Just curious what tires and wheels you are running.

I can speak from personal experience that the tires and inflation have a huge impact on drivability in sidewinds.
My '71 Adventurewagon was much worse on crosswinds.

One thing I keep in mind when driving in sidewinds is that you want to drive as if you had a sailboat. Keep things going in the right general direction, but don't try to correct for every fraction of an inch the van moves - otherwise you will be tired and exasperated in short order.

Anyway, I found having the right tires makes a huge difference in handling in crosswinds. I have Michelen XCA radials and they are hardly bothered by crosswinds.

When I had my transmission redone I had them add a difflock from a syncro - have not had the chance to try it out yet.
A bigger problem I see - particularly when backing up is the lack of weight over the rear wheels. This seems especially true with the taller coil springs.

Todd
'88 Westy

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Don Hanson <dhanson@GORGE.NET>
> Hey, I have owned a lot of vans, but never a bay window.  Now, the 84 is
> drivable in wind, it just takes the fun right out of it.  On calm days, or
> days with a constant wind, no problem and I enjoy the drive immensely..But
> give some side gusts, or a constant side wind and lot of big
> rigs....(Highway 395 outside LA comes to mind here) and it becomes a big
> chore.  I've considered stopping and camping till the side winds quit, even.
>   Don't get me wrong, I ain't complaining about the van.  Overall, probably
> the best all round vehicle I've owned so far, but it has a few shortcomings
> in a few areas of performance, and those, I want to minimize (within
> reasonable cost and effort)  So now that mine works dependably and
> efficiently, has all the creature comforts I want, etc..I am working on the
> remaining flaws like poor traction and poor directional stability..relative
> term "Poor"...
>   I did almost get stuck on a dry road. Drove into a potential campsite and
> decided it wasn't good so we tried to back right out...no go...had to rock
> the van a bunch to get out..A locker diff would work or a Limited slip, I
> guess, but I don't see many lockers for sale and fitting a limited slip is a
> bit pricey...for now.
>   Don Hanson