I have a '90 Transporter and I have put half a yard of gravel in it with no problems.  It just starts to ride more smoothly.  Compared to the Ford ranger pickup I had it is much more capable of carrying a load.  Last year I drove across Canada with three kayaks and a windsurfer on the roof, four adults and a big dog in the van and all our camping gear for three weeks on the road in the back.  The people alone weighed in at close to 1000 lbs. Don't be deceived by the over engineered LandCruiser (designed for a different job),  the Transporter is a very capable truck.  

Gary Davis
'90 Transporter "Ute"
'73 Sundial Safare "Vicki"

-----Original Message-----
From:   Malcolm Holser [SMTP:mholser@ADOBE.COM]
Sent:   March 3, 1998 5:57 PM
To:     Vanagon@VANAGON.COM
Subject:        One-Ton vans

I was always somewhat amused by the fact VW always called the Transporters
"one-ton" vehicles.  There is not much correlation to US one-ton vehicles --
my LandCruiser is a half-tonner, and is built much more massively (and
gets 10mpg...).

I was reminded of the oddness of ratings like this when I opened up my
Sun computer to find out what is amiss with the power supply after many
power outages yesterday.  The Sun has the power-supply-from-hell, but it is
only rated at 350 watts -- common enough rating in tower PC's.  The thing
that reminded me of the VW was all the German writing inside the supply --
it turns out to be an Austrian power supply.

I guess that their computer parts are conservatively rated, and their vans
rather optimistically rated.

Malcolm