Date:         Sat, 11 Jul 1998 08:06:45 -0700
Reply-To:     "Thomas D. Hanlon" <hanran.inc@INTERNETMCI.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Thomas D. Hanlon" <hanran.inc@INTERNETMCI.COM>
Organization: The Hanran Enterprises, Inc.
Subject:      Re: 2WD sand capabilities?
Comments: To: Pfunky@AOL.COM
Comments: cc: Vanagon@VANAGON.COM
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Patrick,

Last fall,  I drove my 2WD Westfalia onto the beach in Northern Oregon
(where it was/is legal), and I had one difficult time driving off the
beach.  Tires, at the time, were PO installed wide soft passenger tires,
inappropriate for the Vanagon (unbeknownst to me), and it appeared to me
that the weight of the Westy caused the van to settle inordinately into
the sand.  After considerable spinning, lurching, addition of traction
materials in the form of driftwood, branches, reduced tire pressure and
a lot of swearing and abuse of the clutch, we extricated ourselves from
the problem.  Since then, we've changed to Yokohama Y370 D  195 tires.
I still stay off beaches.

My Vanagon may drive and feel like like a heavy tank, but it still
doesn't have treads.

Tom Hanlon
Palm Springs, CA
84 Westfalia
Patrick Foltz wrote:

> Anyone have any sand experience with a 2WD westfalia?  It's almost
> vacation
> time and I'd like to scoot out to Cape Fear where the trail is sand,
> mostly
> packed but with a few stretches of deep.  I'm thinking about a spare
> set of
> wheels with wide tires at low pressure, but hopefully someone has
> experience
> and can tell me if I'm wasting time or will be ok.
>
> thanks, patrick