Date:         Wed, 13 Dec 1995 13:21:23 -0500
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         drew@interport.net (Derek Drew)
Subject:      Deep Water Driving/Snow Depth

>parallel to us and there was a crossroad that connected the two
>roads together.  It was about 100 yards long and covered in 
>2 1/2 - 3 feet of fluffy snow.  I immediately thought of Derek
>Drew!!

Well, even though I haven't had time to write in lately with any reports I
just got the pictures back from my latest 4 wheeling trip to Vermont. 

The coolest picture shows the van driving across a, um, I guess you'd call
it a lake that was in the way of the road/path. My fogg lamps are in the
body of the vehicle at the same height as the turn signal lenzes. As I drove
through this lake the fogg lamps went dark because they were under water.

The van drove right through with no problem. Obviously, as least part of the
motor was under water, though obviously not the distributor, or I would have
stalled. Anyway, ever since driving through this thing the van no longer
idles so perfectly as it has before and sometimes stalls when bone cold on a
cold day after starting it. I even have to hit the pedal some times to get
it to start. 

I have come to the conclusion that it is almost impossible to stop a synco
due to excess snow depth, especially when the tires are aired down below 18
psi. During this trip the snow was wet and built up in front of the bumper
in a vee shape, sort of like a cow catcher in front of a train. 

I remember once sleeping out all night in a snow storm in the woods in
Vermont. About 6 am the sun came up and my friend called up to me in the
upper berth, "Derek, its snowing *really hard!* As there was already 2 feet
of snow depth the night before this got me worried and I got out of bed
right away. A plowed road was about 4 miles away. I tried to open the
sliding door and snow kept it from opening. I forced it and snow fell *in*
the vehicle. 

Uh oh!

I pulled the diff lock on and the van would not move.

I got out of the van with a shovel and cleared an area around the van and
tried again. This time the van could move so I shoved some more and cleared
a "runway" of sorts so I could get the van up to around 10 miles an hour and
see if momentum would carry me through the fresh stuff. Sure enough, the
momentum worked and the van did not stop when I hit the realy deep stuff. I
drove the 4 miles at 4,000 rpm with the diff lock on, 14 psi, scared to
death. Several times the van would slow when it hit a drift but it did not
stop until we crashed over the snowplow wall and came plunking down on the
plowed, dirt road.

I never want to open the sliding door and have snow fall in on me again, uh,
I think.

Derek Drew
90 Syncro Camper/Mariner/Snowmo

___________________________________
Derek Drew
drew@interport.net (main address for e-mail)
derekdrew@aol.com (alternate/backup address, checked infrequently)