Camper vans....

I put a wood stove and a weed hideabox in this little sweety pie. When I found her she didn't run and had blackberry bushes growing through and around her. We smoke out once in a while and she always reminds me of how much I love her.

 

After almost a month with fuel issues which involved removing the 36 gallon tank and replacing lines, two filters, two pumps and the carb....I got 4 new tires cause I got a warning ticket for my old ones beiing down to the wear bars and bam....40 miles out the door....look at my gallery pics....it says it all.

They said get more than one...est....ect....ect....they will forward to home office....ect....I said fuckem, I will get it fixed and bring ya the bill......also said it might be hard since van is 30 years old......but they were happy to sell me 4 tires.

And better yet they dont meet oem specs for my van...so they fucked up, and sold me the wrong tires.

 

The only problem i see is that V-8 engine at todays gas prices to bad you did not find a VW bus but i also realise the VW is smaller inside.

 

I get 8 to 12 mpg and love it, one ton chassis, 360, 4:10 dana 60 posi rear, 2200 stall converter....509 lift 292 duration cam, flowmasters on my fresh motor with 10k on it.

And a Stroked 440 to 472 cubic inch big block on my porch just dying to get put in.

If youd look at my gallery pics youd see my tricked 85 westy waterboxer, I had prior to this and prior to that a 80 westy air cooled.

My 85 was great on gas 22 mpg which is the outter limits for the waterboxer for mpg.

Now I loved the vw`s but to me its more a cult thing as even my built 85 sucked in the mountains....sucked in a headwind and was way more limited in space.

Vw parts are not as easy to find as one might think and cost twice as much as my dodge.

Mine weighs 7200 lbs at the moment and has endless power....never go back.

Props to all the vw bus owners, they rock but just cant fill my needs.

 

is easy to make horsepower on the VW drop me a private mess if intrested.

 

First I went with the 2.3 or 2.4 (dont remember which) big bore waterboxer with a good cam...then did the conversion to the inline 4 clyinder and loved it...my 85 was a high optioned wolfsburg.

But still, with my current ride ive so so much more space and can pull a trailer if needed.

If you did look at my pics, I made my small trailer as a direct copy as the ones pulled my motorcycles, it weighed less than 60 pounds empty but could handle 5-6 hundred pounds as well as my sat dish on top and still let me get 22-23 mpg as long as I kept it at about 58 mpg...any faster got out of my power band and the rpm just sucked the gas.

I had the 5 speed trans from a south africa version of the vanagon which even helped further.

The funny part is this dude I knew had the exact(but beat to fuck) yellow dodge and hed have to walk the dog on the highway in the high wind areas of iowa....but I could draft...run 60 mpg and let up on the gas about a third.

 

im only good with the aircooled version . 1500cc 1600cc aircooled. i never own any water cooled VW.

 

My 80 westy was a champ...one owner...50k......I ran that thing in the ground...13k miles in the mexican heat and mountains full bore all the time in 6 weeks.

Some swear by the air cooled but yet some worship the waterboxer...but its all good to me.

I think it was a 80 or 81 it was the first year vanagon body that had the metal air inlets in the back vs the plastic in the following years...

 

The big gain in the aircooled version is taking the crapy restrictive intake manifold and installing a nice 1 with a 2 bbl webber you dont need the fancy duals . replace distributor with a Bosh 009 Distributor and a good brand exoust system and bang you just got a 50 H.P increase after that it starts to get expensive and unreliable when extreme. install a nice oil cooler and a online oil filter since VW have none besides that screen on the oil pump pick up.

 

My 80 was a fuel injected air cooled 1.9, in mexico it was the desired engine for the bugs, but they had to modify the rear engine cover and it still hung out a bit, I had aftermarket exhaust on it cause they wanted almost a grand for all the oem stock pipes..crazy prices....

 

my experience as a engine builder only covers the 1200 thru 1600cc i never play with others . that was back in the 80s. v-8 wise i have built and help others built quite a few and a few 4 bangers 1 was a 2.400 cc mustang engine "german design engine like the Pinto 2.000 cc OHC with A turbo. it was fast with 5 speed manual Trans.

 

I think I get my van back tomorrow but then I got to have it weighed over the tire blowing up and stuff.

 

As I mentioned before I finially set up my master switch panal for the items that draw current while even off. I posted a pic....not sure if I like it or not yet.

I just built the small cabinet for the mini fridge, it turned out well but took a good bit of time. I put some pics of that up also.

Honestly this has turned out to be so so so much more of a project than I ever thought but its almost done.

Ive a person who says "since you like to do this stuff can we do mine next?"........fuck no

 

Ive now more hatachi tools than my tool crip can fit so I got to do it over the third time.

I had to go far to get a part for my sawzall and was told there was no hatachi rep in this area, so ive been in contact with hatachi corp and if im willing to they will paint my van hatachi green, logo the shit out of it and let me push there products but the upside is I get alot of free shit....but ive now almost one of every style construction tool they make in one form or fashion.

But its a sponser and a new paint job for my cool van......what to do?

 

wow,,
you have money for tools an weed (im not stupid an neither are the people ya try an hook up with) but cant give us our 100 bucks..

whatta fuckin scumbag you are..

 

Ive had a bit more than 1200 watts running through my low budget sony system, simple remote deck,xm radio,2-6x9,2-6 inch round and one 1100 watt sub and a explode 1000 watt amp.

I had fits and more fits, it drained my batts my deck would die for days at a time.

A simple cap fixed, a 1600 watt unit with a 4 guage lead fixed it all.

I had been upset about the cost of it all when I got it about a year ago but somehow it works.

I put a few pics up, but the lights from the cap are cool but way too bright.

 

This past winter I got me a quad and have just now got around to riding it, ive a whole 200 miles on it in the past few weeks.

I got it cheap and the dude put some killer tires on it, I gigure I can get a trailer and pull it behind the van.

I tried to put alot of pics up but only 3 were small enough.

 

wow,, the cash must be rollin in..

personally i think 4 wheelers are a lazy mans toy,,useless while wandering the back roads..

 

Not that I learned alot about it or how much......

We were desperate for our big gehl track loader clearing the next building lot and the builders hemi dodge tore up its rear end so he tried to pull the 13000 pound unit and trailer with his half ton dodge, he got here from atlanta but in the complex got stuck halfway up a semi steep paved incline, he called me and said "wtf do we do now, I cant go up, my wheels are blocked cause my breaks wont hold"

I hooked his front frame and looped the chain around my hitch, I pulled him about 300 ft and my tach stayed at 2400 rpm which is my converters stall speed and held a steady 20 mph. So I was pleased.


Like I said I dont know how much I really pulled but it was fun, but i GOT TO GET A TRANS COOLER.

 

Ive spent the last two days pulling my 360 with 17k miles on it out and now sits in its place the 472 cubic inch big block with maybe 20 minutes on it.

Its got a crazy cam and still open headers, sounds like a drag car........

We all got bets going on what part of the drivetrain I will break first, New motor, New trans, solid u joints (not cross drilled for grease) in the driveshaft.......121k on org. dana 60 with 4:10 gears.

My bets on somthing in the rear end breaking, its already got a bit of play in it and when it does ive a set of 3:54 gears and locker.

But I see the issue being an axle, one is 4 inches shorter than the other side......so I bet I twist one.

I will p[ost the pics asap if anyone gives a fuck.