Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 08:31 -0600 (MDT)
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: BLAINE_BACHMAN%PL-01M3@ccmail.plk.af.mil
Subject: The Daily Rambling
Prologue:
Thanks to everyone eager to help me find the front washer bottle.
Found! Interesting note: Though one respondent felt that there were
dried and cracked seals which caused an overfilling to result in
washer fluid spilling on the garage floor, the majority ascribe this
phenomenon to good "German Engineering" which supposedly provides an
overflow tube to prevent gross spillage inside the van. Not having
crawled underneath to observe this firsthand, my money's with the
latter explanation.
Page One:
Got back late last night from a 3 day, 1000+ mile trip to the boonies
outside of Salina Utah. My '91 Westfalia with Automatic, A/C, and
cruise control averaged 18-20 MPG on the entire trip! (EPA figure is
17.) It also did surprisingly well on about 50 miles of rutted dirt
and gravel roads (and it's not a Synchro!); was glad for the right
side mudflap I found and installed earlier. Apologies if anyone stood
on a street corner in Moab waiting for a Silver Westfalia to pass (see
earlier post); at the last minute we decided to take the "Million
dollar highway" north from Durango to Grand Junction. Serious grades
and steep dropoffs (and few guardrails!), but definitely worth the
trip. Oddly enough, this was the segment where we got 20 MPG, and
don't start saying stuff about it being all downhill, because it
wasn't.
Which brings me to...
Page Two:
The relatively flat "Odyssey" back from South Carolina, and a weekend
trip to Cloudcroft NM, hadn't prepared me for the true gutlessness of
the waterboxer engine when confronted with the extreme mass of the
penultimate Westfalia in all its glory and the Rocky Mountains. Now I
understand what all you folks have been griping about. Sure, it wails
on the straight and flat (even with a headwind), but the speedo needle
drop off when one hits a grade is frightening (inertial dampeners,
anyone?). How much would I give for one of those Oettenger
Wasserboxer 6's? (BTW, I'll get the reference for those articles and
maybe even transcribe one of them to the list.)
I did learn a little trick when using the cruise control - as the
grade approaches, use the pedal to advance the speed 5mph - gives the
CC a fighting chance.
Page Three:
Learned a vent trick that helped the A/C cope (at least on the '91);
set the levers to flow the vent air to the front-of-dash vents, then
shut them off using the "wheel" on the side of each. Voila'! Almost
no hot air getting in!
Page Four:
In the anything that can go wrong (at the last minute) department -
since I was leaving Thursday evening for the trip, I went out to the
parking lot after lunch and fired up the propane on the fridge for a
pre-cool. Drove home and parked on the street (flat) and left it
running (the fridge, not the car). Came out about 10 minutes later,
slid open the side door, and was greeted with a rush of sooty air.
Since it was windy out, I thought that something there was affecting
it. Aired out the van, and went for a relight - no flashing light.
8A fuse was blown. New one pops immediately. Wiring diagram says
this fuse feeds the cooling fan and (I think) the propane ignitor
(remember, this is a '91 with the later fridge). Pull the three-wire
connector under the sink, and temporarily remove the one wire that
comes from the 8A fuse so at least I can run it on 12V. Works okay -
and later on 110V, but lack of fan doesn't help.
Question - I imagine that now I'm gonna have to pull the fridge and do
a first-ever "physical" on it. At first I suspected that the cooling
fan may have shorted, but since other parts of the fridge seem to be
on this circuit - especially the ignitor - maybe that's not the
problem. Any "Oh yeah, that happened to me!" inputs out there?
TIA
-Blaine
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