Pop Up / V top

[PatAus]

Amigos Atros.

Were the production of the pop top suited to fit the Astro discontinued ? where would one start to look for a second hand pop up or V-top to convert a standard van. This is mostly out of curiosity but any links or leads would be appreciated..

thanks in advance

[Wiley]

CCV, Colorado Camper Van will do it for you, but I believe I read they were going to stop doing Astro. Some guys find the V Tops off Westys I think, and GTRV which was a company similar to CCV which modded vans but was in Canada I believe. I looked into the CCV Penthouse before my trip to where I got a quote and everything, but decided I would get more out of the cash down south. They are pimp though

[Herbie]

GTRV is in Sebastapol, California, but as far as I've heard, they aren't offering Astro/Safari tops any more. It's worth calling them to double-check, though. Their assertion was "nobody wants a $7k pop-top on a $5k van", but I proved 'em wrong!

[PatAus]

Yea.... they do add a nice dimension and free up life on the bottom deck for living space and well, more stuff !

I think i will be leaving that on the wish list for the moment and like Wiley said. Its more dinero ill have to play with down south. I might even quote the fabrication of a custom design whilst in Mexico. Thanks all the same for the info. Its good i have something to work off.

[Snowgeek]

I have the CCV top (H-top) and have loved it. CCV tops are far from flawless but I do love the space and I am not sure if they still offer the Astro top or not.

I did spend $6,500 on a van that I paid $7,000 for and. I couldn't be happier!

Still hard to find an AWD (now 4x4) poptop van for under $17,000!

Ryan

[Herbie]

I've alluded to this here on ASV, and stated it outright elsewhere, too:

While I love our GTRV V-top, the main reason for doing it was that there were three of us. In particular, our kiddo is an "active" sleeper and tosses around a lot, so I wanted that upper bunk so that either she or I could be separated and get some actual sleep. (My wife tolerates the movement much better and can share a bed without trouble.)

If it were only my wife and I, we would have been fine without the pop-top. If our daughter was a calmer sleeper, we might have even got by just sharing one big bed in the main cabin (at least for a few more years). You can get up to ~56" of bed width between the trim panels, which is just larger than an American "Full" mattress, and you could pick up a few more inches if you were willing to push out to the walls/windows by either raising the bed to window height or removing the plastic trim panels, which gets you pretty close to standard US Queen width. 56" to 60" is certainly as wide (or wider) than many roof-top tents sold as "2 adults+child" or "3 person" tents, so if you're cozy, you could make it work.

That said, on my recent bed rebuild, I opted to make the bed slightly narrower (48", matching most Westfalia or Eurovan camper beds) in order to make room for a slim closet cabinet in the left-rear quarter area.