Date:         Sun, 30 Aug 2015 07:41:22 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Vanagon pleasures...
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

I've been "saving" my 84 5sp inline powered vanagon recently, driving my GM
AWD Safari work van instead because I was hearing transmission noises
coming from my Vanagon...Yesterday I squirted off the Vanagon and took it
out.   What a very different vehicle from that other minivan...Besides the
obvious difference between an automatic transmission and the manual, the
Vanagon is so much more 'connected' between the driver and the environment
as you drive it....The Safari van feels a couple of steps removed from the
road surface and the topography...it wallows along without a bit of feed
back at the steering wheel or the seat of your pants...it lags when you let
off the gas, and makes a big lurch and lots of whooshing when you hit the
gas, but it just keeps plodding along...

    After reading up on transmissions and making a careful diagnostic check
driving my Vanagon 5sp I've decided...."life is too short to drive a sloppy
van" (unless you absolutely MUST do so)   I was fearful that the ring gear
was being damaged in my 5sp VW box but it seems to be more just general
wear and tear, causing a bit of noise at certain rpms and loads in my 4th
gear, and  a bit of whine in 3rd gear also...  One thing I noticed is that
I can hear every part of my Vanagon going down the road...the Safari just
wooshes along....

   I am going to keep on driving the Vanagon till the snow flies...heck
with the transmission, it'll hold....fingers crossed here...   Also, I like
the fact that the Vanagon just did a 28 mpg tankful of gas mileage....over
ten miles per gallon better than the GM van...Sure, the GM van has great
traction and it's rated at ~5000lbs of towing capacity...but it isn't very
fun to drive like the vanagon is....

   Another note...Driving that Safari I am invisible!   Absolutely nobody
notices those vans.  The Vanagon?  Everybody notices, everybody has to try
to pass you if you aren't speeding along...everybody smiles at you in
Portland but glowers at you out in the countryside...On the other hand, you
get the"one finger lifted off the steering wheel" salute from farmers and
frackers when you are in the little GM generic worker van....