Vanagon EuroVan
Previous messageNext messagePrevious in topicNext in topicPrevious by same authorNext by same authorPrevious page (March 2013, week 2)Back to main VANAGON pageJoin or leave VANAGON (or change settings)ReplyPost a new messageSearchProportional fontNon-proportional font
Date:         Sat, 9 Mar 2013 20:57:45 -0500
Reply-To:     Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Therein, lies a tale.
In-Reply-To:  <4A6BA8FB-8C81-4908-8CF8-0A8FA0C9C752@mac.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

That is indeed a tale. Just pull the fuse for the power locks. Nothing like getting locked out but worse than that is the amazing ability of those things to suck the battery down to also leave you stranded.

Spring will be here soon!

Dennis

-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of KIM BRENNAN Sent: Saturday, March 9, 2013 12:08 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Therein, lies a tale.

I was heading to my WV place by my normal route over Briary Gap (near Reddish Knob) in George Washington National Forest. This road is normally plowed on the Virginia side. The WV side was recently paved, and the sign saying "No Snow Maintenance past this point" removed (or possibly stolen.) I assumed that meant that WV would now start plowing it...occassionally. When I got to the top of Shenandoah Mountain, I found a sizable drift of snow, but the WV road appeared otherwise to not be too deep. There were no car tracks. This should have clued me in. So I and my Syncro Westy plowed ahead. I got about 30 feet in and my wheels were spinning. No trouble, just engage the diff lock. Now I have 3 wheels spinning. Hmm.

I need to take a leak too. Well, let me hop out of the van to take care of business. I drop out of the driver seat and the snow goes up to my waist. Erk. Its heavy and stiff and very difficult to move in. I twist backwards, and find some purchase on the van, and manage to chin myself back into the van. I'm finally beginning to get a realization of the difficulty I'm in.

My travel snow shovel has been carefully left at home. Oh, wait, I've got my disc golf discs (think stiff frisbees). I can use one of them as a shovel. Not great, but definitely possible. I start getting into my winter wind breaker (my brief plunge into the white stuff and revealed to me that it was chilly out there, circa 25F) and gloves. As I'm doing this I see lights over on the clear pavement. A Jeep. I wander over to talk to them. They had come up to play in the snow. They have a winch. I get hauled out and start my 40 mile detour.

There's a saying, you can tell the difference between four wheel drive vehicles, and 2 wheel drive vehicles, by how far off the pavement they are before they get stuck.

But the tale isn't over. I get up to my WV place. I have a 1.5 mile dirt driveway. No one has plowed it (of course no other houses are on it.) With difficulty I get the first gate open (snow here is only about 10 inches deep.) I engage the diff lock and start in (I close the gate). As the drive steepens, the snow starts mounding up in front, and eventually stops me (drifting snow is about 14 inches deep, but frozen fairly stiffly). Back up and go again. I get further. Repeat. Many times. I make it to the first crest on the driveway (there are 2 more, with increasing levels of difficulty.) After about an hour, I finally make it up to the house. There's 4 feet of snow on the deck in front of the door (the snow having come down off the roof in the previous days). Pardon me. 4 feet of glacier. Eventually I make it inside.

BTW, my Westy has the power locks, and just recently started having the self locking symptom. I haven't taken the effort in this cold weather to dig into the wiring to correct the problem. On a Westy the power locks will lock all doors (and the hatch). Of course, if your drivers door is open, the preventative mechanism will prevent the door getting locked.while open. The lcok just keeps cycling trying to lock. Once the door is close, it locks. So I hop out of the Westy (engine running) top open a gate. My drivers door swings shut. Click.

Fortunately I had previously manually unlocked the sliding door, which stays unlocked through all of this nonsense. Whew.

Next day, I need to add some oil to the engine. Hatch is locked. Unlock doors, go around to the back. Hatch is locked again. Get wrench. Go to battery. Loosen ground strap. Unlock doors, remove ground strap. Go add oil to engine.

Last activity is get 6x6 ATV to run up and down driveway a few times, to make it (slightly) passable (if you have 4wd). It's March. I'm ready for Spring.


Back to: Top of message | Previous page | Main VANAGON page

Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!


Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com


The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.

Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.