I'm with you Tom.  In 17 years of Vanagon ownership, I've yet to have a
break down (knock on wood) while on a trip.  Worse thing that's happened was
a partially clogged cat  Could break 65mph over the last 100 or so miles.

Now that I think about it, I've never had a break down in any car while on
trip in my life.  Wow!  That's kind of amazing.  I did lose a rod on a buggy
trip in baja, but I don't think that really counts.  Besides, I managed to
kinda/sorta fix that one enough to limp home.

Cheers,

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf
Of Tom Buese
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 11:17 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Roadside Troubles while on Vacationing

On Jan 5, 2007, at 11:44 AM, Malcolm Stebbins wrote:

> --- "Burdett, Jean-Pierre" <jp.burdett@SPOTWAVE.COM> wrote:
>> So how many of you here have experienced roadside
>> mechanical problems that required some big work or messed up your
>> vacation? How did U handle it? Or are most road trips stress free?
>
> I have never! had a trouble free vanagon trip over 2,000 kms.  BUT!
> nothing ever breaks twice! I
> get each item fixed right/correctly.  .......

Whoa,  I must be lucky or good looking or both, but I  have had
numerous trips of 3-6K miles w/o any breakdown, glitch at all in the
84 westy when it  was 18-23 years old.

All else said, Malcolm's points on dealing w/ problems are right on!

Other than tools, a bentley manual, my best mind savers are a cell
phone, AAA RV Plus card, & a gas can on the roof rack.

The reason that I probably don't have many breakdowns, knock on wood,
is that anytime something falters, I fix or have it fixed before the
next trip, & there is no substitute for regular maintenance, high
quality parts, service.

Tom B.- replacing oil, O2 sensor, sliding door handle today, for
BBBXI trip next week.