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Date:         Fri, 8 Aug 1997 10:12:29 -0400 (EDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         cb541@cleveland.freenet.edu (James R. Gilbert)
Subject:      The travails of a VW vanagon towing a motor home (followup)

(This is a followup to the post about a vanagon towing a huge motor home.) The original poster did a typo, saying something like .. 'the vanagon was travailing at 65 mph'. I think that was correct, the VW was 'travailing' as in giving birth. Anyways, here's some info. My family and I took our 134k (now 140k) mile '87 Wolfsburg from Cleveland, OH to Orlando, FL to Atlanta, to Grand Junction, CO and back to Cleveland. 6700 miles in 31 days. All the while towing a 2200 lb (I weighed it, fully loaded) pop-up camper. The vanagon, fully loaded, without the 650 pounds of four people, was 4000 lbs. The GVWR is 5200 pounds, I think. GVWR doesn't tell you how heavy the vehicle is, just how heavy the load plus vehicle can be. I would estimate the vanagon weighs about 3600 lbs dry. The owner manual gives 1250 lbs as an unbraked tow limit and 1800 lbs as a braked tow limit. Our experience? Well Big Bertha did ok. She couldn't make the worst part of the Rockies. I had to rent a U-haul to take the camper over the Rockies. She did make it up the worst part, actually, at 10 mph in 1st gear, overheating, oil light coming on, stopping to cool off on 70 mph highway on the shoulder, but the U-haul was rented, she was gonna BLOW! Down the worst part, I learned what brake fade is. It is no longer theory to me, we came very close to losing the brakes. I could have done better (but I'm still a 'driver'). I should have stayed to the right, not allowing the vanagon to get over 50 mph, in second gear. Bottom line. Follow the owner manual. Get brakes on a trailer over 1250 lbs loaded, those kind that brake when the trailer pushes against the towing vehicle. Don't try the rockies even then. The vanagon was 30 mph in second gear all by itself fully loaded and everything. But Big Bertha did good. All in all, we had a great trip. For the part to Disney World, seven people, all their stuff, a 2200 lb pop-up camper. Sleeping, eating, towing, camping 7 people just fine. And it gave my wife and I separate accomodations from the kids, whom we just can't sleep with. Russ Gilbert


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