Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2011 18:33:27 -0700
Reply-To: Daryl Christensen <daryl@AATRANSAXLE.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Daryl Christensen <daryl@AATRANSAXLE.COM>
Subject: Re: [WetWesties] Short trip report,
tire blow out and lot's of syncros!
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Mogfest is certainly an eclectic group with said same vehicles to match.
From the huge 6 ton walking machine to the Mogs, At least 1 Vanagon and
Pinzgaur's on their sides. Halflingers with their 1/2 of an air cooled VW
engine are cute too.
Definitely a good time had by one and all. More Syncro's than Mogs stuff for
sure, but only a few hardy (or sometimes foolhardy) bunch takes the vans
into the "pit".
Lots of things for kids to do from a short zip line to a slip and slide not
to mention rides in all sorts of mechanical contraptions.
I woulda traded you're flat for driving without a clutch for 6 hrs too.
Daryl of AA Transaxle
425-788-4070
"On the cutting edge of Old technology"
86 Syncro Westy w/Turbo Zetec in the trunk
-----Original Message-----
From: wetwesties@yahoogroups.com [mailto:wetwesties@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of Rob
Sent: Sunday, August 21, 2011 11:21 PM
To: wetwesties
Cc: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com
Subject: [WetWesties] Short trip report, tire blow out and lot's of syncros!
This last weekend we went Mogfest 2011 in Sheridan, Oregon. This was
a down and back trip, just 493 miles in our '84 Westy powered by a
'94 Subie 2.2.
I got off work early Friday and we left around 10pm. I talked my wife
into coming, she is in a cast up to her knee and was a bit reluctant
but I bribed her with a stop at the Tillamook Cheese factory on the
way. She is not supposed to put weight on the foot/cast so she has a
roll around cart thingee, paved surfaces are no problem.
Seeing as we were going to stop in Tillamook we went the long way (5+
hrs instead of 3+) and headed on the back roads towards Astoria,
gassed up at the Little-Creek casino ($3.649 with the 5 cent discount
card) and took off on the back roads. Not too bad, lot of moon light,
little traffic and only one small herd of elk. I've done that drive
several times in the daylight so I didn't feel I was missing
anything. We stopped at the last rest area in Washington state (on
101) before the bridge into Astoria, "Dismal Nitch", it was named by
Lewis & Clark. Slept well with the top down, the curtains closed and
my palm tree beach blanket snapped in place just behind the front
seats. Woke up well after day light, used the bathroom and headed
out, a lot of boats on the water. Watched a Coast Guard H60 take off
on what had to be a weekend patrol, I remember the weekend BayPats in
the SF area, saw it later cruising just off shore... Memories.
Stopped for breakfast in Seaside, couldn't find The Pig 'N Pancake
again ( I was asked "didn't we do this here before?" Like I remember
these things..<g>)! Stopped at McKeown's (cloth napkins, had to ask
for coffee more than once & $22 for breakfast for two), next time
I'll find "The Pig 'N Pancake".
A fair amount of traffic down the coast. Beautiful weather! More
Westies & Vanagons than I could count, white was the predominant
color. It was a nice weekend on the coast. Made it to Tillamook and
went in to watch them make cheese, had some samples and had to pick
up some cheese to take with us. 'Hot Habanero Jack" is always a
favorite when we stop (no one carries it around where I live) and
this time a sample of the "Garlic Chili Pepper Cheddar" made it easy
to pick some of that up too. A couple of empty ice cream buckets and
we were on our way (there was a gift shop, so the stop took a
'little' longer than it sounds <g>, I sat on a bench & waited).
Then back on the road, traffic, more Westies & Vanagons, sunshine and
I followed the GPS directions to Mogfest. Stopped for gas a Fred
Myers, don't recall the cost.
Mogfest- Wow! That was neat, more off road types than I'd ever heard
of before. Camps set up here and there, people driving things I'd
never seen before here and there. Driving everywhere! I talked to a
few people, saw some neat things and learned a few things, put a face
to a name or two and things like that.
It was hot upper 90's or better and this place is a farm. Dirt paths,
'roads' mowed in the tall grass (hay??), ditches with cars-trucks and
who knows what they are going in them and coming out of them. Keep in
mind my bride came with me on this trip, I'm parked in the shade not
too far from the outhouses (you can drive anywhere on this place). My
honey is sitting in the front seat with her casted leg up on the
dash, a 12v fan running off the house battery, the stereo playing
music & she has the laptop going playing mahjong. I walked all over
the place, I was the fool with the camera & a big grin. I checked the
'road' down to the river but that didn't seem like a good idea for my
2wd beast. Talked to a number of people and eventually made my way
back to the van. She was doing fine and seemed in good spirits (after
28 years she knows about me and VWs) but it seems like it was time to move
on.
