Things your van did recently

[Jon_slider]

malibu

[danfromsyr]

YEPPER HAULIN STUFF

Like TIKI I've been haulin stuff, doing some pole barn poles for a garage expansion.. had ( 4x6x12footers (3) 4x4x12s and (22) 2x3x8s
along with some sakrete and tools in my ASI Riviera.
barely squashed the rear cushion. and slides in like a glove, carries so much more then a pik'em up truk.
and keeps my beverages cold too.

next a new tractor shed/greenhouse before the real snowfall sets in.. hate to have any of my equipment out in the elements.

[DeMinimis]

Drove it to work in the freezing sleet. Helped FedEx Ground load my new off-road 091 trans (for my buggy) into the passenger compartment in my Westy to haul it home. Showed my new front SA grill off to others at the courthouse I work at. They could have cared less. They just don't get it.
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Yes Virginia, beer can make you smarter.

'78 SB CEII In Progress.

[Scooter757]

What my van did to me!!!!! I got my visa statement today. This is what it looked like:

GoWesty....$374.00
Van-Cafe...$495.00
Gowesty....$245.00
Van-cafe....$94.45
Petersens Auto...$809.00
Gowesty......$294.00

Driving a Vanagon: PRICELESS!!!
We all have the sickness..

[cprato]

I used last year's present (Hassenpfeffer) as a safe for this year's unwrapped Christmas presents!
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'83 Westy

[funagon]

In the two days before Christmas I drove my 2WD 7-passenger vanagon from Salt Lake City, Utah up to the mountains. Day one was Solitude ski resort in Big Cottonwood Canyon. That's a few thousand feet of elevation gain. Ice on the road and my car (and others) did some sliding. The next day I drove up to Snowbird in Little Cottonwood also way up there. There was snow on the road and snow filled parking lots.

Nokian Hakka tires handled the snow well at 8,000 ft altitude. Saw a new 4wd SUV flip over, and saw a new 4wd Pickup slide out and smash head on into a bus. AND a moose on the side of the road. A BIG moose, not afraid of the cars. And after all that I had an idiot tailgaiting me because she wanted to get down the mountain faster. I didn't go a single MPH faster for her.

Lesson learned this weekend: my 2WD vanagon--driven at a reasonable speed--handles better in the snow than a 4WD that's driven recklessly!

The fresh powder on the mountain was great. People and boards and gear in the van, no problem. A little slow going up to Snowbird (that road is steep) but the speed limit is 40 mph, and that road ain't no racetrack when it has snow and ice on it!

Merry Christmas and drive safely everyone!
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1990 GL 7-passenger
2.2 liter WBX

[r39o]

As my NB TDI is malfunctioning, I drove my Westy down town to take a state test before they change it at the beginning of the year.

I passed!

Now it is time to start on my LUTCF then CLU.....
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"Use the SEARCH, Luke" But first visit the Vanagon FAQ!

1990 Multivan EJ 22, Rancho trans 0.82 4th, Small Car front AC, CLKs w/ 215/65-16, homemade big brakes 303mm, Konis, Recaros, etc....

Click to see my ads for Cup holders, Subaru clutch fix and CLK wheels (no wheels currently)

[slowesty84]

I went to the hardware store to buy coolant for my bus(can't help but call it that I used to have a 67) came home and looked under the engine only to find it bleeding coolant from th heafds. I wish I could go for a nice camping trip but I don't think I could make it that far what with it over heating and all. Anybody have any thaoghts or comment about my post? Ira
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Don't think about it, be about it. -Jesse Over & some other old hippies most likely

[kevinbassplayer]

Drove it to a gig over the weekend with 4 guys, 3 amps, a full drum kit and about 200 lbs of extras.. this all while the oil alarm kept coming on... and going off... and coming on.... I have an oil pressure gauge and pressue if fine, thought I had fixed this problem a couple of weeks ago when I found a bare spot in the sender wire due to chafing, it was quiet for the last 2 weeks until the other night this seems to only happen when it's raining, very curious, haven't had time to get into it more

[90Doka_Guy]

