Nope, no way. The kids like the 84 van but ya know, no shoulder belts, no
rides. As soon as the kids were out of baby seats, the van became a extra.

Volkswagen proved that saving 30 bucks a vehicle and making a much unsafer
van... just don't cut it.

Fricking a-holes.

So some day I will finish making the 84 into a Westy type vehicle. It will
serve my SO and I for trips to the mountains and seashore. Until then, I
haul junk in it.

Do I sound bitter? Be prepared. Get yourself another real vehicle. I hope
you don't regret selling the Toyota. How the heck could you  not have enough
room in it. We did fine with a Saab 9000.

tim in san jose

>From: joe trussell <vanagongl@HOTMAIL.COM>
>Reply-To: joe trussell <vanagongl@HOTMAIL.COM>
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: Family Hauler
>Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 02:02:42 +0000
>
>Hi List,
>
>I hate to add more fluff to the list, but I'm happy to be back and am
>sharing...
>
>I've had my second '85 GL for about four years now, and when my wife got
>pregnant eighteen months ago, we decided that the Vanagon was not going to
>cut it as our primary family hauler.  It went into the garage and we bought
>a '94 4Runner (with part of the downpayment courtesy of selling my '66
>Westy
>project--never even got to drive it.)  The 4Runner was a great truck, but
>we
>found out once we had our daughter that there was NO ROOM in it.  My wife
>was driving it, I was driving a '93 Corolla, and the Vanagon sat.  Then
>about six weeks ago we decided to sell the 4Runner--I can't believe the
>thing sold after being posted online for two days.
>
>To make a long story short, after the sale of the 4Runner we tried to
>justify to ourselves the expense of a Eurovan.  It just didn't make sense
>to
>me to shell out a gigantic car payment and only get 18 MPG.
>
>So, much like the USS Missouri in the '80's, my '85 GL has been taken out
>of
>mothballs and is now back in fulltime service as the primary family hauler.
>A Vanagon that once was used primarily for following bands, camping, and
>tailgating now has two strollers, a pack-n-play, and a carseat in it.  Our
>daughter loves riding in it; she loves the view.
>
>Nothing technically valuable here, just letting folks know that our Vanagon
>is once again worth its weight in gold, and in my opinion, all Vanagons are
>worth their weight in gold.  Of course, after driving it for a few weeks I
>realize that it needs brakes, shocks, eventually a new engine, and a
>thousand other things, but I find myself a much happier person turning it
>into our family machine, and I also am refamliarizing myself with this list
>after re-signing up from an 18 month absence and thoroughly enjoying the
>posts, even if there are a thousand today.
>
>Here's a photo of my Vanagon in the parking lot at Arapahoe Basin after
>making it over 12000 ft. Loveland Pass a couple of weekends ago fully
>loaded!  My daughter is checking things out, making sure I'm not leaking
>anything:
>
>http://photos.yahoo.com/joetrussell.
>
>Oh--Sidewinder Salvage in Commerce City has an '80 Sunroof van in their
>U-pull-it yard...Picked pretty clean, but somebody might find something
>useful on it.  Also, there's an aircooled sunroof van (same color,
>coincidentally) at Colorado Salvage out on Ratcliff.
>
>It's great to be back on the list.
>
>Joe T.
>Denver, CO
>'85 GL
>
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