Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:47:28 -0700
Reply-To: neil N <musomuso@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: neil N <musomuso@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Successful road trip completed..Some figures(long post)
In-Reply-To: <000501c88bbe$e0261b60$ed50fea9@laptop>
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Nice report Don.
I find the fuel mileage of interest, and inspiring, as I'm past the
halfway mark (I think!) of completing my I4 conversion (Jetta 2.0) on
my air cooled Westy.
I don't know if my slightly larger displacement engine will do as well
for fuel mileage, but I still look forward to better fuel efficiency
amongst other positive aspects.
Thanks for the figures and glad to hear your trip didn't have any
major mechanical problems.
Cheers,
Neil.
On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 6:48 PM, Don Hanson <dhanson@gorge.net> wrote:
> Hi All,
> Just returned from an extended winter trip (in my 84 faux-Westie with an
> inline 4 cabriolet motor conversion) to the desert southwest. I kept track
> of the mileage and gas costs on my return leg and though it might be of
> interest. The brown 'topless' camper was pretty loaded, weighing in at
> about 5200lbs on a truck scale. I had aboard all my cycle gear and a full
> carpenter's day job tool collection, plus camping gear for an extended
> outing and two cycles mounted on a Yakima rack attached to the rear hatch
> out of the wind, mostly.
>
> The miles traveled on the return leg: 1155, from near the Salton Sea
> below Palm Springs, Ca. via Hwy 395 along the east slope of the Sierra's
> and the Cascades to near Hood River, Oregon, east of Portland. Many
> mountain passes, pretty windy and some heavy snow flurries out in eastern
> Oregon in the middle of the night. The trip took about 20 hours of driving
> time. I stopped and slept southeast of Bend, Or. for a few hours, but with
> all the gear and tools inside, I was not able to really get too
> comfortable.
> I spent $178 on gas, used 49.2 gallons at an average $3.63 per gallon. My
> mile per gallon fuel consumption figures at 23.4. I tried to keep my speed
> to about 65mph average, thinking to keep my fuel consumption down.
> Considering the load and the windy mountainous route, I was happy with 23+
> mpg.
> No problems on the trip other than needing a clutch slave during my stay
> in California..Now I'll be needing a brake master because during the
> bleeding for the new slave, my helper was putting "everything" into pumping
> the BRAKE pedal while I was trying to bleed the CLUTCH slave....Doh! And
> she is a very strong-legged bicycle racer type, mashing down +hard+ on the
> brake, without it going down...until it did! But I still was getting no
> fluid from the slave bleed screw...Until I crawled out and pushed the clutch
> to feel it for myself, and she said..."Oh, I was pushing the OTHER
> pedal"...Doh! I think the MC might have some deformed seals now as it felt
> a bit "fadey" on hard stops..
> I had some 14" Hekapolita(sp?) snow tires on the rear, thank goodness, and
> they worked great during my midnight encounter with very crappy snow
> driving..
> All in all, a very pleasant trip. The Vanagon again proves it's
> versatility. I hate to think what I might have spent driving my Ford diesel
> and pulling my utility trailer..Diesel was usually over $4 per gallon and
> that truck with a load gets about 11mpg..
> Don Hanson
>
--
Neil Nicholson. 1981 Air Cooled Westfalia - "Jaco"
http://web.mac.com/tubaneil
http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/
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