Date:         Fri, 21 Jun 1996 00:55:25 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         rickgo@halcyon.com (Rick Gordon)
Subject:      oil, ccc, cb channel

re the CR article on oil:
I tried to report all the qualifications for their tests that I remembered.
I did forget that stuff about the Slik-50 treatments.
I guess what was more interesting was that *under these conditions* the
brand of oil made no difference in the results.
If you own an air-cooled, clearly you're risking your engines life by
applying the above results to your vehicle! Relative to engine cost, 3
months/3K mile oil changes seem prudently inexpensive.
And even if you don't change the oil that frequently, do get under it and
look around on a regular basis.

>From the research I've seen on oil, most of it Net-based but also talking
with mechanics, there is a strong tendency to believe the 7500 mile/6 month
intervals
suggested for average use.
The regimen I follow varies with the car:
1984 Volvo, non-Turbo: every 6 months, Mobil 1; daily driver but < 7000 miles/yr
1975 GMC pickup, every 6 months, using dino oil; its an occasional hauler.
1980 Vanagon: every 3 months (never exceeded 3000 miles), except now that
I'm not driving it much its overdue - but I picked up a filter last
weekend.
1995 EV: 3500 miles/6 months. Primary use is long trips. Once it hits 7K
I'll switch to Mobil 1 and change it every 6 months.

re CCC trip:
How about stretching northwards just a little more. I think Redding is
about a (long) day's drive from Seattle. Perhaps somewhere in that vicinity
would enable an entire West Coast gathering!

re CB channels:
on I-5, ch 19 is primary, ch 17 is supposed to be getting some traffic, and
ch 13 is the "Good Sam RV" channel. I've never heard much traffic on any of
them though. Since there are repeaters up and down the coast, there is a
lot of 2M out there, but you have to pass a test to operate there.

-rick

Rick Gordon
Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
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