I have an '81 (air-cooled) non-Westy that I have driven since new. Before that I had a '76 and two splitties. The '76 was the worst to drive--the position of the seat and wheel, etc. The Vanagon the best, by far. I'm talking about driving comfort on a long trip. I've put 140,000 miles on it camping all over the West. I bashed over many primitive roads--enough to bend something in the front suspension once--because the only way to get anywhere is to hit it hard and fast. The air-cooled just doesn't have any ability in 1st at low rpms. I suspect the water-boxer would be much better. The 2wd sucks in snow, compared to the earlier buses and isn't too hard to get stuck in odd places, because, I think, the rear wheels don't have as much travel, so it isn't hard to take the weight off of one and then it spins. The old splitties would crawl over almost anything in comparison. All this on 4x4 "primitive" road such as getting into American Basin in the San Juans. But if I didn't have my Syncro Westy, I'd still be doing all those things in my '81! Richard A Jones Boulder, Colorado |
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