Date: Sun, 15 Mar 1998 22:03:17 -0600
Reply-To: Budd Premack <bpremack@WAVETECH.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Budd Premack <bpremack@WAVETECH.NET>
Subject: 4500 Miles in 11 Days ! (Long)
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NOTE - If anyone has sent me an e-mail to which I haven't responded for a
while, please send it again. The following post explains why I have been
away from the keyboard, and I know it will take a long time to try and
catch up with the 1000 posts that are still unread.
When your brother gets married for the first time at age 48, it is time for
a family celebration and reunion, even if it occurs 1800 miles away.
The nuptial site was Bullhead City, AZ, 100 miles south of Las Vegas, on
the Nevada border. It is located in terrain that was just made for Syncros
to enjoy. However, we kept to the improved roadways.
Our 86 Syncro, newly outfitted with appropriate tires, was the vehicle of
choice for this family of four tour. I am pleased and a little amazed to
report that we had NO PROBLEMS of any mechanical nature for the entire
journey. Of course, I did not dare boast of this during the trip, as there
is no sense tempting the highway gremlins too vigorously.
The Syncro ran very well under all conditions. 75 mph on the level was no
problem, although my 18 year old son relief driver thought that it was even
better to run at
80-85 mph. It was the classic case of youth vs age.
Son, "Why should we go slower? We're making great time!"
Dad, "If we had a Porsche, I would agree with you, but this is a Syncro,
with a center of gravity out of kilter with high speed, and an engine that
we need to work reliably for several thousand more miles."
The only difficulties were strong (30+ mph) cross winds for hundreds of
miles, which were resolved by dropping our cruising speed to about 65 mph,
so that we didn't blow all over our lane as the turbo-like 18 wheelers
rammed by us. I think that the new tires contributed to this factor. They
are Bridgestone, 6 ply, 185 R 14, which my tire guru swears by, and I,
occasionally, swore at.
We did notice some lack of power at high altitudes, as we had many passes
at 7000 feet, and two at 11,000 feet, but this was to be expected. No
stumbles or surging, just not as much oomph. I took the precaution of
using premium gas for the highest elevations, as I felt it would be cheap
insurance against pre-ignition knocking.
Gas mileage for the entire trip was 18 mpg, with a range of 15 to 22 mpg,
depending upon speed, wind, mountains, and tank filling.
There were only two instances of road difficulties. First, we ran into
some snow squalls with huge flakes shortly after dark on I-70 just as we
entered the beautiful ravine (from my memory) of Colorado's Glenwood
Canyon. That was probably the best ever reason to have fog lights, which
we had left in our garage on the not-yet-mounted-bumper because we had too
much to do before the trip and it was too cold to fuss around with it now
and we probably won't run into fog in February anyway.
45 minutes and 15 miles later we came out of the canyon (thank goodness for
3M headlight reflectors) and into Glenwood Springs where the chief driver
declared that this was far enough for one night. Even the 18 wheelers with
fog lights had slowed to about 45 mph, but that was too fast to follow as
their wake just stirred up even more blinding whiteness. This was one of
those times where the turtle truly does win the race, and the fact that he
had been driving in Minnesota winters for decades was a positive factor.
BTW, does anyone know how easy it is to obtain a locking gas cap for a
Syncro when you discover the original is 150 miles back down the road at
the last friendly gas stop? This question can occur if you have more than
one driver, and each has their own set of keys. We discovered that even VW
dealers and Pep Boys in Las Vegas and Santa Monica do not carry Syncro
caps, but they will happily obtain them if we weren't in such a hurry to
leave town. Temporary solution was duct tape, followed by a
dealer-obtained regular Vanagon gas cap, which fits, but has too large an
overall diameter to be visually appropriate. Meanwhile, a phone call back
to the friendly gas station owner resulted in the original gas cap and the
attached set of keys being mailied back to my home.
Overall, it was a fine road trip, with miles and miles of miles and miles.
Max daily mileage was 750, but this was a bit long, even for us.
Did any of you Listees know that you can get a free 72 ounce steak in
Amarillo, if you can finish it in an hour or less? The multiple
screaming-yellow billboards failed to mention the price for those whose
eyes are bigger than their you-know-whats.
Also, I-10 from Barstow to Needles, CA has no mile markers for the entire
145 miles. This is the only place in my memory of a post-less interstate.
Possibly it occurs because out there in the desert, the concept of distance
is routinely treated as just one more mirage.
I can just imagine the distress phone calls.
"Hello, AAA, we're stuck out in the Mohave Desert at mile something or
other.... Well, just start driving and stop at the first Vanagon you see
by the side of the road."
Oh, yes, the wedding was the nicest seven minute ceremony I have ever
witnesed.
By itself, it was almost worth the drive.
Now I have the problem of deciding which Van to sell. I really like my 87
Wolfsburg automatic for around town, but how can one argue against a Syncro
that perforned as well as this one just did? If any of you have any other
suggestions beyond keeping both, please let me know.
Budd Premack
87 Wolfsburg, 84 Vanagon (son's), 86 Syncro (for sale?)
73 Super, 64 Bug
Minneapolis, MN
