Welcome to the Campervan Channel, the YouTube channel for advice, information and inspiration
for everyone who loves VW campers. This video is an introduction to the biggest selling
VW Transporter of them all, the second generation or T2. This version of the VW Bus was in production
in some form, somewhere, for an incredible 46 years. We have other videos with advice
on buying them and what they are really like to live with, but for now, I hope you enjoy
a bit of backgrounder on the world-beating Bay window. The first generation of Transporter,
the T1 Splitty, had been a ground-breaker when it was launched in 1950. VW went on to
sell 1.8 million of them and unexpectedly create a motoring icon. No pressure there
then! When the second generation appeared for the model year 1968, some familiar features
were still there. The forward-control driving position above the front wheels, a huge cargo
space between the axles and an air-cooled engine in the back powering the rear wheels..
But the T2 looked different. The distinctive V-shaped front and the split windscreen of
the T1 had morphed into a wraparound, panoramic single windscreen, a huge piece of curved
glass which gave the new model its nickname the Bay Window. The Transporter now had a
sliding side door as standard. The electrics were 12 volt rather than 6. And while its
flat-four, air-cooled engine was familiar, it was built a little lower allowing even
more cargo space above the engine compartment. Overall the T2 was about 160mm tat is about
6 and a half inches longer than its predecessor, increasing the cargo space inside to about
five cubic metres. Less visible improvements were to do with safety, mainly to appease
the Americans who had come up with a radical idea that the occupants of a vehicle should
actually survive if it crashed. So, cue front disc brakes, lap belts, shoulder belts and
a much safer steering column and a firewall between the fuel tank and the engine. Now
there is a good idea! And eventually new structures to the front end to improve crash protection.
The T2 was obviously part of the Volkswagen family of trucks, but early marketing stressed
there was more to it than your average commercial vehicle. In original Ads, VW proudly claimed
"We've put a little beauty into the box". And it was "The car that comes in a box".
The car you could squeeze into a parking spot that would be too small for your station wagon.
Well, a ginormous American station wagon at least. The T2 proved even more popular with
campervan converters than the splitty had been. One thing got on their wick though.
The spare wheel. On many versions, it stuck straight up. A right pain in the load space
if you wanted to put a bed in the back. Solutions including covering it with a bit psychedelic
seventies fabric or building a wooden cabinet over it. Basically, pretending it wasn not
there. But by far the coolest solution was to pull your spare wheel out of the back and
stick it on the front between the headlights. A spare wheel up front became part of the
look for Bay window campers. As with all generations of VW transporter the T2 went through a ton
of tweaks and improvements. Life is too short to mention them all, but there were so many
in the period between 1971 and 1973, they are the kind of the watershed years between
two distinct periods. Bays before then are often called early bays or a T2a. After that,
they are Late Bays or a T2B. And because I know you want one, here is a spotters guide
to telling them apart. An easy clue first. On early Bays, front indicators were down
near the bumper giving them another nickname "low lights". On the late bays, the flashers
are high up next to the fresh air intake. Earlies had rounded, wrap around "blade" type
bumpers, incorporating a step to help you get into the cab. Late bays had larger, squared
off "Europa" bumpers that didn not wrap around. A structure behind them helped improve crash
protection and the step was now built into the wing. From the rear early bays give themselves
away by having small, oval-shaped lights. Late bays have much bigger, taller light clusters.
.So now we can tell them apart. Well maybe not. because VW did not decide, right, today
we are going to introduce all these new features. No, they did it gradually. So in 1972, you
could buy a Bay with basically a new back end and old front end. Vans built in this
kind of T2 Twilight zone are now known as the "Crossover" Bays. So now you know. In
1973, the world was plunged into its first oil crisis. Fuel was in short supply and very
expensive. So VW experimented with alternative fuels for the Bay window. Natural gas was
dropped before prototype stage, but electric power showed promise. In 1972, VW revealed
an all electric T2. Its 44 horse power Siemens motor took power from an underfloor battery.
