Richard, This is a classic example of a "plan to fail" approach that most of us fall into. I also used to carry around parts most likely to fail. I'd keep spare belts, coolant hoses, ignition parts, a coil, etc, etc until I realized one day that I was planning to fail instead of maintaining so that my machines don't fail. So, I went a complete different way. I routinely inspect wear items like brake pads & such. I change out my brake fluid every 6 months. I replace belts & hoses when they start to show wear or at 2 year intervals, whichever come first. I find out what hard parts are likely to fail with age and I go ahead and replace them at reasonable intervals. I no longer carry around tool boxes or spare parts - I don't need them. I'll even drive my 77 Corvette across country without tools - I don't need them. I've done this for 15 years now and yes I've had breakdowns - 4 of them. But all 4 were catastrophic failures that I could not fix on the side of the road anyways. Oh, and I drive 40K - 50K miles a year.
Another way to look at this is - airplanes don't carry around spare parts......
Thanks, Tom Hargrave 256-656-1924 Our Web Sites: www.kegkits.com www.stir-plate.com www.andyshotsauce.com
-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf Of Richard A Jones Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 5:24 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Re: Rubber...Our best friend...Our worst enemy > btw......the hoses that wear the most are the ones that get the hottest - > usually ones on top of the engine. Soon after I got my '87 Syncro in 2001, I asked my mechanic about replacing hoses. He has many years of experience with many Vanagons, and he commented that there were four hoses that were the most common to fail. I put spares of those four on board and drove for years until a hose started spewing coolant at Syncro Safari '08. It was one of those four. I'd look up which four and give part numbers but my Syncro is at the mechanic's getting a bunch of new hoses--connected to a Subaru 2.5 engine. ;-) Richard |
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