Date:         Sat, 01 Oct 94 09:44:39 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "J. Walker" <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Re: Planning Trip--Tips?

On Sat, 1 Oct 94 01:01:30 CDT Tobin Copley said:
>76, and aside from some rust in the wheel wells, etc, a coupla split
>boots (cross yer fingers for the CVs!), and a sink pump that doesn't

NONONONONONONONONONO!!!! DO NOT let those cv joint boots stay that way!!!
you'll only destroy the joints inside and wind up paying Bubba and Clyde
some outrageous amount of cash for some crappy used parts somewhere in
Nowhere, AZ!!! seriously, buy four new boots (cost about $15 each) and put
them on, after cleaning and re-greasing the joints with 1/2 tube of Valvoline
Moly EP grease (comes in a paper tube, costs about $1.50 per tube) in each
joint/boot. yeah, it's a lot of grease for one little joint, but those little
plastic tubes of vw grease are never enough. it's a very messy job, so wear
old old old clothes that you were planning on burning anyway. :)

seriously, do NOT go on this trip with torn cv joint boots. you WILL regret
it and it WILL cost you lots of time and money. please put new boots and
grease on the joints before you go.

and get some sort of cb radio to take with you. or better yet, a ham radio
if you have a license. or cellular phone. but the cb is cheaper and if you
stay on highways that still have truckers, more useful. also more useful
out in the boondocks cause not many rednecks have ham radios or cellulars. :)

>Las Vegas to Grand Canyon, along Northern roads into NM to Santa Fe, to
>Alamogordo, back to San Diego along southern routes through NM, AZ, CA.

definitely see grand canyon. don't have to stay long, but it IS impressive.
sort of an inverted canadian rockies. :)  meteor crater at winslow, az, east
of flagstaff is prett impressive ... if you like big holes in the ground. :)

>MI, IL, IA (see my Grandma!), up through Minnesota, into Manitoba, and
>west back to Vancouver.

oh my aching back!!! you'd better get some MUCH better seats for the front
of your bus. see if you can find some later model vanagon seats ... they
should fit ok, and they are MUCH more comfortable. and take lots of rest
stops.

>We got three months, 'cause Christa in taking a 3 month leave of absence
>for this trip.

uhhh ... you want my opinion? you ain't gonna have enough time to do all this!
:)  most likely you'll wind up streaking across the southeast u.s. to make it
to the northeast, then flying low back home. maybe in SIX months you could do
it all, but i had figured two months for me to drive from alabama to alaska
and back, without a whole lot of stopping at all in the u.s. ... so my advice
would be not to dawdle at every little place along the first part of the trip
... or you will find yourself running behind schedule. ;)

>BTW, bought oil pressure and temp (w/ dual sender) senders and gauges
>yesterday, as consensus seems to be these are a good insurance policy
>against cooking one's engine.  Maybe the spare tire/anti-seize lug bolt
>theorem holds here as well?

uhhhh... don't put anti-seize on the oil pressure sender! it needs to be
conductive (ground) and the anti-seize will sheild the threads from each
other. He Who Knows The Hard Way. :)

well ... at least you are doing this right: planning far enough ahead of time.
by the time we all get through with giving you advice, you won't know whether
to shit or go blind! :)  wish i was going with you. :(

joel