Ron-
     
     Just to second your experience:
     
     My '91 Westfalia (automatic, too) seems to run all day with the 
     temperature needle just past center.  End of June saw We Five headed 
     from Albuquerque to Salina UT, through Durango over the "Million 
     Dollar Highway" to Grand Junction.  No problems other than slow on the 
     steep inclines.
     
     Back via Lake Powell.
     
     Lotsa hot desert, but as the sign used to say on the theater marquee, 
     "Its COOL Inside."
     
     -Blaine