Hi Arlen,
    I have my flame suit on. Another option for a non syncro is get a donut or small spare tire, they are much lighter.  You will
need to drive very slowly if you ever put the donut on the ground.  The spare on our 78 westy is a donut that I attach under the
nose opening up cabinet space where the full sized spare formerly lived. I have driven the 78 slowly on  the donut fully loaded it
held up ok.

Darrell

----- Original Message -----
From: "Arlen" <manx1342@QWEST.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2001 2:16 AM
Subject: Another project?

> My Vanagon has always felt 'nose heavy' to me. What I recently did was
> move my spare tire to the right rear corner (inside) and I felt a
> dramatic improvement. Now, since I don't want to give up my bed or
> access to the engine cover I'm thinking I'd like to move it outside on a
> swing out carrier.
>
> My research has turned up two possibilities so far. It seems there is a
> Winkler (Ortec?) available but I haven't heard anything about the
> durability of this model. The other lead is the Syncro Multi-van, but I
> certainly can't afford the near $2500 USD that David Marshall is asking
> for the ones he's bringing back from Germany (that's $500 more than I
> originally paid for my vanagon). I'm sure they're durable
> but................
>
> A third option might be to build one locally but I haven't been able to
> turn up any good pictures of them. The more I think about it the more I
> like this third option. Maybe even aluminum. Or stainless. I have a
> friend with a lathe and a mill. For $2500 I could buy a real nice TIG
> welder. Hmmmmmmm............
>
> Any ideas or pictures floating around out there?
>
> Arlen
>