Date: Sat, 18 Jul 2015 11:34:46 -0400
Reply-To: "kenneth wilford (Van-Again)" <kenwilfy@COMCAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "kenneth wilford (Van-Again)" <kenwilfy@COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Re: Westy camping in Europe, home now, part 1
In-Reply-To: <55AA5F17.504@cox.net>
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Mark, are you going to make a blog of your trip or at least have a picture
page for us to take a look at?
Ken
On Sat, Jul 18, 2015 at 10:13 AM, mark drillock <mdrillock@cox.net> wrote:
> We shipped our Westy over and camped in 10 countries. We covered about
> 6,000 miles in 2 months, mostly on secondary roads and smaller. We
> stayed at public and private campgrounds and often took trains or buses
> from them into the cities for tourist activities. The camping was easy
> and the people were friendly. Our Calif plates stood out and people
> gawked at them everywhere we went, at times like we were in a UFO. I
> can't tell you how many times someone saw the front plate and then went
> to the back to see if it matched, then scratching their heads. The only
> other vehicle we saw with US plates was an aircooled Westy, with
> European plates in the normal spots but a couple of old US plates
> screwed onto the back hatch. In the last weeks of our trip we started
> using more high speed roads to cover ground quickly. We probably should
> have done some of that earlier but I wanted to see more real towns and
> not just ones on the major routes. We tried not to drive at all in the
> streets of bigger cities but it happened sometimes.
>
> Depending on where we were there were few if any other T3 models on the
> road but in some places in Germany they were a common sight. Lots of
> camper variations and with as many truck versions as vans, often in
> commercial use. In Italy we were approached daily by people wanting to
> buy ours and this happened in other countries too. Our van is not
> perfect but it looks better than most of the other T3 campers we saw.
> Newer VW camper vans were everywhere at the campgrounds and I stopped at
> a VW dealer to have a quick look at a T6 Westy poptop model.
>
> We had no mechanical issues of any kind. I added air to the tires and
> oil to the engine. We used 1/2 quart every 2000 miles. Coolant level
> stayed steady. I believe the 87 Westy has the original engine since that
> is what the PO told me and the engine serial number is correct for the
> vehicle manufacturing date. The heads are not original though.
>
> We left the van there in storage so we could return and do it some more.
> There is a lot left to see and unusual heat kept us from seeing some
> places we had planned on. I'll be taking a 3 window canvas to install
> next time so heat won't matter as much.
>
>
> Mark
>
--
Thanks,
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
www.vanagain.com
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