I disagree completely.....
I have a van that was equipt with power steering when I bought it, and
through a series of silly mistakes, now does not have power steering. Just
one thing to note, vans that were originally equipt without power steering
are different than those that just disabled it. Their geometry is different
and they have larger steering wheels, both of which drastically improve the
"strong arming" practice of driving slowly in a parking lot. Bigger tires
will hinder a non-power steering equipt van for sure, but I definately
disagree with the cross wind problem. If your van is being blown all over
the road you have a problem, that's not the steering system. Your drop links
are probably broken, or your tires are underinflated/softer than they should
be. A well tuned vanagon should be able to handle cross winds in such a way
that its not terrifying, AND I feel the manual steering makes it
substantially easier to feel the wind's pull on the vehicle to correct it. I
have no plans to add power steering back in, I prefer the manual setup that
much.

Several members of this list (who don't have to list their names) have taken
my van for a drive and only after we'd pull back into their driveway i'd ask
if they noticed the lack of power steering....
Many of them didn't.

If I were doing it again, I'd buy a van that came stock without power
steering, I really like the way those drive.
Power steering on a heavily lifted syncro westy would be something you want
or even need, but on a 2WD where the front suspension and drivetrain doesn't
bind the steering system, i see no point.

-Craig
'85GL Turned WESTY
BOSTIG in the back
Strong arms. : )

On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 10:12 AM, Jeff Lincoln <magikvw@gmail.com> wrote:

> Good point Michael - I hadn't really considered the cross wind factor.
>
>
> --
> Thanks,
>
> Jeff
> '90 Carat (Grover)
> '86 (We call this one Parts)
> '78 Bus (Melissa) Patty's Bus
>