Is anyone familiar with the Country Homes Camper pop-tops? I like the
straight up pop top but dont like the construction of the upper bunk and
would like to go with one like the Riviera's or Westy's have.
Anyone have any experience with this?
Ed
87 Country Homes Camper

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 6:30 PM, Mike <mbucchino@charter.net> wrote:

>  In a 'unibody' (also referred to as 'monocoque') design structure, any
> skin section is a structurally-stressed component of the entire structure.
>  A Vanagon is considered unibody, even though it does have frame
> strengthening members underneath.
> Those roof support arches are more for rollover protection than torsional
> rigidity of the body.   The roof skin, however, is an engineered, diagonal
> bracing that contributes greatly to torsional rigidity of the entire body,
> in addition to providing added metal structure to add crash or rollover
> protection.
>  Take a shoe box, remove the lid and grab the ends and attempt to twist it;
> it will easily deform.
>  Now, put the lid on and repeat; you'll have a hard time deforming the box
> from it's basic shape.
>  And, now, for the final proof of the body weakness created by a large,
> unreinforced sunroof opening; cut a good -sized 'sunroof' into your shoebox
> lid and repeat your twist test.  What happens?  My bet is that a great
> amount of overall rigidity is lost due the 'missing' area.  You've cut the
> center out of your 'diagonal bracing!
>  VW made up for it by adding 'doublers' inside the factory sunroof, not
> just a couple of cross ribs.  The probably also added outboard, lower frame
> cover plates (I know they did on the earlier buses).  Side impact crash
> protection, must also be taken into consideration in this modification.
>  (Smack the side of the shoebox to demonstrate this aspect.)
>
> Mike B.
>
>
>
>  As long as you don't cut the 2 main roof arches, one at the front edge
>  of the slider door and one at the rear edge, the roof area between is
>  just roof skin and not of much importance structurally, IMHO.
>