I once camped like Loren, atop a hill but in a crummy campground with no
trees (business trip, no choice). The afternoon sun heated up the westy
like a blowtorch. I figured out, after a few frantic minutes of trying to
figure out what to do, hit on the idea that it was the canvas tent catching
the sun. I pinned some towels up quickly on the inside to keep the heat
down to survival level, then I lower the top and tied a tarp on before
raising it again and staking out the lower edge. That worked very well.

Since then I have always wanted to make some triangular sunbrella (or
similar) shades that would clip or snap on to the edge of the pop top and
tie out wide enough for walking around room underneath.

Jim

On Wed, Jun 11, 2014 at 5:00 PM, Ralph Meyermann <ralphmeyermann@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Sounds like I'll be ordering one and a rain fly for a Sun shade when more
> ventilation is needed. Currently having original  transaxle rebuilt eating
> up all spare funds!
>
> Velma 82 1.9L AAZ TD Westy
> On Jun 11, 2014 4:48 PM, "Loren Busch" <starwagen@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >  RE: Stopping The Sun
> > Well, not really, it might get a little cold around here.  But for
> > minimizing interior heating of the van while  parked in direct Sun Jonce
> is
> > on the right track. You have to stop the sunlight before it gets into the
> > van. I used to camp for a full week in one place at high elevation and in
> > the July Sun. The only thing I found effective was placed on the outside
> of
> > all the windows.  I made covers of Reflectix for all the windows.  But
> the
> > really big difference I was able to make was when I made a reflective
> > shield for the pop-top.  Although none of this kept the air inside from
> > reaching or exceeding the outside air temp the van was not nearly as
> heated
> > up going into the night, it would cooled down much faster.  YMMV
> >
>