Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2000 08:43:16 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Drillock <drillock@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Mark Drillock <drillock@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject: Re: Tire Carriers Again
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Kapitan Ray Nemo wrote:
>>
>>No apparent cooling problems?
>>
Gee, where is YOUR support for THIS? How do you know there were no
apparent cooling problems? No steam gushing as you went by?
A friend who accompanied me to Baja with one of these V8 setups stopped
along the way to remove his front spare on a hot day. He said it made a
big difference but he had a big camper shell and was towing a trailer.
Anyway, there is a fundamental difference between the old V8 cooling
systems and the Vanagon. The V8s have a mechanical fan mounted on the
front of the engine. This fan turns all of the time the engine is
running and pulls air through the radiator. This is an inefficient
design as the engine turns the fan even when road speed would otherwise
provide enough air flow. Mounting a tire in front of the V8 radiator
will block some of the air that the forward motion of the vehicle would
provide but the fan is always turning and pulling air around the tire
and through large grill and radiator. In Vanagons the radiator fan is
electric and only runs when the coolant leaving the radiator is too hot,
indicating not enough air flow without the fan, i.e., idling or moving
slowly. Blocking the air flow with a spare would result in the electric
fan running more often. As long as the surface area of the remaining
unblocked grill area is adequate to supply all of the air that the fan
needs at its highest speed, and the fan along with it's temp switches
are working properly, no overheating should occur. The grill area of the
Vanagon is not that large so it would be best to mount the spare with a
little clearance between it and the grill to keep from reducing the air
intake surface area. Be prepared for the fan to run much more often and
wear out faster and the A/C may shut off due to excessive heat and
pressure. Vanagons with A/C disable the A/C compressor whenever the fan
is running at high speed and you should expect this to happen more often
with a spare up front, especially on hot days.
Mark
Kapitan Ray Nemo wrote:
>
> Any support for this other than speculation? I've seen 'Mericun trucks and
> vans (I'm not talking corvair greenbriers, I mean vehicles with front
> radiators) with spare tires mounted on the front. No apparent cooling
> problems? Why would our vanagons be different?
>
> I know this is a rehash of an old thread, but I don't believe anyone actually
> responded to this.
>
> TIA,
> Ray
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> > "Any front mounted tire hanger for a >'70's VW bus could be adapted to
> > your Vanagon since those wheels are the >same as the Vanagon, but you have
> > the issue of restricting air flow through the radiator. "
> >
> > This is a non-issue since you just can't do this. It will really mess up
> the
> > air flow needed for radiator cooling. Not to do.
> >
> > Bill
>
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