Your van is 21 feet long? Try 15 feet!    ;)

On Fri, Nov 26, 2010 at 7:22 PM, Jonce Fancher <streetbugs@frontier.com>wrote:

> Yep That about sums it up!
> My shop we make Windshield Covers, Bras/Masks, Tire covers and do
> interiors on these things. They are INSANE inside and out if you have
> the coin to push them. What kills me is they tend to need a Tow
> Vehicle which adds to the confusion and pain. We did some work for
> one this past summer that was 43 feet long! Talk about massive and
> Taller then most we see. Blocked out the sun sitting in my drive.
> One guy had the massive land yacht and towed a air cooled Bug. Did
> another that towed a 34 or 36 foot triple axle trailer that held his
> and hers Mazda miata. Hard to believe it but I have seen it. I
> usually show off my 21 foot Gas Pusher Vanagon. Not sure if they
> understand what I am getting at when I point it out to them.
>
> All in good fun!
> Jonce
>
>
>  At 01:25 PM 11/26/2010  -0800, Loren Busch wrote:
>>
>>> Mega Millions or Power Ball you can expect to see me in a 40' Land Yacht,
>>>
>>
>> You can use some of those millions to hire someone to read the
>> manuals for you...my brother's 35' "diesel pusher" came with a custom
>> ballistic nylon briefcase twelve inches thick, filled with twelve
>> solid inches of manuals.  Aside from knowing how to run things,
>> there's a maintenance schedule for the Allison six-speed automatic
>> transmission, there's a maintenance schedule for the Onan 12 kW
>> generator, there's an extremely stringent maintenance schedule for
>> the Caterpillar engine, there's a maintenance schedule for the
>> Freightliner chassis...he's been to Winnebago school, Freightliner
>> school...
>>
>> It's a very very serious piece of equipment.  The cabin slides are
>> hydraulic, and they're *strong.*  The leveling feet carry seven
>> thousand pounds plus each, and I've seen one punch a hole six inches
>> deep through an asphalt parking pad in a state park.  It's about
>> twelve feet high IIRC, and just washing the windshield is a job.  The
>> systems control panel is maybe eight inches wide and taller than a
>> man, and it's not full of empty panel space.  That's for the
>> generator, inverter, furnace, air conditioners, engine-heated hot
>> water, electric-heated hot water, fresh water, gray water, black
>> water.   And you have to (or at least he does) worry constantly about
>> tank capacity, pumpouts etc.
>>
>> The interior furnishings are built with the expectation that it's
>> going to be driven on tip-toe, which he's only very gradually
>> realizing.  I was on board when he tore the bathroom apart (somewhat)
>> going around a traffic circle.  He's never ridden in the back, so he
>> has no idea what the passengers experience driving down the Skyline
>> Drive at five over the limit...
>>
>> It has Corian countertops -- and barely enough excess load capacity
>> for passengers and some baggage.  I bet its usable load capacity
>> isn't a great deal bigger than a Vanagon's.
>>
>> It has acres of custom metallic gold-beige paint on acres of custom
>> panels that cost the earth if you dent one.
>>
>> It gets around 5 mpg from a hundred-gallon tank of diesel that also
>> fuels the Onan.  If you're not plugged into fifty-amp service
>> (including running down the road) you have to run the generator to
>> power the air conditioning.
>>
>> With all four slides open it's enormous, and with them closed for
>> travel it's cramped.  To level the thing and open the all four slides
>> when you stop takes possibly close to ten minutes.  To close it all
>> up and pull up the feet somewhat less.  The whole thing is as
>> discreet and inconspicuous as a Greyhound bus.
>>
>> I admire the heck out of the thing, and you couldn't pay me enough to
>> own it or be responsible for it.  For that much aggravation I'd have
>> a large sailboat instead, and I'd much rather have a smaller
>> sailboat.  Similar length but a quarter or less as much space and
>> *much* simpler systems.  And an engine a lot closer to 35 hp than 350...
>>
>> Riding in it through the city I was very grateful for the smoked
>> glass -- I felt like a bloated plutocrat with the peasants outside
>> staring in in envious wonder.
>>
>> Yours,
>> David
>>
>

--
Jake

1984 Vanagon GL 1.9 WBX 'The Grey Van'
1986 Westy Weekender/2.5 SOHC Suby 'Dixie'

Crescent Beach, BC

www.thebassspa.com
www.crescentbeachguitar.com
http://subyjake.googlepages.com/mydixiedarlin%27