Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2014 17:24:32 -0700
Reply-To: Marco <nwmarco@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Marco <nwmarco@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Trip Report: Seattle to Burning Man
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Hi,
Short version: everything went well. It was another amazing journey.
Still cleaning off the dust from everything, although this year was remarkably mellow as far as weather is concerned. One rainy Monday morning, and a few dusty blows but nothing like previous years.
The trip from Seattle to Gerlach, NV takes me down I-5 to just north of Portland, then through the hills to Madras/Redmond/Bend, south to LaPine, OR, east to Lakeview, then south to Alturas, CA, over the pass to Cedarville, CA then through a couple of small passes to just outside Gerlach, NV. 650 miles one way. Max altitude is the Cedarville pass at 6500 feet. Upon arrival at the festival site, I have to drive at least 5+ miles on the dry lakebed, called the playa, where the event is held in order to reach the 'city' and our campsite (on 4:15 and Esplanade in case you are familiar with Black Rock City). There was a huge camp of VW Busses/Vanagons/Eurovans (and a 1982 2.8LT also) nearby called "VW Bus Camp" appropriately enough. I brought some tequila for their lounge as an offering to the VW spirits. Must have worked as I made it there and back with no mechanical issues. :-)
My previous 3 trips were in my 1982 1.9TD (all mech) Westy that had to crawl up the high passes in 2nd sometimes. This trip was in the 1986 Westy Weekender with the Bostig/Zetec setup installed last year. I cruised up the Cedarville pass in 3rd with no slowing down, even with a fully loaded van. MPG ranged from 18.9 - 22.1 on regular gas. Speeds were mostly 50-60 mph keeping the RPMs under 4k most of the time. I even passed some slower vehicles going up hill. That was a thrill.
The van has new Boge shocks up front and Gabriel Hi-Jackers (air adjustable) in the back, plus new GW springs all around. Tires are Nokkian Haka C's with a 'D' load rating. When empty, I feel every bump, but fully loaded the van was fairly graceful and smooth riding.
The ARB 2500 awning/tent setup worked well until take-down when one of the horizontal support legs would not retract. Had to unscrew it from the mounting plate to fold up the awning. The legs use a 'twist and hold' friction fit that did not like the stresses of the few days of wind the tent experienced. Other than that, the awning/tent performed well. I had an additional shade structure covered in 'aluminet' that kept the heat of the sun off of the side tent. I secure a 4ft wide piece of silver bubble foil insulation to the pop-top to reflect the heat off of that. It works OK. The Bus Depot 3 window canvas allows for decent ventilation when the windows are open. When we left camp, I zippered them shut and closed the door to the van. This minimized the dust in the vehicle.
Kitchen is setup in the ARB awning using a Coleman folding kitchen from the 1980's that I bought at an estate sale. It works great. I use a one burner butane stove (the kind catering outfits use) and pre-cook most of my food before the trip and use a seal-a-meal for preservation. This means I just need to boil some water to heat up the food before eating. My GF has several dietary restrictions so this is the best way to insure we have tasty meals when we go camping. This year's menu included: Thai curry, Indian curry, pasta w/sauce, cold buckwheat soba noodle salad, kale/roasted beet salad with goat cheese, plus various stir fry dishes with tofu (for her) and eggs (for me). The meals were frozen in advance and kept in the cooler with ice. I just finished the last thai curry last night at home and it was still delish almost 2 weeks later. The seal-a-meal is a great camping tool.
My two complaints about the ARB tent are: there are no attach points/loops on the inside of the tent to hang gear from and the stuff sack is not large enough to accommodate the tent when it was time to pack up. Why is it so hard for tent manufacturers to make an oversized stuff sack that works after the tent is new - as in real world situations?
Now it's time to change the oil/filter/air filter. So nice to be able to use relatively cheap Ford Focus replacements instead of the expensive stuff I used on the 1.9TD. I had the canister air cleaner from the 1.6TD so the air filters were $60 a pop. I will also be spraying down the exterior/engine/undercarriage with a vinegar/water/soap solution that gets the alkaline dust off. Soap and water alone won't cut it.
Thanks for reading.
Cheers,
Marco in Seattle
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