Hi Dan,

        Welcome to the list. There is general agreement that you shouldn't
leave home without your credit card, AAA membersip and cellphone. As for
hand tools you'll get a variety of answers to that question. One extreme (which has a
lot of adherents) is that your preventative maintenance is so intensive
that you leave home with no tools but the aforementioned three. The other
extreme is 'enough tools to pull the engine at the side of the road' and
some have done it. I carry regular and deep throat metric sockets, metric
combination wrenches, 5 types of pliers, multi-driver and bits, ball peen
hammer (BFH), 2 types of visegrips, utility knife and scraper, prybar,
crowbar. Fuses, spare belt, oil, pre-mix coolant, some odd hose clamps. So
I guess I'm somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. These all ride in
tool bag that weighs about 30 lbs. Am I sick of lifting it around the
Westy when camping ---- Yes!. Would I leave home without it --- no, and my
wife wouldn't let me either :-)

Cheers,
Doug

>Okay Volkies,
>
>Now that I am a new Westy owner, I need to pick your brains... simple
question:?
>
>What tools do you keep in your vannies? What are the essential tools to
have for basic maintenance and emergency >repair (I already have duct tape
covered! :-) ? Okay.. so it was *two* simple questions.
>
>--=Dan
>'84 Westy

Dan Brustein <brustein@RCN.COM>
Sent by: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
04/15/2003 01:19 PM
Please respond to Dan Brustein

        To:     vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
        cc:
        Subject:        Essential Tools