As I dive into making our new and wonderful  '90 Westfalia even more
wonderful, one area stands out in need of more wonderfulness, namely its
handling.   It sort of handles like, well, maybe a plate of mashed
potatoes.     This is a big contrast to our 87 Wolfsburg, which handles
very well indeed, even with a loose upper control arm bushing.   

I've got new shocks and sway bar rubber bits, and steering rack mounting
bushings on order, but the old ones are not noticably bad.   Tire pressures
are right, same tires front and rear.   Sway bar is 21 mm dia (supposed to
be the right dia, according to the guy at the local dealer.)   Milage is
low (76,000).   Tires are Michelin MXLs (205s).   Pressures are 30lb front,
40lb rear

So some questions:

Should I just expect that Westy's are mushy handling?    I expect that with
the added weight of a camper, and lots of it in the top, handling will be
worse than a straight van, but much worse?   
Can one of you with both a late regular vanagon and a Westy describe the
handling comparison?

Does anyone know the diameter of their late Westy sway bar?

Has anyone put a larger diamerter bar in?

Also - the Westy seems to sit  about 2" higher (wheel to bottom of wheel
well) than our 87 Wolfsburg (which might have more settled springs, since
it has 147,000 miles on it)

Did the late Westy's get the lowered suspension that other late vans have?
 I can imagine that they might have kept it high to get more ground
clearance under the propane tank.

Dave

87 Wolfsburg
90 Westfalia