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i'm thinking off having my hiace converted to a pop top with the bed.  Has anyone had any experience sleeping in this kind of van.  Are the pop up bed areas warm enough for all year use?  Can you get heaters fitted?

Cheers for any advice in advance,

Oz

On our old VW Type 2 Westy with popup canvas roof, we did find it made the van very chilly during cold weather with the roof up, we used an electric fan heater which helped. The thing that basically solved the problem for us was that I made a seperate  insulating curtain that fixed on the outside to create andair pocket from sheets similar to the reinforced ground sheet material which is also wind proof. It was just a pain having something extra to carry and put up.

It was the fact that the poptop was a problem during winter that convinced us to change the van to one with a hightop VW and that in turn lead us to buying the Hymer we have now.

Hi there, got a pop top on my VW T25(have a look at my gallery pics). It is a solid sided type as opposed to a canvas type. My 7 year old sleeps up there and we've had no complaints from him being cold when camping 'out of season'. In fact he often tells us how warm it is as he sleeps in a bag with a large fleece blanket thrown over.

We have got a Propex gas heater installed in the van and 10 mins of that makes it like a sauna up top!

I know for the VW canvas pop tops you can buy the silver screens to go round the outside which help prevent heat loss. I would have thought they are made for your type of pop top as well.

Hope this helps you decide

hi, cheers for the replies.  Question for Minimad 59. Do you know of any body who fits the solid sided pop top as i have not found anyone on the internet so far.

Oz

Quote: Originally posted by oztaylor on 16/9/2007

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hi, cheers for the replies. Question for Minimad 59. Do you know of any body who fits the solid sided pop top as i have not found anyone on the internet so far.

Oz

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The solid side pop tops were originally done by Autosleepers

Quote: Originally posted by oztaylor on 16/9/2007

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hi, cheers for the replies.  Question for Minimad 59. Do you know of any body who fits the solid sided pop top as i have not found anyone on the internet so far.

Oz

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Sorry for the delay in reply. To be honest I don't know of anybody who manufacture or fit 'new' solid sided pop tops for VWs. It may be a different case for your Toyota.

There were several firms that did solid pop tops, Autohomes, Autosleeper, Holdsworth and I think they converted more than just VWs so maybe you could find a second hand top for your van. Have you searched for a Toyota forum? You may be surprised at what you might find.

Good luck.