Beats me -- Mrs Squirrel and I prefer sleeping downstairs. Tom -- do you
use the upper bunk?

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
KG6RCR

On 1/7/2008 12:35 PM Jake de Villiers wrote:

> Way to go guys!  Nice job with the design Tom and thanks for the Wiki
> Rocky.
>
> Any trouble getting in and out of the upper berth with the shelf there?
> I can't really see how much of the access slot the BZ covers.
>
> Thanks again, Jake
>
> On Jan 2, 2008 5:40 PM, Michael Elliott <camping.elliott@gmail.com
> <mailto:camping.elliott@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Back in August or so Mrs Squirrel and I became frustrated with having to
>     deal with boxes of groceries and stuff which were constantly underfoot
>     when camping in places where the local critters were eying our
>     comestibles
>     with considerable interest. I wondered whether it might be possible to
>     hang a shelf in the otherwise unused overhead space at the front of the
>     raised poptop and posted a proposal involving chains and skyhooks and
>     stuff, an idea that was doomed to never work.
>
>     Several folks suggested better ways to go about it, but nothing seemed
>     very easy to me. Then Tom Buese, who was apparently looking for an
>     excuse
>     to avoid doing real work, popped up with a design for a shelf which
>     mounts
>     easily on the poptop's crossarm with a couple of hardware store U-bolts,
>     holds a surprising amount of stuff when deployed, and folds flat against
>     the roof when the top is down. He put together a prototype and
>     emailed a
>     dimensioned drawing of his idea to me. I banged a version together in a
>     couple of hours without hardly any significant loss of blood and mounted
>     it up. After a test on a short camping trip, it has become a permanent
>     addition to our Westy. Best thing I've ever done -- besides marrying Mrs
>     Squirrel, I'd say.
>
>     After the Vanagon Wiki went "live" this year I suggested to Tom that we
>     could post a how-to article about his "BZ Shelf" but it took him a
>     bit of
>     time to take the pictures and refine the drawing. But finally, after
>     considerable nagging on my part, I got him to post the stuff to me so I
>     could write the article.
>
>     If you're like me, able to use a reciprocating saw without hardly ever
>     cutting off a finger, own a Westy, and find yourself sometime
>     wishing you
>     had a darn place to put pots and pans and coolers and stuff that seem to
>     crowd your floor when camping, do yourself a favor and build a BZ
>     Shelf. I
>     reckon you'll be glad you did.
>
>     So here it is, with Tom's permission: photos and plans at
>     http://vanagonwiki.net/index.php/Buese_Shelf
>     <http://vanagonwiki.net/index.php/Buese_Shelf>
>
>     --
>     Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
>     71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
>     84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
>     74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
>     KG6RCR
>
>
>
>
> --
> Jake
> 1984 Vanagon GL
> 1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
> Crescent Beach, BC
> www.crescentbeachguitar.com <http://www.crescentbeachguitar.com>
> http://subyjake.googlepages.com/