Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 21:27:31 -0700
Reply-To: Craig Oda <craigoda@COMMUNITYBUILDERS.INFO>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Craig Oda <craigoda@COMMUNITYBUILDERS.INFO>
Subject: Re: The Ideal Road-Trip vehicle, was Re: The Ideal vanagon
In-Reply-To: <3F8EDD42.6040605@lpl.arizona.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Dyer,
I looked into this a fair bit. I'm still using an 83.5 waterboxer
westy. I'm on my 2nd transmission and 2nd engine. I've also had a fair
amount of excitement on the side of the road in deserts and on dirt
roads with cracked cylinder heads and blown coolant hoses.
I looked at cabover campers. I haven't gone this route yet, but you
might want to consider a used one with a good, reliable truck.
Lance Campers (www.lancecamper.com) is the high-end. You could go for
something like their Lite 835. Look for a used one. New, I think
they're around $20K or so, but used, I've seen some for a few thousand.
It comes with a shower.
Capri Camper also has ones with showers. These are lighter.
Alaskan Camper has ones that pop up like the some westies. So, the
profile of the truck is real low.
Four Wheel Campers are pop up campers too. These will fit on small
trucks like a Toyota Tacoma. The amenities seem similar to a Westy. No
internal shower, but external shower is an option. To me, this is the
most Westy-like option and I've considered putting this on the back of a
Toyota Tundra 4x4
There's also Six Pac.
Bottom line, if you go with a big used truck like a Ford F150 (best
selling vehicle in America), you can put a cabover camper on the back
that has more amenities than a Westy. If you go for a Ford F350, you
can really be living posh.
Note that I've never done this before. I only own a Westy. I've never
even used a cabover camper. So, this is just speculate.
I usually contemplate this most passionately when I come back from a
trip with my Westy and I had to tow the vehicle back or paid a ton of
cash for some hack job from an emergency road-side mechanic.
Also, note that my next upgrade will probably be to a Subaru engine and
not to a cabover camper. However, I would love for someone to convince
me to drop the Westy in favor of a cabover on a reliable 4x4 truck.
Please convince me???
Aloha,
Craig
Dyer Lytle wrote:
> Aha, this is something I've been thinking about lately, in general terms.
>
> My story goes like this:
>
> 1. Decided VW camper was the ideal road trip vehicle for me.
> 2. Bought a very bad condition '72 with homemade interior.
> 3. Rebuilt engine and transmission, discovered how much work this is.
> 4. Bought a '73 Westfalia, went on some trips, too many things to fix.
> 5. Fell in love with split window busses, this was counterproductive
> to the road trip philosophy (see below).
> 6. Bought a '66 standard microbus, basket case, rebuilt all mechanical,
> paint, interior, etc. (I'm painting the bumpers this weekend.)
> 7. Went on a few trips in the '66.
> 8. Discovered that road trip friends, mostly, require quieter ride,
> air conditioning, and interstate speeds faster then 60 mph.
> 9. Bought an '84 Wolfsberg Westfalia, good shape, broken head stud.
> 10. I am in the process of rebuilding the engine and fixing the air
> conditioning now.
> 11. Continue to do road trips in my '87 jetta, good air conditioning,
> quiet,
> 75 MPH, 37 MPG. But I have to use tents, sleep on ground, cooler,
> etc.
>
> So, I have been thinking about the optimal camping vehicle for 1 or 2
> people.
>
> Requirements:
> 1. fairly high cruising speed, at least 65-70
> 2. fairly high ground clearance but also fits in my garage
> 3. air conditioning
> 4. significantly quieter than my '66
> 5. ability to sleep in the back and open screened windows
> 6. excellent gas mileage and clean emissions
> (at least 30 mpg, low CO, low particulates)
> 7. Inexpensive, or at least much less expensive than
> new eurovan/winnebago, say 5-8 K dollers.
>
> Things that would be nice:
> 1. very low first gear
>
> Now, except for the gas mileage, the vanagon is ideal. But the gas
> mileage is fairly important to me so I have considered:
>
> 1. Engine swaps for the westfalia (complex, expensive, unwanted side
> effects
> like loss of ground clearance or engine intrusion above rear deck)
> 2. Light pickup truck with camper shell (too bare bones, no amenities,
> bed barely long enough for sleeping)
> 3. Some kind of weird compact station wagon conversion,
> ford focus wagen gets 35 mpg. (too much engineering and
> construction required)
>
> So, it still seems to me that 84-85 vanagon is best for me. I would like
> a syncro Westfalia but they are too expensive and get worse gas
> mileage than 2WD.
> '84-'85 vanagon has high ground clearance and water boxer (quieter)
> engine.
>
> My '84 won't fit in my garage and the gas mileage won't be great but it
> fits the other requirements fairly well. I will make an effort to
> build the
> 1.9 liter engine so that it will be as efficient as I can afford to
> make it
> (good balance, close tolerances, clear exhaust, synthetic oil after break
> in, etc.) and be happy with that until a better suggestion comes along.
>
> -Dyer Lytle in Tucson
>
>
>
>
>
> Dustin wrote:
>
> > As much as I love my Vanagon, the mechanical and engineering flaws
> are well known.
> > I'm wondering what the thoughts of the volks out there as to what
> the ideal volkswagon
> > van would be like. Any thoughts?
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