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DanHoug
Samba Member
Joined: December 05, 2016
Posts: 5932
Location: Bemidji, MN
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 Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2024 4:31 pm Post subject: 4,400 mile trip report |
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MN to AZ and back to MN. here are the stats, this won't be a post with photos of all the wonderous places we saw.... Just the Facts, Ma'am. and for the record, one can have an enormous amount of fun in a rusty, dented, janky old van.
Total Mileage: 4,391 miles
MPG: low of 13.8 facing 30mph headwinds across SD at 67MPH GPS to an abnormal high of 22.6, not fillup related. Intertestingly, the best MPG seemed to be in mountainous areas with long uphills but also long downhills where the throttle switch was closed and fuel cutoff. Overall trip MPG for distance, 17.8. Would've been higher except for 500 miles of strong headwind on the last leg of the trip.
Number of Days Out: 24
Number of Qts oil: 2.5 Mobil 1 10W40
Number of Unscheduled maintenance stops: 2
1. Valve stem broke while staying at the Enchanted Castle in Regent ND. these tires on the front were the only tires i hadn't personally mounted! had i been a tad more diligent i might've caught this. Cost: $25. met Gary, the metal sculptor and had a great visit. look for an upcoming installation of huge spiders using concrete truck drums as abdomens!
2. Rear wheel bearing, near Phoenix AZ. previously discussed, repair cost $450. this is the result of me a) not checking rear wheel bearings before a trip (i checked the front!), and b) ignoring a faint bearing sound on deceleration for months prior to the trip.
Number of Times Stuck: 1. on a forest road turn-around covered with 2" of greasy clay. stuffing pine needles under the rear tires allowed us to eventually get out.
Highest Oil Temp: 97C encountered during Phoenix stuck-in-rush hour traffic.
otherwise, maybe 87C on long uphill grades. home made oil cooler works great. normal cruising runs about 82C with resultant oil pressure of 48psi @ 3600 RPM
Highest Elevation: 9,400 feet on road between Alamosa CO and Walsenburg. nice road, always a slow lane, pretty gradual grade to the top.
Best Quote: guy in a new Cadillac Escalade as he comes up to my driver's window.... "I just told my wife, 'There's the happiest man in the world! Driving a Vanagon.'"
Biggest Bust: Moab. waaaay too busy. drove Hwy 128 but didn't enter official park. everything in Moab bumper to bumper. had to get outta Dodge. Sedona AZ was a close second. seemed like a cruise ship destination complete with a row of pink jeeps and crystal stores. uff ta.
Obligatory Vanagon picts:
Dash
Wheel bearing repair
Canyonlands NP
Wyoming
Florence AZ
_________________
-dan
60% of what you find on the internet is wrong, including this post.
'87 Westy & '89 Westy both 2.1 4spd
Past projects can be found at--
www.thefixitworkshop.com |
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E1
Samba Member
Joined: January 21, 2013
Posts: 8784
Location: Westfalia, Earth
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| Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2024 4:39 pm Post subject: Re: 4,400 mile trip report |
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Just flat awesome.
Most or all of my ten best mpgs ever, in several cars and decades, have been in Colorado. Often on two-lane, and not going 80 (non-buses… okay, faster). Same theory, easy pedal up, no pedal down when possible. Plus less air means less fuel going in. Clipping apexes always helps.
Great report, nice to even think about La Veta Pass (!), glad you made it back okay!
_________________
If ever twice as rich, we’re gettin’ a double-wide
’84 “Westfailure”/2.1 Digijet/5.43 Ring & Pinion/Peloquin/D-rated BFG KO2s
AI has spoken to further illiteracy, to steal, to cheat, and to replace humans
The caveman’s first question to the headhunter: “Hey, you got any coffee?” |
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steve244
Samba Member
Joined: March 18, 2022
Posts: 1787
Location: GA
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djkeev
Samba Moderator
Joined: September 30, 2007
Posts: 32988
Location: Reading Pennsylvania
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dobryan 
Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2006
Posts: 17315
Location: Brookeville, MD
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zerotofifty
Samba Member
Joined: December 27, 2003
Posts: 4231
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| Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2024 6:28 pm Post subject: Re: 4,400 mile trip report |
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Sorry to hear that you had so much Van trouble, bummer. Look at the bright side, it was an adventure at least.
Happy trails to you!
_________________
Sorry About That Chief.
Give Peace a Chance.
