Date:         Tue, 1 Apr 2008 10:19:01 -0700
Reply-To:     Brendan Slevin <totorovan@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Brendan Slevin <totorovan@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Trip report and huge thanks to Scott! LONG
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Well we did a smallish road trip leaving Thursday afternoon and returning
Monday afternoon-covering about 450 miles.

The Wife, 10yo boy child, 6yo girl child, 15 month old girl child and I left
home--Bend, Oregon--for Umpqua Hot Springs on Thursday afternoon. Having
heard that the last two miles of road to the hot springs was still
treacherously snowy, we didn't have high hopes of getting to them.  After
some icy, hard pack snow patches near crater lake we came down into the
Tokatee area and turned up the road to Umpqua.  Totoro was running great and
still had the snow tires on it but when we got to the turn off we could see
there was no way through that much snow with our van.  A syncro with chains
would be no issue.

Turning around, we headed for an RV park about 16 more miles toward
Roseburg.  We had thought of camping near Tokatee but with only our small
electric space heater, we would've been quite cold. We got to the park and
it wasn't too scary.  A bit back woodsy but still fine.  It was 15 bucks
since they weren't full by any means and we were right near the bathrooms
and super hot showers. I built a fire and heated up some soup and brought it
into the van where we had set up our small folding table in the middle and
flipped around the driver and passenger seats.  It was quite cozy with the
heater on.  We made up the beds and put on Benny and Joon on the dvd player,
with the sound running through the Ipod transmitter to the van stereo.   In
the morning it was snowing hard.  Thick, sopping wet valley snow. There was
already about an inch on the ground and it was not stopping.  We cooked our
oat meal and made coffee in the van.

We got on the road toward Roseburg thinking that we'd be out of the snow
soon.  We had to get below 1000 feet before it turned to all rain and wasn't
piles of slush on the road.  South of Roseburg on I-5 the van started acting
up.  It was doing the no power/cutting out thing over 3500 rpm which made it
very frustrating on that stretch.  Down hill was fine-no load on the engine
but you seem to go up a hill or pass every 3 miles until Gold Hill, I could
barley make 35 miles per hour.  It was getting worse so we pulled off to see
the Vortex.  They were closed due to the intense rain/sleet they were
getting.  We headed slowly back to Gold Hill by the time he got there I
could start out in first and get going but when I shifted to second I
couldn't give it any gas or it would die out and sputter.  This has all
happend before, and it's always when its wet out.  I called Scott because I
remembered he was down in this area. He had a few suggestions that I tried.
It seemed to get better for about a mile after wd-40ing some things on the
engine and re-seating some connections.  But soon it was back to it's old
tricks.

We limped along back roads into Medford where our friend lives. We were
meeting her around 6:00pm and it was about 3.  I called Scott again and
stopped by his place.  We worked on the van for about three hours testing
different theories and finally it was my son who figured it out.  The way
the van was acting it felt like, under load, it was starved for fuel.  Scott
hung a fuel pressure gauge up in the back but I couldn't read it in the
mirror while driving.  My son sat in the back and we went for a drive.  It
was reading normal at idle and when I was getting out the to main road but
as soon as I tried to accelerate he said DAD! DAD! It's dropping!  It's at
the bottom! Zero! (He was very excited, as was I.)  I limped back to Scott's
and changed the fuel filter.  We took it out again and this time the van
felt way stronger than it ever has.  My son was so excited as he read the
gauge.  It's not dropping, DAD! It's staying at the 2!!  We got some fuel
drying additves and a new tank of gas and it ran great. The old filter was
full of water rust and dirt.  I think I'll be needing a new tank sometime in
the near future.

So thank you again, Scott.  Without you, we'd still be stuck down there in
some Joe blow Garage waiting for parts or for Joe Blow to figure it out.


We headed to our friend's house and then on to some killer pizza at
Kalidescope in Medford.  I had a great big mug of IPA from some local
brewery.  After staying the night at her house, we woke up and headed to
Ashland, a town I've never been.  It was great.  We walked around and saw
some shops and Lithia Park and went to a wonderful natural food co-op.  We
got a hotel that night and then woke up and drove to Jacksonville--had great
margaritas there--and then back to the Oregon Vortex, this time they were
open. It was pretty strange there. We headed on to Stewart State Park about
60 miles away from Crater Lake.  We were one of four groups in the whole
huge campground.  It was a bit chilly but very sunny that afternoon.  When
we woke up it was 26 outside and 74 inside.  We drove back Monday afternoon,
stopping by Sunriver so I could put in about 40 minutes of work and then on
to the new Trader Joe's that opened in Bend while we were gone.

All in all a wonderful trip.  Thank you again, Scott.

Now I back to pulling the studs out of my tires.  I got the two front tires
done last night, I'll do the rears today.

Brendan Slevin
84 GL Totoro
Bend, Oregon