Salutations:
Well OK 9-10mpg is no Westfalia - but - I have been practicing in town around Halifax and have discovered that it handles in the city in traffic pretty well.. I can get around regular streets with room to spare.. I have the 403 Olds and I think it's going to be a honey on the highway when it's tuned up too.. Right now it's kinda gutless at 55 and really only seems to get into the powerband around 65-70.. but the temp seems to raise a bit too if I hold it at 70 for any length of time.. Might be running a bit lean and showing up as extra power there..
So, as I said, it's no Westfalia.. But every time I come up to a VW Camper in facing traffic I can't help but think that what I'm riding has pretty much the same operational and motivational objectives - but I'm bigger, with a shower, potty, closet space and big V8.. Hence - Super-Van..
Indeed, given that the power-plant should basically survive into into the 400+ hp class with a lot of dough and time (not that any other part of the drive-train would make it) - it would probably return much of the same power characteristics of what I would remember as a 'super-van' - if anyone was insane enough to put in the dollars to work it..
This was important as one of the big things for our little family is to be able fire up the elephant while visiting Ottawa, Washington and Cape Kennedy (or whatever it's called now) and get around to the museums and things in town/Rocket Base - while camping nearby.. I have been practicing parallel parking my elephant and it's very good if you take your time and have a spotter to insure you don't crush the guy behind you.. Which should get us close enough to where ever we're going without the toad..
I was told that originally the platform was designed as small urban bus - which seems to make a great deal of sense all things considered.. However, having done the van 'thang at one point - had the fat freddy chops and huge red afro too
.. I keep looking at my elephant and thinking "Geeze - except for the weird House & Home interior colours.. This is pretty much how I would have put my van together if I had the customization bucks back then"..
One the tricks then was to go for extremely hard (not sticky) and wide Firestone tires on extended wheels and stock springs and while it still floated, I felt I could handle the float more precisely.. This may not any basis in fact, but I always felt that, effectively, you let the tire rubber dampen movement right to left - it was why I was asking about extending wheelbase in front actually.. Of course, we were not dealing with 11,000 pounds either..
I was reading with great interest the stuff on handling and braking and wondered if anyone had ever installed an rigid aluminum skidplate down the whole underside frame - if so - how was the road-wiggle and handling after installation? I agree closely with Mr. Warner's observation that the 'standard' chassis mods (alcoa's bilsteins, sticky rubber) would have an ill affect on the elephant as the frame was 'tuned', if you will, to allow for chassis slack and tire slip.. This was not uncommon in muscle vans in my youth (the big 74 Dodge 4 bench for example) and while it took some serious pucker to just let these beasts float down the road at 90mph.. They didn't improve at all with tight suspension or sticky rubber.. On the Highway, they became 'twitchy' if you did this.. In the city they had fairly rough ride around town..
Anyway, got a nasty surprise at Cummings/Onan - They had to cut an exhaust keyhole in the bottom of the door for the Marquis 7000.. Apparently the local law is very clear about how you exhaust generators and this was a requirement to meet the code.. So, I'm looking for a key-hole heat plate somewhere to protect edges of the plastic around the new hole and hoping there aren't any other surprises in my future.. Any thoughts on a good material to shape around this opening? Heavy aluminum foil or modified furnace shroud I think, but thought I'd ask here first..
6240 days to retirement..
your pal
J Dexter
