
hatch?  i put one on my vanagon..   i have a bunch of extra interior grab
straps (you know, the black straps that are screwed into the headliner in the
passenger compartment)  and i installed one on the rear hatch - in the
center, right below the top edge of the vinyl hatch panel.  there is metal
bracing behind there that you can screw into.   it look like 4 minutes and is
very handy..

i have some of these straps, if anyones interested..tho they are the same
straps used on every aircooled vw since the late '60's...and all vw vans..
chris