Jonathan,

you're brilliant!

well hold off on confirmation until I go and check the wear pattern
and see if it matches the folded state.

I just checked, in my case your explanation does not hold water,
sorry. The upper strut, the one that wears the slot in the cross bar,
lines up with the slot when it is extended in the upright, roof up,
position. Its as if the wear happens at that last push to make the
strut vertical.

In folded state, the wear pattern does not seem to fit your theory.

sorry :)

but what you say makes sense, it might be the case in other cases.

cheers

alistair

On 10-Sep-10, at 2:22 PM, Jonathan Poole wrote:

Hello List,

I can confirm the weakness in the pop-top cross bar joints from my own
experiences with it on different vanagon westies.

I'll add one finding that may not have been mentioned but that I
think is
important.  In my opinion/observation the wear through the cross bar
comes
not from the lifting/lowering of the top as much as it does from the
bars/lift assemblies vibration/movement while driving.  I'm not
totally sure
of course, but I think that continuous small movements while driving far
outweigh the abrasions incurred from infrequent top lowering/raising
on most
vans (how often were the tops with worn out bars really raised/
lowered??).

The way that I have addressed this partial source of the wearing of the
cross bar ends is to make sure that the pop-top lift assembly/cross
bar is
fully seated against the top of the van's body when the top is
lowered and
latched.  If there is any looseness or a gap between the lift
assembly and
the body then the bar will wiggle up and down when you drive.  The
mounting
holes at the base of the two top support struts are elongated so that
you
can move the base forward or aft a little bit.  By moving the bases
forward
you secure the hinge part of the hatch raising/support assembly more
firmly
against the van's body.  I enlongated the holes a bit more on one
side of my
van to increase the parked tension on my own van so that I got rid of
most
of the annoying bouncing while driving that was also rattling against
the
pop-top a bit etc.

I'm guessing that this description isn't too clear and that even if you
followed it that this may not make sense so here is the simple test.
Go out
to your van and with the top lowered and latched push up on the cross
bar.
Is it snug in it's parked position? or does it easily wiggle up and
down?
If it wiggles up and down easily then it is probably doing so while you
drive too and you may want to adjust the top, or the raising/lowering
assembly as needed to keep the cross bar secured when the top is
lowered.

Jonathan Poole
'83 AC Westy