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.

Trip Two Thoughts...

The biggest problem I ran into on this trip was that the second battery went dead. To make matters worse, the second battery went dead right as I was preparing coffee on our first morning out. In my book, really good effortless coffee is one of the perks (heh) of having power in the woods. Even when I don't have a battery and am backpacking I always have the ability to brew a cup every morning. The van failing to make coffee was a pretty serious bummer to say the least. Which brings me to the point - I need a way to monitor battery power. I've said it earlier but now I've paid the price for not having it. It's time to find a gauge and get it setup.

This weekend was my first time boondocking in the van. I added a 5-day cooler for the occasion and am happy to report that there was cold beer for the entire weekend. The cooler worked so well in fact that I'm really considering just removing the fridge entirely and converting the space to storage. I think it'd be far more useful to have a place for batteries, food, and extra water than a barely operational fridge. I'll hold on to the old beast just in case I ever decide to sell my rig but additional storage is at a premium right now.

I also carried along a five gallon jug of water since I haven't cleaned out the van's water tank nor repaired the pump. The jug provided just enough water and did the trick just fine. Having fresh water at the camp was really nice. I usually have a gallon or two but having a full five gallons was a huge difference. Getting that built in water tank back up and running just got more important. Especially if I install a water filter on the tank I think it will make a really big difference.

I'm not sure what to do about the stove. I like the stove in theory but I'm not sure my money isn't better spent just buying a nice Coleman camp stove rather than trying to repair the one that is in there. Propane is nice and all but I'm a little sketched out trying to repair this leak when the tank is covered in rust. Plus with all the horror stories I hear about people having a hard time finding a propane dealer willing to fill those old rusty tanks it might be a lot easier just to go the camp stove route. Plus, then I could cart it outside when the weather is nice and cook away from the van. I often camp in bear country so having a van reek of cooking odors really isn't all that appealing to me.

The heat curtains that I made are awesome. It is amazing how cool they can keep the interior of the van even when the van is in direct sunlight. This is a huge improvement and I highly recommend that everyone out there get on this upgrade. All I did to make mine was to go to Walmart and purchase five car sun shields (they are basically cardboard wrapped in bubble wrap wrapped in tin foil) and a bunch of suction cup hooks. I then cut the shields with scissors to fit each window and then put two to four suction cups through each shield. To mount them I just stick them to the windows and then when I'm ready to head out I throw them on the upper bunk. It takes a little bit of time to install them all but it makes a MASSIVE difference.

The other thing I did was to get a razor blade and some Goo-Gone and removed all of the stickers from the van. After 23 years there were quite a few and it was past time to get rid of them. Plus, several people commented on how angry my "If you aren't outraged then you're not paying attention" bumper sticker was. It really just didn't fit with the rest of the vibe of the van. To change the mood a bit I've ordered a "0 to 60 in... 11 minutes" sticker that should take things down a notch.

I think she liked it...

This past weekend I finally got the chance to take my wife out camping in the new van. She has been highly skeptical of the concept and not entirely convinced that the van was even capable of distance travel. Luckily for me the van was rock solid for the entire trip and I think I even convinced her of its utility. Both nights we had great weather and we were able to sleep with the top popped, venting window open, and rear hatch opened with the screen installed over the opening. We slept wonderfully and woke up refreshed. She was worried that it wouldn't feel like we were camping but would instead just feel like sleeping in the car. Thanks to the rear hatch being opened the bed really felt nice and airy yet the screen kept all the bugs away. Plus, the bed was a dramatic improvement over sleeping on the dirt. Its still a bit early but I'm pretty sure she's a fan now. I doubt she'll be posting to the blog or scouring eBay for upgrades but I don't think I'll have too much trouble convincing her to come along for the next trip.

More Thoughts from the Road

Well its official, the carpet is super really disgusting now. Within five minutes of leaving the Gunks I managed to dump a cooler full of water all over the galley area. The carpet is soaked and I don’t really have a way to dry it out. This is just the icing on an already disgusting cake. I can’t wait to throw this crap out and find some new flooring.

I’m really not sure what I was thinking when I decided to come out climbing this weekend. Climbing rocks that are baking in the sun when its 90+ degrees out just isn’t much fun. The rock almost sweats with this grease that destroys all hope of any friction. To make matters worse I decided to spend the day working a climb that I’ve been trying to do for a couple of years now. I’m really not sure why I thought climbing it when it is 30 degrees hotter than it has ever been when I was on it would help matters. I wasn’t able to climb it as usual but this time I was able to return to the van and drink cold beer to my failure at the end of the day. Cold beer the second you leave the crag really makes the failure go down a lot more smoothly.

A thought: this van is more than old. Driving it down the modern expressway gives you a feeling for car travel 30 or 40 years ago. For the first time in my 12 years behind the wheel 65 and even 55 feel like reasonable limits on speed. When you drive a rig like this 65 just feels way too fast. The funny thing is that nobody and I mean nobody actually drives the speed limit. Cruising down the highway in this thing is like walking along a river filled with canoes. Everyone out here is just floating by much faster than you and paddling hard. It’s a really different perspective to drive on the highway and not be trying to find the optimal path to your destination. I found myself looking at all the people passing me by in an instant with their windows rolled up and their world only consisting of calculating a way around all the other obstacles traveling even the slightest bit slower and wondering what they are daydreaming about because they sure aren’t watching the scenery.

Another thought: a lack of air-conditioning makes summer travel feel epic. The miles just wear on you differently with the windows down. The road really makes you tired when you’ve got to feel all the wind that you’re flying through. I find myself really not wanting to press on more than a few hundred miles at a time in this thing. I’m normally the kind of guy who’ll drive solo for 12-14 hours straight just to get to where I’d like to be. I just don’t feel like I can drive like that in this van. The air rushing through, the noise pounding your eardrums, and the vibrations working up through the hot uncomfortable seat just wear me down. The fact that I’ve got to throw on the defrost every time I hit a little slowdown for fear of overheating just adds to the fatigue. To think that I was considering what I thought would be a leisurely cross-country trip in this thing spending only ten hours a day behind the wheel. Driving for ten hours straight in a Vanagon is like driving 16 hours in a modern car. That’s the kind of distance that would really wear you down. I’m just not sure I could do that for five or six days in a row.

Yet another thought: RV campgrounds are brickless suburbs. I swear I have never seen anything like what I’ve seen for the past two nights in a row. I thought that perhaps the first night was an anomaly but I’m 200 miles away from that campground and it’s the same thing all over. With as much camping as I’ve done I really just don’t understand how I haven’t seen this all before. Going from primitive or walk-in sights to sights with full hookups is like going from living in the middle of nowhere to living at the damn strip mall. Every single site has one or two cars, a popup trailer, two or three house sized tents, a screen room, a clothes line, a full-on kitchen, a BBQ grill, and no less than 4 camp chairs surrounding a campfire. Everybody has what seems like 8 kids and they all have their own bikes, toys, cell phones, and video games. This is seriously more like a time to move your house out to the woods for $40 a night. I really can’t knock it since I’m doing the same thing right now as I sit in front of my three fans typing on my laptop but that really doesn’t lessen the shock.

You know, I really shouldn’t judge – these folks are just out to have a good time and at least they are getting their kids outside. However, all I can think about when I’m sitting here listening to the pounding Latin music from the campsite next to mine is what are these kids thinking about out here? Does this count as “nature” to them? Are they “roughing it”? Are they missing out? I mean really, does a kid need to carry all of his belongings on his back for several miles and then after unloading it go on bear watch for the rest of the evening to appreciate nature? I really don’t know the answer to that but my kids will not refer to sleeping in the Vanagon as camping.