Words to live by. |
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jimf909
Samba Member
Joined: April 03, 2014
Posts: 8269
Location: WA/ID
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| Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2024 9:10 pm Post subject: Re: 4,400 mile trip report |
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| DanHoug wrote: |
...and for the record, one can have an enormous amount of fun in a rusty, dented, janky old van.
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Agreed. Glad to hear you had an enormous amount of fun.
Thanks for another great trip report. I've put this on my calendar for next year and am looking forward to it.
p.s. How does a valve stem break? Was it a million years old?
_________________
- Jim
| Butcher wrote: |
| This is the main fault with DIY'ers, they get together on these forums and pat themselves on their backs spreading bad information. |
Guilty as charged.
Current: 1990 Westy Camper - Bostig RG4, 2wd, manual trans w/Peloquin, NAHT high-top, 280 ah LFP battery, 160 watts solar, Flash Silver, seam rust, bondo, etc., etc.
Past: 1985 Westy Camper - 1.9 wbx, 2wd, manual trans, Merian Brown, (sold after 17 years to Northwesty who converted it to a Syncro). |
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Abscate
Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2014
Posts: 24414
Location: NYC/Upstate/ROW
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| Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2024 5:09 am Post subject: Re: 4,400 mile trip report |
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Great trip with your travel companion Doug Han…..
_________________
🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🍊 🍊 🍊 |
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DanHoug
Samba Member
Joined: December 05, 2016
Posts: 5932
Location: Bemidji, MN
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| Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2024 6:08 am Post subject: Re: 4,400 mile trip report |
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| jimf909 wrote: |
| p.s. How does a valve stem break? Was it a million years old? |
this one was simply old age... it MAY have been an original! cracked at the base and was hissing. a couple of dudes were in the parking lot and said "It's looks like you're losing about 3 PSI per minute!". the tire shop was 4 blocks away and waved me in as i got there. since it was closing time (AND i didn't want to spend another $25), i didn't have them change the other and did make the trip with it but i see that one is weather checked too. i'll swap one in shortly.
the other valve stem break i had was on my plow truck, on top of a 1/2 mile hill our broadcast tower is located. i'd finished plowing, there was a big disc of snow in the wheel and i used my boot toe to clear the wheel, knocking the valve stem and cracking it. it was right at closing time but called the tire shop 5 miles away and said i was coming in if they would stay open as my underbed spare was too rusty to get down. they had the door open too as i rolled in, not quite on the rim. gotta love it when small things like that work out.
forgot one important statistic....
Number of Vanagons spotted in 4,391 miles: 1. green Westy in Albuquerque.
aside from gorgeous vintage cars, i was the oldest, rustiest, most banged up car on the road. well, there was an old grizzled fart in a sun-beaten Chev C10 truck that looked like he might've been the original owner. so many nice Toyota pickups from the 1990s that have survived with only sunfade.
_________________
-dan
60% of what you find on the internet is wrong, including this post.
'87 Westy & '89 Westy both 2.1 4spd
Past projects can be found at--
www.thefixitworkshop.com |
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Sodo
Samba Member
Joined: July 06, 2007
Posts: 10852
Location: Western WA
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| Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2024 7:43 am Post subject: Re: 4,400 mile trip report |
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Great report.
Strange that the wheel bearing went.
I thought they grumbled for thousands of miles before going out.
Without that wheel bearing you woudn't have much to complain about in that 4400 miles.
We see a lot more vans traveling in the west. Like "seven".
Funny about being the beatup van on the road. My van looks like a barn find too.
We stopped at a bagel shop in Crescent City CA and a nice old grandma chatted us up.
She was clearly teaching her grand daughter to be nice to homeless folks.
I declined to mention my "100% original paint" - where I would have expressed 100% transparency regarding the bed-liner at all the seam-rust areas.
And I didn't say anything about my GT gears & drilled mainshaft etc.
Nor my re-greased 1990 U-joints etc.
My wife is similarly un-impressed by such riveting detail.
It helps to have a non-Samba influence on-board when exposed to the real world.
I always intend to publish trip reports but when I get home there's so much to do.... I stall a bit, or make some 'technical' post, and no trip report.
_________________
'90 Westy EJ25, NEW oil rings (!) 2Peloquins, 3knobs, SyncroShop pressure-oiled pinion-bearing & GT mainshaft, filtered, cooled gearbox.
'87 Tintop w 47k 53k, '12 SmallCar EJ25, cooled filtered original gearbox
....KTMs, GasGas, SPOT mtb |
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AndyBees
Samba Member
Joined: January 31, 2008
Posts: 2684
Location: Southeast Kentucky
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| Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2024 8:17 am Post subject: Re: 4,400 mile trip report |
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Thanks for sharing ...
