Date: Sat, 18 Jul 2015 07:13:43 -0700
Reply-To: mark drillock <mdrillock@COX.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: mark drillock <mdrillock@COX.NET>
Subject: Westy camping in Europe, home now, part 1
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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
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