Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 15:38:49 -0500
Reply-To: Bruce Nadig <motorbruce@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Bruce Nadig <motorbruce@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Trip Report: Big Bend National Park (long)
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
Howdy From Texas,
I just completed my first long road trip in my ’87 GL with its engine from a
Porsche 911 3.2 Carrera engine. It was a fabulous trip with only one
manageable teething problem. I can say that my Vanagon is quite possibly THE
ultimate road trip vehicle.
My buddies hit the road early one morning and headed out from Austin, Texas
to Big Bend National Park, nearly 500 miles away in west Texas. My
7-passenger GL was a wonderful configuration for the trip. The five of us
had adequate room to relax and spread out. More importantly, there was
plenty of room for our gear, including a spare tire that I had to carry
inside the van.
Just to be on the safe side I took an extensive tool kit, zip ties, fuses,
tape, flashlights, jumper cables, 5 different shop manuals for reference
(Bentley, Chilton, Haynes for Vanagon, Bentley for Porsche engine, and
Porsche factory electrical diagram for Porsche engine electrics),breaker bar
and socket for wheel changes, several cans of Fix-A-Flat, tire repair kit,
and a sturdy tow rope just in case.
The drive out was beautiful. The famous Texas wildflowers were in full bloom
and the sky was blue. The roads out to west Texas can get pretty empty at
times, so this gave us an opportunity to stretch the van’s legs. And stretch
its legs we did. Fortunately we had a radar detector (when was the last time
you saw one of those in a Vanagon, much less a fully loaded Vanagon?) so we
would stay out of trouble with the law.
At one point while my buddy Eric was driving, he encountered a beer delivery
truck on an otherwise deserted back road. The truck speed limit was 70mph
and the truck was exceeding that by just a bit. Eric dropped the Porsche G50
5-speed tranny from 5th to 4th and put his right foot to the floor. As he
passed the truck and pulled back into the right lane he was laughing out
loud. In that brief stretch he had exceeded 100mph. I won’t say just how
fast we got the van going, but we did get past the speed at which the
speedometer needle stops moving (well past where the graduations end).
Once in the park our speed dropped to the federally mandated 45mph. We
continued at that speed until we headed into the basin, up in the Chisos
Mountains. While the speed limit dropped, the Porsche flat-6 was more than
willing to pull strong up the mountains.
We spent the next several days exploring the vast park, much of it by
Vanagon. The van was remarkable, both on paved roads and unpaved. We made
the spectacular, but all too brief, drive down the dirt road to the hot
springs.
Even on the rougher roads, both paved and unpaved, the suspension did a
spectacular job. The Vanagon is running with 17” Porsche wheels, H&R
lowering springs, and Bilstein shocks. At high speed the van was very stable
and exhibited little body roll. At lower speeds the ride was equally
pleasing. On the unpaved roads the progressively wound springs were
especially welcomed.
I was concerned with the ride height of the van for two reasons. First, with
its lowered stance I was a bit worried about clearance on dirt roads.
Second, the lowest point of the van is the metal fitting on the oil lines
that exit the stock Porsche oil thermostat. If there is one thing you don’t
want to break in the middle of west Texas, it is the custom fabricated oil
lines. That could end your trip quick. The van, however, performed
admirably.
We were especially anxious to visit one of the sites on the 14-mile long Old
Maverick Road. Both park rangers and the owner of one of the river
outfitters advised against taking the van along that road. We were
motivated, so we gave it a shot anyhow. We figured that if the road got too
rough we could always turn around.
As we started on the Old Maverick Road there warning signs that clearly
read, “HIGH CLEARANCE.” Oh well, we’d give it a shot. We even surprised
ourselves when we found that we could easily make it the full length of the
road. Only once did we have to stop and send a scout down the road. We
encountered a wash the crossed the road. John got out to inspect it, and
reported that the small gravel toward the middle was a bit soft. I fired up
the engine, released the clutch and shot across the wash, skimming over the
surface of the softest area.
The retrofitted-to-R134a a/c was wonderful. It kept an abundant and constant
supply of cold air blowing to battle the 90+ degree temperatures. I never
would have headed out to west Texas if I didn’t think that the a/c would be
dependable.
At night the headlights were absolutely fabulous! I’ve got the South African
quad-round set-up, along with a set of ProjektZwo fogs. On high beam with
fogs and driving lights I was throwing 600 watts of light down the road
(100w H4 highs x2, 100w driving lights x2, 100w ProjektZwo fogs x2). These
flamethrowers sent vast amounts of light everywhere it was needed. Happily,
I also discovered that the city lights inside the headlights were useful
also. One night we trecked a half-mile down a dirt road to an area where we
could do some star gazing (absolutely unbelievable, with no light pollution
what-so-ever for more than 100 miles). As I drove down the dirt road I
killed the headlights, driving lights, and fogs and chugged along slowly
with just the city lights on. I did this for two reasons: 1) I wanted my
eyes to adjust to the dark before stargazing, and 2) I didn’t want my
headlights to bother anyone else that might be in the area. Every dime spent
on the lighting system was money well spent.
Obviously, with the air-cooled flat-six, I don’t have to worry about coolant
problems. Instead, I have to be concerned with oil temperatures. Up front,
in an area cut out from the radiator, I have a large Porsche 993 oil cooler
mounted. It is rigged to turn on the high speed cooling fan when the oil
temperature exceeds 209 degrees. Only once did the high speed fan come on,
and that was in 90+ degree heat, with five passengers, and a full load of
cargo, going up a long series of hills. Even then the fan was only on
briefly.
Oh, that one teething problem we had? Tires. While we were within the load
rating of the tires, it was close. I had Pirelli P-Zeros on the right side
(I use a variety of used tires that I get cheap from the Porsche dealer),
and other brands on the left side. Part way through the trip, we noticed
that the Pirellis were starting to crack on the sidewalls. From then on we
paid constant attention to the tires, checking them at every stop,
monitoring the pressures, and keeping speeds to a minimum. At the end of Old
Maverick Road we found that the right rear tire was nearly flat. We were
going to mount the stock Vanagon steel-wheeled spare on the front, and move
the right front to the right rear. Our plan was foiled when I realized that
the wheel bolts I had holding the front wheel adaptors were conical, while
the steel wheel has a spherical seat. Instead of a tire change we used the
trusty Fix-A-Flat and aired up the rear tire. From there we head to Study
Butte just a few miles away to air up the tire.
Later in the trip the front Pirelli also went down in pressure. Once again
we used the Fix-A-Flat as a precaution. From then on we only had one problem
with the tires. On the return trip, just outside of Fort Stockton, we
suffered a tread separation of the right rear Pirelli. This time we were
able to mount the steel-wheeled spare, using the spherical-seat Porsche lug
nuts. I am planning on purchasing a set of 15” alloy wheels for longer trips
that I will take fully loaded.
Other than that one glitch, the trip was fabulous. The wildflowers and the
cactus were in bloom. The company was great. The weather was reasonable –
nothing that the a/c couldn’t handle.
I have some really great pictures of the Vanagon in some exotic desert
settings. I’d be happy to share them with anyone that sends me an e-mail.
I must say that I think that I have even surprised myself with the
reliability of the engine conversion on this Vanagon. It was a complicated
job to pull off, but the results have been more than worthwhile.
Cheers,
Bruce
motorbruce
motorbruce@hotmail.com
