Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 22:26:57 -0500
Reply-To: Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Syncros. Positractions, Peloquins, and One Wheel Drives
In-Reply-To: <52E9C4A0.8080208@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
What you say is about stopping and steering is true. However, with the
Syncro the viscous coupling set up does seem to allow the van to stop and
steer somewhat better than many direct coupled 4 wheel drive vehicles,
probably due the limited "fighting" of the tires while steering. Audi
Quattro's also seem to benefit this way. Add winter capable tires and
things get much better still.
Dennis
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Rocket J Squirrel
Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2014 10:19 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Syncros. Positractions, Peloquins, and One Wheel Drives
"A Syncro would handle it just fine as long as you remember that just
because they can get going does not mean they will stop any better than
other vehicles."
As my son, a professional tow truck driver who has pulled plenty of cars out
of snow and ice puts it, "With four wheel drive you can get rolling more
easily than a two-wheel-drive car, but all cars steer with two wheels and
have four-wheel braking."
--
Jack "Rocket j Squirrel" Elliott
1984 Westfalia, auto trans,
Bend, Ore.
On 01/29/2014 05:36 PM, Mark Tuovinen wrote:
> A Syncro would handle it just fine as long as you remember that just
> because they can get going does not mean they will stop any better
> than other vehicles. I used to have a Sunroof Syncro that was my year
> round daily driver until the wife gave me a 2010 Element EX AWD for
> Christmas 2009. I did have Nokian studded tires on it but never had
> to engage the rear diff lock. Could I have gotten it stuck, sure, all
> you have to do is try or screw up while not trying. The nut behind
> the steering wheel has as much or more to do with it than whether or
> not is is a Syncro, has studded tires, diff lock, etc, but John you
> know this already having yourself lived for decades in this frozen.....err
thawing out paradise we call Alaska.
>
> Mark in AK still melting away in Margaritaville
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 11:57 AM, JRodgers <jrodgers113@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Wishing I had one of the first three, but unfortunately, mine are the
>> latter - the one-wheel drive Vanagons.
>>
>> Alabama really got clobbered yesterday with a snowstorm. By nothern
>> standards it wasn't much - two inches - maybe three in places. But
>> strom was expected to hit the southern part of the state - but it
>> didn't do much there - but did do much further north - and it caught
>> the weather-men in the back room with their britches down. As the day
>> progressed - the highways and by-ways became clogged with cars
>> colliding, sliding off the road, getting stuck on bridges, huge
>> multicar pile-ups, tractor trailer rigs jack-knifed across the roads,
>> a total mess. Schools closed, but the buses couldn't take kids home -
>> they spent the night in the school buildings - teachers with them of
>> course - they couldn't go home either. Parents couldn't get their
>> little kids out of day care - or nursery - nobody could go anywhere.
>> People out on the highways were walking to shelter any where they
>> could find it. Temps were 15 degrees. Many wound up spending the
>> night in their vehicles. The roads are still pretty much closed as I
>> write this and people are still being told by the DOT to stay home
>> and off the r5oads. A thaw is expected to begin Wednesday night and
>> be well under way by Thursday - with temps moving from mid to upper
>> twenties into the 40's. IN the meantime - it's a mix of water, ice
>> and snow out there, and the City of Birmingham where I am is shut
>> down. Fortunately I'm well provisioned and have heat - so long as power
stays on.
>>
>> This brings me to the point about the vans. I wonder how good a
>> Syncro, or a positrac or a peloquin would have performed in this. In
>> Alaska we always joked about people from the states bringing their
>> four wheel drives up to Alaska just to run off the road and get them
>> stuck in the snowbank. I laugh about this because in all my years in
>> Alaska, the first 15 I never had a 4WD vehicle - and in the last 15
>> years I only had one for about 4 years. Most of that 30 years I drove
>> a VW bus - s '68 loaf and later an '85 GL Vanagon. Never needed the
>> 4WD. Would have been nice - but not necessary.. Here - yesterday -
>> many, many 4 WD vehicle drivers found themselves off the road or in
>> the ditch or in a collision, or sliding across the highway or
>> backward down a hill in spite of their 4-wheelie-ness.
>>
>> All that being said - I don't ever expect to own a syncro - but at
>> rebuild for my tranny, I fully expect to have the positraction rear
>> end installed.
>>
>> Has anyone actually experienced driving the peloquin or the prositrac
>> under adverse conditions? Can you comment please.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> John in Snowy Icy Birmingham. AL
>>
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