New Seat Possibilities

Looks like I might be on the path towards my first big upgrade. After my post yesterday I decided to see what some of my options were for dealing with the front seats of the van. I posted to the Vanagon mailing list asking for help and got some great replies. The most interesting was from a guy up in southern PA who is currently parting out several Vanagons. He told me that the post 86 Vanagon seats were a dramatic improvement over the stock 84 seats. They are far more ergonomic, are constructed better, and have arm rests. He said he had several sets that I could take a look at this weekend if I like. He was looking to get around $200 a set which I think would be well worth it if I could avoid another trip with a spring or two in my back. I'll let you know how it goes.

Its been a while

Its been a while since I've posted an update so I figured I'd stop by and report what the van has been up to. I haven't done any real work on the van per say other than a little bit of cleaning but I have gone on several more trips and I've really started to get my head around what is actually needed vs. what would be cool.

Since mid-August I've taken the van up to the Gunks a couple of times to do some climbing and I've taken it to a couple of different bicycling events. Other than that I've just driven it around town a fair bit and hauled some friends down to a great crab shack on the coast. At this point I've slept in the van around a dozen nights under various circumstances and feel like I've got my usage dialed.

The biggest surprise about the van is what an excellent thing it is to be able to get a good nights sleep while stealth camping. The best example of this is when I drove the van down to DC for my first triathlon and I was able to sleep undisturbed for free right on the side of the road near the race. As long as you don't pop the top, draw the curtains, and throw up the heat reflector in the windshield I really don't think anyone would bother me. I've learned how to set things up to sleep comfortably with my bike, climbing gear, and dog all in the car with me while the doors are locked and windows up. All you've really got to do is remember to open the skylight and you are golden.

I've also gotten really spoiled by shore power and am bummed when I don't have it. I just keep a 100' extension cord with an adapter in the van and plug in to anything I can find when I'm camping. The biggest advantage of the shore power is being able to power the fridge and the battery charger. That lets me have cold beer and a nice fully charged aux battery all while I'm using the lights, playing gamecube, using my laptop, and running the fans. Its pretty sweet. Unfortunately I'm a lot more limited running on aux power. I've only got a 900W inverter so it strains a bit to run the lights and the coffee machine at the same time. Still, life could be worse.

The things I hate about the van so far are the driver's seat, the seat covers, and the overall poor condition of the cockpit. The dash is really faded, cracked in places, and the driver and passenger door interiors are just terrible. I'm also totally tired of the terrible seat covers that came with the van, the nasty carpet, and the rotting liner panels throughout. The seat seriously could not be any less comfortable as well. To make things worse I've got in pushed pretty far forward to make room for the aux battery which is too tall for the compartment behind the driver's seat. I'm going to have to find some sort of replacement but I'm really not sure how to go about it.

I'm also going nuts about the lack of power steering. It really makes driving around the city a pretty serious pain in the ass. Having to really crank the steering wheel around just to get off my block does not make me very excited to get out on the road. I talked with my dad about maybe adding power steering. I'm going to drive the van down to him over Christmas and maybe we can figure something out.

I'd also hoped to be a lot farther along with the cleaning of the van at this point. I've still got mildew in the poptop, nothing covering the galley area floor, and dirty fabric. I should stop complaining in the blog and do something about it but I've had a hard time justifying the funds lately and I've just been focused on other things.

Even though there is a lot I'd like to change this thing is still awesome. The ease of van camping makes me never want to fiddle with car-camping in any other way. It's also great to have a place that I don't mind leaving my dog if I want to go out to dinner or something while I'm out on the road. If only this thing would drive a little bit faster and I'd drive it everywhere. While I'm at it I'd also like some sort of free infinite energy supply to power the van rather than gas. Stupid gas.