A tale of two vans' travels: Over 25 trips together

[T.Low]

Ha! Thanks Ryan.

Practicing descent control at a local spot.



Owhyee '08

http://youtu.be/vqGQJ87lHXY

Pucker Pass
http://youtu.be/XebJ3IyvFIQ

 

[GNTY]

This is such an awesome thread. Makes me think of the trips my Father and I go on, and motivates me to continue the adventure, i just wish his rig was more offroad capable, coming from a guy with a Class C I can appreciate both rigs, the SMB is an awesome unit but that Astro of yours Tom is so well thought out and done right. There is no better astro build ive ever come across on this planet. Your pictures are beautiful, i'll be hitting you up for location names of those

 

[Stroverlander]

T.Low, excellent thread and thanks for posting all these wonderful photos and videos. You truly are an inspiration, so thanks again.

Also, great comparison from both you and Railvan.

For a guy who works hard for his money, the Astro is a screaming good deal.

Railvan, so you're saying you're more of a "money for nothin' and chicks for free" kind of guy? :sombrero:

 

[Railvan]

[/QUOTE] Railvan, so you're saying you're more of a "money for nothin' and chicks for free" kind of guy? :sombrero:[/QUOTE]

"I shoulda learned to play the guitar..."

 

[T.Low]

Sometimes when Brian works Saturday's, I'll take off Friday after work and explore solo until we rendezvous Saturday pm. I'll bring his SPOT device from which I can email my Saturday coordinates to his phone. Hasn't failed us yet.

As you can probably imagine, I don't mind waiting a bit for him.

 

[T.Low]

 

[T.Low]

Cable ferry crossing the upper Fraser in B.C.'s interior at Lytton.

 

[Railvan]

A tale of two vans' travels: Moab area

The Moab, Utah area is a popular 4x4 destination and if you have been there it's obvious as to why. There are tons of roads and trails to explore, great weather, and the amazing red rock scenery. Tom and I and friends Keith and Cindy went there in April 2013.

 

[Railvan]

T.Low's Astro on Crankshaft hill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gHNWUSQPUU&feature=youtu.be

The photo I posted earlier of Tom looking under the front of his van was at the top of this hill. A steering arm broke on this climb. We strapped it together with two ratchet straps and he not only drove back down to camp, but drove it all the way home like that while I followed him. Gotta love team work!

 

[T.Low]

Yea, I did find that since my body is failing me and I can't do this anymore



I tend to run the van in harder areas now. :bike_rider:


That's totally my fault because I instead of fixing worn motor mounts, I went on a trip and then had to do a field adjustment and my miscalculation resulted in over stressing the drag link brackets until one of them broke (long story). Then instead of replacing both of them, I only replaced one. The next trip included crank shaft hill. I should have carried more speed. Ultimately the heavy foot after I lost traction broke the already stressed drag link bracket. Wasn't that big of a deal, but I knew I should have replaced it prior to the trip. :snorkel:
My hands barely work now, I had to rely 100% on Brian for the field fix.

 

[Dumpolina]

T, B, awesome as always. You guys sure get to some great places.

 

[T.Low]

Thanks, G.

 

[T.Low]

This is such an awesome thread. Makes me think of the trips my Father and I go on, and motivates me to continue the adventure, i just wish his rig was more offroad capable, coming from a guy with a Class C I can appreciate both rigs, the SMB is an awesome unit but that Astro of yours Tom is so well thought out and done right. There is no better astro build ive ever come across on this planet. Your pictures are beautiful, i'll be hitting you up for location names of those

Especially coming from you, thats a very big compliment. i definitely appreciate your vision although our immediate needs haven't yet been aligned. All your 4x4 conversion threads I've read with great enthusiasm and admiration, then the C class blew me away: absolutely perfect.

Running into you guys multiple times in Moab, then joining your convoy on the way out was one more part of it being such a great trip. You've got an awesome family and set of friends.

When I can't sleep at night, instead of counting sheep I count 4x4 campers: Your Class C is always in the top five.

 

[T.Low]

T.Low, excellent thread and thanks for posting all these wonderful photos and videos. You truly are an inspiration, so thanks again.

Also, great comparison from both you and Railvan. overlander.


:

Thanks a lot. It's great to see you, snow geek, Herbie, and others take the AstroLander concept and run with it. You've all done amazing work. We are so few in number, we're each a bit of a pioneer with regards to our respective builds. Most people simply cannot get past the bland-ness and uncool generic-ness of the Astro to be able to see its utilitarian nature and how little work it takes to reach its potential as a solid performing overlander.

Last summer, Vanagon Syncro shop Das Mule Outfitters put on an all off-road camper van meet, so fellow Astro owner Kevin Stiltz and I decided to finally meet in person to "represent". Joe, the builder of Das Mule, is widely considered to be a major guru in the vanagon community. Boeing engineer by day, he has built one incredible Syncro camper. He crawled all over our two lifted Astros and went out and bought one for himself to build. I am enthusiastic to see what he comes up with.

( And yes, that's Brian's SMB in the background )

 

[Railvan]

Last summer, Vanagon Syncro shop Das Mule Outfitters put on an all off-road camper van meet...

I hope they host this meet again this summer. It was great seeing vans of all types together.