4Peaks 2018 - Festival Report

We took our now seemingly annual trip to Central Oregon for the 11th 4Peaks Music Festival. This brief post covers the festival part. I'll post separately (as I'm wont to do) about the drive there and back. After you've done an event a few times, the retrospective is really a summary of what changed and what didn't. Rather than just list things that way (which is how I started this post), I'll group things a little bit topically instead.

Location, Location, Location
What is true in real estate, is also so true in music festivals. A big festival at the city dump would be an awful experience no matter how good the music was, just as a festival on the outskirts of Bend with a great view of the Cascade Mountains is going to be a great experience no matter how memorable the bands are. In addition, the new-last-year festival grounds are spacious, allowing everyone spread-out room with large swaths of grassy field between camper sections. For example, from under our canopy we watched kids flying kites in the grass field (easily 20 meters across) between us and the neighboring car-camping zone.

EDIT: 4peaks removed the image of the map from 2018, so rather than have a broken image link, I removed it. I usually do not reference from the source; I usually download it to prevent this, but shit happens. end edit.

New this year was a specialty camp zone designated for camper vans sponsored by GoWesty. It is the light-blue rectangle-ish area pointing at 7 o'clock on the map image to the right here. This scene was orchestrated by "Ziggy", who got the festival to designate the space, found a sponsor, etc. GoWesty just brought an older well-worn Vanagon with an awesome TrailStomper SportsRig trailer and a sign. I think the concept was received well, GoWesty had a good time and I hope, if they do it again, they figure out how to bring some wares to sell to the camper-van community. Anyway, we had RSVP'd for that zone and found ourselves at the gate early enough to get the second spot in from "the Junction". We had set up at the intersection of the Junction last year, and hadn't intended to be so deep in the mix this year, but it turned out to be a great spot: level, near everything (not that anything is too far from anything else) and lots of friendly neighbors. In retrospect, though, I don't think we'll do the Westy-only camp next year.

Why? Consider when you see a beautiful painting on the wall all by itself. You can enjoy that painting, examine it, sit with it. When it is moved into a show with 30 other paintings, you can't help but compare them. A painting that you really liked is now being compare/contrasted with others, and that's not the point of art. I don't want to put Hapy in a spot where he is being weighed against others like that, so we'll just car-camp next year. For those who were walking by, it could have been intimidating. At most festivals, we have walkers-by asking about Hapy, and we love walking folks through it. We had zero non-Vanagon folks stop by this year.

The main festival area was oriented differently this year. The main stage was placed where the side tent was last year, and it pointed towards the camping zone. The tent/side stage was past where the food was last year, and it, too, had the stage facing the camping area. As a result, you could hear both stages if the conditions were right (little wind and no competing music). This made for some really wonderful sun-set and star-gazing in the Junction while listening to the bands.

Music

Every other year, there was a particular band or two that we went 4Peaks to see. This year, I bought the tickets before the lineup was announced, and none of the names really jumped out as the reason to go. Still, the bands were good. We probably saw more of the bands than other years, and we definitely heard more because of how the stages were oriented. Boo and I designated Kimock as our favorite with Maxwell Friedman following in second. Yes, both were on the smaller stage; most of the bands we really enjoyed were. The larger staged bands were good, yes, but the smaller stage had the New Mastersounds, Mojo Green, Chiringa!, Scott Pemberton... On the main stage, Mother Hips wasn't as good as I'd expected, and Poor Man's Whisky had a power outage. Nahko was good and North Mississippi All Stars were too, but, again, not as good as I thought they'd be. Maybe I need to check my expectations. Last band callout: Joe Craven and the Sometimers played a bunch of Grateful Dead tunes and did a really fine job. Of the main-stagers, they alone exceeded expectations.

This year, 4Peaks expanded to a third stage. Sort of. They added a small stage inside the kids' area (called Kidlandia) where singer-songwriters, possibly duets, would play. Unfortunately, this schedule wasn't as well circulated, so if you didn't have kids, you may have missed it entirely. I knew that our Sunday morning favorite Makaila was playing the kid's stage and we were able to grab some of her set. Honestly, she deserved a better setting, and wouldn't be surprised if she bags 4Peaks next year if that's the stage she's offered. With this change, they also abandoned the child performers who used to grace the stage on Sunday morning. I have mixed feelings about that; the kids were great, but Maxwell Friedman and Chiringa! played on Sunday. You can't get everything.

