Sanchius and Tuna ride again...

[Abscate]

GRand Canyon midair crash in 1956 basically started the FAA.

It was really the wild west in the air until a series of collisions made people realise that planes were going to keep crashing unless the control was shifted to the ground.

Medicine Bow crash hit close to home for us.
_________________
.ssS!

[coqcitywesty]

Great trip reports - any time spent on/near the Monterey peninsula is generally a good time. Thx for sharing.
_________________
1991 Westfalia EJ251, 1972 Volvo 1800 ES

[sanchius]

Yesterday I discovered that sometimes you have to earn your outings...

After an unusually intense week, it was time to get out for hike to get things back into perspective and ungrouchify myself.

The trip started out great, blasting up I-80 climbing west out of Reno up to the Sierra high country, the 2.2L WBX running powerfully at full song, and it seemed as if we were passing everything except the gas station.

Pulling a particularly steep section, I saw the battery light suddenly come on and immediately thought, "Are those alternator brushes acting up again or did I lose the fan belt?" I started watching the temp gauge closely and, sure enough, the needle started rising rapidly and quickly the over-temp light blinked on. Yup, I had lost the fan belt, meaning that neither the alternator nor the water pump were being driven. I immediately turned off the engine and coasted to a stop well off the highway to the smell of antifreeze and a whistling coolant overflow cap.

I opened the engine hatch and the problem was obvious.

Congratulating myself for always keeping 2 new spare fan belts and a couple of gallons of water in the van for such occasions, I got to work and 10 minutes later we were back on the road.

At the top of the big climb, I pulled into the big Safeway grocery store in west Truckee to grab more water, some fruit for the hike, and doggy treats for Luna since she was being such a good girl, parking in the shade in the far end of the lot to keep her cool while she waited in the van. Everything was nice and calm when I came back out, but as I was putting everything away, I could hear a very faint continuous hisssssssssssing sound. Humm, the engine was cool. Did something get dislodged or holed when the fan belt went? After a lot of listening, crawling around with my ears under the van, and rolling the van back a quarter turn of the wheels, I discovered the source: a big construction screw through my rear tire. Rats...

But, I was in a cool remote shaded parking space with everything I needed, so again I got to work. I removed the spare from the front carrier, moved a front wheel to the back to match the tread depth of other driven rear wheel, and installed the spare in the front. 30 minutes later we were back on our way uphill again to the Donner Summit where we parked and hit a particularly pretty section of the Pacific Crest Trail.

After hiking the trail and scrambling around on the granite outcroppings for awhile, we returned to the van and just hung out for an hour or so, listening to music and taking in the quiet mountain beauty as the sun set behind us.

Yeah, some days you have to earn your outings, but that just makes the time out there even sweeter...

_________________
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]

Mrs S and Tuna helping to close down the Caldor Fire evacuation shelter at the Reno Convention Center
They're using the van to move surplus remaining supplies donated to support the local low-income, domestic violence and anti-human trafficking shelters.

_________________
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]

Thanks for taking us along. I can smell the coolant from here.
_________________
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

[shadetreemech]

Thanks for the Trip Report. Nice to be reminded the World's still out there.

Repair Report coming soon on Case Crack Meets Devcon Titanium.

Dan
_________________
'84 GL 1.9
'01 Volvo V70 T5
'88 Westy - "MZDRTHY"

[Abscate]

Field repair on that screw. You back it until you see threads , then superglue, RTV, o rubber cement and screw it back in, let sit for 15 minutes

I drive from winnemuca to LA on one of those repairs once
_________________
.ssS!

[90weekender]

Great reporting! I'm so happy you've got your engine singing sweetly and pushing you out there again.

I'm just finishing break in and "final" valve adjusting. Hope to see you out there on one of my NorCal expeditions.

R
(Los Angeles)

[sanchius]

After seeing an old thread on installing Honda Odyssey folding side tables between the front seats, I stopped in the local boneyard to grab one to try it out. We often travel with coffee and/or water bottles, so the cup holders will be heavily used. I could see installing a USB power hub in it as well.

It was only $8, but it was no bargain as it was easily the most disgusting item I've ever pulled out of a yard. Caked in layers of baked on candy and goo, with the odd razor blade or two randomly falling out of the interior, it took hours to clean and disinfect after taking it all apart. In hindsight, I should have just left it and and pulled one in better shape from another vehicle. But, once cleaned and reassembled, it was a relatively easy install and it'll get tested on an upcoming trip.

