Back in the day I remember my Dad's favorite car was a Studebaker. He
drove the life out of three in a row. He traveled on the road a lot, and
he needed a car that got good gas mileage even back then. His choice was
a 6 cylinder Studebaker with a manual transmission with over-drive. Now
I don't even pretend to know what over-drive is or how it works, but I
do know that it made a significant difference in the gas mileage. I
know  that you could just cruise along in over-drive, with the engine
just barely sipping fuel, but if you needed to pass or go up a hill a
hard press on the pedal would kick it out of overdrive and additional
power was then available. I also know that if you could ever get it
going fast enough in second gear - you could get it to kick into
overdrive while in second gear and eventually move that puppy up to over
100 mph. As to how I know - well, I was a teenager back then - so let's
not go there! ;-) .

So, my question is, what things might be done to a Vanagon transmission
that could increase the fuel mileage obtainable?  Are add-on over-drive
units available?  I know using a  tranny from a diesel  Vanagon with
gear ratio changes is one way to go if you can find one. One can also
change the gearing a little bit in the standard manual tranny. But what
other alternatives might be available, if any? How about subbing a
modern auto-trans from any vehicle at all into the vans, and coupling it
with a late model engine of some type - say a late Subie engine. I am
curious as to how our list Guru's feel about these possibilities. Daryl?
Dennis? Anyone?

Just speculating this morning. I don't plan to give up my Vanagons just
because fuel prices have gone out of sight, but I may have to alter my
use of them to be able to stay in budget.

Regards,

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver
Chelsea, AL.