The Junction

The Junction is an intersection of the 2 major car-paths through the festival. Last year, The Furthur bus was parked there. There are a handful of vendors, there is a late-night kids movie after dark and this year highlighted a large figure (it looked like a Jesus fish standing on its tail) that shifted colors. 4Peaks had announced a fourth stage in The Junction, but that didn't materialize. The location of the Junction had moved west from it's location last year, and in so doing moved away from a small wooden stage. That small stage was unmoved, so it was out of the mix and the kids used it like a playground. Maybe that was why live music didn't happen at The Junction. Instead, one of the vendors (Dump City Dumplings) insisted on sporadically playing genre-inconsistent music from their food cart. It was not good. Actually, it just interrupted the music flowing from the stage. Next to them was a coffee and beverage cart that wasn't selling coffee. In the end, the Junction was a step down from what it was last year. Great for star-gazing when the DumpCity folks were between their interruptions.

Overall, we met some great new people, like Chris the coffee-roaster, Rachel the always-working festival staffer (who owned the dark vanagon behind Hapy in the picture above) and Mike-and-Suzie with the overheating Vanagon (just barely in the frame of that same picture). The music was good, the weather was just about perfect and when Sunday afternoon arrived, we really didn't want to leave. I'll post the road report separately; it was an adventure.

Engine Drop Thoughts

Over Labor Day weekend 2012, I dropped and re-installed the TDI engine so I could swap transaxles.  I had bought a newly rebuilt one from AA Transaxle in Seattle (See Transaxle Transition).  This Labor Day weekend (2014), I dropped the engine again to remove that transaxle so I could replace the input shaft seal.  In both cases, I leveraged the notes I made in 2011 when I removed and re-installed the fuel tank (see Engine Extraction).

In preparation for the drop, I re-read the notes and realized that I didn't explicitly state whether the bus had to be put on stands for the engine drop.  So, I thought I'd try it this time with the bus on the ground.  It can be done.  Once the engine is down, unless you're going to work on it right there, you still need to lift the bus to get the engine or transaxle out.  Admittedly, you only need to jack-up the passenger side so the transaxle can slide out, but still, its worth noting.  To get the engine out, it is a big hairy deal.

I am seriously considering changing the rear-end to have a removable valence like the early bay and the split-window buses.  Consider, I have a thick steel bar running across the rear from frame-to-frame, holding the engine.  This is creating increased stiffness at the rear, which (reportedly) was the motivation to eliminate the removable valence.  My thinking is that if I can remove the valence, I could lower and remove the engine/transaxle as one unit without having to lift the bus 3+ feet into the air or parking over a ditch (yes, I did that to install it the first time).

The transaxle is still on the ground in my garage, and the engine is still on the ground (on the ATV jack) under the bus.  I have pulled together all the bits and parts I need to fix the leak and re-install, and I hope to start some of that before the weekend.  For my own future reference, here are a couple fruitful notes on parts:

The pilot bearing for the KEP flywheel (all 200mm clutch adaptions): '99-'03 VW (Jetta, Golf, Beetle) 1.8 Turbo bearing
The stud / mounting bolts from the transaxle to the adapter are 3/8", standard (not fine) right-hand threaded.
The Circlip which holds the input shaft tight to the reverse gear is part number 004 311 317.

That's it for this time.  Hopefully, I'll be able to get under the bus tonight or tomorrow night to get the clutch/pressure plate off so I can seat the pilot bearing.  As always, thanks for following along-

Timing your Purchase

A friend of mine asked me about getting a VW bus this past week.  I thought I'd do a little post about what advice I gave.  T and I spent Saturday playing in the snow on Mt Hood, so I'll write a little about that too.

Spring in the Air, Snow on the Mountain
This has been one of the weirdest ski/snow seasons I can remember in the Pacific NorthWest.  We had virtually no ride-able snow until after the Winter Solstice.  SkiBowl wasn't officially open until well after New Years Eve (and they've been closed since the first weekend in April).  After a lame early and mid-season, the late season snow has really been coming on strong.  I'd seen that Timberline had been getting consistent snowfall last week, so after hosting a family friend from Australia and helicopter-parenting C to an 8:AM lacrosse game, T and I spent Saturday on the mountain.  The roads were wet from the steady rain, SkiBowl looked like late Spring and the Summit ski area looked like a spring meadow.  Our expectations for sliding were quite low.  As we ascended Timberline Highway, though, the rain slowly gave way to wintery-mix and then a steady snow.  The parking lots were nearly empty, but the falling snow wasn't sticking... to the asphalt.  It was definitely sticking to the slopes.

