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