Date:         Mon, 7 Apr 2003 21:43:00 EDT
Reply-To:     Albert3365@WMCONNECT.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Kun Chang <Albert3365@WMCONNECT.COM>
Subject:      Gas mileage
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

I thought I like to share this because many discussions have been posted in
the past concerning gas mileage of a Westy/Vanagon. I have done two things in
the past two weeks and the gas mileage of my multivan improved from 16-17mpg
to slightly over 20. First, I replace the rear tires to Capitol P185R14 8ply
($55.00/tire) and inflated the tire to 50psi (65psi max). The old rear tire
was the same as the original dealer installed Michelin Max load to 1435 lb,
max psi to only 35psi. After changing the tire I took a ride on the freeway
and notice that at 4000rpm, the speed now become 70mph (it was 65mph at this
rpm). I feel that the van became very much lighter. The second thing I did
was to readjusted that valve to one turn back (because of the tapping noise).
My family took a very pleasant trip to the Texas Hill country during the
weekend and drove the multivan for a total of about 600 miles. The calculated
mileage for each tank of gas was about 20.5mpg. Wish this help someone.

Albert
91 Multivan, 98,500mls