Things your van did recently

[Zeitgeist 13]

Homecoming van

My daughter hates our van. I love our van. She attended a Homecoming dance yesterday along with three other classmates. I said the van would be better for hauling around multiple teens with fancy clothes than our Quattro. She put it to a vote of her peeps, and the van won. The van was a hit with the kiddos.

I strongly suspect that I'll be prepping this van to accompany her to college in a couple years.
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Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[Satch]

Mount Laguna just east of San Diego.... Finally some fall weather. Great day to take an air cooled into the mountains!

[corter]

had our first snow yesterday so got a good dune run in before we're potentially closed out for the season

And enjoyed our favorite dinner spot at the end of the trail

[sanchius]

Last weekend it was that time of year to pick out pumpkins again, just like in so many years past.

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The Syncro years (2005-16) - The 2WD years (2017-23) - Westy & WBX rebuild spreadsheet - Sanchius & Tuna: The Video
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[sanchius]

After a couple weeks of beautiful fall weather, a strong cold front rolled in Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning dawned rainy, dark, and cold. I was headed into the lab at 7am, taking the quiet country back roads to avoid the highway traffic. The van was running great, the heaters on high, the wipers sweeping back & forth and it was all warm & cozy inside. I was halfway there when I received word that the morning's early conference call was postponed. Since everything was prepped and ready for the 9:30 call, there simply wasn't any reason for me to be in so early.

So I pulled off into an empty Boulder County trail head, parked right up next to the boundary fence, closed the curtains, deployed the z-bed and relaxed in the back under a warm fleece blanket, listening to the stereo, drinking my coffee and reading/dozing while the rain pattered steadily overhead on the roof. An hour or so later, refreshed, I started back up and drove the rest of the way into work to start my day. It was so nice, I love having this van...

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The Syncro years (2005-16) - The 2WD years (2017-23) - Westy & WBX rebuild spreadsheet - Sanchius & Tuna: The Video
Your gold star membership keeps this awesome list going!

[dobryan]

^^^ It doesn't get a whole lot better than that. I've been known to leave the office early for a meeting just to be sure I can get a power nap in along the way somewhere.
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Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 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

[sanchius]

After a boisterous meal at our traditional local hole-in-the wall breakfast joint, the Village Coffee Shop, in Boulder,
we spent the morning with the folks, helping them remove some extra furniture from their assisted living facility.
We spent the warm afternoon out on the prairie exploring back roads and were able to successfully avoid cleaning the garage.
That's Long's Peak in the background (14250 feet). I've climbed it twice and don't intend to ever do it again.
That last cold front brought the first solid high country snow of this season. Winter's coming...

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The Syncro years (2005-16) - The 2WD years (2017-23) - Westy & WBX rebuild spreadsheet - Sanchius & Tuna: The Video
Your gold star membership keeps this awesome list going!

[sanchius]

We picked up some apple cider & donuts and spent Sunday morning putting around the foothills back roads seeing what we could find.

We found several nice scenic overviews...

we found a old work train going by, heading back down to the Denver yard...

and we found a cool Skycrane helicopter (Erickson #742, aka "The Incredible Hulk") up at the Jeffco airtanker base.

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The Syncro years (2005-16) - The 2WD years (2017-23) - Westy & WBX rebuild spreadsheet - Sanchius & Tuna: The Video
Your gold star membership keeps this awesome list going!

[Jamo7]

