Date:         Tue, 18 Aug 1998 16:02:05 -0400
Reply-To:     Tyrone & Marilyn Greene <macpine@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Tyrone & Marilyn Greene <macpine@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      Our Trip Report
Comments: To: Vanagon <Vanagon@VANAGON.COM>
Comments: cc: Don and Bev Stickle <"104474,556"@COMPUSERVE.COM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Well Volks, I'm (we're) back.

We took a little (4 day) vacation to the mainland (it's all north to us)
to take in some sights here in Florida. The 87 GL Syncro did very well
once again. I'm once again quite pleased with the versatility of this
vehicle.

The only sad/bad note to mention was a rear right tire blow out we
experianced just around noon this past sunday. We were on the I-75 south
and doing about 68 mph (limit is 70 mph), in the middle lane, with
everything working well. After about 15-20 minutes, all of a sudden
there was a loud bang, the rear of the van dropped and swayed a bit to
the left, and I saw black stuff flying away from the side of the van.

Thankfully, the drivers to our right allowed us to move over without any
problem (though a few minutes after we were over to the side, some guy
hanging and yelling out the window of a speeding car hollard something
unkind).

Once over to the sholder and stopped, I found that not only did the rear
right tire blow, but it took off part of the van's side molding, took
off the undercoating that covered various parts adjacent to the
wheelwell, and the tire so completely self-distructed that I can almost
pull what is left of it off the alloy rim by hand! My 5 year old son
began crying because he thought we couldn't now go home. Our 2 1/2 girl
just kept sleeping through the whole thing.

Changed the wheel in about 10 min. and back on the road in about 20 min.
The princess kept sleeping for another 20 min.

We've decided to invest in a new set of tires....

Tyrone
Big Pine Key, FL

87,85,81