First Major Westy Trip: Headed to Maine

[cek347]

Well, my wife and I are about to embark on our first trip in our '91 Westy. We took a weekend trip Memorial day weekend to get our feet wet but this trip will be 1-2 weeks up through New Hampshire to Maine back to NH to Vermont to NY and then back to NJ. Ive never been north of New York City so the New England area is uncharted for my wife and I. We have experience camping in a westy (we had a '74 but none of the camping equipment really worked except for the pop-top) so we are not total novices but this will be our first trip in our recent purchase and first in a w/c Van. I have it at a local VW shop getting a checkover before the trip. It runs pretty good and everythign works but I just wanted someone with some Vanagon experience to look over in preperation.

We'll be leaving Tuesday AM and be headed to NH for a stop over near the Hampton Beach area then onto Bar Harbor, ME for 3 nights. After that we'll be headed over to the White mountains of NH and that funny named highway, then down through Vermont and NY on our way home.

Anybody have any experience in the New England area? Anything I must see?

I'll keep you posted if i can find some internet access along the way, if not i'll fill in with pics and some story when we get back. Everyones stories and trips keep me pumped up.
_________________
'86 Vanagon Wolfsburg Edition- tiico
'85.5 Porsche 944
'04 GX 470
'17 Prius Prime

[Moonunit]

[Randy in Maine]

It should be a wonderful trip. We do not call you guys from NJ tourists, we refer to you as "escapees".

Hampton is a nice beach as is Ogunquit, and my beach, Old Orchard Beach. Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park are very nice and a must see. Lots of fine seafood, especially the lobster. Both Portsmouth, NH and Portland, ME are well worth spending some time in. Route 1 can be a bit slow but when you are on vacation, who cares?

That would be the "Kancamagus Highway" in NH. Lots and lots of moose there so be careful as you cannot see them when they are on the shoulders of the road. They just disappear. The Old Man in the Mountain fell off a few years ago. Tears were shed.

I would invite you in, but I will be on vacation in Ontario and Minnesota.

Enjoy the ride.

[Moonunit]

Always called it the Kangamancus but google didn't like that Old Orchard is quite nice! And there's always Bush's Kennebunkpot (accent doesn't work in type I guess). I miss the Lobster for sure.

[peruvian]

Bar Harbor can be a little crazy this time of year. Bring some bikes to ride the carriage roads in the national park.

If you don't have reservations to camp in NH or VT, be sure to stop in at the National Forest offices that you will pass along the way. They can provide maps and let you know what FS campgrounds have space. Weekends will be crowded so plan in advance (you might need to stay in one place through a weekend to ensure you have somewhere to sleep).

The Kanc can be very steep in spots and has a few hairpin turns. Great road though.

One thing that I can highly recommend for your first 'Westy' voyage is to stay of the interstates. These vans just love the backroads and state highways.

In Vermont cruise along Hwy 4 through Woodstock and towards Killington. Long Trail Brewery about half way between the two is a great place to have lunch. Hwy 100/100A south is a beautiful road with lots of towns to stop in and places to camp.

Don't forget your AAA card, rescue & mechanics lists (Road Haus, LIMBO, etc), and a cell phone.

Have a great trip and be sure to wave to other Westys.

[Cat and Walter]

nice road trip, wife and i used to do a show in meridith in june and always spent extra time in the NE area. we loved it. can't spell let alone pronounce half the lakes and highways and cities. lake winnapasaki??? old wood boats, lobster, covered bridges, maple syrup. we thought booth bay, maine was great, lobster, lobster and more lobster, a parade of sailing ships and boats. the vanagon is about perfect for that kind of trip. have fun, oh yeah i love the NH plates live free or die, says it all!

[brooklynvan]

If you're passing through Belfast on Route 1 you'll see The Beetle Shop.
bunch of bugs and vans outside.
they're good if you need anything along the way.

Fort Knox is Bucksport is neat, and the new bridge they're building there to Verona island is Awesome!.

I was just there last weekend.
have fun.
_________________
1990 Vanagon "Plain Jane" Bostig in the Back
TRADED: 1967 Panel for 1976 BMW 2002
SOLD: 1984 Sunroof Vanagon with EJ22
RIP 1986 Saab turbo
and my daily commuter: a Bicycle

[crukab]

If your going thru Vermont, stop in for a beer, were 1.5 miles off exit 3 rt. 89, in central Vt., on the way to Killington.
There are other places, like "The Floating Bridge", where your wheels do get wet drivng across, thats Brookfeild Vt. Also the Queche Gorge, in Queche Vt., 1 steep ass gorge, Exit 1 off rt. 89. Lake Dunmore over near Salisbury Vt. has a nice lake & good camping.
my e-mail is [email protected], drop me a line.
_________________
Tom

My Pops:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=604100&highlight=
I know you will always be with me, rest in peace with no more pain. 8/13/14.....

