Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 19:29:47 EST
Reply-To: FrankGRUN@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Frank Grunthaner <FrankGRUN@AOL.COM>
Subject: A Short Contribution on the Leveling issue
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I have been watching this thread while transferring files to my new dual 1.25
GHz PowerMac G4 with 2 GB of memory running Mac X! I appears that I will have
to break down and read the manual. Aargh.
But back to the leveling issue. I won't quibble with the +/- 8 degree
specification. I will note that this probably pertains to the front to back
(or back to front, or longitudinal axis) in that the distance traveled by the
liquid in the adsorption circuit is only a few pipe diameters at most. A tilt
of 30 degrees or more would be required to impact the flow in the direction
front to back of the refrigerator. I one encountered a bashed Dometic 182A in
my local pick-a-part yard and took the opportunity to remove the cooling
coils for a bit of experimentation. Found salt encrustation all over the
boiler interior. I found the salts dissolved in an ammonium hydroxide
solution held at 85C for 24 hrs. I suspect that long term heating of the
closed (sealed) cooling system, along with agitation would reactivate an
abused unit.
Anyway, on the leveling issue again, I used to mount trailer jacks (screw
drive, mounted to the frame) to my older VW campers (the 67 and the 72).
There was never an issue about driving off with them in place as the vehicles
didn't have enough power to push off! For the Vanagon, I used two
screw-driven scissors jacks for years. I really liked the stroke on the main
jack and often considered its use. Then I purchased one of Ron's (Bus Depot)
VW scissors jacks. Neat. Works like a charm.
And (Alistair) you can leave it in place while whipping the door to and fro!
I might even go out and buy two more. The price is right and they store
easily. Much safer than the regular scissors jack. When leveling, I always
make sure that at least two wheels are on the ground.
Just my few musings. I'm trying to get the time to peck out some observations
on the Vanagon Automatics vis a vis conversions, power and rpm issues.
Hopefully today.
Frank Grunthaner