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Date:         Sat, 21 Oct 2000 10:12:55 -0700
Reply-To:     Rennie Wible <volksdragon@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Rennie Wible <volksdragon@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      Trip to Utah Report (long)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

After owning my newly acquired 86 syncro for only 2 weeks, my girlfriend (Gena), and my dachsund (Winnie), left LA on a 2500 mile trek through Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.

We left LA on Friday, 10.6 and drove straight to Willliams, AZ (the gateway to the Grand Canyon). The syncro drove great, cruised about 70mph the whole way. Only complaint was that the stereo had only a tape player and I have no tapes anymore : (

Saturday morning we headed up the road to the Grand Canyon, got a lot of pics and Gena scared the hell out of me by hanging over the edges! He hit a nasty thunderstorm after lunch just leaving Flagstaff, it even hailed on us. We arrived in Gallop, NM about 5:30 that evening. Again, syncro was great, but I was getting antsy to get off the roads! Met my aunt and uncle (from TN) and had dinner.

Sunday morning we drove to Bluff, UT (pop 290). We stopped at the Hubble Trading Post (est 18??) on the way so Winnie could bark at the horses (her first horse sighting). Just after lunch, I turned on the rear wiper as the rain was following us. About 10 minutes later, I smelled something burning. It smelled like a wire had melted. Then I notice dthat the rear wiper was pointing straight up and not moving. As the smell got worse, Gena went back and pulled the stuff away from the rear door and smoke was coming out. I pulled over and removed the hatch panel and the wiper motor was toasted! I unplugged it and started to put the panel back on when my mom an dad(in her new Jetta) and my aunt and uncle (in her new Exterra) finally realized I wasn't following them anymore and came back. In the afternoon, we stopped along side the road to take a few pictures of the landscape. The dirt was a deep shade of red and there was some high buttes in the distance. We dropped them off at their hotel (don't accept dogs) and headed down the road to ours. I love towns where the only paved road is the highway going through town! My first dirt!!

The rest of the week consisted of jumping in the syncro, going and picking up the 4 of them and heading out on day trips to Monument Valley, Goosenecks, Blanding (for museums), and anywhere else that we could see petroglyphs or Native American ruins. As soon as I dropped them off at their hotel, I was instantly looking for dirt roads to disappear on. After filling up at the gas station with gas and the required pepsi, the car was bucking a bit on deceleration. This happened for about 5 minutes and then disappeared. I wrote it off to the gas.

Required vanagon content: Went into a few washes with all 6 of us in the car (est 1400 lbs) and had a bit of rear wheel spin. On the way back with the diff lock on it was easy. With just the 2 of us we did some sand trekking and that was fun.

On Thursday, my aunt and uncle left for TN and we drove down to Sedona AZ. I got gas in Flagstaff and then again in Sedona. . . .wooo hooo 32 mpg!!! I'm cheating, 'cuz it was all downhill!!

On Friday we left Sedona and headed home. Just as we were coming down the hill into Indio, the same bucking on decel happened. This time it didn't go away. After stopping for gas, the problem went away (was 1/4 tank). We had lunch (real junk food at In & Out) and go back on the fwy. After getting fairly warm again (well above the light) it started again. Anybody else have this problem? Now that I'm home, it hasn't happened once. I'm going to let the mechanics have alook and see what they find.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the upgrade to a syncro. With all the people in the car the granny gear came in very handy and the diff lock was needed a couple of times. The 4wd was nice, although it is tough to tell when it is in use.

Rennie VolksDragon@earthlink.net Los Angeles

61 crew cab (911 conversion) 65 convertible 84 vanagon (for sale) 84 vanagon (another for sale) 86 syncro 93 fox


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