Date:         Wed, 9 Nov 94 17:43:02 AST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         smitht@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca (Tim Smith)
Subject:      Re: Winter Camping Tips.

>a realy good, no, an excelent sleeping bag for the cold, and some kind of 
>heater you can reach out and start quickly with one hand 20 minutes before 
>getting out of the bag.
>
yeah, this is mandatory. You only need to buy one of these bags in your 
entire life, so buy the best you can afford, -15 or -20 degrees rating. 
It'll keep your legs warm when sitting around in your icebox, wondering 
whats lurking outside behind the thickly frosted glass. Keeping the upper 
part of the bus warm doesn't take a lot of energy, but don't try to get 
anything below seat level warm, you'll just waste fuel. So put your feet up 
and keep the beer on the floor. The gas heater knob in older Westies can be 
reached/turned while in bed by using a skipole, one with multiple points on 
the tip, not a spike. Mine were Scott ice tips, worked great.
         Having fallen asleep/CO poisoned in a house with a kerosene radiant 
heater I'm leary of any non-electric heating device that isn't properly 
vented for fresh air.  I woke up when cold, with a splitting headache, the 
heater had run out of fuel thankfully. I do warily trust the old VW gas 
heaters, but I'm not so sure about the newer pancake ones, not enough 
experience. BTW the amount of heat from the old heaters was way better than 
the pancakes, only a foot or two of pipe between you and the heater, not 8 
feet via the defrosters etc. Got an old style one I've been meaning to 
install in the Vanagon.
        I car camped, Saab 96, for 4 months on a skitrip in Yugoslavia/ 
Italy /France/ Spain, surviving on the heat of a cartridge butane stove and 
a good mummy bag. Sleeping with the stove and ski boot liners inside the 
bag. Did it again a couple of years later in an insulated Kombi, no pop top 
and lived like a king. Had a bigger stove, 20 Lb propane tank. Drink lots of 
coffee and brandy, gives you an excuse to run the stove, if you can see it 
through the alcohol haze. Pack lots of clothes that you can sleep in, since 
that saves freezing your butt changing into them in the morning. Are we 
having fun yet?
  tim s.