I was sold this van as a Devon crossdresser 72, it appears to have a Canterbury pitt pop top by the looks (or an early Danbury) and having seen some on google. Am looking at installing roof bunks for my two kids.. There are two metal knobs at either end of the roof line (near the struts at either end) which I think had the bunk pole brackets attached..see pics..they are not equally distanced apart so you can enter the roof space one end.. Does anyone know what bunk brackets fit these i.e. the brackets the poles fit into..and if you have a pic that would be fab..thanks:
Back in the day it would seem that some dealers would retrofit certain tin tops conversions with a later pop top to increase the saleability of vans that wouldn't shift off the forecourt. Some pop tops were brand new and from the manufacturer and fitted by the manufacturer or the dealer or an agent and some were salvaged from write offs etc. I've heard somewhere, so it may be bull stuff, that Devon and Dormy and others often had allegiances possibly to try to increase business and to compete with Westfalia . As far as the brackets go for the ends of the bunks, I have a different set up but ended up fashioning my own brackets, mostly because mines a bit of a Heinz conversion. prototype bay, with Early Devon roof (part of the van) with latebay 76+ Devon roof and a bunk of which I've not seen elsewhere. The narrow end of the bunk is halfway across the opening and the wider end is almost three quarters across the opening. When stowed, the stay bracket and brace bar for the narrow end just fold neatly in with the bunk but the wider end has to be partially disassembled in order to wrap it up. I ended up making my own connections here and there because it's a bit of a lash up. I'm not sure which roof the bunk came from, the Early or the late Devon pop top. Most of the engineering is very primitive and involves a flat section wrapped around the tube end with a bolt through the two ends of it a bit like a bike trouser clip the trouser clip is bolted onto the tube end . Then the two ends bolt, the bolt connects to a straight flat bar that's doubled up and that heads up towards your knobs and the bolt acts as a hinge for stowage, then on mine the upright flat bar becomes a Y section because they separate the doubledup bit and the Y has a bar connecting the tops of the Y and that fits over a hook on the front of where you have your knobs on the top. That's one end, the other end is different and even more primitive because I made it . Make a prototype in rope then make the same in steel and you won't go far wrong. Ozziedog,,,,,,,, I'll get some pictures if I can.
Ozziedog, Really helpful...I think Ive seen some of these Y shape parts..but could see how they fixed to the knob in my pic..If you could send me a couple of snaps that would be fantastic. Cheers Rich
Right then, that`s the Y shaped bit with the bar across all by the light of the moon or in this case my new LED cab light .If I lift that Y piece up toward the light the Y will gradually become vertical and the brace to the left of it will become horizontal. This bar in the top of the Y will now hook over a hook on the face of the roof opening whereas your hook / knob is on the top of the roof opening, so if you had the exact same Y fitting, firstly you`d need to lift it up vertically to just this side of the light in the pic and hook it on, your Y would also need a right angle bend in the last bit where it splits for the Y in order to hook onto your knob or make one the same as mine and put a hook on the front of the opening just below where you has your knob. Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,, I have never mentioned anyones knob so many times,, ever
LOLLLLLLLS Thanks a million..pics are very helpful thank you...I have seen those brackets before...there was an old rusty set at Malvern last weekend but they wanted £75 for a pile of rusty poles and very rusty brackets lol.. I shall fabricate....I still have a knob problem lol I dont understand how the Y end would retain on the vertical knob on the rail of the roof line or is there another linkage?
Trust you to have a knob problem if you imagine that I have got a regular cup hook screwed into a wall then the Top bit of that Y the piece that joins the two split pieces of the Y together just hangs off the cup screw. This is on a vertical surface like I have. Yours is however further on round that square section and is on the top or the horizontal surface. I might try a different picture now there's some daylight. I'm sure I have an odd bracket down there for another project. Ozziedog ',,,,,,,, oh no ! Pictures required
These pictures are at the other end of the van at the rear. The hook in the pics is the one that would normally be right in the centre of the opening with two hooks and that's one for each bunk. The hook is on the face or front or vertical surface of the pop top opening. Ozziedog,,,,, ,,,,, tap talk is my friend now. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I'll go for it,, yes I do have all my fingers. They are fat sausagey type fingers and one on each hand is clapped out due to being an old style fart. Ozziedog,,,,,, , so why do you ask ,,, Senor 77 Westy ?
