Westfalia - Tintop or Pop? California or South Africa

[Bluesnailman]

Pop top. Mine turned out to have shrunk with age, so 3 cm shorter than it was when new and so it fits in the garage! No lowering required. Lhd is fine, and great for visiting Europe. I heard that vehicles get more abuse in SA and Australia so I looked for a Cali import, then went to town with the cavity wax and underseal......

 

[andywedge]

Currently my two boys sleep on the top bed, they are 6 & 9 plenty of Rommel for a few years yet. We have an awning and eventually they can go in there but want to stay in the van for a while yet. Question is how does an early westy compromise this, so how much smaller is the front hinged roof than the rear hinged one!!

 

[andywedge]

Ps I have voted, Cali westy pop top in Sierra yellow please!!

 

[dean_butler]

Currently my two boys sleep on the top bed, they are 6 & 9 plenty of Rommel for a few years yet. We have an awning and eventually they can go in there but want to stay in the van for a while yet. Question is how does an early westy compromise this, so how much smaller is the front hinged roof than the rear hinged one!!

This is a real selling point 6&9. Our boy is just 19 months and we plan to have another at some point so if we had a pop top then we will be sorted for a long time.

Do you have the Faux continental bed?

 

[Graham L]

Personally I wouldn't touch another bus from South Africa even if it is RHD, they just are not looked after in the same way as buses that come from the US as certainly microbuses are still used as daily transport and are fixed in back street garages and not very well.

They also tend to have a lot of body damage on them and depending where from in SA it can be just as wet as it is in the UK so dont expect rust free either.

Yes I know there are some excellent examples of SA RHD westies on the road in this country but most of them have taken an awful lot of work to get to the condition they are currently in.

Just my opinion based on a few SA buses that have passed through the unit

 

[dean_butler]

Personally I wouldn't touch another bus from South Africa even if it is RHD, they just are not looked after in the same way as buses that come from the US as certainly microbuses are still used as daily transport and are fixed in back street garages and not very well.

They also tend to have a lot of body damage on them and depending where from in SA it can be just as wet as it is in the UK so dont expect rust free either.

Yes I know there are some excellent examples of SA RHD westies on the road in this country but most of them have taken an awful lot of work to get to the condition they are currently in.

Just my opinion based on a few SA buses that have passed through the unit

Good to know. I'm more and more sold on a California bus. Like the fact that it come from there as well

 

[RichardAlexander]

I rented a tin top before buying and at 6 ft tall needed the extra roof space so opted for the pop top, but set my heart on a RHD, but after searching for 2years only found the California buses were much better for lack of rust, left hand drive is a dodle unless your on the motorway when it's splits then the co pilot really helps. Love my Cali westy pop top

 

[Jolly45]

We have a 71 Westy pop top LHD US spec.
The drivings not a problem, you do have a blind spot, but a simple blind spot mirror form Halfords fix's that
Our daughters just 3 and she sleeps in the front cab bunk, we have the R n R and the dog sleeps on the floor, well on the bed most nights, he's a 34kg Black lab so it gets cozy :shock: If it gets cold we just close the roof down at night, pop it up in the morning If and when you need to use the top bunk, a good sleeping bag will sort it.

It's up to you now, but you have been told :lol:

 

[dean_butler]

We have a 71 Westy pop top LHD US spec.
The drivings not a problem, you do have a blind spot, but a simple blind spot mirror form Halfords fix's that
Our daughters just 3 and she sleeps in the front cab bunk, we have the R n R and the dog sleeps on the floor, well on the bed most nights, he's a 34kg Black lab so it gets cozy :shock: If it gets cold we just close the roof down at night, pop it up in the morning If and when you need to use the top bunk, a good sleeping bag will sort it.

It's up to you now, but you have been told :lol:

Nice write up man. Just couple more months if saving and should be able to join you good early folk.

 

[marco]

Personally I wouldn't touch another bus from South Africa even if it is RHD, they just are not looked after in the same way as buses that come from the US as certainly microbuses are still used as daily transport and are fixed in back street garages and not very well.

They also tend to have a lot of body damage on them and depending where from in SA it can be just as wet as it is in the UK so dont expect rust free either.

Yes I know there are some excellent examples of SA RHD westies on the road in this country but most of them have taken an awful lot of work to get to the condition they are currently in.

Just my opinion based on a few SA buses that have passed through the unit

I can vouch for that, although relatively rust free, every panel on mine is dented, the mechanics were pretty much destroyed, and it had a scary spider on board.

 

[sucram]

We purposely looked for a South African bus, RHD and rot free, ours being an ex-church mini bus from 1969-2004 with full service history, yes it does have a few scrapes but its part of its history and no worse if not better than allot of the batterd US LHD buses we looked at. Ten years on and she's still as good as the day we imported her. Each to the own I suppose and like anything in this world, you pay ya money, you take ya chances, at the end of the day they are 40+ years old now.

 

[vertecal]

I've got RHD (Australian) with pop top, which is perfect for us with 2 young kids, though I do prefer tin tops (one of each would sort that out).
I used to have a LHD when I lived in the UK, the only issue I found with LHD was the sliding door being on the offside.