Date:         Sun, 25 Aug 2002 05:12:17 -0700
Reply-To:     Larry Chase <lchase@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Larry Chase <lchase@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      The great Subie vs Ticco vs WBX Debate
Comments: To: ev_update@yahoogroups.com, Syncro@yahoogroups.com,
          Ben McCafferty <ben@kbmc.net>, Al Knoll <al_knoll@pacbell.net>,
          Jeff Sibley <Sibleyjm@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Kudo's to the multitudes that responded to my "WaterBoxer Engine Comparison"
thread.

Of course many of the responses were "Why not Subie or Ticco".

Here's my logic for not doing a Subie or Tiico, please tell me where I have
missed
the mark. Figure it's healthy for ones logic to see the light of day.

I fully admit the extra power and reliability are very attractive.

However,

I will be embarking on a significant VW Vanagon Expedition.

Starting Jan 2003 I will be "Full Timing" for one year or maybe more.

I will be travelling continuously throughout North America (Alaska, Canada,
Nova Scotia, the lower 48 Sates and Mexico. Who knows, maybe even parts of
South America.

My primary goal is to rediscover what's left of Rural North America.

In the spirit of book "The Blue Highway".

Homebase will be wherever I'm at for the day.

So as you can see, I really don't have the luxury of having a local shop
debug any little problems associated with a Engine conversion.

As good as they are, every conversion I have heard about has taken some
amount of debug and settling in time.

Also my other concern would be ease of servicing and parts wherever I may
find myself when, not if, the Van breaks down.

Yes I know Subie and maybe even Golf/Jetta parts are easier to come by than
Vanagon parts .... but my
feeling is it will be harder to find a shop that is comfortable with these
conversions than it will be a pure VW setup.

And I ain't No Gearhead.

Would really appreciate responses on this,

Larry