Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2010 16:58:03 -0500
Reply-To: Jonce Fancher <streetbugs@FRONTIER.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jonce Fancher <streetbugs@FRONTIER.COM>
Subject: Re: Reality Check on New & Better VW Campers
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTimRpAzM2sJEkw-94gjgqKYdoAV7Q9tj-ATAaWMM@mail.gmail.c om>
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Oops Sorry <br>
That is the length of my sprinter.<br>
Jonce<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Your van is 21 feet long? Try 15
feet! ;)<br><br>
<br><br>
On Fri, Nov 26, 2010 at 7:22 PM, Jonce Fancher
<<a href="mailto:streetbugs@frontier.com">streetbugs@frontier.com</a>
> wrote:<br>
<dl>
<dd>Yep That about sums it up!<br>
<dd>My shop we make Windshield Covers, Bras/Masks, Tire covers and
do<br>
<dd>interiors on these things. They are INSANE inside and out if you
have<br>
<dd>the coin to push them. What kills me is they tend to need a Tow<br>
<dd>Vehicle which adds to the confusion and pain. We did some work
for<br>
<dd>one this past summer that was 43 feet long! Talk about massive
and<br>
<dd>Taller then most we see. Blocked out the sun sitting in my
drive.<br>
<dd>One guy had the massive land yacht and towed a air cooled Bug.
Did<br>
<dd>another that towed a 34 or 36 foot triple axle trailer that held
his<br>
<dd>and hers Mazda miata. Hard to believe it but I have seen it. I<br>
<dd>usually show off my 21 foot Gas Pusher Vanagon. Not sure if they<br>
<dd>understand what I am getting at when I point it out to them.<br><br>
<dd>All in good fun!<br>
<dd>Jonce<br><br>
<br>
<dl>
<dd>At 01:25 PM 11/26/2010 -0800, Loren Busch wrote:<br>
<dl>
<dd>Mega Millions or Power Ball you can expect to see me in a 40' Land
Yacht,<br><br>
</dl><br>
<dd>You can use some of those millions to hire someone to read the<br>
<dd>manuals for you...my brother's 35' "diesel pusher" came
with a custom<br>
<dd>ballistic nylon briefcase twelve inches thick, filled with
twelve<br>
<dd>solid inches of manuals. Aside from knowing how to run
things,<br>
<dd>there's a maintenance schedule for the Allison six-speed
automatic<br>
<dd>transmission, there's a maintenance schedule for the Onan 12 kW<br>
<dd>generator, there's an extremely stringent maintenance schedule
for<br>
<dd>the Caterpillar engine, there's a maintenance schedule for the<br>
<dd>Freightliner chassis...he's been to Winnebago school, Freightliner
school...<br><br>
<dd>It's a very very serious piece of equipment. The cabin slides
are<br>
<dd>hydraulic, and they're *strong.* The leveling feet carry
seven<br>
<dd>thousand pounds plus each, and I've seen one punch a hole six
inches<br>
<dd>deep through an asphalt parking pad in a state park. It's
about<br>
<dd>twelve feet high IIRC, and just washing the windshield is a
job. The<br>
<dd>systems control panel is maybe eight inches wide and taller than
a<br>
<dd>man, and it's not full of empty panel space. That's for
the<br>
<dd>generator, inverter, furnace, air conditioners, engine-heated
hot<br>
<dd>water, electric-heated hot water, fresh water, gray water, black<br>
<dd>water. And you have to (or at least he does) worry
constantly about<br>
<dd>tank capacity, pumpouts etc.<br><br>
<dd>The interior furnishings are built with the expectation that
it's<br>
<dd>going to be driven on tip-toe, which he's only very gradually<br>
<dd>realizing. I was on board when he tore the bathroom apart
(somewhat)<br>
<dd>going around a traffic circle. He's never ridden in the back,
so he<br>
<dd>has no idea what the passengers experience driving down the
Skyline<br>
<dd>Drive at five over the limit...<br><br>
<dd>It has Corian countertops -- and barely enough excess load
capacity<br>
<dd>for passengers and some baggage. I bet its usable load
capacity<br>
<dd>isn't a great deal bigger than a Vanagon's.<br><br>
<dd>It has acres of custom metallic gold-beige paint on acres of
custom<br>
<dd>panels that cost the earth if you dent one.<br><br>
<dd>It gets around 5 mpg from a hundred-gallon tank of diesel that
also<br>
<dd>fuels the Onan. If you're not plugged into fifty-amp
service<br>
<dd>(including running down the road) you have to run the generator
to<br>
<dd>power the air conditioning.<br><br>
<dd>With all four slides open it's enormous, and with them closed
for<br>
<dd>travel it's cramped. To level the thing and open the all four
slides<br>
<dd>when you stop takes possibly close to ten minutes. To close it
all<br>
<dd>up and pull up the feet somewhat less. The whole thing is
as<br>
<dd>discreet and inconspicuous as a Greyhound bus.<br><br>
<dd>I admire the heck out of the thing, and you couldn't pay me enough
to<br>
<dd>own it or be responsible for it. For that much aggravation I'd
have<br>
<dd>a large sailboat instead, and I'd much rather have a smaller<br>
<dd>sailboat. Similar length but a quarter or less as much space
and<br>
<dd>*much* simpler systems. And an engine a lot closer to 35 hp
than 350...<br><br>
<dd>Riding in it through the city I was very grateful for the smoked<br>
<dd>glass -- I felt like a bloated plutocrat with the peasants
outside<br>
<dd>staring in in envious wonder.<br><br>
<dd>Yours,<br>
<dd>David<br><br>
</dl>
</dl><br><br>
<br>
-- <br>
Jake <br><br>
1984 Vanagon GL 1.9 WBX 'The Grey Van'<br>
1986 Westy Weekender/2.5 SOHC Suby 'Dixie'<br><br>
Crescent Beach, BC<br><br>
<a href="http://www.thebassspa.com">www.thebassspa.com</a><br>
<a href="http://www.crescentbeachguitar.com/" eudora="autourl">
www.crescentbeachguitar.com</a><br>
<a href="http://subyjake.googlepages.com/mydixiedarlin%27">
http://subyjake.googlepages.com/mydixiedarlin%27</a><br>
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