Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 01:22:33 -0600
Reply-To: JRodgers <jrodgers113@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: JRodgers <jrodgers113@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Syncros. Positractions, Peloquins, and One Wheel Drives
In-Reply-To: <CAHtJhYP-JPYvyxxHYjmxuLkE6xVVqHQTei+8oVPEVwhRRHX4yw@mail.gmail.com>
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When I bought my first Vanagon in 1990 - it was an 85 GL. Bought it in
late summer, didn't know the first thing about them, bought a new set of
Good Year tires - automatically all weather types for Alaska. Drove
well, handled well - then came the first snow of the season and I was on
the way to Anchorage. I had just crossed the flats crossing the National
Moose range and started up the first serious grade. Wheels broke free
and she started to spin, I just let it go and at one point added a bit
of strategic power to complete my 150 degree turn. Never even slowed
down - went straight back to Soldotna and had a set of studded tires put
on that puppy. Never any problems any winter there after. Problem is now
0 so I have heard - that studded tires have been done away with. Have no
idea how a Vanagon would handle with no studs - except spin-outs like I
did.
John
On 1/29/2014 7:36 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
> <mailto: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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