westy roof storage

[..lee..]

why did they do away with roof tray on the later vans.

seems daft to me.

[BigTam]

They didnt do away with it, it was an option, not standard fit, mine is a 1990 and has roof tray,

[..lee..]

ah right its just you dont often see late vans with them and you dont see early vans without them.

glad mines got one.

cheers lee.

[lance]

if you want a new roof storage cap im making them

[isurf]

I think the later style was designed so that you could fit a sunroof,and the older style as a roof terrace

[venividivici]

I read somewhere on the web (but cant find a link now...) that the roof tray increased wind resistance quite a bit (10%!). Apparently that is why Westfalia did away with it in the later campers and replaced it with a spoiler.

It's useful space though.

I think my roof tray has lots of leaves under it that have gone through the drainage holes and accumulated over the years. Would like to clear it out to avoid it rusting the cab roof, but can't for the life of me loosen the rusted screws holding it in place. Any tips?

[BigTam]

My westy is a late model, they did not do away with the roof tray, as stated previously it was an option, have original bill of sale and it is listed on there (in German)

[venividivici]

I agree the luggage rack is really useful option. Brick aerodynamics and all that, but here's some info I found while geeking about looking at vans and mods. Not sure if it's accurate - maybe it explains why it became an option, as seems standard on the earlier Westfalias.

Here is a late model (1991) Westy in it's European version. Note that the front luggage rack has been replace with a more aerodynamic piece. This was presumably done after some articles had been published in German press about the damaging effects the luggage rack had on the van aerodynamics. A base vanagon, is despite its boxy shape quite aerodynamic, and has Cv = 0.44. Multiplied with the projected area one yields an equivalent flat plate air resistance area of 1.35m^2.

The Westy luggage racks create turbulence at the sharp top edge and significantly worsens Cv to 0.51. With the slightly larger area (due to the top being about 8cm higher) the area equivalent is 1.62m^2.

At highway speeds when the quadratic air resistance term dominates over linear tire and mechaincal friction, thus the luggage rack introduces an extra 20% drag. After this had been published VW created the new front piece seen in this picture. It can be found on 1989-91 European models. I don't have figures for just this profile, but comparing to other pop tops that similarly rises a bit behind the front, it is likely that the extra drag is reduced from 20% to 5-10%.

from here:
http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/jag/vw/ge ... popsT3.htm

[jdreamer]

I think my roof tray has lots of leaves under it that have gone through the drainage holes and accumulated over the years. Would like to clear it out to avoid it rusting the cab roof, but can't for the life of me loosen the rusted screws holding it in place. Any tips?

I had the same problem and decided to take the roof off by undoing the bolts holding the brackets from the inside. Have to remove the cab headlining panel, but I'm going to re-cover that so needed to come out anyway. All came off ok, but I couldn't believe the amount of cr*p hiding under the tray - about 4 inches of pine needles and the like. With roof off, managed to get 3 of the bracket screws undone after a good soak with plusgas. Had to drill out the 4th screw. Fortunately bought 4 new screws from Gunzl at vanfest last year, so that'll make it easier to put back tomorrow. Replacing seal as well, so should be much better when done.

[venividivici]

Awesome - thanks. Hadn't thought of taking all the headliner out. I knew I needed to undo the back of the headliner to get at the bolts for the back of the rack, but hadn't thought of undoing the others from underneath... Oh well, looks like the headliner will have to come out!

[keith]

i took mine off my 89 joker without toching the headlining....all bolts are accessible from the outside.

mine was full of crud too....looked like the contents of two birds nests.

[lhd]

Little tip here not that I'v done it yet myself.
Glue some pipe gauses over the drainage holes, then no leaves and the like will get under there.
Rob

[lance]

good idea mate
the aero roof spoilers were for blue/white/red stars with sunroofs (high spec)
the luggage rack for campers thats why the canvas opens to allow access to your goodies on the rack they are more aerodynamic than the (aero )thats weird but true but in only head winds

[Helga]

Hi, the roof tray is brilliant - if, however, I decided to take mine off, to clean the rubbish out and paint it - would I need to replace the seal at the same time?

[jdreamer]

Put mine back together at the w/e. My seal fell apart when I took the roof tray off! Replaced with new seal, cleaned up the brackets for the tray, new rubber sealant under brackets, new bolts to attach roof tray to brackets, re-covered cab headlining panel in cream vinyl....all looks much better now

Oh, and I got rid of the German forest debris that had collected under the tray