Date:         Thu, 12 May 94 23:34:49 EDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         DerekDrew@aol.com
Subject:      Camper Uneven Weight Distributn

I was driving my '90 Syncro Camper by a scrap metal
yard and they let me drive my van on their truck scale.
Here's the result:

     Whole Camper   4900
       Left Side    2560
       Right Side   2380
       Front        2400
       Rear         2500
     Corners
        Right Front  1100
        Left Front   1080
        Right Rear   1060
        Left Rear    1240

Conditions of this test were as follows:  gas tank full,
water tank empty, driver outside of vehicle, all esoteric
additions removed, (no winch, canoe, motorcycles, awning).
Closets full of little playthings.  Since I had once obtained
a weight of 4680 on my '87 camper, let's say I had 300 lbs in
the closets.

CONCLUSIONS:

  1. FRONT TO REAR IS PERFECT. VW's claimed near perfect
     front to rear weight ratio of 50%-50% seems to be borne
     out since adding the driver to the front would make it
     exactly even.
  2. WESTFALIA TOO HEAVY ON LEFT SIDE.  As Ed Anderson
     of Adventurewagen claims, 
     the van is indeed almost 200 lbs. heavier on the
     driver's side than the passenger's.  Fill up the water
     tank and the refrigerator and stick the driver in the
     vehicle and the problem would get much worse.
  3. LEFT REAR IS THE CULPRET.  It seems odd to find that
     almost all the L/R weight imbalance comes from the left
     rear side.  It must be all the blankets I have in there?

Or maybe it is all the food I have? I am not really sure. If the 
camper is really 20% heavier only on the left rear, then perhaps
we should have a heavier spring on that one corner.

Anyone else who happens to drive by a truck scale or yard that
buys scrap metal is invited to see if their Vanagon too is extra
heavy on the left rear corner.

P.S. The mail system in my computer system was down all 
yesterday so I may not have gotten some snail mail addresses 
you sent me to get the factory training VHS tapes for Vanagon. 
You may resend if you wish or just wait to see if I get to you and 
resend if I don't. 

derekdrew@aol.com