Phew! My poor ol' van took a beating this weekend.
We drove from Seattle to Estacada OR (210 miles) for an early Thanksgiving get-together. We had to leave after bed time Friday so that the girls (1 and a half and 4) would be sleeping. The van was doing well keeping up with the big rigs (65-70mph) and we were south of Chehalis when I moved the foot vent heater slider over to radio side and heard zzzzzztt. Uh-oh. I moved it one more time and heard the same thing. A few seconds later smoke started filling the cabin, visibly pouring out of the radio, everyone started coughing, and I immediately pulled over, rolled down the windows and turned off the engine. My wife went back with the girls and I watched to see if the fire would die out or if we would need to evacuate the van. Luckily the fire died, and things didn't get worse. After a minute or two I didn't like where were (just on the side of the freeway, in the dark, in the middle of nowhere- at least it wasn't raining), so I started the van up again and saw what still worked. It started up fine, headlights worked, turn signals worked, front and rear heater fans still worked, so we continued on until the next exit. I pulled over into a gas station parking lot and assessed the damage. The wires that must have been pinched by the vent slider lever had molten insulation hanging off of them. It was gross, stinky and scary, but given all the van fire stories I read about, I felt pretty lucky it wasn't worse. I cut all those wires back to clean insulation, looked at which items to not turn on, and then started the van again to see if we could continue. When everything looked ok, we continued on.
I'll save you some of the boring details, but I should mention that, while we planned to camp at Battleground Lake State Park, we arrived at midnight, but the gates closed at 10pm (this wasn't on the phone message when I called earlier in the week). So after parking in a Volunteer Fire Dept parking lot, popping the top and getting everyone in bed and back to sleep, I didn't sleep too well before waking up to talk to the fire fighters when they arrived early in the morning. We finished the drive to Estacada in the late morning while the youngest took her nap, and had a good lunch feast.
Then the plan was drive back Saturday night while the girls slept. While it had rained hard during the day, it wasn't raining when we left, and it didn't start raining hard until we were almost to Kelso. Then it rained pretty hard on and off. Another item that had stopped working after the dash fire was the dash lights. I had used a headlamp to monitor speed, temp, and fuel on the drive down, but turning it on and off on my forehead was a bit much, so Saturday afternoon I taped the headlamp to the steering wheel for the drive back. Everything was working fine until I got gas in South Tacoma. It was late, I was tired, it was raining hard and I forgot my gas cap on rain gutter. Doh! By the time we were almost to SeaTac however, I started to hear a rattle in the back. I asked my wife if she could just find where it was and put her had on it to dampen the sound, but she replied that it was coming from the engine. The noise got louder and louder such that by the time we were entering the express lanes in downtown Seattle, it sounded like we had no muffler. Ay carumba! At this point it was raining hard, there was lots of traffic kicking up even more spray, it was late, and we were close to home. As long as the van still ran, I was going to keep the pedal to the metal. So we put up with the noise, probably woke up the neighborhood driving up to our house and parking it for the night.
Last night I got under the van and found that one of the passenger side front exhaust pipe bolts had come lose and fallen out. The gasket is just hanging on by one bolt. I sprayed PB Blaster on the other one and will be putting in my order for parts this morning.
Now when I post to "What did you do to your van today?" you will have the back story...
James
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'84 Westy 2.1 wbx

[HENDO]

I lifted Sludge on my new garage toy.

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84 Westy AKA "Sludge"

[BootsAndPants]

A few weekends ago, we rolled out to the coast to try to take advantage of the fall swell. Had a few great sessions, but off shore winds closed out the break more often than not. Still, surfing crap waves is better than sitting in town!

Shortly following, I ran into a ton of friends I didn't know would be in Squamish! The weather was forecasted to suck, but these guys came up to climb anyway. Ended up being a pretty good couple of days; no rain, even got sunny for a bit, and the rock stayed dry. Everyone was excited about the van, and a party ensued. How many climbers can you fit inside? Turns out 10

Prepping the van for the winter now that it's puking snow in the mountains. I'm hoping it will make a great backcountry base!

[ajdenette]

Last Saturday my father found a good deal on a Peter Wright 450# Anvil so we went and got the Vanagon to load it into and bring it home.

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1985 2wd Westy with 2000 Subaru 2.2 current driver
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=685635
1986 Syncro Doka Project next in line
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=732777
1990 Vanagon Syncro Base awaiting body work

[oldhuldy67]

Vanny took me to lunch....in the parking lot.....with the 'Possum.....I had to get out of the building so I turned on the gas, fired up the Propex, boiled some water for a pour-over cup of coffee and chilled.

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Currently:1980 Westy Westfalia Poptop (a total stock-look rebuild with all my favorite camping mods)
1967 stock Sunroof Beetle
Formerly:
1978 Westy Campmobile, the"EM50 Urban Assault Vehicle" code named "The Pickle"
1973 Squareback (sold on a lark)
1973 Super Beetle (crashed..walked away without a scratch)
1972 Standard Beetle (lost in a relationship..)
1966 Beetle (the Black Beauty, my Dad's)
1964 Beetle (the Beige Bug, my beginning beater, also my Dad's) Thanks, Dad.

[dhaavers]

^^^ Ah yes...the "Driveway Getaway"... I'm a fan!



- Dave
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86 White Wolfsburg Westy Weekender
"The WonderVan"
<EDITED TO PROTECT INNOCENT PIXELS>

[erikj2000]

Good looking van boots, Keep it up. You probably created a couple more fans with the younger crowd.

[Chuckarlie]

[BootsAndPants]

[g shepherd]

Took us camping last weekend.

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[BCE56]

Returned yesterday from a week long visit to friends and relatives in the mountain states.
So.Cal> Flagstaff> Albuquerque> Cerillos NM> Las Vegas NM> Raton Pass> Trinidad CO> La Vida> Pagosa Springs> Durango> Gallup> Flagstaff> home.
Syncro ran like a champ and got 21 mpg for the round trip. Gas prices as low as $1.95gal reg. Sweet!
I encountered rain, sleet and snow, and considerable windy stretches on this trip, and I lost count of how many mountain passes.
Temps as low as 20 some nights, but when the sun came out after the storms it was spectacular.

Cerillos Museum and Petting Zoo

Looking west at Cerillos. This storm closed Raton Pass.

West of Trinidad. Bogged but not stuck.

Somewhere N. of Flagstaff. A beautiful morning, last day on the road.

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=BCE56=

'86 Syncro tintop
EJ22, OBD II early SC adapter plate conversion

Side project: '69 Frankenbug "It's alive!"

[bosstyn]