_________________
'84 Vanagon Tin-top, ALH TDI, two trips to Alaska, 2014 & 16. 1989 Tin-top unmolested.
1983 Air-cool, 225k miles, 180k miles mine, seven trips to Alaska from 1986 thru 2003. 1975 Bay hopeful. |
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DanHoug
Samba Member
Joined: December 05, 2016
Posts: 5932
Location: Bemidji, MN
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| Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2024 8:31 am Post subject: Re: 4,400 mile trip report |
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| Sodo wrote: |
Strange that the wheel bearing went.
I thought they grumbled for thousands of miles before going out. |
well.... it sorta did. i'd been getting a slight noise on coasting deceleration prior to the trip that i envisioned was the transaxle. mebbe the backside of the R&P gears, something on the backside of a gear face, etc. that i really wanted to ignore before the trip. it got worse but not terrible during the trip and i couldn't imagine the physics of why a *wheel bearing* would have shifting loads on deceleration so i assumed it was NOT that. CV joint for sure, eh? it wasn't until the Death Sounds of the brake drum scraping the backing plate that it became "Oh Crap". i envisioned the balls had fallen out of the bearing and things scraping on the stub!
Bill fought the Rockford boots i'd put on the Lobro CV joints. they are a very stiff rubber and the largest accordion pleat had to be pushed out of the way for each bolt. he doesn't like them for that reason and prefers the Lobro boots as they are smaller and more flexible. the joint itself was in great shape, lots of grease, and Bill complemented me on the loose Ty-Wrap on the small end to allow the boot to slide back and forth on the shaft. he said a firm clamp rips the boot in short order.
it was so nice to hear a totally silent transaxle after the bearing replacement. i really had been thinking i'd missed something in my rebuild that was causing the noise to develop. and now that i think about it, an engine braking/coasting force could change the pull thru the CV ball tracks and apply in/out axial forces to the wheel bearings. just a guess, anyway.
_________________
-dan
60% of what you find on the internet is wrong, including this post.
'87 Westy & '89 Westy both 2.1 4spd
Past projects can be found at--
www.thefixitworkshop.com
Last edited by DanHoug on Sat Mar 30, 2024 10:44 am; edited 1 time in total |
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calsurf
Samba Member
Joined: June 28, 2022
Posts: 195
Location: SoCal
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| Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2024 10:42 am Post subject: Re: 4,400 mile trip report |
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| Sounds like an adventure. Sedona can definitely get way too crowded with it's crystal vortex pink jeep tours kind of stuff. Fun place to visit off peak not spring break. |
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AndyBees
Samba Member
Joined: January 31, 2008
Posts: 2684
Location: Southeast Kentucky
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| Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2024 12:14 pm Post subject: Re: 4,400 mile trip report |
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| DanHoug wrote: |
| of the bearing and things scraping on the stub! thinking i'd missed something in my rebuild that was causing the noise to develop. and now that i think about it, an engine braking/coasting force could change the pull thru the CV ball tracks and apply in/out axial forces to the wheel bearings. just a guess, anyway. |
Not a wheel bearing, but during one of our very long road trips, I began hearing something coming from the rear ever so slightly. Without all the boring details, the Castle Nut had obviously not been torqued enough. We had driven through some construction areas which had been wet-down to control dust. The mist of road debris that fogged the wheels had dried which showed the movement at the hub/nut.
Anyway, it would change sounds during coasting, braking, cornering, etc.
_________________
'84 Vanagon Tin-top, ALH TDI, two trips to Alaska, 2014 & 16. 1989 Tin-top unmolested.
1983 Air-cool, 225k miles, 180k miles mine, seven trips to Alaska from 1986 thru 2003. 1975 Bay hopeful. |
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dhaavers
Samba Member
Joined: March 19, 2010
Posts: 8524
Location: NE MN (tinyurl.com/dhaaverslocation)
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| Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2024 7:58 pm Post subject: Re: 4,400 mile trip report |
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Nice report from a nice guy! Glad you got out there, glad you got back. 
- - - mental note to check bearing play before my eclipse trip next week - - - 
- Dave
_________________
86 White Wolfsburg Westy Weekender
"The WonderVan"
<EDITED TO PROTECT INNOCENT PIXELS> |
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4Gears4Tires
Samba Member
Joined: October 08, 2018
Posts: 4397
Location: MD
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| Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2024 6:46 am Post subject: Re: 4,400 mile trip report |
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Awesome trip!
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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition |
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