My seats don't swivel (yet), so I just bolted it onto the passenger's seat base, leaving lots of space to access the handbrake. It has the added benefit of keeping Tunes from encroaching into the front foot wells which she likes to do when she gets bored on long drives.

I'm always on the lookout for random boneyard booty and in the back of the next car from the Odyssey was a big conga? drum that I grabbed on impulse, figuring it would make a fun resto project if it was cheap enough. The lady at the checkout window didn't know what to do with it, so she charged me $1 for it. Sold!

_________________
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]

You say patato I say potato...
_________________
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

[Steve Arndt]

For your roadside spares get a ARB tire plug kit. They are quite useful. BFGs are really tough tires to ream out so I recommend a higher end kit for safety so the tools don't break.
_________________
Steve
Steve's 87 Syncro project

[joetiger]

That might be the best boneyard find ever.
_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com

[sanchius]

[sanchius]

Tuna and I went for a little drive this afternoon to take in all the beautiful fall colors around here.

_________________
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!

[bobbyblack]

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar... in the lips of that ancient repairman, at the edge of reality.

Glad your travels are going towards the eventual path of the Great Dog In the Sky.

-bobby
_________________
'87 Westy 'Flossie','86 Westy 'R1','86 tintop GL - Subi2.2 'J2','83.5 stock tintop L 'ZoomBus','74 Karmann Ghia, '63 Notch

[Abscate]

[sanchius]

Mrs S, Tuna, and I drove out to San Francisco for the weekend to catch the Fleet Week airshow with a couple of my brothers, one who brought his Eurovan again and took most of the good photos for the weekend.

Mrs S was a real trooper, camping out in the Westy at an undisclosed location in Brisbane, then getting up at 5am to drive down to the waterfront to secure a front-row parking spot, though an early stop at Peet's Coffee was required to get things moving.

The Fleet Week weekend kicked off with a short warship parade. We honored our family's naval background by watching the warship parade led by a futuristic looking Zumwalt class guided missile destroyer...

... and a more traditional Arleigh Burke class destroyer

There were all kinds of cool planes going over, antiques and modern, civilian and military.

Including parachute team jumps out of Fat Albert, the Blue Angles support C-130, to kick off the airshow.

Watching the United 777 doing aerobatics and low passes was at once majestic, unexpected, and, for many, a too real reminder of 9/11.

For me, the low fly bys by the heavies are just as impressive as the small precision flight teams. I know how it all works, I studied fluid mechanics and aerospace engineering at college, I've researched in sub-sonic and super-sonic wind tunnels, but still, having that much metal slowly cruising by overhead always seems so improbable and amazing to me

Lots of cool hardware, including this jet powered glider out of Beale AFB that I'd never seen in person before.

The Blue Angels, the stars of the show, were there turnin' and burnin'

They never get old...

Though sometimes they were passing so close just above our heads on afterburner that we had to cover Tuna's ears, even though she seemed totally unphased by it all.

On Saturday, competition was fierce for the good parking spots and we had to set up separately.
But the wind was way down from Friday, so it was much more enjoyable and I was able to deploy the awning...

...and enjoy to parade of aircraft for a second day.

Like I said before, the Blue Angels just never get old...

By Sunday, we were all airshowed out and we contented ourselves joining our friends at the Italian Heritage Festival in North Beach for another 4-hour Prosecco fueled lunch while the 2-hour parade marched by the end of the table.

Mrs S was treated to a light dinner and a night at the Hyatt for persevering so well while Tuna spent the night with her uncles. Leaving for home the next morning, we saw a familiar Van from previous Reno runs.

Since we are from the mountains, our best memory of the weekend was watching the sun set over the Pacific at Ocean Beach.

Yeah, Abs, I know, it's all about The Husky and I need to Turn up the Tuna. Here you go...

_________________
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!

[Abscate]

Woof, said the Husky.

Where’s the snow at?

Mine is travel therapy from losing her companion. Here we are peeping in MA VT NH

_________________
.ssS!

[Schnippzle]

Awesome times
_________________
1988 Caravelle - FB25B - Syncro converted
2016 MB E63 AMG S - The daily driver
2019 Harley Davidson FXFBS Fat Bob - The leisure

[campism]