And what a battery! Each one weighed 850kg. That is more than the VW Beetles being built
at the time. It took ten hours to charge and gave the Electric Bay a range of about 43
miles, and a top speed of about 43 miles an hour. Techncially, It worked and concepts
like electric taxi versions gained a lot of attention even on live TV. There is conflicting
evidence about how many of these were built. But it's thought to be no more than 200. And
many of those were test vehicles. One report said only 20 e-campers were sold. This amazing
innovation was just ahead of its time. It's only now, 47 years later, that all electric
VW Transporters are on sale again. In the mid 70s, the Bay was also used as a testbed
for another leap in vehicle technology, four wheel drive. Just a few, hand-built all-wheel-drive
Transporters were built at Wolfsburg. Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles have these great archive
pictures of these all-wheel-drive beasts being tested. Someone in the VW Research and Development
Department had been a keen off-roader, and added a four-wheel drive system to their own
T2 campervan. Technically- they were a success. But VW wasn not convinced there was a market
for them. It was not until the mid 80s that all wheel drive finally became an option on
the Bay successor, the T3 . But let us not leap to successors just yet. The T2 Bay was
a truly global phenomena. They were sold and built around the world. They were sent to
at least 15 countries in knock-down kit form. A box full of T2 parts that was assembled
in a factory, avoiding high import taxes that would have been charged on a complete vehicle.
In 1971, four years after its launch in Germany, the Bay was built at VW's plant in Mexico.
From 1975, they were built in Brazil too, but these were a bit different. From the front
and back they looked like 1970s Bays. But the side walls were from the old T1 splitty,
with smaller windows, air intakes above the rear wheels and hinged doors from the 1950s.
The result, total confusion about what you are looking at. Sales of Bays boomed worldwide
and much of their popularity and high profile was due to the Hippy Movement. It is just
odd that a vehicle which started life as really practical load carrier for hard-working German
business folk became the transport of choice for the most laid-back characters on the planet.
It became known as the Hippy Van, a symbol of peace, love, freedom, rebellion. Production
in Germany ended in 1979. But the T2 story was far from over. Brazil did not just keep
building them, it developed them, introducing a diesel engine option for instance. Bays
kept rolling out of the Mexican plant too with even more radical options including would
you believe it a water-cooled engine for 1988. There is no mistaking water-cooled Bays. They
have a distinctive, some would say hideous, black radiator grill slapped on the front.
The Mexican factory shut up shop in 1994 and all T2 production moved to Brazil where VW
finally called time on the air-cooled engine. It is worth pausing for a bit of a tribute
here! VW air-cooled engines had powered a staggering 27 million Volkswagens, that is
Beetles and a few other cars as well as the Transporters. To mark this motoring milestone,
VW produced 200 special edition T2s in exclusive sliver metallic paint jobs. Still the water-cooled
versions went on with a good few finding their way to the UK. Bristol based campervan converter
Danbury imported Brazilian Bays, and turned them into water-cooled campers. Buyers got
the look of a classic Bay but, with a few more mod-cons than you\'92d get in the vintage
versions. There was the option of power steering from a Ford Fiesta no less, and of course,
the reliability of the 1.4 litre water cooled power unit derived from the VW Fox. Back in
Brazil, The Bay kept going with about 25,000 being produced a year untl its death knell
was sounded by looming air bag and anti lock brake legislation. VW decided the 2013 model
year was to be the last. Bear in mind, VW Germany is producing the T5 by this time.
So, the old girl finally retired. To celebrate 46 years in production and around 3.9 million
Bays sold. A final run of 600 Last Edition models was built in September 2013. These
days, all versions of the Bay window remain hugely popular as campervans. Not quite as
expensive as splitties, but with all the character of a true VW classic. With a thriving club
scene and good availability of parts and body panels, who knows, these iconic vans could
splutter on for another 50 years. Don not forget, we are planning more videos on Bay
windows and all other types of VW campervans. So please subscribe, click on that bell icon,
then you will hear when every new video is posted. For now, thanks for watching.