Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2010 22:22:26 -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: <4cf06cba.0f8de50a.1dbb.6c3c@mx.google.com>
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Yep That about sums it up!
My shop we make Windshield Covers, Bras/Masks, Tire covers and do
interiors on these things. They are INSANE inside and out if you have
the coin to push them. What kills me is they tend to need a Tow
Vehicle which adds to the confusion and pain. We did some work for
one this past summer that was 43 feet long! Talk about massive and
Taller then most we see. Blocked out the sun sitting in my drive.
One guy had the massive land yacht and towed a air cooled Bug. Did
another that towed a 34 or 36 foot triple axle trailer that held his
and hers Mazda miata. Hard to believe it but I have seen it. I
usually show off my 21 foot Gas Pusher Vanagon. Not sure if they
understand what I am getting at when I point it out to them.
All in good fun!
Jonce
>At 01:25 PM 11/26/2010 -0800, Loren Busch wrote:
>>Mega Millions or Power Ball you can expect to see me in a 40' Land Yacht,
>
>You can use some of those millions to hire someone to read the
>manuals for you...my brother's 35' "diesel pusher" came with a custom
>ballistic nylon briefcase twelve inches thick, filled with twelve
>solid inches of manuals. Aside from knowing how to run things,
>there's a maintenance schedule for the Allison six-speed automatic
>transmission, there's a maintenance schedule for the Onan 12 kW
>generator, there's an extremely stringent maintenance schedule for
>the Caterpillar engine, there's a maintenance schedule for the
>Freightliner chassis...he's been to Winnebago school, Freightliner school...
>
>It's a very very serious piece of equipment. The cabin slides are
>hydraulic, and they're *strong.* The leveling feet carry seven
>thousand pounds plus each, and I've seen one punch a hole six inches
>deep through an asphalt parking pad in a state park. It's about
>twelve feet high IIRC, and just washing the windshield is a job. The
>systems control panel is maybe eight inches wide and taller than a
>man, and it's not full of empty panel space. That's for the
>generator, inverter, furnace, air conditioners, engine-heated hot
>water, electric-heated hot water, fresh water, gray water, black
>water. And you have to (or at least he does) worry constantly about
>tank capacity, pumpouts etc.
>
>The interior furnishings are built with the expectation that it's
>going to be driven on tip-toe, which he's only very gradually
>realizing. I was on board when he tore the bathroom apart (somewhat)
>going around a traffic circle. He's never ridden in the back, so he
>has no idea what the passengers experience driving down the Skyline
>Drive at five over the limit...
>
>It has Corian countertops -- and barely enough excess load capacity
>for passengers and some baggage. I bet its usable load capacity
>isn't a great deal bigger than a Vanagon's.
>
>It has acres of custom metallic gold-beige paint on acres of custom
>panels that cost the earth if you dent one.
>
>It gets around 5 mpg from a hundred-gallon tank of diesel that also
>fuels the Onan. If you're not plugged into fifty-amp service
>(including running down the road) you have to run the generator to
>power the air conditioning.
>
>With all four slides open it's enormous, and with them closed for
>travel it's cramped. To level the thing and open the all four slides
>when you stop takes possibly close to ten minutes. To close it all
>up and pull up the feet somewhat less. The whole thing is as
>discreet and inconspicuous as a Greyhound bus.
>
>I admire the heck out of the thing, and you couldn't pay me enough to
>own it or be responsible for it. For that much aggravation I'd have
>a large sailboat instead, and I'd much rather have a smaller
>sailboat. Similar length but a quarter or less as much space and
>*much* simpler systems. And an engine a lot closer to 35 hp than 350...
>
>Riding in it through the city I was very grateful for the smoked
>glass -- I felt like a bloated plutocrat with the peasants outside
>staring in in envious wonder.
>
>Yours,
>David
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