In the yard right now:
'51 Dodge 5 window truck
'65 Bug
'66 Singlecab
'82 Rabbit Truck Diesel from CALI
'86 Doublecab W/T
'91 Vanagon carat/wolfsbrg.Tiico
'88 Dodge Ram pickup
'11 Jetta Wagon

[grunwin]

Then you're not far from the giant silver gorilla holding the Bug over his head on route 7, eh Crukab? I used to drive by that weekly on the way to an internship when I lived in Burlington. I know I have a photo of it somewhere. cek, NE VT, called the Northeast Kingdom is pretty cool; very sparse and beautiful. Check out Willoughby Lake near Burke. Have fun!
_________________
'87 Westy
'04 Golf 2.0

[vw_nick]

[peruvian]

That gorrilla holding the bug is actually on the western side of the state on Rte 7. Between Brandon & Middlebury (if memory serves correctly).

[cek347]

We are back! Wow, what a great time a rough spot and some anxiety along the way but we did it and had some good fun.

The van: 91 Westy GL, rebuilt motor, fresh tuneup, first long trip with us
The people: My wife and myself
The trip: Part one- Exeter, NH
Part two- Bar Harbor, ME
Part three- North Conway, NH
Part four- Brattleboro, VT
Part five- The trip home
The gas mileage- 21.06mpg low (first tank): 20.06
high (last tank) 21.15

Part one: Well, the trip starts out on a sour note, this is half my fault but half the vans fault also. We decide that we'd brave 95 and the George Washington bridge, suckers . Got stock in the parking lot which is the 5+ miles before the bridge and overheated. Temp gauge was riding just above the LED the way up the turnpike at 6AM then when stuck in non moving traffic... started creeping up, light started blinking, reservior dumped a bunch of coolant on both the ground and exhaust. Man, that was embarrassing, hardly any shoulder to pull off, miles of traffic and trucks inches away from the sides of my van. I hopped out checked the hoses and decided once it was cooled down we'd hit the road. Nothing to do but wait it out, pull up a mile or so, then wait it out some more.... After 2.5 hours we sucked it up, held our breath and made it through the hell of the toll booth and over the GW bridge. With heat at full blast burning my feet and making me sweat through shirt and shorts we made it to a rest stop about 20 miles or so down the road. The culprit....... no fan turning on when the high temps where reached at stand still (i figured out why it didnt turn on a bit later but at the time i had no clue). Well, after my near nervous breakdown, my wife on the verge of tears damning the VW, and almost calling AAA to tow the Westy home we where back on the road and headed to NH. By staying in the slow lane, running the rear heat(and sometimes front), and going under the speed limit i kept the temp gauge under the LED the rest of the way. We arrived at Wakeda Campground (I give it 4 out of 4 stars) around 6pm or so, to late for the Hampton Beach but man, what a nice campground! Highly recommended if your in Southeast NH. Man, was really glad to be there, but in my mind i was really angry about the Vans heat problem and the near end of our trip in the first few hours.

Part two-five coming later along with pictures..... Must rest now
_________________
'86 Vanagon Wolfsburg Edition- tiico
'85.5 Porsche 944
'04 GX 470
'17 Prius Prime

[Cat and Walter]

the gas milage was pretty good! I do feel your pain, in some ways these things are like time bombs.....one less hose to worry about

[vansmack]

I feel your pain. I was on my way to South Dakota last month with my wife and two boys. Two hours after we left our home (after my mechanic had check out the van) we started getting vanagon syndrome really bad - so bad that I turned around and went home (if I didn't have my kids with me I would have tried to deal with it on the fly). We got home threw everything in the passat and left again 30 minutes later. Flew out there going 85-90mph most of the way. Still had a great time, but what a bummer not being able to camp in the van - hotels suck. Turns out it was a loose wire connection going to the ECU. This is the first bad experience I've had with my van. Don't lost faith in yours - just remember it is 15 years old.
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Cheers,

Tim
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'86 Westy
'03 Passat Wagon Turbo
'03 Ford F150 4x4
'91 Volvo 740 Turbo SOLD
'79 Ford F150 Ranger SOLD

[danfromsyr]

Great trip report, and glad you stuck thru it and had a great time in Maine.. vacationland (probably because it's cool in summer)

just a word to note on cooling systems
as a generalization the radiator fan doesn't play any part in highway speed cruising.. 45+mph the forced airflow is Greater then the fans capacity to cool, and therefore should n't overheat (unless faulty T-stat)

but you're always going to need fan forced air when idling down a congested highway, and when coming to stop lights in traffic.

but on the hours of straightaway highway speeds, no need to torture yourself..

