Poll: Long drive, did you make it? 1,000+ miles

[GoEverywhere]

Took a 5 day trip from Portland to City Of Rocks National Reserve on the border between Idaho and Utah.

1401 miles of nearly issue free driving. The only issue was getting a bad tank of gas in a tiny middle of nowhere town in Idaho resulting in a clogged fuel filter. Quick filter swap later and on the road again.

Averaged 22MPG traveling at 75MPH nearly the entire time. Not too shabby.

Was totally off grid for all 5 days without issue, which was a good test for my recent power system upgrades.

Temperatures ranged from 35F to 91F and we remained comfortable the whole time!

[Microbusdeluxe]

T

ook 16 days to drive 4,500 miles from Bellingham, WA to Teddy Roosevelt National Park in N Dakota, then spent a few days hunting for morel mushrooms in Montana. Did a lot of it on freeway, not our usual style but we had limited time.

Our 1989 syncro Westy with a Bostig conversion ran like an absolute top. Cruised at 70 mph, engine temps were fine even though it was 90 degrees a couple of days. Only saw 2 Westys the entire trip until we got back west of the Cascades. Only bummer was closed National Monuments thanks to DOGE, but the National Park was open and quite nice. Our cat wanted to chase away a bison that came right up to the rig in our campsite.
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'69 Squareback RIP
'65 21 window deluxe sold before the price spike, damn it.
'70 rhd bay now a taxi in South Sudan
'81 Westy sold
'89 hightop Westy Joker syncro 16" now with Bostig!

[Crooked Designer]

[Microbusdeluxe]

JoeE has guided the syncro down the whole of Baja, all around Mexico and Guatemala, Up to the Arctic Ocean and Alaska as well as some local jaunts.

His modus operandi is to jump up into the hi-top when we are on paved roads, but he always climbs back down when we hit gravel or dirt. When it gets really rough he positions himself behind me on the kitchen block, leans out the driver's window and watches for any problems on the road.

He's nailed a couple of mice at campsites and thinks he can take on larger critters if we'd only let him off leash.
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'69 Squareback RIP
'65 21 window deluxe sold before the price spike, damn it.
'70 rhd bay now a taxi in South Sudan
'81 Westy sold
'89 hightop Westy Joker syncro 16" now with Bostig!

[Abscate]

Cat beats Bison. It’s all in the attitude…


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🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🍊 🍊 🍊

[MsTaboo]

[GoEverywhere]

Since we've taken a left turn into Adventure cats... My Bengal Hobbes likes to adventure too.

[Kdj]

Back from a long 4th of July, kayaking, camping and new engine swap shake down trip! Started out in KY at Moutardier state recreation area.

Then drove down to Chattanooga to poke around. Never really been and wanted to see what it was all about. Then out to the Ocoee river for start of water sports
Nice camping right at the put-in.

Then a little further northeast to the Nantahala to meet up with some friends for more boating and Americana.

All in all a great trip that covered more than 1200 miles. Wesley did great with his new heart. Able to cover ground when needed and climb hills when asked. No real problems with swap so super a happy so far. I’ll do a detailed post on the swap in the 07k post soon.

[16CVs]

Made it from the Bay Area to Moab and back, besides standard Subaru oil usage no issues.

My buddy borrowed it and took it to the outdoors show in Portland and made it back without incident.

3500 miles in 3 weeks, that’s what they were designed to do and it did it.

Stacy
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1987 Syncro Westfalia Triple knob (bastard)
1989 Syncro Tristar Triple knob "Swedish"
2013 Jetta Hybrid a true "Zwitter"
Samba member # 14980
Call anytime number 650 722 4914 .
Keep Your van running and upkept tastefully for the love of the hobby.
Don't let your van end up in an "abortions" thread.

[danielheff]

San Diego to Klamath mostly via Hwy 1 and 101. 2400 miles total.

Usal Road to Shelter cove was the spiciest bit. Nothing to technical, just a couple ruts that needed consideration.

Nothing broke on this trip. One Burley rear disc caliper was either momentarily seized or dragging which caused some smoking brakes one day, but that was fixed on the side of the road. A brand new GKN Loebro axle assembly was installed before the trip and started clicking just like the previous one. It survived the trip, still need to investigate.

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'70 Squareback 1835cc
'85 Vanagon GL Camper, EJ22, Peloquin Diff, Burley rear disc brakes, SC big front brakes, Espar D2L, 250ah Lifepo4
'85.5 944 NA

[Braukuche]

My wife and I took our 2.5 Subaru powered ‘89 Westy on its first big drive. We headed out of San Diego and took the backroads east to Vegas and from there the I15 to Zion for a quick overnight stay (we could only get one night).

From Zion we drove to Bryce Canyon. Stayed there three nights and set up the tent.

Off to Capital Reef was next, but on the way we overnighted in the Dixie National forest.

From Capitol Reef we headed straight up to The Bridger Teton National Park which was gorgeous.

I managed to catch a bug so we decided to cut the trip short and headed due west into Oregon passing through the Bitteroots on a long dirt road in rain that passed a wild waterfall.

From there a pretty pedestrian drive down through Oregon and then through CA down the I-5. I estimate we drove about 3,500 miles. Often doing 7 to 9 hours at one point. Van ran flawlessly, didn’t use a drop of oil. The original fridge died but the rest of the equipment worked perfectly. Can’t wait for the next big adventure.
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Go Reds! Smash state!

Retirement is here!
1960 double cab
1960 Baja Bug
1963 stretched double cab
1962 Golde sunroof Ghia
1963 356 B coupe
1963 Notchback
1967 21 window less rusty now
1989 Westfalia

[vanis13]

[campism]

[Braukuche]

[Kdj]

[SyncroTrev]

Bend Oregon to Oaxaca Mexico, and back to Bend Oregon.

I am not sure on the miles. I had a front outer 16" CV go out in Mexico at some point. (had to pull the axle and just run the outer stub axle to get home so no speed-o / odometer) But my wife thinks we did over 15,000 miles in the span of 6 months.

We zig zagged the western half of the USA going as far east at Telluride CO. We hit 13 national parks, went rock crawling / trail driving twice in Moab (couldn't get enough) drove all of Baja Mexico. Then crossed on the ferry to main land and did a bunch of random zig zag miles there as well.

Our highest camp was 13,100' just south of Mexico City on the side of Iztaccihuatl Volcano. Took my wife and two littles. 9 and 11 at the time.

I blew a Transmision main seal on the drive shaft end in Ensenada, but brought an extra and found a great shop that let me use one of their bays to install a new one and do a fluid change.

Other than the main seal and the from outer CV we have no issues. Car related or other wise. We met the nicest people, ate way too much food and I could have just kept driving my van forever. It was the trip of a lifetime. I wake up every morning dreaming and planing how to do it full time. Our entire family misses it daily. We will be back on the road soon. Dropping the Transmision in the drive way currently... our van "Lucky" the Space Nugget, needs some TLC. But honestly she is doing so well for what we put her through.

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1989 Vanagon Syncro
Adventurewagen Hightop
Westy Cab Interior
1.9 TDI ALH
Bend, OR

[4Gears4Tires]

That is the adventure of a lifetime. Congrats. Your kids will cherish that forever.
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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[Abscate]

[dhaavers]

[dobryan]

Excellent!!!!
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Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2010 Subaru EJ25 (Vanaru) and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794