I met a guy with a vanagon in Tahoe in 2009. He had a subaru 2.5 engine in
there. When I asked him about it, he said "ya, it's a 2010, I get them
before the cars come out....." and was extremely rude and cocky. I assumed
he was lying, as the engine looked several years old, and showed evidence of
having been in the van at least one winter (Corrosion and rusted bits).
Anyway, he had an HHO system in place, and it was funny to me to see it in
the engine bay. Between the two, he claimed some outrageous number like
50mpg in a vanagon. His cocky statement may have sounded something like "Ya,
I get like 50mpg with that turned on. I can turn it on and off on the fly. I
just don't run it much because I don't like too. So then I only get like
35mpg".
Meanwhile, I just knew this guy was defying the realm of possibility.

So yes, it's been done in a vanagon. I've seen it with my own eyes.
It was built by a liar in Tahoe, and operated by a rude gentelman.

I tried to make friends with this guy, talk engines more, "learn his ways",
etc. But he wanted nothing at all to do with another vanagon traveler. Oh
well.

-Craig

On Sat, Apr 16, 2011 at 8:25 PM, David Beierl <dbeierl@attglobal.net> wrote:

> At 08:08 PM 4/16/2011, Mike S wrote:
>
>> That's a lot of work. Even simpler, take off that energy-sucking
>> alternator, and drive only on battery for electrical needs. Then
>> recharge every XXX miles.
>>
>
> Simpler yet, take off that energy-sucking power steering system and
> replace it with one that is either electric or doesn't run the pump
> at a high head continuously.  Ok, not simpler - but more effective I
> think and doesn't have the weight penalty of having to have separate
> starting and running batteries.
>
> And simpler yet and probaby much more effective if you are city
> driving - shut off the engine if it's going to be idle more than ten
> seconds.  I think that's somewhere around the break-even point.
>
> Yrs,
> d
>