It just looks like there are lots of things that slide and levers and brackets waiting to trap your fingers, podgy or not.
There are indeed, but that's mainly because the pop top is only partially up because we was in the garage and a bit short on head height. The little black things that are hanging down like Bertie Bassets dreadlocks are actually some double sided velcro which is my added extra insurance to stop my pop top jumping up on motorways and trying to eradicate me as it did on the old Severn bridge a couple of years back in gale force winds, for entertainment have a read over on the Early site, entitled Ozziedog goes topless., it'll make you cringe. The rolled up wire is a link to the front LED and I'm eventually going to install another LED light here in the rear and have it switched from the dash and switched on itself for in bed or from the cab when I got passengers fidgeting about looking for belts and things. And that Y shaped bracket should be attached to a bunk and was for the purposes of illustration. But seeing as you mentioned it, I am possibly one of the most clumsy people in the known universe but I've managed to keep my pinkies out of harms way in the middle of that lot. As you can see, my van is usually a work in progress with umpteen things going on at the same time, at the moment I'm in the middle of a roof upgrade hence the wiring changes etc etc . Ozziedog ',, ,, ,,,, I was expecting a real pee take there
Yes the mechanism of a Devon poptop bunk is heavy and scissorish in places. But generally you dont actually need to put fingers in dodgy places. Some people build little ledges either side of the roof opening and slot in boards going across. You cant get full length that way but it might be easier to handle than the heavy gas pipe used as the support for the Devon bunks.
Hi fella, that bunk is seriously the largest bunk I've ever seen in a roof. It's full length and the front hanging bracket and the bunk pole is right in the centre of the pop top opening as you can see in the first bunch of piccies. The second bunch of piccies shows the rear hook which is more than three quarters across the width of he pop top opening. It's so wide at this point that the horizontal hinged stay bar that holds the bunk out width ways, has to have a removable bolt with a wing nut as the hinge pin because it just can't fold away otherwise. Unfortunately all the bits and pieces I have are a combination of a 72 Devon roof and beds and brackets etc and a 76 Devon pop top and bed and brackets and I'm not sure what came from where. The actual roof panel came from a 72 and my van is a 70. The only issue I have is that it's hard to keep the thing down occasionally. The restraints on them are poor to say the least, hence Bertie Bassetts dreadlocks. Ozziedog,,,,,, , , Triggers broom springs to mind
I have the same roof and bunk supports. My van is at the trimmers and I'm collecting it on Sat/Sun I will post some pictures. I think mine are original but not 100% sure but they do the job. I had just the one bunk when I got it so I copied that for a second bunk.
Ozziedog..you're a star thanks for all your trouble..I get how yours works.. unfortunately my knobs won't work lol the down force of the end of the Y (bunk pole end) will pop the other end off the knob..but this gives me a good idea how I need to fabricate..I might aswell use the existing knobs I have as they are welded on the support rail.. I prefer bunks to the planks as the latter are heavy and will mess up my curved roof line internally...
To fabricate yours very easily, a flat piece of steel 30mm wide and 3-5mm thick. Roughly 150 vertically and 50mm at right angles at the top and right angles the opposite way at the bottom. Hole drilled in the top one to slip over your knob, and smaller hole drilled in the bottom one to bolt on to the end of the stretcher bar. That would do the trick but you wouldn`t be able to fold it up with the bunk unless you either put the bottom bolt with a wingnut so you can take it off, or break the upright in half and overlap it then bolt or rivet it together to make a hinge then you can lay it flat along the pole. Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,No I don`t have a picture
Thanks Ozzie..nice one think it would be easy to knock up..I'll share pics once done Dead turtle - Be interested to see thanks
