Earlier buses that had double doors or sunroof, had belly pans to
strengthen the frame because of the missing metal area above.  They
were welded in & a pita to access things than ran from front to
back.  But definitely needed.

YMMV,

Mr. BZ-sounds like quite the machine

On Jul 1, 2008, at 4:28 PM, Mark Tuovinen wrote:

> Yesterday while visiting a local repair shop I had the opportunity
> to see the underside of a Westy Syncro, the owner of which I know
> casually and maybe a list member, that was on a rack.  The entire
> underside between the front and rear wheels was covered with a
> metal pan consisting of two large pieces that extended front to
> rear and overlapped in the middle(offcenter).  This pan not only
> went front to rear but came all the way out to each side and up to
> meet the rockers.  This van has a second(South Africa?) fuel tank
> on the passenger side w/filler in the stock 2whl drive location.
> On the drivers side it had a mounted gray water tank and appeared
> to have a second propane tank behind the stock one with an extended
> fill hose out to the side.  Whom ever made this belly pan was
> serious about it, it was bolted on with a sufficient size and
> quantity of bolts, access openings were clean and even had the
> edges trimmed out.  Not sure that I would want to have to remove it
> on a muddy trail in the rain but it was interesting to see.  This
> was my first upclose view of this van as usually I see it while
> driving and I never realized that it had the belly pan, though I
> always thought that something looked different about the van.  I
> will have to ask the owner if he bought it that way or added it
> later, wish I had a camera with me.
> Mark in AK