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jyl jyl is online now
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Nor California & Pac NW
Posts: 24,774
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I think you should find yourself a VW Vanagon Syncro (4x4).

Don't know first-hand about the off-roading ability but surely good enough for jeep tracks and fire roads. Should be fine in snow w/ right tires. Holds plywood sheets, and stuff up to 12 feet long. Particle filter, heated seats, sunroof, ESP - I guess you can add a bit of that, and will have to be a man and cope w/out the rest. (Where do you live, Beverly Hills?)

Then kit it out for camping - it should already have the Z-bed (rear bench that folds flat into double bed). Don't need the full Westy camping interior, make (or have a cabinet maker do) a minimalist (and removable) kitchen box. Don't need the pop-top, though it is a nice-to-have.

If you really want to, buy a junk Westy and transplant the cabinetry and pop-top. But you'll lose some hauling room.

Main weakness, when you have done all that, is that the Vanagon is pretty gutless. An engine transplant solves that, and the Subaru-Vanagon guys seem to have it all figured out, there are detailed instructions and kits w/ all the needed adapter parts to get a 150HP Vanagon. Personally, I just take my time. After all, you have a 911.

That's my vote. Go to thesamba.com and ask in the Vanagon forum for more (and more informed) advice.

Specs http://www.vanagon.com/syncros/technica/car-and-driver/index.html says 8.3" ground clearance.
__________________
1989 3.2 Carrera coupe; 1988 Westy Vanagon, Zetec; 1986 E28 M30; 1994 W124; 2004 S211
What? Uh . . . “he” and “him”?

Last edited by jyl; 01-21-2009 at 02:59 PM..
Old 01-21-2009, 02:55 PM
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