Hi everyone,

What are people's opinions of the best way to drive
over steep passes with the vanagon?  What I mean is,
what is the best way to do it to bring the smallest
amount of harm to the drive train of this van?  If you
are going over a steep pass in a mountain for 50
minutes, should you just go slow, like 30 mph?  The
slower you go, the easier it is on the transmission
and the axles, etc.  Or, is it better to go over the
pass at 80% of the speed of a particular gear, like,
either 30 mph in 2nd gear, or 48mph in 3rd gear?  If
you push the vanagon, will you hurt the engine?  I've
managed to go over passes alright, but I was
interested in an authoritative opinion on this
subject.  Obviously, these vehicles don't have the
most powerful engines in the world, but is the tranny
and the axles stronger, or is the whole drive train
weak?  Is just the engine the weak part?

The idea is not to take this vehicle over a ton of
passes, but if you can't avoid it, what's the best
approach?  I have an aircooled with a rebuilt engine
with 30,000 miles on it.  It is doing fine and I want
to keep it that way.  Sorry for overwriting.  :-)

Thanks, Phil Hanson

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