When I bought my first Vanagon in 1990 - it was an 85 GL. Bought it in
late summer, didn't know the first thing about them, bought a new set of
Good Year tires - automatically all weather types for Alaska. Drove
well, handled well - then came the first snow of the season and I was on
the way to Anchorage. I had just crossed the flats crossing the National
Moose range and started up the first serious grade. Wheels broke free
and she started to spin, I just let it go and at one point added a bit
of strategic power to complete my 150 degree turn. Never even slowed
down - went straight back to Soldotna and had a set of studded tires put
on that puppy. Never any problems any winter there after. Problem is now
0 so I have heard - that studded tires have been done away with. Have no
idea how a Vanagon would handle with  no studs - except spin-outs like I
did.

John

On 1/29/2014 7:36 PM, Mark Tuovinen wrote:
> A Syncro would handle it just fine as long as you remember that just
> because they can get going does not mean they will stop any better than
> other vehicles.  I used to have a Sunroof Syncro that was my year round
> daily driver until the wife gave me a 2010 Element EX AWD for Christmas
> 2009.  I did have Nokian studded tires on it but never had to engage the
> rear diff lock.  Could I have gotten it stuck, sure, all you have to do
> is try or screw up while not trying.  The nut behind the steering wheel
> has as much or more to do with it than whether or not is is a Syncro,
> has studded tires, diff lock, etc, but John you know this already having
> yourself lived for decades in this frozen.....err thawing out paradise
> we call Alaska.
>
> Mark in AK  still melting away in Margaritaville
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 11:57 AM, JRodgers <jrodgers113@gmail.com
> <mailto:jrodgers113@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Wishing I had one of the first three, but unfortunately, mine are the
>     latter - the one-wheel drive Vanagons.
>
>     Alabama really got clobbered yesterday with a snowstorm. By nothern
>     standards it wasn't much - two inches - maybe three in places. But strom
>     was expected to hit the southern part of the state - but it didn't do
>     much there - but did do much further north - and it caught the
>     weather-men in the back room with their britches down. As the day
>     progressed - the highways and by-ways became clogged with cars
>     colliding, sliding off the road, getting stuck on bridges, huge multicar
>     pile-ups, tractor trailer rigs jack-knifed across the roads, a total
>     mess. Schools closed, but the buses couldn't take kids home - they spent
>     the night in the school buildings - teachers with them of course - they
>     couldn't go home either. Parents couldn't get their little kids out of
>     day care - or nursery - nobody could go anywhere. People out on the
>     highways were walking to shelter any where they could find it. Temps
>     were 15 degrees. Many wound up spending the night in their vehicles. The
>     roads are still pretty much closed as I write this and people are still
>     being told by the DOT to stay home and off the r5oads. A thaw is
>     expected to begin Wednesday night and be well under way by Thursday -
>     with temps moving from mid to upper twenties into the 40's. IN the
>     meantime - it's a mix of water, ice and snow out there, and the City of
>     Birmingham where I am is shut down. Fortunately I'm well provisioned and
>     have heat - so long as power stays on.
>
>     This brings me to the point about the vans. I wonder how good a Syncro,
>     or a positrac or a peloquin would have performed in this. In Alaska we
>     always joked about people from the states bringing their four wheel
>     drives up to Alaska just to run off the road and get them stuck in the
>     snowbank. I laugh about this because in all my years in Alaska, the
>     first 15 I never had a 4WD vehicle - and in the last 15 years I only had
>     one for about 4 years. Most of that 30 years I drove a VW bus - s '68
>     loaf and later an '85 GL Vanagon. Never needed the 4WD. Would have been
>     nice - but not necessary.. Here - yesterday - many, many 4 WD vehicle
>     drivers found themselves off the road or in the ditch or in a collision,
>     or sliding across the highway or backward down a hill  in spite of their
>     4-wheelie-ness.
>
>     All that being said - I don't ever expect to own a syncro - but at
>     rebuild for my tranny, I fully expect to have the positraction rear end
>     installed.
>
>     Has anyone actually experienced driving the peloquin or the prositrac
>     under adverse conditions? Can you comment please.
>
>     Thanks,
>
>     John in Snowy Icy Birmingham. AL
>
>