The guys over at the Bus Depot have come up with an absolutely awesome looking and completely redesigned side tent for the VW camper line. They call it an “Add-a-Room,” I think, but whatever you call it, it looks killer.

I may be nuts, but I’ve already but my order in. On our last camping trip we were really in need of some kind of screen enclosure and having an extra room that hooks right up to the camper sounds perfect. Hopefully it’s not too heavy or bulky to carry or so difficult to setup it becomes impractical.

My own attempts at rigging up a side enclosure were not so successful (and I probably wasted about $100 in the process, doh!).



Tell that doesn’t look cool.



I think I’ll try rigging the A/C up to the zippered, screened vent in the front and mounting it in the luggage rack. That should probably cool the interior better and maybe even some of the tent, too. I may get one of their kits that adds a second room to the interior and back along a chemical toilet; that way the only thing we’d need from the campground is the shower.

I recently ran across a new follower on Twitter, Jason Hill (@JayHill2000), who seems to do some promotional work with or for VW in the UK.

As it turns out, VW actually still makes campers in the spirit of the venerable Campmobile. How did I not know this? It seems that Daimler took over Westfalia in 2001 and effectively shutdown the VW-Westfalia partnership. In 2003, VW introduced their own line of van conversions called the California Beach and California Tramper based on the Transporter van.

It has all the best features of the original pop-top campers, with two beds, one up and one down, a fold out table, sink, propane stove, and fridge, closet space, rotating front seats, and an awning all modernized and in some ways improved (there are a picnic table and chairs that tuck away into side and rear doors).



Of course, the cruel irony is that they aren’t available in the USA. I guess because the Transporter van is no longer sold in the USA.

It seems we’re left out of a lot of cool camper designs over here, because Westfalia still makes slick campers based on Mercedes (this one, too) and Ford (oh, the ironies never cease) designs. Even Renault is in the game with the Trafic Generation.

Meanwhile, we’re stuck is huge, expensive, impractical, ugly, gas guzzling behemoths.