Richard,

This is a classic example of a "plan to fail" approach that most of us fall
into.

I also used to carry around parts most likely to fail. I'd keep spare belts,
coolant hoses, ignition parts, a coil, etc, etc until I realized one day
that I was planning to fail instead of maintaining so that my machines don't
fail.

So, I went a complete different way. I routinely inspect wear items like
brake pads & such. I change out my brake fluid every 6 months. I replace
belts & hoses when they start to show wear or at 2 year intervals, whichever
come first. I find out what hard parts are likely to fail with age and I go
ahead and replace them at reasonable intervals.

I no longer carry around tool boxes or spare parts - I don't need them. I'll
even drive my 77 Corvette across country without tools - I don't need them.

I've done this for 15 years now and yes I've had breakdowns - 4 of them. But
all 4 were catastrophic failures that I could not fix on the side of the
road anyways.

Oh, and I drive 40K - 50K miles a year.

Another way to look at this is - airplanes don't carry around spare
parts......

Thanks,
Tom Hargrave
256-656-1924

Our Web Sites:
www.kegkits.com
www.stir-plate.com
www.andyshotsauce.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf Of
Richard A Jones
Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 5:24 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Rubber...Our best friend...Our worst enemy

> btw......the hoses that wear the most are the ones that get the hottest -
> usually ones on top of the engine.

Soon after I got my '87 Syncro in 2001, I asked my mechanic about
replacing hoses.  He has many years of experience with many
Vanagons, and he commented that there were four hoses that
were the most common to fail.  I put spares of those four on
board and drove for years until a hose started spewing coolant
at Syncro Safari '08.  It was one of those four.

I'd look up which four and give part numbers but my Syncro
is at the mechanic's getting a bunch of new hoses--connected
to a Subaru 2.5 engine.  ;-)

Richard