Vanagon EuroVan
Previous messageNext messagePrevious in topicNext in topicPrevious by same authorNext by same authorPrevious page (March 1998)Back to main VANAGON pageJoin or leave VANAGON (or change settings)ReplyPost a new messageSearchProportional fontNon-proportional font
Date:         Mon, 16 Mar 1998 19:51:25 -0800
Reply-To:     Malcolm Holser <mholser@ADOBE.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Malcolm Holser <mholser@ADOBE.COM>
Subject:      Trip report -- Death Valley
Comments: To: vanagon@vanagon.com

Well, we packed our '80 Westy up and headed south to see all the flowers in Death Valley. Didn't get far -- about 100 yards (not even out of the driveway!). Van stalled, and would not start again. We fired up the LandCruiser and pulled the bus home. I fiddled a while, gave up, and moved some of the stuff into the '86 GL. We got out a few hours late.

We drove south through the *lovely* central valley of California (some of the ugliest places in the nation, IMO). We did a motel in Mojave, and then went up to Death Valley. The flowers are quite something -- almost unbelievable that there could be so much growing. We camped out two nights in Furnace Creek, and then drove home.

My son and I walked from Furnace Creek to Badwater, 20 miles across some of the worst terrain I've ever experienced. Some was covered with flowers -- and sharp rocks. Some was salt. Some was mud. Strange place, and eerily beautiful. We left by the park's east side.

For VW bus sitings, we started out well, with a bullet-turn-signal singlecab tooling along north on highway 99 near Fresno. We saw about 8 buses, and about the same number of Vanagons. We parked near a '91 Westy in DV. There was also an '86 Country Homes conversion there as well. As we pulled into the campground, there was a Rialta pulling in as well. We saw two EV/Winnies as well. The singlecab was the only splitty we saw )^:

The Westie failing us was something of a blow -- it fails often, but it has always just taken a bit of tinkering to get going again. We took a trip at Christmas across the southwest, and had the clutch slave cylinder fail in -18'F temps in Durango. I replaced the cylinder with a spare, but it proved to be leaky as well. I finally put in a different cylinder (two types were used on 1980 Vanagons) and it is working fine. The van had been running great -- I could not believe that it would fail this way. It appears to be flooding when I attempt to start it -- the only engine work I had done was to fix the leaky dipstick. It is really frustrating. Tomorrow I'll start checking the injectors -- perhaps I've a leaky one.

But this is definately the year and time to see Death Valley (and perhaps the poppies at Antelope Valley near Lancaster...we did not have time)

Malcolm


Back to: Top of message | Previous page | Main VANAGON page

Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!


Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com


The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.

Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.