(major portions of this page were written by Joel Walker, and are used with permission)

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The best drink holders I have found are from Herringtons. They were $9.95 each, but would expand to fit anything. Unfortunately, Herringtons has stopped carrying these.

In the front, for the driver and passenger, I used some Rubber Maid K-mart types that have a drink holder molded in with a ? holder ... sort of a two-compartment job, with a rubber flap to fix the thing into the window glass. I permanently fixed mine to the plastic heater cover (in front of the gearshift) with some more stove bolts (short ones) ... one drink-holder-thing on each side of the gearshift (leaving room for the gearshift to move around). Not much of a reach down to get/put a drink, and it doesn't interfere with my right leg when driving.

Manufacturers

The Herrington cup holders had on it's outer cover "Expandable" and on the back "made in Hong Kong". on the inside is "ITC Marine". the difference with with this one is that it has "jaws" to grip the cup/drink and those jaws can widen/expand about an inch to accomodate containers of about 3.5" (90mm) diameter. it has steel spring clips (to keep the jaws upright) and six pre-drilled holes in the back for mounting. Available in vertical or horizontal mounting. Costly, but nice.

At Wal-Mart, in the fishing area (Of course. Why, it's not safe to drive an automobile while drinking!!), is the $2.97 (your price may vary) one. Quote:

  Flip-Down Drink Holder
       o  High-Tech Plastic Construction
       o  Ideal for Boats, RVs, Vans and Other Vehicles

  Stock NO. 62128                       Made in America
  Another Quality Product from
          WJB Industries * Clear Lake, Iowa 50428 * USA

It is approximately the same (mounting) size as the others (roughly 4" (10 cm) square), and has the six pre-drilled mounting holes, but uses plastic spring clips to hold the cup-holding-ring. In fact, I wouldn't call it a "cup-holding-ring", because i don't think a coffee cup would fit. The enclosed-circle holder is about 2.8" (75mm) in diameter and will hold only a soda/beer can or small bottle.

The next candidate was also bought at Wal-mart, but has on the cover "L S Brown Company". When opened, it's identical to the WJB one above.

I recommend checking out the Wal-Mart ones, but I think you'll find that the more expensive one is that much better. Just my opinion.

Mounting locations

Some possible locations for mounting cup holders on a Vanagon include:

• Two cup holders can be attached to the left side of the passenger seat base. If you use screws, make sure that the screws don't go through into the battery!
• In an automatic transmission van, a pair can be taped to each side of the automatic transmission shifter housing.
• One can be attached to the right side wall just rearward of the sliding door
• In a Westfalia camper, you can attach a cup holder to the left sidewall just over the rear table but below the window.