Date:         Tue, 26 Mar 1996 13:24:51 -0500
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Dan Herbert <dan.herbert@utoronto.ca>
Subject:      EV Winnebago - First Road Trip Report (longish)

Greetings Loafers, VGoons, EVers and all:

Just back from a freezing, windswept visit to South Carolina 
(home is Toronto, Ontario, Canada).  Thought I would report 
back to the list as promised.  No travelogue, just some 
camper-type talk.

Scene Setting:

Three person trip - me, my wife, and our 11 year-old 
daughter.  We are all veterans, having travelled a lot in a 
1979 camper and a 1988 waterboxer.  This was our first trip 
in the new 1995 5-speed EV Winnebago.  

The vehicle is completely stock (i.e. Canadian stock - 
includes 12,000 btu furnace) with the following exceptions: 
 2" receiver hitch, 80W/100W headlight bulbs (sshhhh!), and 
paper towel holder(!).  Prior to the trip, with 6269 km on 
the clock, I changed the oil and the (prodigiously 
expensive) oil filter.

We towed our homemade bicycle trailer with us, since the 
vain hope for the trip was to get some early season mileage 
into our legs.  The trailer is a locked box on wheels, built 
on a lightweight trailer chassis, and large enough for a 
tandem and two single bikes.  It hides reasonably well 
behind the 'bago, and probably doesn't add much to the van's 
workload.

The Trip:

We left Toronto at 5:00 a.m. on the 16th, headed through 
Fort Erie/Buffalo down interstates to Greenville SC.  We 
also spent time in Aiken SC and Edisto Beach SC.  The return 
home was on 23 March.

Camper Observations:

Trip Distance was 3681 km (2280 mi approx).
Fuel used was 465.5 litres (122.5 U.S. gal approx, or 102.5 
Imperial approx).
Consumption averaged 12.65 litres/100 km.  This is 
approximately equal to 18.6 mpUSg or 22 mi/Impgal.  This is 
very similar to the consumption numbers of our 1988. (The 
1979 figures are lost in the mists of faulty memory).  The 
mountains of West Virginia and Virginia took their toll, as 
usual.

Pros:

Driveability - excellent.  Oblivious to wind buffeting.  
Good roadholding (snow and icy roads on the way home).  
Front wheel drive - excellent.

The engine.  Lots of power and torque.  3300 rpm at 100 kph. 
Don't listen to idiot reviewers who call it underpowered - 
with careful breakin and the 5-speed box, the engine is a 
treat.

Cruise control is fantastic - we typically set the cruise 
for 100 kph (62 mph).  The only places we had to downshift 
from 5th to 4th were in the aforementioned mountains.  (No 
more anterior shin cramps - hurrah!).

The furnace is great - set the thermostat and forget it.  It 
simply cycles off and on all night.  In freezing 
temperatures, the top bed was nice and cozy.

The tent - the canvas is very waterproof - amply tested.  
The side windows (beloved of old), are back and great.

The galley.  Beautiful.  There is now a stainless steel 
cover over the burners which can function as a drainboard.  
There is also a work surface beside the sink.  The grey 
water tank finally allows us to comply with the increasingly 
common proscription on dumping grey water.

The fridge - big!  2 cubic feet.  

The seats - very comfortable - easy to rotate and recline.

The LED control panel - push a rocker switch to check 
propane level!

Storage space - we were initially sceptical that it would 
work.  It seemed that the designers had 2 retired persons 
with no hobbies and good clothes (large hanging closet) in 
mind.  But with the aid of Rubbermaid boxes and some 
creativity, we had lots of storage, and didn't encroach on 
the giant open space between the rear bench and the front 
seats.

Table system.  For those who haven't seen it, the van has 
two tables which clip into an extrusion the full length of 
the galley unit.  The folding leg is offset to one side.  
Any location and permutation of setup is possible, from one 
large (think bridge table) size, to game table in front of 
rear bench (played a lot of gin rummy), to flanking tables 
for the cook, during food preparation time.

Cons:

The beds are lamentably narrow.  The thin cushions, decried 
in this list before, are actually very comfortable.

Headroom in upper bunk.  There isn't any!  The top is held 
up by gas struts, which seem to work well, for now.  (They 
will cost the earth to replace when they go.)  But there 
isn't enough room to get into the bed without crashing 
repeatedly into the poptop.  (And don't be snide - I had no 
problem in the 1988 - and my sylph-like 11 year old 
complained also.)

Lack of rear heating and cooling.  In case anyone missed my 
earlier complaints, there is NO provision for ducting 
heating, demisting, or cooling to the rear.  This is 
unacceptable, particularly to a former waterboxer owner, the 
rear heater of which could cook an egg.

LP gas fridge - although we used 'shoreline' hookups and ran 
the fridge on 12v and 110v exclusively, I was unable to 
light the sucker on propane.  We'll get it fixed pronto.

Summary:

8 out of 10.  Better than I expected.  As we become used to 
the different configuration, I think that we'll like it 
better.

Daniel R. Herbert
dan.herbert@utoronto.ca

1995 EV-Winnebago

"Don't take life so seriously.
You aren't going to get out of it alive anyway."

Hanlon's Razor:  "Never attribute to malice that 
which is adequately explained by stupidity"