it's a consequence of the vehicle design ..
I DO appreciate that the Vanagon is the last version of the original
concept ..
oppossed 4 cylinder aluminum rear mounted engine ..
that starts with the very very first VW Buses ...1954 or about there ..
and they evolved the design through 3 basic versions ( Spitty, Bay Bus,
and Vanagon ) .
I like that.

rear mounted radiator..or even twin rear mounted small radiators ...not
practical generally .
Though ...that would keep the major cooling system parts in one area..
and help the weight distribution ..which oddly, on a 2WD Vanagon is
about 55 % of the weight is on the front axle.

and generally ...a front-mounted radiator is the most easily-successful
arrangement, high air pressure there, etc.

And sure ...there are scads of cooling system parts ..one of the Charms
of water-cooled Vanagons let's say.
On 9/6/2015 12:17 PM, PSD wrote:
> Yeah, not counter intuitive just over-complicated.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of SDF ( aka ;jim lahey' - Scott )
> Sent: Sunday, September 06, 2015 4:01 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: [WetWesties] The Vanagon cooling system.. it's counterintuitive.. (long post)
>
> I wouldn't say it's counter-intuitive really ..
>