Here he is– no whistles or bells. Magnolia’s replacement. I’ve been fighting to accept the reality of giving up our beautiful VW bus for something so sterile, but we’ve been driving Becket around for the past few weeks, and I’m realizing that for what we do, he is going to be a better option than the bus (heater and AC, horsepower, and double the living space, to name a few things.) By the time we are done with the build, we will have changed all the parts that make him a sterile work van. We have some big plans so stay tuned for upcoming posts about how we convert our Chevy Express named Becket into our new tiny house on wheels!
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Simply Mountain People 
Exciting project, look forward to seeing your progress! F
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Thanks! It’s going to be an adventure!
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So glad I found your blog. I’m looking into van dwelling myself and currently saving up for that seeing as I have come to accept myself as a constant wanderer. Looking forward to reading the rest of your blogs and your experiences on the road!
Happy living! 🙂
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Van life is amazing, and I am so excited for you to start that adventure! Thank you so much!
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Hey guys I fallow you on Instagram (@insidethestone) and had a few questions. I have a van of my own which is a 1998 gmc cargo van similar to yours but I have installed a westfalia pop top like the one on your Vw. I have a cargo storage bin but no way of attaching it to the pop top. I saw on your Vw you had a roof rack I was wondering where you got it and how you attached it to your pop top as well as if it was difficult to pop your top with the cargo carrier on it being a lot of extra weight! Thanks a bunch!!!
Talen
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Hi Talen,
Yakima makes permanent brackets that can be drilled into the fiberglass and then their standard towers that normally clamp onto the rain gutters of your car clamp onto the brackets. I had mine drilled into the side so that the bars were as low profile as possible. As for popping the top, it was quite difficult to pop with the box on there. It was a two person effort at first. then I found two companies that make lifting struts that you can mount to the inside of the pop top to help you lift them. the first ones I got were from a company called Jack Bombay. the site is ghetto, its just a dudes blog from Idaho but he is legit and they work. He makes a heavy duty strut and a normal. I had the heavy duty ones. These mount at the back near the hinge. they were super easy to install and the guy is way helpful if you email him with questions.
those helped but with our box fully loaded it was still a two person effort to lift it so I got another pair of struts from gowesty.com theirs mount further forward so they can be used at the same time as the Jack Bombay struts. all 4 struts had some power! to close it with no box on top I had to get on the roof while my wife pulled down! it would pretty much lift my 300 pound roof my its self, and gave me the peace of mind that the roof had extra support when it was popped.
Let me know if you have any other questions! Just be sure to buy a tube of silicone and hit all the washers around the holes you drill so you don’t get any leaks!
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