FWIW a rad temp sensor is fairly easy to swap out, and if done quickly will introduce a very minimal amount of air into the system..

for bleeding vanagon cooling systems, I use a pump type garden sprayer filled with my favorite anti-freeze mix, hook the hose to the hose off the pressure cap (kind of replace your resivoir with the pressure tank) and give it a few pumps.. too much and the cap will vent, as is designed to.

then while running the van at high idle. (if no partner to hold throttle I use a penny, placed in the throttle body lever the cable pulls on) and the heater cores on then bleed the rad a few times..

but only if you dropped the fan temp switch while reinstalling it and lose more then a cup of antifreeze..

[cek347]

Part two: After the overheating in NYC we kept on moving all the way to NH and then onto Bar Harbor, ME. Wow, what a place! We found a great spot in the Bar Harbor Campground which was about 10 minutes from town and about 5 minutes from the entrance to Acadia National Park. Had a great 3 night stay there. The town is cool, ya gotta hit Geddy's for some beer and food, plenty of shopping and stuff for the civilized tourist in us. The real beauty though is Acadia National Park. My first time seeing the Atlantic coast above New Jersey. Did a little hike but due to time we mainly stayed the course driving around the park loop and walking on some of the carriage trail system. Did take a trip up to the top of Cadillac Mountain but the fog rolled in and you could only see about 10 yards in front of you. We even saw a small Orchestra play right in the middle of the woods at the outdoor theatre near Blackwoods Campground. Was very peaceful. All I can say is if you havent experienced Acadia your missing out.

Part three: After out stay in Bar Harbor we headed out to N. Conway, NH for some camping on the Saco River. On Route 3 headed to NH we spotted white Westy resting on the side of the road by Lake St. George (i think). We pulled in to find a couple from Quebec City just taking in the sight of the beautiful lake. Had a nice conversation showed off our vans. He had some good ideas, i should have taken some pictures... He spoke english pretty well and the talk rekindled my feelings towards my van. You see i had that feeling pass over me when I overheated "man, maybe we shouldnt have bought this" but the van was running well and everything had been going smooth even though i hadnt fixed the problem with the fan yet.

So we continued our journey and showed up a little unhappy with the appearance of the campground in NH. Then we pulled up to our site which I believe was the best one in the whole place. River/Mountain view totally unobstructed. Was a great place to camp even though the campground itself wasnt the nicest.

While we camped here i broke out the Haynes did a little research and test and realized the Thermoswitch had gone bad. What did I just happen to have in the back compartment.....a brand new German thermoswitch! The PO left a thermostat, some belts, and this thermoswitch in the back of the van. I almost took them out but decided to leave them in for emergency.

Part four: So with the knowledge of what was wrong and the part, we left the campground on our way to VT. I decided i would stop when i found a decent shop that could confirm this was the problem and would have a socket big enough to change it. What do you know but in Meredith, NH a shop called Independent Volkswagen was right on the route!! I pulled in, let her cool down and the owner installed the switch for me. If anybody is near Meredith on Route 3, man, they really helped me out and where nice about it so give them some business. They had a nice 90-91 maroon westy on the rack so i felt really good about stopping in. The fan was now coming on in traffic so i felt so much better now, and didnt ahve to run the heat to keep the motor cool.
_________________
'86 Vanagon Wolfsburg Edition- tiico
'85.5 Porsche 944
'04 GX 470
'17 Prius Prime

[Cat and Walter]

Merideth is a very cool town, worked there for a few years for a few weeks in June. People are friendly and very polite. We liked the feel of all of the colonies. Totaly different than out west. We had a great time where ever we went. Merideth is 4 days driving from me one way.

[cek347]

It's funny to go back and read this from so long ago. Pre-smartphone.
I'm sure it was too much of a pain to post pics from my digital camera back then.

Sold the van in late '08. Went vanless for quite a few years. Just bought an '86 Wolfsburg to fix up. Hope to relive this trip with kids now....well not the overheating on the GW bridge. Still feel the rage and embarrassment. All my used cars I buy get a new radiator and thermostat after that. Will be doing it on this Westy when its road ready.

Old at Bar Harbor Campground:

New in the driveway:

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'86 Vanagon Wolfsburg Edition- tiico
'85.5 Porsche 944
'04 GX 470
'17 Prius Prime

[Abscate]

Great that you got back on the horse.

Avoid NY though, no good people there, except a few in SYR.
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[djkeev]

Might I suggest a new thread fir your new Vanagon?

You're going from 2006 to 2020 in one post.

Dave
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