Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2015 13:13:12 -0400
Reply-To: Roy Nicholl <RNicholl@NBNET.NB.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Roy Nicholl <RNicholl@NBNET.NB.CA>
Subject: Re: Rear seat comfort on a Vanagon Westy?
In-Reply-To: <CALsR6hcXfO4_3-nF3aE=CaKah9F=-VN_D=Swt=fX99uoZOVBxg@mail.gmail.com>
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Truls:
The three year old and I drove from Calgary Alberta to New Brunswick last summer in the Hyena (1988 Westfalia). After some initial adjustment, we managed quite well ... and he was in a rear facing car seat at the time.
He's not a very loud little fellow, so during the first few days of the trip I could sometimes tell he was talking, but could not hear what was being said - I'd shove the clutch in and ask him to speak up, only to discover he was talking to his dinosaur figurines and not the old man (this annoyed him greatly). Other times he would be talking to me (I gotta go potty) and I wouldn't hear him at all. Around the end of day three it clicked - we were just outside Grassland's National Park (I was beginning to become concerned with finding a prairie town which still had a service station - as opposed to member only card-locks ) when, at a volume I did not know he had, it was announced that he was done driving and wanted to go swimming.
Now he can't wait for the Hyena to come out of hibernation.
The only "comfort" for him problem we had was his car seat was initially mounted over the rear heater vent (that's where the non-retractable lap belt was installed). As is often the case, the heater was working all too well for August and the poor little fellow was a puddle in his seat when we stopped for fuel (never complained as he as having too much fun). That night I managed to get the valve on the heater turned in the "summer" position (but still left some circulation) and swapped the seatbelt to the other side of the vehicle.
On 24-Feb-2015, at 08:21, Truls Erik Johnsen wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
> First of all: Thanks for the assistance on my question regarding the
> headliner the other day. Turned out to be a no-brainer, really.
>
> Then: How is the rear seat comfort on the Westy? The spesific model
> I'm considering is an '85 Club Joker with Westfalia interior. My old
> camper had a secluded (half wall between front and rear) camper setup.
> This gave a rather distanced feeling between passengers and
> driver/front passenger seats. I'm mainly conserned with this distance
> (hard to talk etc) and comfort when it comes to having my two kids
> sitting in the back seat. So feedback from those of you who frequently
> travel with more than two persons in the car, and especially kids,
> would be ace.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Truls
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