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