I want to stand up in my van. Is adding a high top worth it? We'll find out!
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- Опубліковано 11 жов 2024
- Going to LA to get an estimate from Fiberine to put a fiberglass high top on my 1997 Dodge Ram Conversion Van 2500. I'll show you the estimate and you'll meet Gonzalo from Fiberine and learn everything involved in getting a high top. Especially the cost!
Special thanks to my amazing cousin who was the best hostess and even offered to come with me to Fiberine and be my cameraperson! Above and beyond! Did you know our dads are more Irish than almost everyone in Ireland? Learned that from your brother at the wedding!
I bit the bullet and added a Fiberine hightop to my 2019 Ford Transit low top. It was either a high top or I needed to wear a helmet inside my van . It’s been 4 years and I love it. No regrets 🎈. P. S. I added all the extras! Well worth the investment in my quality of life 💞
Do it, life changing.
Very cool. Mine is one of those windowless morgue vans you mentioned. :) I perhaps see a window in my future. Good luck with your decision. I enjoy your videos. Love your sense of humor.
Thanks Charlotte! That's a great idea to add a window!
WAIT WAIT WAIT!!!! YOU are on the right track!!! But the cost of a new vehicle that is the high you want cost way way more, and $600.00 dollars a month saved up can allow you to pay cash just under a year. 🎉🎉🎉 blessings!!! I build my own camper out of foam that fits my short bed truck and I am very very grateful I added the highest high to my set up because I am 6. 1. 😮
Decades ago I drove a VW bus with the Westfalia pop-top camper setup. Basically it is a fiberglass top that is hinged to the top of the van. When it's closed, it stands about eight inches higher than the factory van roof. When open, the Westie top creates about thirty inches of additional headroom in the van, and it opens into a sort of tent arrangement. Imagine a tent on top of your van, with a fiberglass roof over tent fabric sides. Air flow and light inside are lovely!
When I bought a 1996 Chevy conversion van, I wished that I could stand up like I could in the old VW. So I got out a tape measure and determined that the westfalia tops would fit on my Chevy van. I found one in a scrap yard for a couple hundred dollars. I was able to mount the Westie top to my van myself, and it turned out beautifully.
The Westfalia top has pros and cons, of course. Compared to the high top from Fiberine, the Westie top creates much less wind resistance, because it only raises the top of the van about eight inches when the top is closed. When the top is open, it creates an interior ceiling about thirty inches taller than the factory ceiling in the van.
They are intended to be closed while driving, and then you can quickly pop the tent up when you park, in a matter of only seconds. So you can pop the top as easily at the grocery store while you put your groceries away as you can at a campsite.
With a Fiberine style fiberglass top, you wont be able to get your van into a garage. But the Westfalia top will still allow you to fit under most garage doors.
There is also a company called Sportsmobile that makes Westfalia style pop-tops to fit modern vans. Like Fiberine, they will install their top into your van.
That is awesome! I'm so glad I started a youtube channel just to get these great ideas!
@@naninavann I should probably start my own channel, and share the project! Until then, if you'd like to see photos, tell me where I can email them!
Naninavan@proton.me
Thank you! 😊
I am camping right now in the identical van. 120k miles. I'm a retired mechanic.
The Dodge transmission is a real weak point and I just rebuilt mine at 117,000 miles.
I'd wait on the high top and prepare for a transmission replacement in the not too distant future.
Your van is still worth what you paid --- right now, I'd say $5000.
Don't over extend yourself. You DO have a computer and problems WILL arise. I just chased down a broken wire in a wiring harness that was messing up the computer --- it's 25 years old! Plastics break down, wires fatigue, things wear out.
Your water pump is probably a time bomb, too. Not too expensive, but could leave you stranded.
The seals get old and leak from age.
Your van was made before the internet!
The Dodge is a good platform --- but you will have some repairs coming up due to age.
The engine is awesome. No worries there.
Best of luck!
(I "walk around" on my knees in my van, lol)
Great info. The transmission in my van was replaced at 50,000 miles. So I've got 90,000 miles on the new transmission. The previous owner hauled a boat around in the Colorado mountains. Thank you so much for the repair list. Now I know what to watch out for!
Oh, the prices we pay for comfort! My friend Andy is a handiwoman living the van life too. She got a high top from the scrap yard and installed it on her van...it wasn't free and it wasn't easy, but it sure was cheap 😆
I did that to my van too. Amazingly, the pop-top from a 1970s VW van fit on my 1990s Chevy van beautifully. The top only cost me a couple hundred dollars, and a new tent fabric was only three hundred more. The rest of the job was my labor and a can of paint.
That is awesome! I'm so glad I started a youtube channel just to get these great ideas!
Do it!!! I'll contribute $100
Wow, that's pricy. Hope you do it cause it'll be cool to see but wonder if it makes sense to sell your van and get a hightop van.
There are a lot of older Viking tops languishing on broken down Dodge vans. You could buy the whole van somtimes for $500, if you can find one. I have one of Gonzalo's masterpieces on my stealth camper, I fully intend to move it to another van someday if my current Ford becomes impractical to repair. People are aghast when they find out I put a $4000 roof on a $6000 van. That roof will outlast 3-vans.
That's an excellent point. Thank you!
after 1985 all car have computers. You just haven't had that problem yet
If they have the other one that's 4 inches smaller but it's the same mold for your truck wouldn't that be a lot cheaper because of molding already made!
That's the one I wanted but they only have the 24 inch high top that will fit my van. Bummer