Date:         Thu, 12 Sep 2002 08:23:21 -0400
Reply-To:     David Brodbeck <gull@CYBERSPACE.ORG>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Brodbeck <gull@CYBERSPACE.ORG>
Subject:      Re: Comments on Splittie
Comments: To: Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
In-Reply-To:  <f05100300b9a5f675548b@[203.167.170.24]>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

On Thu, 12 Sep 2002, Andrew Grebneff wrote:

> Fortunately neither my 57 Panel or 66 Kombi had any slop in the
> steering.

You had the one, eh? ;)  The steering mechanism on those old buses just
had too many pivot points in it.  When I got my Vanagon I couldn't believe
how tight the steering was.

> Those with long arms (eg me) appreciate the driving position!

Oh, yeah, it's great.  I liked how you could get different wrist angles by
changing where you gripped the wheel.  It was very relaxing on long trips,
sort of like resting your hands on a tabletop.

> My 75 Bay was not at all noisy. And it was a bare-bones Kombi.

Mine was noisy as heck, but a lot of that was because the wood beam in the
front of the pop-top had warped.  It wouldn't seat properly when latched
and caught a lot of wind.

> My 57 and 66 had decent brakes. The 75's were not adequate, despite
> the boosted discs.

I thought the 75's brakes were okay when the rears were properly adjusted.
They'd only stay properly adjusted for maybe two weeks, though.

             _ _
  __ _ _   _| | |  | David M. Brodbeck (N8SRE)              Ypsilanti, MI
 / _` | | | | | |  +-----------------------------------------------------
| (_| | |_| | | | @ cyberspace.org
 \__, |\__,_|_|_| "The VW camper is a brilliant invention -- it's like a
 |___/             Swiss army knife for the road... It's the stealth RV."
                                                        -- Wayne Curtis