Date:         Mon, 6 Mar 2000 16:45:31 -500
Reply-To:     ehall@TOGETHER.NET
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Ezra Hall <ehall@TOGETHER.NET>
Subject:      North Conway NH, Cup holders, Interior lights, ramblings
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

I recently installed two cup holders in our Westy. I purchased them from the
Brookstone outlet in North Conway, NH. They are made in Germany, and come with
a bracket and clips to attach to heater vents.  They hold your cup with adjustable
foam padded jaws, they appear to be high quality units and have worked well,
~$8 each. Originally, I used the bracket and two screws to attach to either
side of the Automatic shift lever, but that proved to be a poor location (feet,
dog, etc..). Currently, I have them mounted on the dash to either side of the
ash tray. I cut ~16deg wedges of wood, and used double sticky tape to mount.
I still need to paint the wood black. They worked flawlessly all weekend, and
since I cleaned the dash well before attachment (wax remover, then quick application
of acetone), they are held in place well by the double sticky tape (3M). I even
jammed a 1quart Nalgene bottle into one for a while. I am not sure if Brookstone
still sells these units retail, but there was a pile of them at the North Conway
outlet this weekend (yes we went camping, only down to the ~30's at night with
plenty of blankets and the dog to keep us warm).

 If you are in that area, also stop by the Black and Decker outlet. They had
fluorescent snake lights for sale, $5 each! I bought 3. Obviously a flawed design
as the flexible "snake" portion is not strong enough to hold the fluorescent
light head well, but I am sculling two of the fluorescent u-tube lamps and single
transistor self oscillating power supply modules to replace the incendescent
lights in the cabin light (3 x 0.7A = 2.1A). Although they are designed to run
on 3-D cell batteries (4.5V at 0.9A). At 6volts they only draw 1 amp, so I will
wire 2 in series. If they aren't balanced well enough for series operation or
can't handle 7V while the alternator is runnin, I will regulate with a small
switching regulator. They put out more light than the incandescent lights, and
will draw half the current. The "snake" portion is ~12-14" long, and would work
well for a smaller light head. I will post pictures and details if there is
interest and I actually get to this.

  We achieved ~18mpg on a 180mi leg of the trip including the Kancamagus portion,
so the 14mpg fuel economy I observe around town must be an artifact of stop
and go driving. Previous long trips had resulted in poor fuel economy (~14-15mpg),
but that was before I worked on ignition problems and built an improved digitool.
It would be nice if there was a locking torque convertor that could be adapted
without too much trouble to further increase fuel economy, but for now 18 is
better than 14mpg!

Thanks,
Ezra Hall
www.together.net/~ehall (need to add some westy pictures!)
'88 Westy, Automatic