What close calls have you had with your van today?

[SwampyJoe]

Today was one of the closest calls I think I have had with my van. I needed to take someone to the bus station at 5 am, and it was a total of -19 degrees outside. When I started my van up, there was a weird smell but it was so bloody cold outside, I said I'll deal with it later so I could take this person to the bus stop and get back into bed. Later that day, I had to transport all of my belongings to a friends house to stay at over the break. I noticed the weird smell and decided I needed to open up the engine cover and see what is going on. Once I opened it, I saw a fuel line right over the engine leaking with a solid drip a second. The fuel was going onto a wire then onto the engine. Luckily it was right on a hose clamp and so I was able to fix it in a jiffy. I am so glad nothing happened.

What about you guys? What close calls have you had in the life of your van?

[dhaavers]

OK...I'll play...

Couple years ago, WP/alt belt jumped off. Stopped van in <30 seconds just as
coolant was puking from pressure tank, let it cool a bit & reinstalled belt for the
2 mile trip home. No trouble since, but plans to replace belts before next summer...



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

[bluebus86]

last week a truck ran a stop and nearly hit me whilest I was in a crosswalk. missed me by that much!
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[syncrodoka]

Earlier today someone in the turn lane next to me came completely into my lane at the end of the apex. I had to gun the bike to keep from being squished and I ended up jumping the hump leading to the railroad tracks but I survived so that they can text another day.

[Jeffrey Lee]

Late last fall, Thanksgiving arrived early when a ten-pound turkey crashed through our windshield at highway speed. I instinctively closed my eyes as a thousand tiny bits of glass flew into my face, and stomped the brakes to come to a screeching halt square in my lane. In the oncoming lane, immediately opposite us, a Honda GoldWing with two riders had slammed to a stop, too.

We carefully limped up the road a quarter mile to a wayside where I washed the glass shards out of my scalp beneath the big green hand pump, and assessed the damage to the windshield I had installed only a year before. In preparation, I had done some body work around the windshield lip, and repainted the front nose. I was glad to see that the turkey had only shattered the glass, and there was no damage to paintwork, grills, or even the NLA Westy luggage rack.

But it soon dawned on me that this could have gone so much worse: I could have swerved to avoid the turkey and struck the motorcycle head-on; or the turkey could have flown up a moment earlier and struck the cyclists, who would have likely gone down and perhaps slid under the Vanagon bumper. Or, what else …? It was indeed a day of Thanksgiving.

As it was, a roll of duct tape got us home that night, and a week later all was right again. The glass man remembered the van, and observed, “Jeeze, your first windshield lasted 32 years, and your next one only lasted 13 months?!”

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[dhaavers]

[Tom Powell]

[RainierSyncro]

Close call in the van - I was approaching an intersection in the neighborhood where the light was red. I know this intersection well and knew it would turn green just before I got there, so I'm not really slowing down. Just as I got to the light, it turned green just as I thought it would, but I didn't expect two cars on the side street going in opposite directions stepping on the gas on the yellow trying to get through the intersection. One wanted to make a left, the other wanted to go straight and both thought the other was going to stop. POW! A head-on right in front of me. While the air bags were still steaming, everybody got out of their car, ignored me and my concern and they all pulled out their cell phones to call people. Since they apparently had things under control, I said F*** it, got back in the car and drove around. The weird thing was I just bringing home a new dash cam and had it on the seat to install later that day.

Not in the van - I was riding my '68 Triumph motorcycle up a hill and it was cutting out when the revs got over 4k. I pulled over and decided to walk it on the sidewalk to the crest of the hill. I slipped on some gravel and dumped the bike. I fell into the street with the bike trapping my leg. While I was figuring out what happened, I heard a loud screeeeech. I turn my head and I was face to face with a huge tire. The guy in the 4x4 saw me fall and stopped just in time. Yikes!

[DometicLover]

Hard to see, but look at the front transmission mount bolt... Transmission was getting hard to shift... I wondered why for a bit...

[Abscate]

You've got a few more weeks on that, at least...
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[Steve M.]

I opened my wallet today and had the credit card halfway out...
Somebody blew a horn and that made me jump me so I shoved it back in.
Whew...that was too close!
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[SwampyJoe]

[alaskadan]

Two years ago had a really close call with a suburban that pulled across our lane while we were doing highway speed resulting with us off the highway in the ditch. But the one i have flashbacks of was from my maiden voyage home in the syncro to Ak from Wa. I was somewhere east of palmer at twighlight, the bewitching hour for grazing moose. Im very aware that this is a bad time of day in an especially bad area for moose. Im on the last quarter of my 3 day drive from seattle to homer. With shitty stock vanagon headlights one of witch had a failed lense to boot. All i remember is the ghostly image of a big cow moose broadside in the opposite lane . I didnt see her until she was 3 feet from the van! No reaction, just BAM there she was! Her shoulders well above dash height, missed her nose with the A pillar by inches....whew, speed limit was 55mph and i had already slowed to 45 or so but that woulda left a mark.

[jfu057]

Earlier this year I replaced the fuel clamps with the wrong size (and drove around for 6 months) because I relied on an auto-shopper algorithm to pick the right ones... man, I can be a jack ass sometimes. Glad it didn't cost me in the end.

[Tom Powell]

I have seen fear in the eye and snot in the nose of a deer that started across the highway and then changed it's mind halfway. As it stood on its hind legs and pirouetted we were eye to eye.

Aloha
tp

[raoul mitgong]

Lead car was texting while waiting for the left turn arrow. I had to honk 4 cars back to get his attention. I almost had to sit through the light a second time. Very close. Guy behind me... he didn't make it.
-d
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84 Westy with a 2.1 (Groover)
86 Tintop Syncro (Crow)
86 Tintop Syncro to Westy project (Tom Servo)
91 Westy (Only the top 12 inches of this van (a burn victim))

[Abscate]

He did actually, He was behind you at the next light.

Upthread - driving to anticipate traffic lights is a good practice to avoid if you don't like wrecking your van, I mean, your Bus.

I did the eyeball-to-eyeball thing with a deer out in the country in upstate NY in the 1983 Diesel (I really have to correct that sig) but he soon outran me with my whopping 48 DeerPower.
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[0to60in6min]

spring 2016, Vancouver Island... papa deer and then followed by mama deer sitting in the middle of the road waiting for her 2 bambis... very cute

just slow down a bit folks... specially when you have more HP than the stock 2.1 WBX...