Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2012 09:58:43 -0500
Reply-To: ddbjorkman@VERIZON.NET
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Bjorkman <ddbjorkman@VERIZON.NET>
Subject: Re: Kens trip & can Westys climb mountains?
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<div style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 24px"><DIV><FONT size=2 face=Tahoma>I have to agree with Ken. When I took my roadtrip this past June, with a new inline 4 from FAS, I packed to the gills. About 5000 lbs, and the max is 5500. I should have left most of those canned goods home and went shopping more. Weight absolutely makes a major difference in performance, as does altitude.</FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT size=2 face=Tahoma></FONT> </DIV><DIV><FONT size=2 face=Tahoma>Dave B.</FONT></DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV style="MARGIN: 5px 0px; BORDER-TOP: #bcbcbc 1px solid"></DIV><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: arial; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12px">On 10/16/12, <SPAN>kenneth wilford (Van-Again)<kenwilfy@COMCAST.NET></SPAN> wrote:</SPAN><DIV> </DIV><DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: arial; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12px">We actually sold an 88 Westy that we had for several years, and then used<BR>the money to buy a 34ft 95 Fleetwood Bounder motor home. This is because<BR>we have four kids that are medium sized and we were going on a month long<BR>trip. I knew that there was no way we could fit all of our stuff and six<BR>people into a Westy camper and not try to kill each other over the course<BR>of a month. We needed some elbow room and the Bounder gave us that. It<BR>wasn't the biggest, baddest MH out there as at has no slide outs, and wasnt<BR>the size of a tour bus. Actually Dennis Haynes recommended for me to get<BR>the Class A motor home and I followed his advice. I used our Vanagon<BR>camper for shorter trips that were just my wife and I. If I were doing<BR>this trip in the future with just the two of us I think we would be fine in<BR>a Westy. However because we had the extra people, we needed the extra room.<BR><BR>As far as taking those mountains in a Westy is concerned, I can chime in<BR>because I have done a similar trip to this one in a Westy with three<BR>people. The biggest problem most westy owners have is treating their Westy<BR>like a much larger RV. They want to take all of their toys along and also<BR>max it out on people. I have customers coming in here that want me to<BR>install center two person bench seats in their Westy so they can seat six.<BR>They load every single cabinet up with stuff and then put stuff on the top<BR>on racks, and then tow a trailer behind. This isn't a very good plan. If<BR>you are going to take a nice trip in your van, less is more. You need to<BR>evaluate exactly what you need and then try to take the bare minimum of<BR>that. You want your Westy to be safe and part of that is being below the<BR>Max Gross Vehicle Weight. Most Westy owners never look at that sticker,<BR>they never think of it, but if they ever actually weighed their vans fully<BR>loaded they would be pretty shocked. I have had them come in here loaded<BR>down to the point that you can actually see the van sagging down under the<BR>weight, packed full to the point were there is only enough room inside to<BR>sit but not actually move around.<BR><BR>So don't overload your Westy, I would say four people is the max I would<BR>take on a trip longer than a few hours or one or two overnights, and you<BR>will enjoy your van much more. Maxing it out is going to make it that much<BR>slower, and wear out that much faster. You could even have problems<BR>stopping going down the long downhills that always follow the long up<BR>hills. Read the owners manual, believe what is says, follow it, and you<BR>should have a better experience. Just my two cents.<BR><BR>Ken Wilford<BR>John 3:16<BR><A class=parsedLink href="http://www.vanagain.com/" target=_blank>www.vanagain.com</A><BR><BR><BR>><BR></DIV></div>
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