Date:         Tue, 09 May 95 18:59:17 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Re: Speaking of Vanagon Shocks

On Tue, 9 May 95 15:11:20 CDT <kerry_reiterman@hp-paloalto-om4.om.hp.com> said:
>The nose of this one seems high. I've compared to newer campers. They seem
>Are the shocks longer for this year model and newer models have shorter ones??

no difference in the shocks, but the springs and alignment are different ...
since 1988, the vanagons were 30mm lower in ride height. for "entry access",
they said. eh? also some 85-87 wolfsburg models had this lower setting.
which makes it all the more important that you triple-check the idiot with
the alignment machine if you take it in for an alignment: Bear and Hunter
have their computer machines set up for the 1980-1982 air-cools only! so
you'll have to take your bentley book with you and tell them to use it.

only problem is, for the syncros, the bentley book is wrong ...derek found
this out. he has some info/settings out in the gopher files.

>Any difference for gas mileage (Which is I guess what the resulting lower nose
>would create).

i wouldn't think so ... as UNaerodynamic as the underside of our buses are,
i doubt if 30mm will make much difference.

>Tires: I've noted that newer Vanagons are running 205 x 75 x 14. While
>the older units are running 185 x14. ALso, alloy rims are 6" and steel are
>5 1/2". I'd feel safer running on wider tires (very doable I believe) and
>don't have an idea if the wider rims will do anything.
>Any recommendations on wider tires? Comments on Rims??

well, one thing wider tires do is increase your ground patch (the amount of
rubber on the road) ... which increases your friction (traction), which will
lower your gas mileage. take a look at the high mileage Geo Metro and such,
even old beetles, and see what skinny narrow tires they used.

now ... it probably won't be a drastic lowering. maybe 1/2-mpg or so. but
the important thing i found out (the hard way) is to make damn sure you get
a really good wet weather wide tire!! otherwise you can hydro-plane your ass
into a ditch. :(  i went from 185/70 tires to a 195/70 tire, but the wider
tires were NOT good rain tires ... and would slide all over the place in the
rain at over 30mph. :( got rid of them quick! but on the 1991 bus i had,
which had the 205 tires on the alloy rims, i never had any trouble at all
(and that's 10mm WIDER). it all depends on the tread pattern, so choose
carefully.

>Finally, is it vanity or would that little black spoiler under the chin
>of newer Vanagons do anything but look better?? It actually seems to be
>independant of the integrated plastic bumpers.

it is completely independant, and can easily be removed. :) anybody want one?
what it did for me was hit the pavement on steep driveways and hit the curbs
in parking places. so i un-accessorized it. and promptly lose another 0.0003
mpg. ;)

joel