Volks: I took my first really loaded camping trip this weekend in my 84 Westy. 2 friends and I drove to Shreveport, LA. to the Cross Lake Combeaux. It's a sailing regatta consisting of triangle racing on Saturday and a LONG distance race on Sunday. The turn out was pretty slim due to the rainy weather. But the bus was awesome! This was my first camping trip in my 84 Westy. It was really an improvement over the 71 Westy I used to have. The refrigerator, stove, TV and....oh yeah....the ability to tow a Hobie 16 3.5 hours to a race at 70-75 MPH. That's right folks, 70-75 MPH. I've got a 90 Subaru/84 Westy. And with new 215/75/15 Yokohama HT's(on close out at tirerack.com) on Merkur Scorpio Wheels the ride was sweet! It was turning 3600-3900 RPM's and pulled all but the longest grades at 70+. So for those of you sitting on the fence, the Soob is it! I got 17mpg on the way over and about 15mpg on the way back due to a head wind. I just got the tires mounted about an hour before we left. The Yokohamas provided excellent traction in the rain and really improved the handling over the iffy 14" C rated tires. I noticed the engine noise dropped dramatically after I dropped off the boat. This leads me to believe the greatest noise with the new engine is intake related. I'd appreciated any suggestions to deal with that. Well, there you have it. This is what I built this thing for. To got to regattas pulling a boat and live in luxury. And BOY did it perform! Now to finish those brakes, and the sink pump, and the............ Fair winds, Shawn Clark 84/90 Westy/Soob |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.