Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 06:16:52 EDT
Reply-To: RAlanen@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Frank Condelli <RAlanen@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: Vanagon Westfalia motorcycle carrier
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
In a message dated 23/08/2010 12:18:47 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM writes:
Dennis, weight is 282 for the moto, dry, 40lbs for your hitch and
the carrier about 50 lbs, so about 372 give or take a pound or two. I
cannot find the weight of the carrier on their specs and I have not had time
to take it off and weigh it. The rear of the van is lower than the front
for sure but in a 1000 km test drive this past weekend all seemed fine. At
times I did notice a lightness in the front end but nothing that had me
worried. I am considering installing air bags in the rear springs. Just
trying to locate a vendor who will ship them to Canada, most won't for some
strange reason and there are no vendors of them up here for some other strange
reason. So....what do YOU think of adding the air bags to level the load ?
How heavy is that bike? If you have enough weight behind the van to make
the
level an issue than you need to be concerned about the weight you are also
lifting off the front axle. Not only are you putting that load on the hitch
but since the bike has some size you are also levering it putting the
weight
way behind the rear axle. You should have the van axle weighed with this
load in place to make sure you are overloading the rear. Also, adding
springs to the rear to raise the level defeats the rear proportioning valve
function which uses the level to adjust pressure to the rear brakes as
weight is removed or added.
Cheers,
Frank Condelli
Almonte, Ontario, Canada
'87 Westy & Lionel Trains (_Collection for sale_
(http://frankcondelli.com/trainsal.htm) )
_Frank Condelli & Associates_ (http://frankcondelli.com/busindex.html) -
Vanagon/Vanagon Westfalia Service in the Ottawa Valley
_Vanagon Stainless Steel Exhaust Systems_
(http://frankcondelli.com/exhaust.htm)
_BusFusion_ (http://www.busfusion.com/) a VW Camper camping event,
Almonte, ON, June 10 ~ 13, 2010
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