Upgrading your Vanagon wheels can make your Vanagon significantly more stable. The original 14″ rims are okay, but you tend to roam all over the road, especially when passed by a large semi-truck. Any larger wheel that you put on your van will give you more stability, but you will likely have to figure out how to add spacers and new bolts, and it can be a hassle. We were going to put my old Mercedes rims on my Vanagon, but we opted to go a different route. Check out the options after the jump.
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When you park the Vanagon during the summer months it can get hot quickly. A 12 volt oscillating fan can be helpful to move the air around. I like to clip mine on the rear view mirror, or the ash tray lid. The dash board seems to be a favorite location for a fan, but people have different ideas for the perfect fan placement. Where do you mount your fan?
Click through to see more placements.
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Vanagons are used for all sorts of things and fire and rescue trucks are no exception. There are many examples of Vanagon fire trucks floating around. These are just a few examples from The Samba. Click through for a few more.
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The Vanagon is known for being a compact camper, but as we’ve seen before it can be used for many other things. Food trucks are popular these days, and here is another Vanagon turned food truck. This time it’s a French waffle shop. Click through to see more.
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This hack comes from Dan Reed and I love it! I can’t say it’s the easiest way to stay cool in the summer, but if you are camping for an extended period it might be worth it. As you can see, Dan placed an air conditioner in the window of his Westy. Click through to see how he did it.
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If you are looking for more storage space in your Vanagon here is a tip. This user built an extra cabinet that resembles the stock cabinets in his 91 Westy. The cabinet resides behind the passenger’s seat and offers a drawer, cabinet, and counter top. This is definitely on my short list of hacks that I will add to my Carat. Goodbye jump seat. Hello cabinet!
Hit the source link below for a few more suggestions from a well traveled Vanagon owner.
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GoWesty and Van Cafe sell the Rhino Design Studio Center Console for Vanagons. One customer decided the console would make a nice place for a subwoofer, and he set out to make his dream happen. The results are quite nice as he hacked up that console very well. The best part is he published a step by step guide on how he did it. Click through to see how he did it.
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There are several ways to dampen sound in the Vanagon. Most of them include placing some kind of sound proofing or roofing material on the floor and interior side walls. This guy decided to also place a rubber mat under his carpet for even more insulation. Click through to watch how he did it.
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Most people run with carpet in the back area, but some people change it up a bit. Check out this vinyl tile installation in the back area of a weekender. The folks at VanagonTravels.com ripped out the old worn carpet, popped in some underlayment, then adding vinyl tiles. Looks great and it’s easy to maintain!
Check out their website at the link below for more.
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If you have an auxiliary battery in your Vanagon you may want to beef up your alternator wiring harness. GoWesty sells an alternator wiring harness upgrade kit for $40 that will upgrade the entire harness. It consists of the wire that goes from the alternator to the starter, the field wire, and the wire that goes to the fuel injectors. It’s a nice upgrade, but we decided to do a partial upgrade ourselves for kicks. Click through to see how we did it.
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