Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2011 16:01:41 -0800
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Climbing
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It depends.
if you drive the longer route intelligently there will be less wear and
stress on the engine.
I'd say never give a lot of throttle below about 2,200 rpm ..
always keep it spinning in the about 2,600 to 3,800 rpm range or you're
just going fast in top gear where it will be doing over 4K rpm.
'Getting it over with quickly' .......shorter distance at high
load.............well, I don't mind any climb at say 60 % of total rpm in
3rd gear and going 45 or a bit more mph ..
but grinding up revved out in 2nd ...
unless it's just a minute or a few..
I think that's rough on things.
There's a steep climb hear me ..normally done at 45 to 50 mph in normal
cars..
and a good vanagon will pull it in 3rd all the way going 48 mph at the
slowest, don't mind that at all.
but with a big load recently, I spend about 6 miles wound out in second
....didn't like that at all.
so it depends ...if the really steep route is pretty short, say it's over in
7 minutes or less...
no big deal. If it's significantly longer, the more gentle route driven
intelligently is less wear and stress on the engine.
those things need all the help they can get ! ! ..lol.
like oil temp gauge and synthetic oil on a good tight decent engine would be
wise.
extra -
there's a pretty extreme example of this two route thing approaching
Yosemite Nat Park from the north west on Hwy 120.
After driving along a long reservoir , the route turns up and climbs up a
canyon from about maybe 1,600 ASL ( above sea level for non-pilots ) to
maybe , 2,500+ feet...from scrub oak to alpine too.
The regular hwy is long and winding, maybe cures that you can drive pretty
easily around 45 to 50 mph ...might be guessing .....8 or 9 miles that way.
But there is Old Priest Grade..............that road goes just 'straight
up' ...very few curves ..
starts right at the bottom of the canyon, tops right out at the top of the
longer road .
If you've got the car ..one that doesn't mind just pulling a good hard
grade for ..........might be a 6 minute climb that way ......it's the funner
one to take.
Don't know if I'd grind up it in a semi-underpowered vanagon though.
And when you get in a situation where you can't pull 3rd..
and 2nd is really lower than you need ..
I just hate being revved out in too low a gear, and being rpm limited rather
than power limited. Very inefficient. I'm looking for the best climb with
the least stress in the nicest part of the power curve.
I don't even ever use more than maybe 80 % throttle. And I drive fast
too, I just don't push 'em hard.
More gears helps a lot of course..and that's why big trucks have 18 gears
or whatever.
Scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark L. Hineline" <hineline@OCOTILLOFIELD.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2011 1:55 AM
Subject: Climbing
> If you must climb 1000 feet in an aircooled Vanagon, is it better for
> the life of the engine to take the long and gradual route? Or to
> downshift and climb over on the short but steep route?
>
> Mark
> 1982 Westy
