Does everyone have auto roofs with the square access hatch?

[klmwong]

I have a question to ask everyone who bongoes with children: do you all have the automatic elevating roofs with the square hatch about a third of the way along to access the top?

We have a manual lift bongo with removable boards that go across from side to side so what we do is to remove one board and leave it at home so we have a 2 foot ish gap at the rear end. The not-so-little ones lie on the boards with their pillows at the rear end so they have to be careful not to wiggle "up" during the night or else they will fall down on top of us. Having the gap there also means that we can stand up on the bottom bed and poke our heads up into the elevated roof area to check up on them throughout the night without disturbing them. I have never seen another bongo with the same arrangement as ours. When we bought it we saw loads which had the usual square access hatch in the ceiling to get into the top bed but I was always worried that Thomas would wake crying in the night and we wouldn't be able to get to him cos he was sitting on the hatch. Does everyone get on OK with that arrangement then or can it be a pain with little ones?

On the negative side you need a bit of muscle or weight to lower the roof and I'm a bit weedy so if you see me in Southport with the littlies packing up then I could do with a hand.....

[klmwong]

Sorry, don't know how I managed to post that twice. Ignore this one and pls post replies to the other one. Thanks.

[Northern Bongolow]

a few of us have modified the standard aft access flap.
julian at 321 away does a good mod known as the catflap. it was a member called umbongocat and umbongochris that developed it as they have a few little people.
do a search for catflap using the search tab and it should come up. in my opinion its a very good mod for peeps with little and not so little people.
it also helps to enter the roof if your not so spritely, and aids peeps who have to get up in the night often, who dont wish to disturb the other half.
.

http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... ap#p511368

[helen&tony]

Hi
Other post deleted..replies are on this one
Cheers
Helen

[sdsk]

We've got a manual roof and bed boards in our bongo too. Although we had one board cut in two, so we'd only have a 1 foot gap for litttle 'uns to fall through!
Thought about various cot-side arrangements to stop anyone falling down, but so far I've ended up sleeping in the roof with everyone else downstairs, either on the folded down seats or the stretcher bed across the front seats (http://www.vw-beds.com/products/bongo.html)

Darron

[umbongocat]

As Ady said (Northern Bolgler), we came up with the idea of cutting the original roof rather than faff about with bed boards that are heavy to carry around

321 Away are now rolling the new roofs out. If you call them and order one they get to work on one and just swap your old one over for the new one and the price they charge for doing the work.

It's the best thing we've ever done with the bongo and it works great for children and adults alike.. no more shuffling around to get out of a small hatch

If you look at this link and go down the page somewhat, you'll see pics of our roof under UmbongoChris's posts. Its named after me "the cat flap"

http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... p&start=15

[silvern]

The cat flap looks like a great idea. I too didn't want to faff about with big boards so I experimented a bit and eventually ended up taking out the AFT ceiling panel and replacing it with fabric-covered timber slats that roll/fold back.

Initially I wanted to keep the original ceiling in place as shown below, but in the end I opted to leave the slats in place and get rid of the original ceiling panel. Here, the slats are shown rolled back a bit to allow access.



To look at you wouldn't know it wasn't a standard fit item as the grey fabric is quite a good match (well, good enough).

The slats completely cover the roof opening and are held in place at the front end (cab) end by velcro. The slats are held together by straps which are screwed in (see below) and allow it to be rolled or folded back, as required to gain access to the roof.



I refitted the standard interior light onto the last slat (not shown here). The last slat is a bit wider and lifts up when the roof is raised (via a bit of string - technology!).

I keep a 1" memory foam matress up there so there is nothing else to carry except sleeping bags. Usually, our kids (9 and 5) sleep up there with a few of the slats rolled back so they can nip up and down. If I sleep up there (the 35mm timber is easily strong enough for adults) I roll the whole thing flat so that I have the whole length.

In practice I find it more convenient than sleeping on top of the hatch, or moving big boards about. May not suit everyone, but it's cheap & cheerful and it works for us. Cost me about £15-20 in timber and some grey bed sheets. Also, I still have the original roof panel in the garage whenever I want to re-fit it.

[minidaz123]

We've also got 2 children ( 4 & 9 ) who will hopefully be sleeping up top and must admit, really like the idea of the Catflap, especially as i could see the younger one panicking a bit if he needed to get up in the night and his older brother was fast asleep on the hatch.

[umbongocat]

We've also got 2 children ( 4 & 9 ) who will hopefully be sleeping up top and must admit, really like the idea of the Catflap, especially as i could see the younger one panicking a bit if he needed to get up in the night and his older brother was fast asleep on the hatch.

We came up with the idea after our little one (4) had fallen asleep on top of the hatch and it was a nightmare trying to wake her to get our 9 year old up there. Now when the two younger ones are up there we don't close the bottom half so we can check on the little one. It's also handy when two adults are up there and one needs to get up in the middle of the night for a pee

If you call 321 Away and say you want the 'catflap' they make one up and all you have to do is go there and they change the inner roof bit when you go to collect it. Best adaptation we've ever done to the bongo

[minidaz123]

If you call 321 Away and say you want the 'catflap' they make one up and all you have to do is go there and they change the inner roof bit when you go to collect it. Best adaptation we've ever done to the bongo

I was wondering how the whole roof swopping / /fitting process worked

I sent 321 Away a message yesterday, but might have to see about giving them a call. Want to get the conversion done before the Bash, so got a little bit of time.
I'm guessing the answer is yes , but do you have an idea of what the cost is ?

[umbongocat]

I think they're charging around £130.00 but not sure. We didn't pay as our roof was used as a tester to see if it actually would work. The ones they make now are better than our prototype as they've felted off the metal bits so it's nice and soft and looks better. If you're planning on getting a conversion, may well be worth checking out their conversions too as they're good too.

We're at the bash so you're more than welcome to take a look at ours if you've not got round to doing it before the bash. We're not hard to spot, it's a silver bongo with lots of flowers on it

[minidaz123]

Just heard back from 123 and the quote is £135 inc vat, which i think is quite reasonable

[minidaz123]

After reading all the posts and looking at all the different pics and methods used, we've decided to go down the Cat Flap route. As we'll have the 2 boys with us we wanted to get it done before the Bash, so are booked in for the 16th .... just in time

I stuck with emailing, rather than calling 321away, and found i got pretty quick replies everytime.

[umbongocat]

After reading all the posts and looking at all the different pics and methods used, we've decided to go down the Cat Flap route. As we'll have the 2 boys with us we wanted to get it done before the Bash, so are booked in for the 16th .... just in time

I stuck with emailing, rather than calling 321away, and found i got pretty quick replies everytime.

You'll not regret it, it's the best thing we did with ours and 321 Away are very reliable. If you're at the bash come and find us and you can take a look at the prototype of it. We're the silver AFT with flowers on it and probably a couple of kayaks with us too

[minidaz123]

Just got back from 321 Away. What a great location .. we'd have never found the place without the satnav
The 'Catflap' took a bit longer than planned due to them being very busy, but it went well, and looks good





Hopefully we'll be trying it out at the Bash.

Just one word of warning about going to 321 .... while waiting it means you have a chance to look around at all their conversions, and then you start getting ideas

You'll not regret it, it's the best thing we did with ours and 321 Away are very reliable. If you're at the bash come and find us and you can take a look at the prototype of it. We're the silver AFT with flowers on it and probably a couple of kayaks with us too

Will be interesting to see the prototype version so will come and have a look when we find you