I was afraid you'd say that. He said that I could bring the van back in a
couple weeks for a checkup. I'll find the relevant page in Bentley's
regarding camber and ask him to do it.

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
KG6RCR

On 11/24/2007 12:58 PM Jake de Villiers wrote:

> I'm hoping you meant they said the rear 'caster' was not adjustable
> Mike.  The rear camber is  adjustable and very important.
>
> Wishing you many happy miles to the gallon......
>
> On Nov 24, 2007 12:44 PM, Michael Elliott <camping.elliott@gmail.com
> <mailto:camping.elliott@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Hi Patti, welcome to a small club of Vanagon owners who are experiencing
>     pretty darn poor mileage for no known reason. We feel your pain. My 1984
>     Westy achieves a mighty 15.5 mpg on the highway, while others with the
>     same vehicle type get two to three more miles per gallon. My city
>     driving
>     is more like 11 mpg. I get about 240 miles per tank on the highway.
>
>     Many of the group's list contributors have offered suggestions for
>     things
>     I should consider (see
>     http://camping.elliott.googlepages.com/poormileage
>     for some of the things I've looked at). No explanation for the poor
>     mileage has been found yet.
>
>     But more than one list contributor has been pushing me to get my wheel
>     alignment checked. I noticed uneven front tire wear last January, so bad
>     that I had to take my van to a shop where the fellow spotted worn out
>     upper ball joints, and swapped the unworn rear tires for the front so I
>     could get home. But even after replacing the ball joints, the front
>     tires
>     started showing the same wear pattern, so I took the darn van to an
>     alignment shop last week.
>
>     Of the 14 measurements that their system made (caster, camber, toe, and
>     others), my van was out of range on nine of them. So they adjusted
>     everything -- everything except rear camber, said it's not adjustable.
>
>     Given the tire wear, a certain percentage of engine power has been
>     consumed scrubbing rubber off the tires. So next week I'm going on a
>     trip
>     on which the mileage has been previously measured. If the problem
>     has been
>     wheel alignment, I'll know it.
>
>     Fingers crossed!
>
>     Maybe there's something on my poor mileage page that will explain your
>     fuel consumption. Pretty much everything that anyone has suggested
>     is there.
>
>     --
>     Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
>     71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
>     84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
>     74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
>     KG6RCR
>
>
>
>     On 11/24/2007 12:18 PM PB wrote:
>
>      > Would I need new shocks, a wheel upgrade to 16" or both?  I have
>     to SLOWLY
>      > creep out of my normal driveway into the street, as if I'm
>     driving on
>      > eggshells in order to avoid hitting the street with my front
>     bumper.  This
>      > is not a steep driveway at all.
>      >
>      > Another question:  with local driving - no freeway, I have a
>     range of 169
>      > miles on a tankful of gas.  That seems extremely low.  With
>     freeway driving,
>      > my range increases to 189 - 200 miles.  Since I live only 3 miles
>     from my
>      > job, I don't do much freeway driving.  What's this all about?
>      >
>      > Thanks
>      > Patti
>      > Still very much a newbie
>      > 90 Westy automatic
>
>
>
>
> --
> Jake
> 1984 Vanagon GL
> 1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
> Crescent Beach, BC
> www.crescentbeachguitar.com <http://www.crescentbeachguitar.com>
> http://subyjake.googlepages.com/