Started the bus and took a tour of the place, got out to check the
'roads' a couple of times but pretty much took a good look. Maybe
next year I can stay longer <g>.
Headed out and followed the GPS towards home, made a detour to Aloha,
OR to see the brother in law and headed out. As I was leaving Oregon
I thought about the LED strip lights I'd seen in another thread, he
picked them up at Ikea & I won't be this close to an Ikea in who know
when again? Heck it's only Saturday... I stopped at the first rest
area in Washington state on I-5 and we spent another pleasant night
in the Westy, just like we'd spent the night before. It was hot out
so I used the back door prop tool to keep the door open 2", that
helped, towards dawn it wasn't warm so I used the blanket.
This morning, we used the facilities, found breakfast (not Dennys
this time) and headed towards Ikea.
A side note on breakfast..The two of us can have breakfast & coffee
at Dennys for 10-12 dollars, we get the biscuit & gravy with an egg
and the build a slam, with eggs, hash browns, sausage & oatmeal. We
share the oatmeal & sausage, not as cheap as oatmeal & coffee in the
van but it is nice.
The LED white strip lights are 12v, powered for the house with a
transformer but my bus has plenty of 12v. I bought two sets ($15
each) of three 10" strips (30" total per set), they look like they
plug into each other. I'm thinking I'll replace one of the two stock
(for an '84) inside lights and see how that goes. I'll get to 'how to
mount them' when I beside where to put them. As I was hunting for a
coffee cup yesterday I thought how nice it would be to have them
where I could just grab one, I saw some cup hooks that I can hang
from the drawer/shelf/catchall above the kitchen at Ikea so I
splurged with another dollar and am giving them a try. My bus cups
are those God-awful expensive ones (when you include shipping) that
you can buy from the BD (I bought them on what may have been last
purchase from them, I'm still not happy about the way that turned
out) but I really like the cups. They look good hanging there! Now to
see how well this works in real life...
The trip back was almost uneventful. After the last gas stop in
Woodland, WA at the Safeway ($3.62 w/ the discount) we were rolling
down the road a touch above 70 with everyone else. As a big truck
came up beside me I heard a 'not-good' noise, a loud one at that and
wondered what was going wrong with the truck <weak grin>. A moment
later my ride felt funny, then I could feel a tire going... let off
the gas, put on the turn signal and started moving to the right. A
bit rough going over the rumble strip (I was already awake <VBG>) and
pretty loud as the bad tire made noise of it's own , add in both the
good tires on the rumble strip and it was a bit noisy.
This was not a good place, could be worse but it could be much
better. There is a barrier on the right edge of the road, not much of
a shoulder and those trucks are going by FAST on that 70 mph stretch
of I-5. I pulled off as far as I could and still have enough room to
change the tire (when you put anything up on a jack you have to leave
room to run if it falls your way).
I carefully got out and took a look, I left the van running, if I
needed to drive on to a better spot I didn't want to give Murphy that
opportunity! It was the passenger side, rear tire. I could see no
better place to do this from where I was standing...I had my wife
turn off the ignition and I got started changing the tire. I pulled
the breaker bar out (it has the 19mm 6 pt socket on it, a breaker bar
is the only way to go) and took the spare tire bolt out, pulled the
tab to drop the clam shell and got the spare out. I put the clam
shell back up as I didn't want to spend any extra time there if I
could help it, the van shook from the wind every time a big truck went by.
Pop the chrome cap off & lefty loosee is what I say as I loosen all
the nuts first thing, just break the torque. If they are really tight
I'll stand on the end of the bar, hold on to the roof & bounce a
little. That has always done it. Then I jack it up & the stock jack
works great, I did put a piece of wood in front of the opposite side
front wheel as I really didn't want it to move while it's on the
jack. Jack it up just enough to get the old off & the new on, getting
the nuts going and then tight, torque it up when it's back on the ground.
Put the stuff away, not enough room in the back of the Westy for the
trashed tire with the wife's broken leg cart so I put it back in the
clam shell. Carefully got back in and drove away.
Turned out there was a better spot to have changed it 1/4 mile ahead,
I'd have driven looking if the flat had been on the drivers side, no
way was I going to have tried that! But I had enough room and things
turned out well.
3 photos of the tire
http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa190/becida/Tire%20blow%20out/
Good weather, great people, lot's of Vanagons, peaceful rest area
sleep and a lucky blow out made for a good trip.
Next weekend maybe I need to go fishing at the ocean, the weather
looks good! http://www.intellicast.com/Local/Weather.aspx?location=USWA0313
.
Rob
becida@comcast.net
The Mogfest pictures are in the other camera...
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