Whoa -- don't know what's going on with my gmail filters; but just found
this thread...

Thanks for the info -- I am convinced about it's effectiveness for
mosquitos.

Does the rear hatch shelter have enough slack material to fit over a
hatch-mounted bike carrier?  (Mine is an older Paulchen 2 tray model, which
needs changing to a 3- or preferably 4-bike carrier.)

gabby

On Thu, Oct 16, 2014 at 1:47 PM, The Bus Depot <vanagon@busdepot.com> wrote:

> > For my 2 cents I would say that it's a good product ... It is very
> simple to
> > "install" and the design is good. For the money a usefully space and way
> > to have an airy bedroom.
> >
> > Now to the flaw,  there is a giant hole below the bumper and side to
> side. All
> > sorts of bugs can enter this way. So you have to do something for this
> hole...
> > The fix is a tarp tucked under the mattress and down the back and you can
> > even continue it across the floor of the space.
> >
> > Overall $79 is a good price.
>
>
> The rear hatch shelter does leave a gap under the bumper, but little to no
> gap on the sides if you pull it taut. The sides are elasticized and pull in
> rather snugly to the sides of the van. There are also two loops at the roof
> that can be used to attach ropes or bungee cords to pull it roof tighter
> toward the front of the van. A couple of ties are included for this but I
> just use bungee cords because it's faster.  I attach one end to the loop
> and the other to the poptop hinge. Between these, I get virtually no gap
> between the van and the Add-A-Room, and it goes up in five minutes.
>
> As for the gap under the bumper, you could hang a piece of tarp there as
> Vanaru suggests, but another solution is to just use your rear hatch
> screen.  This gives you the extra space and provides easy access while
> keeping bugs out entirely.  If you have a Westy you should already have
> one, but if not, we offer one for $49 that also has a zipper for easy
> access in and out of the rear hatch:
>
> http://www.busdepot.com/255070412 (gray)
>
> http://www.busdepot.com/253069602or (brown)
>
> That being said, personally I've found bugs to generally be a non-issue
> anyway. My family uses this unit all the time, often in East Coast areas
> that have no shortage of mosquitos and flies. (In fact we "field tested"
> the prototype for a whole summer before I released it commercially, and I
> made some tweaks to the production version as a result.)  We use it all
> night long almost every time we camp, and have actually become very lazy
> about putting up the rear hatch screen.  While you'd think mosquitos, etc.
> would find their way in from under the bumper, they just don't seem to. A
> mosquito would have to go under the center or front of the van, find it way
> back to the rear bumper, up into the shelter, and then into the van. Maybe
> the path is too convoluted, or they just don't tend to fly that low, but in
> any case we've rarely found a mosquito in the van, even on nights where we
> were getting eaten alive outside before we turned in.
>
> Speaking of the rear hatch, by the way, we have also just started
> importing this rear hatch lock extension for the Vanagon:
>
> http://www.busdepot.com/333000143
>
> While it cannot be used in conjunction with the rear Add-A-Room (which
> requires the rear hatch to be open to act as the roof), it can be used in
> conjunction with the rear hatch screen.
>
> Ron Salmon
> The Bus Depot, Inc.
> www.busdepot.com
>