Date:         Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:42:24 -0600
Reply-To:     Jim Felder <felder@KNOLOGY.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jim Felder <felder@KNOLOGY.NET>
Subject:      Re: snow driving vanagon vs baywindow
In-Reply-To:  <BAY129-F23405814EC0C7D93784FD9A9A20@phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed

I think that the bay bus is one of the best vehicles to drive on the
ice and snow. When I lived in Tennessee back in the days when it
snowed, I had a 69 bus that I drove when nobody else could drive. I
couldn't compare it with today's vehicles, but I'll bet it does
pretty well. The few times I've driven on ice and snow in the
vanagon, it didn't seem outstanding.

That said, you're probably going to be driving in wind and rain much
more than in ice and snow (stay in, even if you have 4wd), and the
vanagon wins hands down here, IMO.

I don't remember much about the mud, but I can tell you that between
my two vanagons, the diesel westy (with skinny tires) doesn't do
nearly as well in the mud as the 90 which has much wider tires. Could
be because the westy is heavier, too.

Jim


On Jan 26, 2007, at 3:28 PM, Jason Willenbrock wrote:

> Hey all,
> I am wondering how well bay window busses drive in the snow
> compared to 2wd
> vanagons.  I had a 2wd vanagon that was so so at best in the snow.
> With
> studded tires it was better obviously.  I now have a syncro westy
> that is of
> course superior.  I am contimplating selling my syncro and down
> grading to a
> bay window camper since i rarely use my syncro, i put maybe 5000
> miles a
> year on it, and because it is so nice, i rarely take it off roading
> out of
> fear of wrecking it.  Here in Montana snow and mud will alway be a
> factor so
> how well do bay's handle? I have heard that they do better then
> vanagons due
> to the slim tires and weight.  Is this true?  hopefully someone ut
> there has
> had both and can give good input to my question here.
> TIA
> jason
> 87 syncro westy
>
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