Date: Thu, 6 Jun 2013 12:38:32 -0500
Reply-To: Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Diesel good idea?
In-Reply-To: <1370537858.41229.YahooMailNeo@web163404.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
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Well, I have to chime in here on the NA diesel. I have an 83 five speed
Westy. They are hard to find, but they are in a different driving world
from the four speed 82s. The reason is that you can handle hills better and
you get about 5 mph higher top speed all day long on the highway. Going
from 60 to 65 cruising speed is a big deal.
I personally dismiss all the comments about the car being dangerously
underpowered as—well, I won't say it. There is somebody out there somewhere
that will be unhappy with something no matter what it is or how fast it
goes. You can get over fast if you want to. I will say that I live in a
fairly large town in a pretty rural state and do all kinds of driving. The
drivers here are not all that good, but they are not a bunch of spoiled
idiots either. I hear stories of any kind of VW bus driver getting flipped
off and honked at in traffic in other parts of the county. Not here. The
diesel does just fine. It is my only car at present, my daily driver, with
nearly 345,000 miles on it. I have my wife's Prius to drive most anytime,
but I like driving the Westy. It's dependable, in good shape, is relatively
cheap to repair when needed and gets 26 miles to the gallon. There is
literally nothing--except the five-speed transmission--that I cannot
remove, repair and replace by myself. I did have help replacing a front
door recently; you can't have too many hands for that.
If you get the diesel as it was made, you will be happiest with that, I
think. If you get a late model body and put a diesel engine in it, the lack
of power will only show up more. As the years went on, soundproofing
increased, and the vans got heavier. And then there's the power steering
you won't have and the air conditioning you won't have, but you'll have all
the bits and pieces left in the car if you don't replace them too. So the
car will not steer as well ask a stock diesel van, which was purpose made
for manual steering.
You should go out of your way to drive someone else's for a while, and
think about the kind of driving you do most of the time. It really might
not be for you. But there are a lot of people who wouldn't have anything
else (as time goes on, I have gotten further from wanting another gas van)
and they are not all wrong.
Jim
On Thu, Jun 6, 2013 at 11:57 AM, Poppie Jagersand <poppie.jagersand@yahoo.ca
> wrote:
> If you had a gas T3 and liked it, I agree that's probably what you should
> primarily look for.
>
>
> However, for some small minority of us the T3 Diesel has appeal. I have an
> 82D now TD, an 85 gas
>
> and had a 94 T4 Westy for 5 years. The '82 Diesel is my favorite. I like
> the simplicity of the engine,
> the somewhat sparser interior, the color scheme with the original light
> green/beige striped
>
> upholstry etc. When I first converted from the 1.6D to TD it was for the
> additional power and speed,
>
> but now a decade later I find that my typical driving speed has dropped
> back down to 90km/h, just what
>
> I did before with the 1.6D. I tend to select scenic country roads over
> expressways, and try to keep daily
> driving distances reasonable or short during my vacations.
>
> The pool of current and potential Diesel Westy lovers is probably on par
> with the number of vehicles,
> but due to the sparsity of both finding a good condition vehicle can be
> difficult locally. If you don;t mind
>
> please post the vehicle details and ad contact info here. That might help
> someone find what they are
>
> looking for, and hopefully a good home and long future for the 82 Diesel
> Westy.
>
>
> Martin
> http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/jag/vw/
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Eric Caron <ecaron1@COMCAST.NET>
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Sent: Saturday, June 1, 2013 10:56:31 AM
> Subject: Re: Diesel good idea?
>
>
> Listers,
>
> My mistake! The diesel is a 82. Many people have written to me
> with info and recommendations concerning the diesel. I'm very grateful.
> It sounds like I do need to pass on this clean sounding camper because of
> safety for my drivers. Reading all these adds and keeping it all straight
> is starting to make my head spin!
>
> I do feel like I'm beginning to narrow my search though. Luckily though I
> never considered shipping a camper I now think that is a reasonable
> option. this opens up the search area considerably.
>
> I was also lurking on the Eurovan list for ideas but it really feels to me
> that I need to return to my old friend a 84 and later vanagon Westfailia.
> That should do it for my mid life crisis!
> Please keep the great sightings and adds coming!
>
>
> Eric Caron
>
> On Jun 1, 2013, at 12:30 PM, Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > In stock form the US vanagon Diesels were only 48 horsepower. Power to
> > weight and frontal surface area this is worse than the 67 and earlier
> buses.
> > When the vehicles were built the national was 55 mph. These days you
> really
> > need to be able to do 65-70 to travel comfortably on the interstates.
> Even
> > then you can get pushed around. When pushed to the limits these engines
> do
> > blow head gaskets and crack heads. The low mileage can be a warning sign.
> > Why wasn't it used? When a vehicle like this is put to regular use age
> > instead of mileage will become a problem. A lot of the rubber, plastic,
> and
> > hydraulic parts will fail. Unless you really want this vehicle and/or
> plan
> > on upgrading it I would keep looking.
> >
> > Dennis
> >
>
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