Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 08:48:52 -0700
Reply-To: "Thomas D. Hanlon" <hanran@earthlink.net>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Thomas D. Hanlon" <hanran@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: Westy/Vanagon Paranoia
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Jerry,
Paranoia resolution, to me, is all in an attitude of planning, prudence, and
preventive maintenance.
My wife and I have traveled 77,000 miles in the States in my 200,000-original
miles engine-Westy- since 1995. We've gone east as far as northernmost Maine,
and gone south to the tip of Florida, gone far northwest to northwestern
Washington state, to Banff, in Canada, and west/east, east/west, at least 10
times, from Palm Springs, to San Antonio, TX. and into Middle America,
through MO, and IL, IN, OH....ad infinitum towing a small Coleman 900 pound
Versatrailer.
We posted 4,700 miles in 30 days in Europe in 1999 in a Listee's traded
diesel Westy ( known in Europe as a "Joker.")
We logged 2,000 miles in 21 days in the UK, in 2000, especially in rural
Scotland, in a Listee's traded Camper.
We have never had an untoward experience of either a personal, of a
significant security, or of a "hassles," nature, and, only minuscule
mechanical disruptions. I WAS "run off " by the grounds guard after spending
a night in the parking lot of Holy Rode Palace.in Edinburgh.
"You can't sleep here," said the guard, at 7 in the morning.
"Why not,? I asked.
"This is private property," he said.
"Whose property, said, I?
"The CROWN'S," said he, royally.
"I'll go away and I won't do this again," said I, in my Irish-American
penitent voice.
I owe HRM a night's rental.
We've parked in central Brussels, and slept, quietly, outside a formal
garden, whose, I do not know.. We've parked in France in the dropzone at
D-Day parachute landing sites in Normandy; in the US in countless US
Wal-Marts parking lot; in commercial (though, free, parking) truck stops with
"RVs Welcome" signs. I've spent scores of nights in improved, unimproved,
"under-construction", and "isolated" sites of BLM, Corps of Engineers, U.S.
and Canada, Forest Service(s), state and county and other public
campsites/crossroads/"panoramic vistas," in the US and Canada, in city
centers and in residential neighborhoods, in "stealth" parking situations;
in parking lots susch as Holy Rode in Edinburgh, ("run off" in the AM after
sleeping undisturbed through the night) in national forest keepers' cabins'
bicycle lots in Germany, in the city of Berlin, off the Unter der Linden; in
Hamburg, in a university parking lot near the "red light district;" in police
station lots in many Texas cities and towns, in funereal directors' parking
lots,(-"We're waiting to bury Schwartz"-) in Catholic, Protestant,
Fundamentalist, Apostolic, and, various other sect, church, temple, mosques,
halls, and synagogue parking lots.
Best choice for me is Catholic church parking lots.
Any cop who is interested is either Irish or Hispanic..
"Officer,
1. I'm waiting for Father Murphy.
2.. I'm here for Mass, or,.
3. I have a woman here who needs to confess."
"Check in on us throughout the night, OK?," I say.
"We will," the cop says.
My mechanical failures have been minimal. I experienced the "Vanagon
syndrome," once, in TX.
I reread the List posts on that item, I alternated speeds and I "waited." My
wife and I had lunch, while the system rectified itself. AND....I once had to
"jiggle" a loose Ken Wilfey ignition switch which I had connected,
incorrectly.
The timing belt on the traded Joker" diesel failed, as a matter of normal
occurrence, as I understand. We left the van with the VW dealer in Rouen,
rented a car and spent a day or two "wandering" around that area,
contemplated Joan of Arc and the reconstructioin of the Cathedral, slept in a
park in sleeping bag, sans difficulty, and ate breakfasts of hot soup and
crisp bread on a curbside with workers dressed in "blousons blus" jackets
We post a Vanagon.com sticker and an "Airborne" sticker on the Westy window.
A temporary, LARGE, illustrated, yellow "bad dog" sign, we display as needed,
and I always present a confident bearing, carry spare parts and "most" of the
tools needed to repair "most" of the situations we would expect to encounter,
as well as credit cards, AAA-Plus mbmbership card, and, a cell phone...and a
few one hundred dollar bills stashed in the Westy.
So, I suggest to you: Saddle up and ...GO.
Tom Hanlon
Palm Springs, CA
84 Westfalia
.
"Royston, Jerry" wrote:
> Mike Finkbiner has a good point. This Wal-Mart thread creates a certain
> degree of paranoia as does much of our discussion of the problems with
> Vanagons mechanically. I'm a new Westy owner and I haven't even gone
> anywhere yet and I'm ready to sell the van because I think it's going to
> break down at any moment or that I'm going to get mugged along a peaceful
> isolated stream somewhere in Idaho. If I had joined this list before
> purchasing my van, I might have changed my mind. But it's too late now.
> I'm obsessed with getting my Westy into great shape so that my kids and I
> can have adventures (positive ones) while seeing this continent.
>
> Please, more stories about how your Vanagon/Westy has been a great, safe,
> and reliable vehicle and how it has opened up your world like no other
> vehicle could.
>
> Gerry
| 
