point well taken..

between my wife and 3 kids and 2 dogs..thats 5 people and 2 dogs we weigh a
total of 606#...so...i need that jump seat in order to make sure all of the
kids have seat belts...but i understand your point TJ and appreciate all of
that info that you posted....

jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
Of TJ Hannink
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2004 3:24 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: jumpseat brackets

Before installing that jumpseat in your Westy, do some calculations.  The GL
Camper with its built-in appliances and tanks has less payload than a
passenger type Vanagon even though they share the same chassis and GVWR. In
order to offset the extra weight of the appliances, VW limited the amount of
seating available by design.

So do some weighing of your vehicle and see what happens when you add an
additional seat, a passenger and their luggage to your vehicle. VW had to
use generic numbers for their calculations since they have no control of who
will actually be in the vehicle. A typical figure used to calculate payload
is 200 lbs per passenger, not including the weight of the seat itself. Do
you have that much additional payload capacity available when you are using
your camper as a travel vehicle/camper?

How you choose to modify your Vanagon is up to you, but take the time to
calculate the affects of your modifications. What works for one
listmember/Vanagon owner might not work for your particular situation. Your
payload is your family and friends, how much are they worth?

Good luck,

TJ Hannink
Goldibox - 1987 Vanagon Camper, Wolfsburg Edition
1981 Bluebird Wanderlodge, FC-33
Winter Park, Florida
http://home.earthlink.net/~tjhannink/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wolfsburg_campers
http://photos.yahoo.com/tjhannink [Vanagon] Album
FAVOR website:  http://home.earthlink.net/~clubvanagon

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