I once drove with a rear flat and did not know it until someone waved me
down. That was on a 2 wheel drive. Yes, the Vanagon is quite stable with
rear flats. The Syncro will get your attention quickly though once the VC
starts grabbing.

Dennis

>From: Don Hanson <dhanson@GORGE.NET>
>Reply-To: Don Hanson <dhanson@GORGE.NET>
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: Rear flat at freeway speed...
>Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 21:21:20 -0700
>
>This morning at "O-dark-thirty" I headed west down I-84 towards Portland to
>make a bike race..About 1/2 an hour into the drive, I have a 'mandated'
>stop, and as I re-approach the van, I hear a hissing, like the radiator is
>boiling or a hose has a pin hole or something.."Great," I think," now I may
>have problems and miss the race."  I do a walk around and look for coolant,
>check everything visually..nothing...I only have about 15 miles to the
>race,
>so I think..."Get going, maybe it is just a little hot from the fast
>freeway
>driving..fix it after the race"...I start west again, with an eye on all
>the
>gauges..  This being the Windy Columbia River Gorge, the van is doing it's
>usual  gusty 'cha-cha' but I detect a little  more "Sashay" than
>usual..then
>I hear this huge 'bang!'...I check the mirrors and see a big cloud of
>smoke..."Dang" I think, "That bragging about how dependable my motor has
>been musta jinxed me, and she let go"  But the gauges still look
>normal..and
>then it hits....I have a freaking flat tire!  By the time I got slowed and
>off to the shoulder, the thing was in shreds..Lost one of my nice new
>K-mart
>wheel covers, too.
>    The van was remarkable stable without a rear tire.. Nankang LTR,  BTW,
>with good tread left..I would have thought with it's high center of gravity
>and short wheel base, a vanagon would be a real handful with a blow
>out..Quite the opposite..
>     So a quick change, and I still made the bike race..
>
>   Don Hanson