Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 08:37:25 -0600
Reply-To: "Michael D. Landis" <mlandis@WATERVALLEY.NET>
Sender: Vanagon mailing list <Vanagon@Gerry.SDSC.EDU>
From: "Michael D. Landis" <mlandis@WATERVALLEY.NET>
Subject: My Westy's first happy trip (a bit long)
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If you've read my first few posts to the list you've been following my
gradual realization that Vanagons require a bit of attitude realignment for
the first-time owner. The initial problems I had with Maxbug, my '81 Westy,
were very frustrating at times (especially the times that involved the
distributor blowing up, the welds on the muffler cracking, or the fuel pump
seizing up while hundreds of miles from home) but now everything seems to
be more-or-less smoothed out so I thought I'd share with the list
(briefly!) the story of my first completely satisfactory voyage.
I had planned to replace Maxbug's OE passenger car tires with suitable
light-truck tires before leaving, thanks to all the list members who urged
me to do so, but my local tire dealer wasn't able to get any of my choices
delivered here to Buttendofnowhere, Mississippi, before I left. So Thursday
I drove the hour and a half to Memphis and spent the night with some
friends and then Friday morning I was at a Sears auto center where I had 2
"Roadhandler" 175/75R14s put on the back. They're really a Bridgestone
light truck tire under Sears' marque, rated at 1435 lbs @ 50 psi. Not quite
what I wanted, and a bit more than I wanted to pay, but best I could do and
still be on my way on time. Oh, and my apologies to JBrian65@aol.com who
wrote me
>Whatever you do keep all four the SAME!!! Dont mix and match. This doesnt do
>well for the van and it looks tacky all at once. Remember that VW set the
>wheel alignment for four of the same tires when your van was new, and you
>should too! You can always tell if someone cares enough about their vehicles
>by looking at the tires, if they are all the same, then good care was taken,
>if different, then the owner didnt care too much about it.
but two was all I could afford. If I'd known you felt so strongly about
this, JBrian, I would've called you up Friday morning so you could wire me
the money for the additional pair. ];)
(Sidenote: It was clear that the guy at the Sears center had never seen a
Vanagon before, he was completely clueless. He tried to use the wrong size
socket for the lug nuts. Then I had to stop him from placing the hydraulic
jack underneath the heater box to lift the car. Then he tried to tell me
how the front rims couldn't interchange with the back rims because the lugs
were different [rear, separate nuts-and-bolts; front, bolts that screw into
the wheel]. And finally I had to show him how to drop the spare tire tray.)
Anyway, the new tires made a HUGE difference in handling. It no longer felt
like I was oil-surfing on the highway, even in the crosswinds. So about two
Friday afternoon I left Memphis for Fairview, outside of Nashville. The
weather was great, temps in the mid-'80s, and Maxbug ran great the whole
way. I found his "happy speed" -- about 67 on the flat and 62 on the
upgrades -- and to my surprise gas mileage increased substantially, up to
almost 17. I arrived at Camp Marymount, the site of Outsidecon 10 science
fiction convention, at about 5:30 pm and popped my top. (Anyone on this
list who's also interested in camping and sf should definitely check out
Outsidecon. You can read about last year's on my site at
http://www.watervalley.net/outsidecon)
Sunday noon I started back, again with the vehicle running very well. The
weather was a bit warmer and travelling westbound in the early afternoon
the sun was shining directly on me so I ran the a/c for half an hour or so
while on I-40. At highway speeds you really don't take much of a
performance hit, even going upgrade so long as it's not too steep. I left
the interstate at Jackson TN and headed south on Route 18 towards
Mississippi Route 7 and home. But I missed a turn in Bolivar and ended up
having to cut over twenty miles on US 72, and a more godforsaken stretch of
highway it'd be hard to find, even in Mississippi. And it was there that
Maxbug began to complain about his fuel filter clogging up. It was pretty
subtle, an almost subliminal hesitation on acceleration but after having
gone through three (now four) fuel filters in the first 4000 miles I have
extra nerves in my butt to sense the problem though the seatcushion -- and
two spare filters in the back storage compartment. But there was no place
to pull over. By the time I got past Holly Springs MS the signs were no
longer subtle. Poor Max was bucking and coughing and complaining and could
not accelerate past sixty, so I stopped at Wall Doxey state park. When I
pulled off the fuel filter, sure enough, it disgorged a stream of
chunky-style rust-colored gas. I put on a fresh filter, retightened the
clamps and carefully examined the gas hose for cracks. Started Max back up
and he was a new man. Changing the fuel filter is of course a trivial
operation but for someone as mechanically inept as I am it represents a
major triumph of man over machine. So capping off a very pleasant trip by
successfully rising to a little maintenance challenge made it all that much
more enjoyable.
Max and I are now both resting comfortably at home. One of us has to go
back to work in a little while.
Michael D. Landis -------\/------- read; write; repeat as desired:
mlandis@watervalley.net [| # /\ # |] StormWeb
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