Date:         Sun, 11 Jul 2004 18:43:35 -0700
Reply-To:     BA <ande@SAN.RR.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         BA <ande@SAN.RR.COM>
Subject:      What do you use for leveling?
In-Reply-To:  <438B9521-D39B-11D8-B0FA-003065AB24DA@farrside.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hi, all,

So, Simon's idea for leveling our '87 Westy is this.  He's got some
4x6 and made two "stairs" and a small "chock" at the end of the top.
So far, so good.

But he thinks it's OK to level the thing at only one wheel!  Seems to
me that's gonna' put some serious(ly weird) strains on it.  He argues
that it's similar to jacking up the van to change a tire.  I rebut
that it's jacked up like that for under an hour.  He counters that all
the tires will be touching the ground, since we aren't likely to camp
anyplace more un-level that that.  I replied that the tires touching
the ground are neither here nor there ... the vehicle is still being
held up by one corner.

He tries to convince me that the vehicle suspension is holding it up,
at which point I throw my hands up in despair and informed him that
any repairs caused by the unconventional leveling scheme were coming
outta' *his* pocket!  And then I threatened to report him to the
vanagon list!  *g*

But back to reality (oh, sheesh!  he's right now on the phone trying
to get his buddies to back him up ... )

1) What do folks use for leveling their vanagons?  We looked at
"leveling legos" at CamperWorld, but they seem a bit overpriced for
what they are (especially compared to his coupla' bucks' worth of
lumber).

2) Is it really so horrible to level the vanagon under one wheel only?
Or am I being a fussbudget?


B