The trip in review: Good/Bad

The trip had good and bad points

Good

• The Vanagon's seller fully disclosed everything he knew about it, so I was able to prepare more for the ride home. Before leaving Nevada, I had the tools, oil, etc. that I needed for the drive...as well as a small fire extinguisher [which I did not need to use]


• And, although the seller didn't have a shop manual for the Vanagon, he did have a Subaru shop manual [for the Vanagon's Subaru engine]. The shop manual also covers my 1996 Subaru Outback wagon. This is great because for 3 years I have been making do with an online manual.


• Despite consuming so much oil, the engine did not seem to smoke except a small amount when it was started. With all the cops I passed on the road, and with me having Nevada plates [thus out-of-state for all but the first 50 miles of the trip], if it had smoked, they certainly would have given me a ticket.


• I started the trip off with plenty of food [Trader Joe's] and a 5 gallon jug of water, as well as cellphone coverage, my 100-mile-tow AAA card, and a GPS receiver [lent to me by a work colleague]. So if I broke down, I could call for help and tell them exactly where I was located.
  
• The odometer was not working, and I was not sure if the speedometer was reading correctly. So, I used the GPS receiver to test the speedometer, and found out that it was pretty accurate.


• I got to see my cousins Dan and Jude, awesome people whom I have only been able to see every 5 years or so.


• Despite going over mountain passes as high as 8000 feet [nothing compared to Colorado passes], the engine never overheated or caused me to go as low as second gear. Therefore I know that the radiator/cooling is working very well....which will be good when I install another engine.


• Realizing that despite getting the a/c compressor to turn, I realized that the a/c probably wouldn't work. Therefore I had bought the ice chest, ice, and bottled water early in the day before the weather go too hot.


• Realizing that the starter motor was not reliable, I parked on slightly inclined places where I could 'bump start' the car [which I had to do a few times]. Although gas stations are always on flat ground, the starter always worked after I had stopped for gas.


• There were no traffic problems: US 395 was not very busy on Saturday, but would surely have been much more busy on Sunday. So, with the higher speeds, low humidity, and the windows down, the car stayed a lot cooler than if I had to go slowly.


• The scenery was incredible, especially in California the high altitude areas near Bridgeport, Mono Lake, Mammoth Lakes area, Owens Valley, and in Arizona from Williams to Flagstaff. I must have left my camera on, so by Sunday morning the battery was dead. However I did take some pictures on Saturday.


• I stopped in two places [Obsidian Dome near Mammoth and near Williams AZ] to collect rocks for my rock garden...and the Vanagon started both times without problems.


• The trip made me appreciate modern conveniences. I can only imagine what such a trip would have been like in the days before automobiles and good roads...to say nothing of having air conditioning!

Bad

• The engine burned a LOT of oil, but luckily I had bought plenty in advance.


• The air conditioning system never did work, so it was a rather uncomfortable ride home...much of it being over 100 degrees. I added a can of refrigerant to the air conditioning system, but the gauge showed as having high pressure in the system already, so I didn't want to put any more refrigerant into it. I wasn't sure if the gauge was accurate, but I didn't want to take the risk of having any lines burst.


• Several times, it refused to start, which I later found to be a loose wire to the starter.


• The odometer didn't work, so I had to estimate the distances [when to stop and put in more oil.


• The ventilation fans worked intermittently, so there must be a short in the fan switch wires.


• The muffler came apart, so by the end of the trip, the muffler was hanging down.