[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

I had a ‘73 Westphalia, with the pop up top. The lack of a front-end crumple zone worried me a lot too. It worked great — except in the winter. The air-cooled engine simply wasn’t made for Canada’s far north.

[WVKayaker]

The air-cooled engine simply wasn’t made for Canada’s far north.

In the early 60's, I made a living buying older vw's and improving, then selling them. I always wanted a van. My first one was a '72 Pop-top. We loved it and my two year old son slept in the overhead bunk (never fell out!).

But, we sold it and later bought a '73 straight van. I then decided that God was calling me to Bible College in Western NY (Lima). We headed out in January of '76.

By then, we also had another boy (born in '74), and the four of us were able to completely ice up the inside of the windows on the drive north... and we NEVER got warm!!!

Not mine, but looked same!

[EricT.]

When I was stationed up in Great Lakes, IL, one of my buddies had a “hippie van” that a bunch of us sailors took on many road trips to Milwaukee (nobody cared how old we were in the bars there). After the first snow, my friend bought a white gas heater to keep us from freezing to death.

Now that I think about it, I’ve been to Milwaukee dozens of time, but don’t ever remember seeing it in daylight.

[A CA Guy]

I think you would have had to use synthetic oil to do better up north, but they all leaked and that synthetic stuff decades ago was already $5 a can.