Date:         Sun, 3 Jan 1999 07:24:40 -0500
Reply-To:     Richard Golen <rgolen@UMASSD.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Richard Golen <rgolen@UMASSD.EDU>
Subject:      Long, cold first trip in 84 Vanagon
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During Thanksgiving break, my sone came home with his 78 bus which had an
engine fire and got toasted. As a replacement, I found an 84 GL in decent
shape. We were supposed to drive out to Rochester, NY today (Sunday), but
given the impending storm we left a day earlier.

Yesterday morning it was 7 degrees F when we left at 5 am....by the time we
got toward Worchester, MA and the Mass Pike the temp had dropped to -3 (I
had installed one of those Radio Shack car thermometers a couple of days
earlier). The heater in the Vanagon had a hard time keeping up...it wasn't
that it was putting out any heat...most of which stayed at floor level. The
windows were acting like cold radiators. From the window level up it was
cold as hell....and stayed that way until the sun finally had risen (about
7:30).

Once the sun came up things improved somewhat. It wasn't until the
temperature got above 10 F that the Vanagon became toasty...and that was
some 4 hours later when we got west of Albany, NY.

West of Utica, NY the temp rose to 20 F and the roads were wet with salty
water...as each car past us we were treated to a salt bath especially on
the windshield. Unfortunately, the windshield washer fluid was frozen so we
had to make quickie stops at each service area to clean the windshield.

We made it to Rochester (440 miles) in 7 hours and 20 minutes..averaging 60
MPH for the trip including stops...we cruised at 72 mph.

Overall, this was our first "road trip" in a Vanagon. I must say that when
I left the Vanagon with my son (I flew home before the storm moved east)
that I was impressed with the Vanagon. It ran well....survived the deep
freeze....handled well, etc.

Ric