You mentioned early in your write-up that you had a Maggnolina that you were thinking of grafting to the top of the Astro. Do you still have the Mag? Do you have any pictures of it on top of the Astro for size reference?
You mentioned that you were thinking of building a short "tower" on the roof of the Astro to make a flat surface for the Mag to sit on. I have pondered the same thing. I have CAD and fabrication skills so I would be doing the work myself. If I end up with an Astro is there any way I can get the shape of the roof from you so that I can put it into CAD and design from there? It isn't critical but it would save me some time.
Has anyone ever measured the pop top of a Westy or euro van to see how close they are in size? I assume this has been done and it isn't close to the same size since no one is looking that direction.
Now that you have scored your GTRV donor vehicle any search tips for others looking for the same thing?
Thanks for the great write-up and keep the info flowing!
I do not still have the Maggiolina. I also do not have any pictures, because I left the unit in its shipping crate (waiting until my fabricator had enough down-time to start an earnest effort). This turned out to be fortuitous because I was able to take advantage of the awesome customer service from Autohome USA and return the tent for a very minor loss on my part after I found the GTRV.
For size reference, I was measuring at the narrowest portions of the roof. Length is easy. Based on my measurements I ended up buying the Airland Small, eXtra-Long. The "small" was for the width. The Astro roof is narrower than it looks, and anything above a small Maggiolina and your Astro will be wearing a bit of a "hat" that sticks out beyond the sides, sort of like a Tiger GT. If you're ok with that, the medium or large may suit better. The XL was just to make the tent as long as possible to come close to fitting the roofline. As I remember (don't have my notes in front of me), I would have had about 12"-18" of roof left in front of the Maggiolina if I positioned it as far aft as possible. The other advantage of the XL was for ingress/egress. I wanted to have a permanent access portal into the tent (like the GTRV solution) and doing that on a shorter bed wouldn't leave enough to sleep on. Even with the XL, I was thinking I'd want the portal to have a drop-in to extend the sleeping platform.
The downside of needing a small/XL is that it paints you into the Airland part of the line, which is the lightest-weight alternative and doesn't allow for a roof rack to be mounted above (if you're following their recommendations.)
The tower would only have to be tall enough to absorb the crown of the roof. I think it was a bit over 1" or 1.25" at the corners. The tallest spot is in the middle and it drops away on the sides and fore/aft. I never got as far as a CAD model because the GTRV donor came up pretty early. I have foam-boards that I traced the contours onto, but that's it. Pretty easy to duplicate what I'd done so far!
In fact I haven't measured any of the VW tops! Never had easy access to one with enough time to document one thoroughly. My instinct is that the Vanagon top would be the easiest to fit, because its tall enough to tolerate a little trimming to fit the contours of the roof. All of the Eurovan tops I've seen (both Westy and Winnie, etc.) are all pretty form-fitting and low-rise which means that unless the roof lines are uncannily similar, they won't fit well.
