Date:         Sun, 14 Oct 2007 22:05:48 -0700
Reply-To:     Kyle Davis <davis_family_46168@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Kyle Davis <davis_family_46168@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Weekend Westy Recap
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Hey all,

     Just dropping a status line.

No, I haven't fixed the screen window yet.

No, I haven't received the rear hatch lifters yet (and
have seem some others go for cheaper on eBay.)

Yes, I believe I still have the high bid on an 84 door
handle.

My father came down and looked at the Vanagon.  He
said he'd get me a set of new tires for it for X-Mas.
We also measured it, and deduced that it should fit in
the garage, once things get cleaned up out of there.

At our local wal-mart, my wife and I were pleased to
notice a normal-size Motor Coach Home pulling (of all
things) a Westy camper!  Of course, I had to go over
and say Hi!  Turns out, they had purchased it in 1988.
 They still had the original tables, etc.  He said
they had put over 300K on it before getting the big
one.  He said last season, they towed his truck
around, but this season, she missed the westy so they
pulled it around instead.

The only accoutrements he had to tow it was a
heavy-duty towbar (not a reese class II, some other
type of application that supports up to 10,000
pounds!)  He also ran a unique one-off wiring job to
do the turn signals and brake lights.

He said, he almost could get by with a normal class-3
reese, but sometimes, when coming out of a driveway,
the front wheels of the westy would catch, and he
would basically have to "sort it out."  I conjectured
that it may have something to do with power steering,
but he said his didn't have power steering.

Anyhow, if you're on the Vanagon list, I hope I didn't
scare you here in Plainfield, IN.  I just had to stop
because I thought it was cool, and it answered a
question I was going to posit to the list, about using
the Vanagon as a tow-vehicle.

But, to end this message with a question, as I always
seem to do, I got the courage enough to open up the
bagged set of curtains that the previous owner had
supplied.

To my elation, they had been washed (probably by
machine, against the List suggestions, assuredly) and
they had even taken the time to take out all of those
little plastic curtain hooks out of each curtain, and
only managed to put back in half.  Also discovered was
the one-off front curtain set, and the screen set for
the back door, and the screen set for the skylight.
Opening this bag of clean curtains and window
treatments basically opens up another can of worms for
questions for the list, but I'll try to be succinct
(hey, there's a first time for everything, isn't there
;-)?

1.)  These plastic curtain hooks look very fragile.
Part plastic, part rubber, and part entropy.  Any list
members have any success in replacing them with
something more heavy duty, perhaps metallic-based?

2.)  Was overjoyed to discover the skylight and the
velcro strap.  Was disheartened to realize how horrid
the velcro stood up over time, in that the velcro
screen barely holds it up there.  Has anybody had
experience in putting in fresh velcro on the top to
get the velcro screen to stay?  Any tips or tricks I
should look out for?

And lastly,

3.)  Many of the curtains have button-snaps, or holes
where button-snaps have been.  Is it that big of a
deal for the button-snaps to be replaced?  Also, if I
get the camper supplement owners manual, does it make
it pretty obvious which curtains go where?

Till next time

Kyle



____________________________________________________________________________________
Moody friends. Drama queens. Your life? Nope! - their life, your story. Play Sims Stories at Yahoo! Games.
http://sims.yahoo.com/