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Date:         Thu, 30 Jan 2014 00:02:16 -0500
Reply-To:     James <jk_eaton@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         James <jk_eaton@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Syncros. Positractions, Peloquins, and One Wheel Drives
Comments: To: JRodgers <jrodgers113@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To:  <52E96B2F.1060208@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Syncros and limited slip differentials really help in the snow and ice, but most critical are the tires. True summer tires are rarely used up here in the 'Great White North' (unless you have a full-zoot set of high performance tires on a sports car), but the year I was posted in Atlanta I remember being surprised how uncommon even 'all-season' radials were - a lot of cheap summer tires on sale. And the thing about cheap, long-life summer tires is that the rubber gets hard, hard, hard when it gets cold - and hard rubber doesn't have any traction on ice. Softer rubber, with the right tire sipe pattern, can have surprisingly good traction on ice. I haven't driven our Westy in the snow and ice, but I have driven a lot of front-drive and rear-drive cars and trucks in snow and ice. A decent, careful driver in a 2WD car with good 'ice and snow' winter tires can get through on most icy, snowy roads. 4WD helps, but if the 4WD has been crippled by not having winter tires, they are no better than 2WD (and worse, if the driver is overconfident because of 4WD). My favourites of the really good ice and snow tires are Nokians, Continentals WinterContact, and Michelin's X-ice series. Studded tires are illegal here in Ontario, but those three tires all will stop on ice for me. My sympathies to all of you living through the ice and snow in Alabama, Georgia, etc. While my Canadian neighbours snigger at your plight, I just remember that most of them would wilt in the 100F with humidity that you folks live in every summer. Lastly, a 'bad tire' tale. Many years ago, while driving to college in Nova Scotia on an icy, snowy day, I watched an 18 wheeler of Florida oranges slowly jack-knife on the TransCanada Highway. (You could tell what he was carrying because of the six-foot high lettering down the side!) He jack-knifed while trying to pull off the highway into a service area with an Esso station and truck service garage. Later on, from a friend who worked there, I heard that they had found the truck had 8 bald tires, and the rest all high-mileage with non-aggressive tread. They could hardly drive it around in the yard - it would just sit and spin! The driver, who never been to Canada before, had somehow piloted that unsafe and 'unprepared for ice' truck more than 400 miles that day, before finally realizing that he really should be off the road. Fortunately, no one other vehicles were hit while he did his slow-motion sideways maneuver down the road and off into the service zone! James Ottawa, ON '91 Multivan Westfalia (Weekender) > Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 14:57:19 -0600 > From: jrodgers113@GMAIL.COM > Subject: Syncros. Positractions, Peloquins, and One Wheel Drives > To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM > > 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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