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Date:         Tue, 25 May 2004 10:04:28 -0700
Reply-To:     David Marshall <vanagon@VOLKSWAGEN.ORG>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Marshall <vanagon@VOLKSWAGEN.ORG>
Subject:      Non-VC, TDI TriStar weekend report!
Comments: To: Mailing List - Syncro <syncro@yahoogroups.com>,
          Mailing List - SyncroDoubleCabs <SyncroDoubleCabs@yahoogroups.com>
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It was a great long weekend in the Cariboo region of BC - Friday morning I took the TriStar to Stony Lake which is about 2h NE of Quesnel for some off-roading and testing of various items in the truck. My friend with a 1990 Jeep came along as well on the same day and my wife Hélène in the Westfalia Syncro on Friday evening after she had finished work.

Non-VC Report: I drove the trip to Stony Lake with 4WD mode engaged on the 60km of dry gravel road. It handled like a dream on all the twisty sections of the road and never once did it fish tail on my. The trip back was in 2WD mode and it will still very stable except for about two corners where I felt the rear end spin out a little as I was pushing it quite hard. All in all if you take your time and drive like a normal human on dirt roads 2WD mode is fine although 4WD mode is better and I notice no ill side effect with driving in 4WD mode at all on gravel. My wife driving the VC equipped Westfalia had fish tailing on the gravel roads so she reported - nothing serious but noticeable.

Saturday was some off-roading down some logging roads and some deactivated logging roads. One was a great challenge! It was up a long semi-steep hill that was basically a track across dirt - no gravel. At the top section of this hill is a spring and it was muddy. It was unbelievable how far I made it before I got stuck! When I did become stuck it was a gradual stop where all four wheels lost traction (front and rear diff locked) and I just stopped moving. After a bit of shovelling some of the muck away and putting some dead sticks on the track we got out no problem. It was really neat to see the rear and front wheels start spinning at the same time - it really helped in this situation as it was a low grip situation, if I started to spin on the rear wheels only - even for 1 second - it would dig in and it would have taken a lot more effort to get out. Over all I am really impressed with the decoupler and the solid shaft that I had installed. A definite must have for serious off-roading and ultimate control on the gravel roads.

Continental Sportiva AT tire report: I have some 225/75R16 Sportiva ATs installed on the TriStar - I must say I like them. Road noise on pavement is moderate to low, as loud as the famous BFG ATs. Gravel roads are nice, rock retention is minimal. Muddy driving is good too. They did gum up when we got stuck in the mud but we were not spinning all the fast. After moving again they cleared themselves quite well. 10 ply rating and excellent rim protection.

HF Radio Communications report: This was a disappointing setback for me. Installed in the TriStar is an Alinco DX-70 with an SGC 237 antenna tuner match to a military AS/1729 antenna system. I am suffering from big time RF feed back in the 12 / 11 / 10m bands - to the point where if I key the mic, the wipers would sometimes click on! In the lower bands down to 14Mhz there was less feed back but still some issues. Everything is grounded with some FAT ground wires so I guess I will have to play around with the position of the antenna tuner in the setup. Still managed to contact Montana and California though with the TriStar. The Westfalia has an Icom 706MKIIG and the AT180 antenna tuner through a 102in CB whip mounted to the bumper - no RF feed back but spark plug interference was an issue. Gotta like TDIs for the lack of RF noise!

TDI Report: The AHU TDI in my TriStar performed excellent. I managed to connect the 8" fan to my intercooler for the trip and that made a HUGE difference performance wise on the highway. I forgot my laptop so I could not monitor intake temps which did hit 107C without the fan. I'll have this information later in the week. The whole trip was 250+ kilometers and the fuel tank is still at 3/4 - gotta like that!

Now it's back to work!

David Marshall

Fast Forward Automotive Inc. 4356 Quesnel-Hixon Road Quesnel BC Canada V2J 6Z3

http://www.fastforward.ca mailto:sales@fastforward.ca Phone: (250) 992 7775 FAX: (250) 992 1160

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