Date:         Fri, 11 Apr 2003 17:16:14 +0200
Reply-To:     Robert Steven Fish <fish@SALZBURG.CO.AT>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Robert Steven Fish <fish@SALZBURG.CO.AT>
Subject:      Re: How hard can YOU push a Westy?
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I don't know about a Westy... but a friend and I back in 1992 drove my 87
Wolfsburg basically  non-stop for 19 days.

We started out in Portugal, and ended up in Moscow... a total of 31,000
miles.

What we did was to first install a solid wall behind the front seats, and
then took out the rear seats and interior.  We had the entire rear
compartment coated with 2 cm of sprayed on fiberglass.  Then we cut a hole
out on top of the Vanagon, and put a gas cap there (A locking gas cap!!).
We were able to get 900+ gallons of gas in there, and then with the
additional 13 gallons in the main tank, we managed to drive 19,800 miles
before having to fill up again!!

This was of course when the Vanagon was rather new, and running really
well... we got about 22 mpg average on the trip.  In the beginning, when the
Vanagon was heaviest, we would only get like 17-18 mpg... but then once some
of the gas had been consumed we hit 25+ mpg.

We also rigged up a neat device which holds 85 liters of motor oil, and sits
on the top rear of the vehicle.  We connected it to the oil filler and
fitted a control valve there which we could control from the cockpit.  We
had an identical tank under the transmission which would receive all the old
oil.  The system worked so well that we could do an oil change on the fly,
with all the old oil being purged, and new oil being filled... the whole
thing lasted like 7 seconds or so.

We also filled the center area of the cockpit with tanks of cola, and about
600 giant  bags of Nacho Cheese flavored Doritioes.  The seats were
retro-fitted such that an on demand toilet seat would slide under the
passenger, and allow bodily wastes to be discharged.  We had no septic
system.. we just let it hit the highway.  The only inconvienence was that
you couldn't go to the bathroom unless you were the passenger.  Originally
we had conceived of this as a safety measure (thinking that relieving
oneself while driving could be distracting and unsafe) but the way that we
would crawl over each over, with the cruise control on, just to take a pee..
that was actually not so safe, now that I think about it.

The only mechanical problem we had, was at about 11,000 miles, we tore the
rubber on the driver's side windshield wiper.  It started streaking and
scratching pretty bad... so I managed to reach out of the passenger window,
while travelling, and do a swap of the left and right wiper blades.  We also
broke one of the cup holders in the cockpit area while sliding around a 250
liter barrell of cola.. bummer.

If I had it to do over again, I think I would switch out the highbeam H3
bulbs for maybe a few 100 watt bulbs.  At night Russia was like totally
black!

Hope this helps.

RSF

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<º)))>{   <º)))>{   <º)))>{   <º)))>{   <º)))>{   <º)))>{

Robert S. Fish
Salzburg, Austria
1987 Wolfsburg Vanagon 2.1 GL Weekender
1987 Golf Cabriolet
1991 Golf