Try opening the sliding door before you pop the roof top.  I find opening
the door relieves the air vacuum that is formed when opening the pop-top.

Paul Borghese

>Listees,
>
>Three weeks ago, I fell and broke my left shoulder in a couple of places.
>(While feeding puppies - - it shows you, no good deed goes unpunished.)
>With dog show camping weekends coming up, I am seriously considering
>selling my wonderful Westy to get an RV, if I can't figure out how to
>overcome the one-armed problems. My shoulder is doing fine, but I
>probably won't have full extension and use of it for things like lifting
>up the poptop roof, for 6 months to a year or more. (I can drive it ok, w
>automatic tranny and ps.)
>
>Do any of you know of any creative solutions that would help me:
>
>1. raise the poptop one-handed? I was a weakling to begin with- -it was
>hard with two.
>
>2. hook up and unhook the little 3 by 4 enclosed travel trailer that I
>tow? That was also hard  for me to move around with two hands .
>
>3. load and unload the Westy easily? With the dogs and their gear, it is
>a lot of stuff to load for the road, move when we arrive,  reload for
>home and then unload at home.
>
>Also, I will now be traveling with 4 Lhasa dogs not two, so it is more
>stuff. An RV looks a whole lot easier to handle.
>
>I'd appreciate any suggestions from the list. Have any of you survived
>one-armed camping in a Westy alone? (I could try renting friends or
>friends' kids, but that's even more stuff.)
>
>Also, I don't want to permanently modify the Westy, either.
>
>TIA for your thoughts.
>
>Maureen
>
>Maureen Stretch
>Natick, Mass.
>91 Vanagon GL Westy "Johann"