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Tue Mar 18, 2003 2:57 pm

Hi, I live in Oregon. Just got back from my first trip in the mountains in my 69' Westy hardtop. Ran great, but I have a couple of questions. I've had a few bugs, but am new to busses. According to VW, 65 is the max top speed, but is that a good speed to cruise at, or is it too hard on the engine (1600 single port)? Also, and most important, I was going down a STEEP mountain forest service road, and it almost felt like the brakes were going to give out. Is there a good way to go slow down steep grades? I had it in first gear, but I still had to keep the brakes on continously, and even wait for them to cool. Finally, why did they make the drain in the damn Westfalia sink lipped, so you have to slosh the water by hand down the drain? Seems like a bad design. Anyway, thanks very much!
-Bob

Tue Mar 18, 2003 3:47 pm

I drive mine at 75 with a header and have had no problems in the last few years,but maybe I could geta longer life out of my engines if I slowed down.Ya, right, like thats going to happen! When going down long steep grades with drum brakes or disk for that matter you should shift to 3rd or eventually the brakes will overheat and give out. (brake fade)My drain doesn't have a lip. Good luck.

Tue Mar 18, 2003 6:03 pm

You said you were already in the lowest gear, so there's not much else to do but stop and let the brakes cool down. If you don't, then your brakes will fail and you'll really be screwed! A coworker was just telling me a bout driving over a pass in Italty, and overusing the brakes to the point of failure on the way down, had to use a super small runaway lane, and barely kept from going over the edge! Jeremy
ps I suppose if you were not to do things by the book, you could use the hand brake to apply the rear brakes only, keeping the fronts cool, but that would have to be a very short term tactic. Most braking power comes from the fronts, and your rear drums would get super heated and could warp & bind

Wed Mar 19, 2003 11:21 pm

Overheating the brakes by not starting out slowly and keeping the vehicle moving slow onsteep declines will cause the drums to heat up and expand witch means the shoes must move further to reach the drums, If the
shoe to drum adjustment is out to begin with
it gets quite excessive with heat, also if your drums are in good shape and have not been turned down to where they are getting close to minimum specs they can be vented (drilled) around the contact surface wich keeps heat down and makes for more efficient braking,If I were to buy new drums I would not put them on till they were vented.

Thu Mar 20, 2003 10:22 am

Thanks for all the advice guys. Just glad I'm doing everything right! Sort of nervous being 30 miles from anything in an old bus....amazing that a 1600 sp bug engine can do what it does tho'.