RE: Better Ride with Better Shocks
Okay, based directly on my experience with an '85 Westy and now a '90 Westy.
Going from 'wrong' tires to right tires: Oh Wow!!  I don't feel like I'm
riding on an elephant in a mud wallow!
Replacing badly worn shocks with new KYBs:  Double Wow!  The damn thing
actually tracks on the highway! (Include a wheel alignment also)
Replacing the KYBs with Bilsteins (HD, Bilstein doesn't list the Touring for
the Vanagon) because replacing shocks was cheaper than replacing the
fillings in my teeth, I now have a vehicle I can drive with both confidence
and comfort.  A friend is sure the KYB stands for "Kill Your Butt" or maybe
"Keep Your Bilsteins".
Neither one is perfect, you're not going to get sports car handling.  If I
never drove on anything but very smooth blacktop or concrete the KYBs would
be fine.  But on any rough surface, especially washboarded dirt roads, they
are just to stiff.  With the Bilsteins my Westy handles much better.  There
may well be a better solution (some say Koni) and I know the Syncro drivers
love the OMEs but for what I do and where I drive the Bilsteins are a very
good solution.
YMMV