Took the vanagon along with 6 other friends and gear to the Appalachian Trail for a day hike. About a 230 mile round trip, the van ran flawlessly, although the PA mountains gave the wasserboxer a workout. We decided to hike to the pinacle. If you aren't familiar with this hike, its about a 12 mile round trip to supposedly some of the best scenery on the east coast. It was definitely worth it and would highly recommend the hike to anyone in the area. It was fantastic scenerey, especially in the dead of winter with no leaves on the trees and a couple inches of snow covering the ground. Good stuff. Although, getting semi-stuck in the snow made my syncro envy go from about a 9.5 to a 32 on a scale of 1-10
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-'87 Westy
-'90 Tintop
-'90 DOKA

[kenmag]

Took the new Nokian Hakka SC's on their maiden winter drives this week. These tires are really, really impressive. They are 195/70R/15 mounted on VW steel wheels.

ken
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87GL Westy/suby ej22
87GL tintop/suby ej22
05 Golf TDI
95 jetta GLX

[Luckypabst]

This week it was the other side of the valley - 4wheeling (hey - I have 4 wheels!) to a trail in the Inyo mountains for a hike to the drippy nose falls and on to somewhere about halfway to the crest.

Chris

Yes there is a Westy in this pic:

The tiny waterfall:

Healthy winter cactus:

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'82 TD Westy
'81 NA Caddy

[BoneStock67]

Yesterday, I purchased off Craigslist an old 80 gallon Curtis air compressor and associated tools for a very good price from a nice retiring contractor. The tank is 6 ft long and 18 inches in diameter, but we managed to get the whole thing in the back of the van after I removed the fridge, rear-facing seat, and front piece of the rear bench. I drove it home an hour and a half in mixed traffic with no problems.

By the way, this all started when I began taking apart my air-conditioning system for restoration. "Blow out the snot with an air compressor!" Terry Kay says, so I started shopping for one. I actually purchased a small Porter-Cable from Lowes, but then I quickly returned it, thinking that, as long as I'm getting a compressor, I might as well get one I can use for other things as well. One thing led to another, and before you know it, I ended up with this very very large device in the back of my van. Now if I can only figure out how to get it OUT...

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1986 Wolfsburg Westfalia Weekender 2.1L stock
1967 Beetle, now becoming my daily driver again, after a long rest in the garage

"There are two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery.” -Enrico Fermi

[Erock]

Took her to the shop for the first state inspection and having it gone over real good, I am new here. Check out my band
www.theboroboogiepickers.com

[16CVs]

What I did with my "Vanagon" As usual ,I work out of it. I started out in Palo Alto went to Emerald hills and then to San Mateo and then to Burlingame and back to Redwood City.
I think I have one of the view Working Tristars around. Mine is on the road everyday ,helping me make a living. I would love to have a LT but maybe later.
My Truck is a little cramped for space but it forces me to stay organized. r

[msinabottle]

Today was a full day with Winston, the weather was very nice and we took advantage of it.

First thing was to get out the little Sears air compressor and check the tires on all four cars--Winston had one tire 4 lbs. low, the Saturn, two, Big Dodge was pretty good as was the Charger. I gave up on hand pumps. Life is too short to be that tired, that miserable, and then to have the hose pop off.

As I was getting out the air compressor, I found one of my anti-freeze test strips, I've got a box of those around somewhere, and took a moment to put one into Winston's overflow tank--had to use the Leatherman to get the thing into the overflow tank, which was at 'Max.' pH, fine, water resistance fine--Nitrite, non-existent. Prestone says leave it that way with the Extended Life. 'Kay.

Got out my thin little drift punch and used that to set Winston's retrofitted digital clock ahead and to get the minutes just right. After the disaster last time, I lubricated the little 'yoke' and drilled out the 'hour' and 'minute' holes to keep things from sticking and my clock from scrolling.

I have a VW battery charger plugged into Winston's starting battery, via the silver socket, and a Harbor Freight solar charger plugged into the auxiliary battery via the power socket I installed behind the fridge. The idea is to have the batteries charged enough that the alternator can cram 'topping off' voltage into both of 'em via the Yandina when I drive Winston. Must have worked, he was 'green' on that wretched battery indicator after I drove him.

The drive was a long one on the highway--Chris from Busted Bus had e-mailed me and would meet me out near Golden to hand off the two jalousie window assemblies he'd pulled from dead Bay Windows for 'The Jalousie Project' for Winston. We would meet at Heritage Square, an old, but nice, theme park just off I-70.

