Early campers up to 1967 (the vw split screen campers) are really collector’s items now and sell for more than the campers made 30 years later. They are also slow and small. The 68-71 Westfalia bay window camper still had the weak upright 4 cylinder engine and the extra camper weight made for a slow ride and short engine life.

Then in 1972, the VW van got the larger Type 4 engine(same basic motor that went in the Porsche 914) so it had more power, but still blew around in the wind a lot and those campers were made until 1979. The later 70’s models only came in three colors. The basic camper was the white one, the middle grade was orange and the top of the line was the pea-green color.

In 1980, the new much squarer, larger body styles were introduced which was called the VWT25 (known as the Vanagon in America . These type 25s had a wider footprint on the ground, better suspension which cut down on the cross wind issues a lot, as does having the right “stiff” sidewall tyres on these vans as well, as passenger car tyres are unsafe on these vans. They weighed more, but still used the type 4 engine until half way through the 1983 model year when VW went to a water-cooled engine with the radiator up front and the motor still in the back. In 1986, they increased the engine size to 2.1 litres but stilll had barely 100 hp. to move a 5000 pound camper around.

The Westfalia, with more of its camper weight on the driver’s side than the passenger side, can have a noticeable lean to it as most of these campers have over 200k on them now.

The 86-91 model years are good ones to go for and parts are still readily available. Even the bay window 68-79 buses are getting to be collector’s items now and parts are getting hard to find as well. The “waterboxer” engine on the VWT25 looks a lot like the aircooled motor when you open up the rear hatch, but it does have a problem with leaking head gaskets so make sure that’s been repaired before you buy one. Bleeding the air out of the cooling system is a challenge that only a Vanagon trained mechanic will know how to do. If not done properly, you can fry a cylinder head in a matter of miles.

The Vanagon also has another quirk; it has 43 radiator hoses and to replace all of them(entire kits are available) will be about £300. The automatic transmission is awful on hills and gets worse mileage than the 4 speed manual. Petrol consumption is not great. Don’t buy one thinking you’re going to get 25 MPG as most of them get in the 16-18 range when they’re running properly and you aren’t in a hurry.

The manual transmission with over 150k on it can and eventually will be difficult to shift into 3rd and 4th gears due to a cracked slider hub assembly. Make sure that that has been taken care of, or prepare to rebuild the transmission. If you want more power for your Vanagon, there are conversion kits to put several different Subaru engines and the transplant, although expensive, does provide much better power and torque and sometimes, better mpg.

To get 25 mpg, you’d have to fiind an old 82 or 83 diesel camper and they are VERY rare. They crank out a whopping 58 hp and definitely do zero to sixty in an afternoon. If you want 25 mpg, then the best bet is converting your Vanagon over to the late model VW TDI diesel. The true cream of the campers, is a 91 Westy Syncro as it has all wheel drive and more ground clearance than the regular Vanagon chassis.

Step-by-step guide here

http://www.vwcampersforever.com/category/buying-and-selling

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