Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2012 10:35:53 -0400
Reply-To: Tom Buese <tantonbz@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tom Buese <tantonbz@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Trip Report & followup on Bad Gas Mileage
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
For anyone who followed my bad gas mileage thread, here is the followup. I
took Detlef, the 84 Westy, to do some urban camping in NYC last week. Great
advice by several to replace the O2 sensor, but that little puppy was
rusted in place, & even w/ 3-4 days of soaking w/ PB Blaster, propane torch
aimed only on the exhaust pipe, no budging-soooo, cut the O2 wire & drove
off to NYC hoping for better than the 12 mpg I was getting even after a
tuneup. We went w/ an empty 4' x 8' HF trailer I have towed across the
country several times( I know HF is not well regarded, but some of that
stuff is ok, including this trailer-maybe.
In any event, ended up stopping at my local Vanagon repair shop in Belfast,
Maine,
https://plus.google.com/106317496125022714361/about?gl=us&hl=en
37 miles down the road, after the trailer came off the hitch after going
onto the Passagassawakeag River Bridge.(I know, don't you love that name!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passagassawakeag_River
Had to stop on the 2 lane bridge & noticed that my tail pipe was missing &
thot maybe we could do a quick stop by & have O2 sensor & tail pipe
replaced while on the way to NYC. NOT!
So ordered new tailpipe & propane tank for installation before a real
torch could be applied to my exhaust since they detected a small leak in my
original tank & didn't want to fire a torch up to loosen the O2 sensor w/
the potential for an explosion!
We drove off to NYC & got 18-19 mpg while pulling the empty trailer & going
70 mph a lot of the way.
All went well from Belfast until we got near to Manhattan, where
road/bridge intersection conditions, should I say were "marginal". Every
time we hit a big expansion joint, etc, like on the Tappan Zee Bridge, The
Triboro Bridge, etc. the trailer came off & would drag behind the Westy
until we came to a stop in the middle of the bridges, toll station line,
intersection in busy Brooklyn, etc. A working emergency flasher, & my son
getting out on the passenger side of the right lane to reattach said
trailer, kept us from getting killed, arrested, or generally yelled at by
irate motorists.
We urban camped for 2 nights in Brooklyn
https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=204456704620397587300.0004bd9590c042174781e&msa=0&iwloc=0004c848ddfeea3cea4a3
w/ the poptop up on a quiet street, although we didn't linger during the
day & moved the car to a slightly different location both days & nights.
Piece of cake except for the $115 parking ticket for leaving the van parked
in a "no standing" area one full day. If we had read the sign properly, we
could have avoided that little surprise as there were other spots available
to park the vanagon w/ 8' trailer behind. Sigh!
NYC was phun, especially the new tourist trap, The Highline in West
Chelsea, & the roof top lounge/bar at The Standard Hotel. I kept looking
for my hero, David Byrne, riding his bicycle, but he was no where to be
seen.
Did manage to avoid the $17 burger @ Peel's, but had a good mole Mex in
Brooklyn-place name I forgot after several margaritas.
Spent time in Court & the DMV trying to retrieve my son's drivers license
in NY, & succeeded in all but actually getting his license back as the
court computers & the DMV's are not instantly synced. Long story, but you
are guilty until proven innocent in NYC?
Got up the last morning, tried to ignore the homeless guy peeing next to
the trailer & cut the sock that we had tied the hitch to the trailer w/ &
wrapped the 2 safety chains around the hitch so that the hitch could not
lift up, then loaded a bunch of my son's stuff in the trailer & headed out
of town w/o any problems.
Drove to IKEA south of Boston,
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/store/stoughton
loaded up a bunch of cabinets, etc. for a new kitchen into the camper &
headed north to Maine. Made good time & were cruising down the home
stretch on Route 3, a 2 lane road in the boonies, when the lights suddenly
went out. Ooops! The wire to the relay for my SA headlights & Hella
driving lights came loose from the fused connection, & we couldn't get it
reattached in the dark on the side of the road. Since it was after 1 am &
there was little traffic, decided to follow behind the next car to go by &
use it for light to see where we were going to get the last 45 miles home.
This worked well until the car turned off, & so we tried to trudge on to
Belfast where we could get it fixed in a decently lighted parking lot,
etc. As luck would have it, a Highway Patrolman stopped us & asked what
the heck we were doing driving w/ only the parking & brake lights. I told
him of our technical difficulties, & he looked at my credentials. etc. &
said to follow him to a spot down the road where we were to stay until we
got it fixed or daylight, whichever came first.
He dropped us off @ a Curling Rink,
http://www.belfastcurlingclub.org
& we were able to splice the wires w/o the fuse & make it home by 2:30 am.
In summary, disconnecting a bad 02 sensor increased my gas mileage by 50%,
driving a HF trailer w/ no load is extremely dangerous to your health &
peace of mind, & it is possible to urban camp in the NYC area.
YMMV,
Mr. BZ-Camping in Manhattan next time?
--
Tom Buese
| 
