Snowshoes

[DuncanS]

Any synchro guys out there with this get up?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm8J9-x1vSE

[Sodo]

I think that’s about $24,000. If I won the lottery I’d make good use of that setup. Probably a trailer to haul them.
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'90 Westy EJ25, 2Peloquins, 3knobs, pressure-oiled GT mainshaft, filtered, cooled gearbox
'87 Tintop w 47k 53k, '12 SmallCar EJ25, cooled filtered gearbox
....KTMs, GasGas, SPOT mtb

[MsTaboo]

[DuncanS]

So here's how I look at it. A guy can plunk down 50, 75 k on a nice 30' boat. It will have a small galley, bunks for four, a hanging locker for her clothes, an ice box or fridge and limited stowage for the stuff needed to go sailing for a week. A nice paint job, custom touches and so on. It's a yacht and he spends maybe 20 nights a season aboard. He has great views, but a whole bunch of noisy neighbors. And add $60 per night for a mooring, 2k for dockage, 2k for annual storage, and another 2k for taking her out to the fancy waterfront restaurants, to say nothing about the dresses she needs to show up at those joints where nobody notices them. When he pulls into the harbor with 50 other boats, no one notices him or pays any attention to his "ride".

On the other hand for 2/3 of the wampum, imagine the Syncro with off-road gear, Espar heater, solar panels, extra batts, winch/bumpers, swing out spare, roof rack with ladder, awning and hot water heater. Now also imagine pulling into the end of the road parking lot with a cool custom made trailer with matching paint, dirt bikes and so on. He pulls off the snowshoes, straps them on and powers up the steep pristine 6' deep snow slope to the top where the view is fantastic and no neighbors. Can you imagine the heads that will turn in the parking lot? Everyone will notice this rig, So the 24 for the snowshoes, 25 for the car and 12 for the trailer and goodies is a far better deal. And oh, by the way, you can also use it to go buy more beer unlike the boat which needs to be prestocked. This is a yacht that gets more use and there are no mooring, dockage or storage fees.

So 24k for the snowshhoes--hardly a ripple on the yacht scoreboard

[calfredson]

According to their website, Syncros need not apply:

Vehicle Requirements
All 4×4 pickup trucks and some 4×4 Large SUV’s** that meet the following requirements:

Automatic transmission with low range 4L
Automatic differential lock (or limiter slip diff.) on rear axle
Winter and all seasons tires with regular soft compound (Mud tires works but not recommended)
Important: Use tires without studs
Outside tire diameter required: 31 to 35 inches (780 to 875 mm)
Tire width: up to 13 inches (330 mm)
Engine: V-8 with 5 liters and up for full sized pickup truck and Large SUV’s also V6 for mid-sized pickup truck and Off-road SUV’s

[E1]

SOLD!!!
_________________
‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[TDCTDI]

That rig promises to fail in spectacular fashion. Imagine one of the fronts coming off & wadding up under your vehicle before it takes out the rear of the vehicle.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[DuncanS]

Hey, come on guys. Where's your sense of adventure. There we are 60 miles out from the nearest road or civilization in 7' of perfect snow parked on the ridge at 11,274 feet looking out to the sunset setting on the range 50 miles to the east. Fantastic chow, drinks and company. The next morning after bacon, eggs and screwdrivers, we start out. Get 2 miles deeper into the back country and the left front digs in, flips under. The back pries up the kitchen tossing the Syncro on its side. The 3/4" steel track mount is bent at a 40º angle.

What's not to love about this? Gotta get some.

[Sodo]

Probably shouldn't go over any jumps.

I wonder if there's a mod that can be done to the unit, to fit 27.8 inch wheels.

A setup like that, to go 3 miles at 15 MPH, five times per winter would make me pretty happy.

But there's some background to this endeavor. When you get to the end of the plowed, you have to drive up onto those rigs somehow. SO you need to carry some kinda ramps too. What do you do with the ramps and the trailer, leave them at the end of the plowed road? Will the next plow bury them under ice? So you have to tow the trailer on the snow, at least a little ways away from the road end where nobody else can get to them. Ideally somewhere you can find them if it snows 2 feet again. Need a place at home to store those rigs (and their custom trailer & ramps) for remainder of the year.

$25,000 divided by 5 trips per year would cost $1,000 each trip (for the first 5 years). Then of course it would be free thereafter, a bargain. But tying up $25,000 for five years,,,, is there enough left to keep the Syncro running?

[DuncanS]

Somebody with photo shop capability--paste a set onto a Syncro in the snow so we can all drool. Better yet, paste the Syncro on top of their Jeep.

[snowsyncro]

[71whitewesty]

Looks cool but you’d be miles ahead with a real sno cat. The track and go system isn’t going to work that well in deep powder, side hills or anything steep.
I’ve had a couple sno cats. One was a aircooled vw powered snow trac and my current one is a 1968 Tucker 542. Both super fun machines. I throw the camping stuff from the Bus in the cat and off we go.
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71 Westy 1600 DP, all stock Bus 1
1970's Snow Trac 1600 SP (sold 12/2016)
1968 Tucker sno cat, sold 2021
1969 Tucker Sno cat 542
2017 VW Alltrac
71 tin top stock 1600 DP (project but runs)
Twin 71 White Westy, Bus 2, that I pulled from a 15 year slumber in a dry eastern WA field in 2015.
1966 Sundial Camper "Boomer"

[alaskadan]

With that much foot on the ground its a heck of alot of leverage against your steering system. To use them to go up a mountain pass logging road that doesn't get plowed in the winter might be cool. I bet when you get stuck you'd really be stuck. I'll take a trailer and a snowmachine.

[joetiger]

From this thread:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=545719&postorder=desc
_________________
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

[Abscate]

The synchro and the sailing community share the same dose of clap