Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 09:37:10 -0800
Reply-To: neil N <musomuso@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: neil N <musomuso@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Safety Inspections
In-Reply-To: <HHEAJIOMDPBGGCKHACGJKEIDDAAA.al_knoll@pacbell.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
You know, right now Jaco has no engine in it. I'm missing it already!
Plywood? Yup
Engines? Yup.
Actually it's super useful for that. Just slide it in, then slide it
out the side of the Vanagon. Great height to slide engine out onto my
floor jack/dolly. And side door ingress/egress "fits" my carport
situation quite well.
Excess pocket fuzz? Well I don't have those fancy door pockets, so i
wouldn't know about that. --- ;^)
Actually camp in it?
Soon I hope!
Safe? I can say this much. Having my head under it so much recently
(conversion) gives me great insight into what is done, or needs to be
done.
New car safer? Maybe. I swear there's "hints" to *possible* upcoming
problems with the ABS on my Honda. Only 4xK KM's on it. :(
In some ways I'd much rather have my Westy as my DD or better yet, two
Vanagons. I know what's going on, it's "older" technology I can wrap
my head around and fix (thanks list), plus I can keep an eye on
things.
Neil.
On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 8:36 AM, Pensioner <al_knoll@pacbell.net> wrote:
> "Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
> in the real world."
>
> --Mary Shafer NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, KOTVFR
>
> I'm sure that if all our vanagons were inspected for 'safety' they'd all
> fail. It doesn't matter who votes only who counts the votes. If I can set
> the safety standard I can condemn your rusty, rotten, ugly, polluting, POS
> vanagon by decree. So stay eternally vigilant for those sneaky legislators
> and civil service parasites lest they wrest your pride and joy away in the
> name of saving the children and the greater good.
>
> I have only a passenger side airbag and only on occasion. Be that as it
> may, I personally inspect my Vanagon often for what I feel are 'unsafe'
> issues. Such as rotted fuel hoses, badly worn brakes, loose nut behind the
> steering wheel, non-functional lighting, mice, old onions in the food bin,
> MRSA, brown recluse, wheel lug tightness, properly inflated tires (no No NO
> NOT A TIRE THREAD), a 'wake the dead' horn, corroded brake lines, an
> overweight key ring, too much bling on the mirror post, excess pocket fuzz
> and so on.
>
> Thus far, with 220Kmi+ on the clock it's gone pretty well (excluding the
> Santa Barbara Condo affair with the drunken welder and the evil beflyguy).
> Not that all won't go up in a puff of smoke and shattering of glass when
> some twenty something with a cell phone in their ear, a doublevente low fat
> latte in their lap and sub prime intelligence, does a suicide by vanagon by
> jamming their state certified really safe, multiple airbag, 200W Bose
> equipped, GPS guided, ecologically verified rice rocket under the front all
> the way past the driver's head area because they were distracted flipping
> off some knuckler (older than a bluehair) or fertile fecund soccer mom who's
> momentarily confused as to why she can't just go one half block to the piano
> lessons on a one way street against the grain.
>
> The safety issues are certainly out there and as the iron rhino said in the
> first sentence those who insist on perfect safety miss a lot along the way.
>
> Make your vanagon safe. Donate it to a worthy cause and take the tax
> write-off so the worthy cause can put it back on the road and let someone
> who's willing to shoulder the risk drive it. The worthy cause gains, you
> feel better surrounded by all those new safety features of your new car,
> never mind the payments and sales tax and insurance. Then when you need to
> move that 4x8 sheet of plywood you can just tie it to the roof and let it
> blow off on the freeway and give someone else the chance to test their
> escape and evasion capabilities.
>
> Or you could inspect it periodically yourself, save money, get the _real_
> skinny on what's wrong and fix it and not have the car payments and keep the
> magic of your vanagon alive AND carry the plywood safely inside.
>
> Just ask Ben
>
> Pensioner (certifiable retrogrouch)
>
--
Neil Nicholson. 1981 Air Cooled Westfalia - "Jaco"
http://web.mac.com/tubaneil
http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/
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