SMB vs CCV penthouse top comparison and impact on rear AC?

[JVan]

I would like to replace my SMB top with a CCV. I have had the SMB manual and electric. Not too keen on either of them but the electric is light years above the manual.

Joe

Wahoo or anyone else thinking of switching,

I’d be happy to buy your old SMB top if you decide to switch. I’ll come carefully and properly remove the old top. I’d prefer an EB electric top but beggars can’t be choosers in this situation.
If I had the funds I would absolutely choose a CCV top. They are far superior. They’re priced much higher than I want to pay though.

[Vanimal]

I hear you. my van is a 2002 had I focused on a top then I would be golden today but I chose 4wd! I have a motorhome Diesel pusher but tired of the multitude of vehicles battery up keep drainage want to down size so time for pop goes the weasel!

[ndubes]

Thanks all for the replies. Somehow I got unsubscribed from the thread so I didn’t realize how many replies there were! Sounds like the AC should not be a concern, and yes it’s pretty darn important in Phoenix! Our van is black on top and silver on the bottom so maybe we would go with silver on the top for heat reflection. Seems like CCV is the consensus winner, I think we will call and get it scheduled. Talking to a few other owners and 1der I have been advised to definitely go with the high top version, seems less likely to regret having too much space I suppose? Though it might pose some parking issues as we are already 8ft tall - guess we will figure it out

Last question I had - we have a front runner roof rack right now, it uses legs to pinch attach onto the gutters but there are various other available mounting legs we could substitute. Would we be able to re-use that rack on top of the penthouse? Maybe the question is simply, how have others attached roof racks onto these tops? Do you have to drill through or do they come with some kind of track pre-attached to the top for adding a rack?

[MSD]

We can make the front runner work by mount with aluminum uni strut mounted to the top. The way we do it will be structurally sound & your best option. Don't worry about side legs to mount it. when you call you'll most like talk with either Derek or Chris... If there are any questions they'll get with Bud & sort it out. Cheers

[ctb]

Sure would LOVE to see pictures of all this pro-CCV talk! Multiple angles so we can SEE what you are all talking about!

[ndubes]

Originally Posted by MSD

We can make the front runner work by mount with aluminum uni strut mounted to the top. The way we do it will be structurally sound & your best option. Don't worry about side legs to mount it. when you call you'll most like talk with either Derek or Chris... If there are any questions they'll get with Bud & sort it out. Cheers

Awesome, we really like our rack so that would be great to keep it. Have several lights mounted to it too so hopefully there's a way to keep those up on top. Also plan to add some solar to keep our batteries topped off (have a nice 12v dometic fridge we want to be able to use boondocking) so I'll talk to them about all that too. I just tried to call CCV to get on schedule but voicemail was full so I shot them an email.

Does anyone know exactly how much height the high top adds to the van? EDIT: Spoke to Chris today and he said plan on 2ft, or 2.5ft to be safe.

[ndubes]

I'm all but ready to pull the trigger and send in our deposit but I'm still waffling on this high top vs mid top debate. Our van is already 8ft high, and a 10 to 10.5ft high van seems REALLY tall. Anybody have any advice - will this make it too top heavy off road? Any clearance issues that we don't already have? We already can't go in any parking garages or drive-thru obviously, so not worried about that.

Better yet, anybody in the Phoenix area with either the mid or high top that I could see in person before we make the final call? There's a thread on the topic here, but nothing like seeing them first-hand.

[MSD]

With your rack my guess is 10' or under. I'm exactly at 10' with a 6" lift, 35's and a 24" fixed top that has a rack on it. The CCV high top is only 17" but then you have the rack. I don't worry to much about anything other than low lying tree on the trial & of course no cars washes or drive thru

[MSD]

Few other answers interior head room (mid top 61") (high top 69" ) this is when top is down. The height of a van with the high top running 33" tires & 4x4 is 8' 8" not including a max a fan ( which you'll want) so add 6" . A mid top will come in at 8'3" send me a text & I'll get you Chris our sales guys number 970-412-5248

[ndubes]

Left a message with CCV today to get on their schedule for a high top pop up this spring.

I’m still trying to figure out the logistics of getting the van up there, would like to do it sooner than later but i couldn’t do something like that until late spring probably. Have others just shipped their vans up there? 1der mentioned there was someone on the forum that just loves driving and has driven a few peoples’ vans up there for them. I’d feel terrible if there was any car trouble on the way so I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Just curious if anyone has any good ideas, or if I need to just suck it up and plan on a couple one way drives / one way flights (I won’t be able to leave the family long enough to just wait up there for it to finish).