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Date:         Thu, 09 Jan 1997 20:17:30 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Thad Hunkins <hunkins@mbay.net>
Subject:      Part II:  Please help my family find a camper/van 

Hi everyone,

Thank you all for all the great ideas for us to find a van. I guess my original post (below) left out some crucial points. We aren't leaving for Germany until September. Also, to buy a vehicle over there and bring it back is very expensive (it needs some fancy conversion kit to make it acceptable--In fact, we were over there for a week in November and checked on the new EV and, get this, in order to sell me a van I could bring back after my tour, they take it off the Volks plant line, ship it to America for the Winnebago makeover, and then ship it BACK to Germany. Wow. Expensive too.) Anyway, since we want a vehicle that will be ours for many years, we would like to buy over here and get it very roadworthy (repairs also very expensive in Deutschland) before shipping it over (military pays for one vehicle to be shipped).

I mentioned the rear seat. I wasn't specific enough. We'd really like the bench seat so we can seat a set of grandparents and the three kids when just tooling around (not camping and therefore not needing to get in fridge). Basically, size is critical (the bigger the better) since we'd like a minivan/camper all rolled into one.

Finally, a nice guy named Joel mentioned that an American camper might have problems with electrical/gas hookups in Europe. Any solutions for being able to adapt to both worlds?

One last thing. The new EV seems like what we need. Is the new EV worth it IYHO? I'll go big (maybe) if the camper experts here advise.

Again, Thanks for all your help...Thad

Thad Hunkins wrote: > > My wife and I have 3 kids and are being sent to Germany for 3 years. We > have seen the vanagan westfalia camper vans and we think that is the way > to go for us since we like to travel/camp etc. > Lots of questions though. Thought the new EV would be our answer but I > have this rule about spending less on vehicles than I do houses. > > We need the middle seat due to family size. What years can accomodate? > Can we buy a seat elsewhere to fit a van we find and like > > I notice some with a rounder front--some more boxy front. Differences? > > How much does an engine rebuild cost? Transmission? It seems like a lot > of vans we see advertised need this. What else needs rebuilding often? > > Is there a consolidated place on the net to shop? We're in Monterey CA. > > This will be our primary vehicle so it must be reliable. Any tips on any > options we must have or should stay away from? > > Seems to be a big difference Air Vs. Water cooled? Is one better? > > Anything else I have to know about buying a camper van (Sorry, I don't > know if there is one name for the camper/van or not?--Westfalia? > Vanagan? Synch? etc. etc.) > > Any advice about these seemingly wonderful campers would be greatly > appreciated. We are very uninformed about this van but are very > interested. > > Sorry if there is a consolidated faq somewhere but I have looked for a > while and can't seem to find one. > > Thanks for any advice. E-mail to hunkins@mbay.net > > Thad


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