Not a lot of wind, although C-470 runs along the foothills, no vibration from the wheels, so the 'true' 1-piece spacers behind the Audi rims are good. Traffic had its moments, but I headed right for the slow lane and stayed there--and one nice person stopped at the off ramp to let me merge, I waved happily and felt good.

Chris appeared in due course, and handed over two VERY NICE jalousies, he'd hand-selected them for me, they're both in very good shape, although they'll need the cleaning drill described HERE:

http://homepage.mac.com/ratwell/78_Westy/PhotoAlbum59.html

I'd like to see what I could powder-coat, instead of paint, but Chris thinks the mechanism of the jalousies is too complicated for that. Then they'll need the conversion described HERE:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=283728

I showed Winston's mods to Chris, who was interested and polite, about what I'd be to someone showing off a Eurovan--it IS nice, but it's not my thing, Chris's is the classic breadloaf bus. We teased in friendly wise back and forth-- 'Antifreeze? What's that?' 'What is a 'dropped valve seat?' and agreed that the jalousie mod should work very well in Winston and that you are almost always well-advised to figure that the Germans knew what they were doing.

The jalousies Chris picked out for me--he threw in a pair of repairable screens--are SUPERB, and he was patient and very pleasant to deal with. Here's his web site:

http://www.bustedbus.com/

We were both glad that we didn't have to ship or have those jalousies shipped.

Winston had to climb a pretty steep hill to get back to the Interstate, which he did. I don't mind letting him get down to 40 in 3rd at 4K RPM's with gas being so dear, and no one gave me any trouble on the long ride home. Winston ran very well, the Michelin Agileis are wonderful on the highways, I keep them at 50 lbs. for easy rolling.

I spent tonight shopping for the proper table saw blade to do the conversion on those jalousies--I've already got new seals for them, Chris, from experience, says that people who complain about rattling jalousies are too lazy to replace 30 year old seals. That makes sense. I also researched getting three new panes of tempered glass for the shortened louvers, dobryan used acrylic, but I wonder how much the glass would be...

And all that is what I did with and to my van today.



Best!
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'Winston,' '84 1.9 WBX Westy
Vanagon Poet Laureate: "I have suffered in
many ways, but never, never, never in silence."

[bread geek]

well lets see,,
i dug it out of my temp garage surounded by 5 feet of snow.there just happened to be enough melting going to do so.fired her up and took my 4 year old son for the first ride of the season.to the car wash of course.my soul has returned once again.bring on the camping .
unburried in maine jeff

[bmwloco]

Fetched the groceries, toured around to antique shops with my wife, bought ferns.

Heading up the most congested and fuel stop areas in town, the Westy sputtered. Damn. Must be near out of gas. The gauge on the dash is useless. It gets a 1/4 tank on the dial and then never moves.

My spouse is terrified. I just stay calm, keep my foot of the throttle, and we pass one gas station to go to another, past the tunnel and closer to home.

We pass through the tunnel with no drama, coming out to the sight of Asheville NC in the rain. It died 200 yards from the entrance of the BP station on Charlotte Street.

Traffic was light. I got out, got my spare fuel, put it in and we motored to the fuel station. $50 later the Westy was full... and the spare gas can was filled up to 3/4.
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'85 Vanagon Westfalia

[mordeaux]

Yesterday, I had a black walnut tree sawed into boards. I had the tree taken down a few weeks ago and saved the stem and a couple of large limbs to have them sawed.

The portable bandsaw mill (awesome machine - Wood Mizer)had to be on level ground so it was well away from where I would be air-drying the boards. So, I loaded up the Carat with about 1500 lbs and $2000 worth of cut lumber and drove it to the drying rack.

Beautiful wood, versatile van for hauling. Good day.

[WindAndSea]

I just got my new to me Stan the van on the road for it's inaugural voyage about the area. I picked up my son from his mothers and we drove about with the dogs. The dogs claimed the rear bed and enjoyed a mixture of sleep and people/car watching from the rear windscreen. My son loved the ride wants to know when the first overnighter is. I dropped him off at his boyscout recycling drive. Then me and the GF drove to the pub to meet the runing group for the group run about town. They never saw the interier of a westy before. The triathlon team is looking forwrd to using Stan as a pre and post meeting space at races. What a day!