The smaller terrain parks on Thunder and Walt's Way had been taken down, leaving just the jumps.  So, while the high-fliers and hard-core terrain riders played on the big stuff fed by the Stormin' Norman lift, T and I had Thunder and Walt's Way to ourselves.  Neither of us had been on the snow much since his concussion, so it was really nice to just feel the snow under our feet and hang out together again.  As the day wore on, the snow got better, and the jumps less scary.  By the last run, we were both getting air (T doing tricks, me mid-air panicking) and sticking landings consistently.  It was a great day to play in the snow.

Pick One
As I mentioned at the start, I was asked about buying a VW camperbus.  I obviously love the idea.  There are 4 viable used models to choose from: splitty (T1), bay-window (T2-called "bays"), vanagon  (T3) and eurovan (T4, T5).  They all have their upsides and downsides.  Splitties look neat, but they are the most under-powered and probably the most rusty.  They can be very spendy as collector cars since they fell out of production in 1967.  Bays were sold from 1968-1979 in the US and were the most widely built/sold around the globe.  They were manufactured through 2013 in Brasil, making part availability unequaled.  Of the 4 styles, these are probably the least expensive.  The vanagon (1980-1990) is probably the most roomy, or at least it feels the most roomy, and is more powerful than most bays.  Called water-leakers by many, the early cooling systems are prone to rusting and failing.  Still, the Synchro (all-wheel-drive version) is really cool, and the camping portion of the vanagon is well done when compared to the bay (especially the early bays).  The Eurovan (T4 1990-2003, T5 2003-current) doesn't feel like you're driving a bus, but the interiors are very nice.  It could be the most reliable on the day of purchase, but also the most expensive to maintain, and it still feels like a standard mini-van behind the wheel.

When to Buy, When to Sell
Once you've chosen a target vehicle make/model, the next most important step is deciding when to buy it.  While this may not seem terribly important, it very much is.  You could considerably overpay if your timing is wrong.  I'm kind of a used-car market geek, trolling craigslist and eBay alot, and I've noticed distinct patterns.  We are entering the worst time of year to buy a car.  Car dealers hold "dad's and grad's" sales, so you'd think there would be excess inventory they are selling off.  In reality, there are lots of buyers in the market heading into Summer, and the car lots are trying to get those shoppers.  Who doesn't want a new-to-them car to play with all Summer?  Lesson to shopper: wait.  Wait until July when the price spike starts to pass.  As Summer wears on, prices drop until they bottom out in October.  By then, anyone who wants to get rid of a car before Winter is willing to take a loss rather than store it.  What remains after mid-October are cars held by sellers who think their car is worth more than it is, or very unusual cars which hold their value, but are only interesting to a niche market.  Over the Winter, the supply is thin so prices stay somewhat stable; not at late-Summer deal prices, but not as high as late-Spring either.  By March, prices start to climb again.  So, if you want to buy a bus, wait until the end of the Summer when the last guy who had that dream has decided he doesn't want to deal with it over the Winter.  Deal for you, and they found a new loyal owner.

That's it for today.  Sorry I didn't have any pictures of us playing in the snow.  We were too focused on enjoying the conditions to record how good it was.  Seriously, there's still snow in them thar hills.  Go play while you still can!

Engine into bus, Part II - kinda

Well, after a few hours of huffing and puffing, I couldn't get the engine in. It seems that my measurements were a little off, and the vacuum pump and coolant flange are an issue. That's the bad news. I was able to get the engine onto the ATV jack, using a jack stand, some lumber and another jack to get it in the air enough to slide the ATV jack under. I placed a 2x4 on each of the 2 ATV runners so the engine would be more steady and then put a couple of thin,narrow boards under the right side to give the engine the tilt necessary. This set me up fo mating to the main transaxle mount at the front edge of the engine bay.

I was able to get the mountpoint within 1/2" of the mount before the vacuum pump and coolant flange hit the tank. Stupidly, I thought the jack was getting caught on something underneath it, so I pushed it a little hard and cracked the coolant flange. Great. So, I pulled the engine back, removed the flange, stuffed a clean rag into the hole and set to work again, this time watching the top end. A few hoses were dangling in the way, so it took a few tries, and some hose holding before I could see the vacuum pump hitting the tank. So, I called it a day so I could think through the options.

option 1 - "contour" the tank
This is not a pretty alternative, but it might be effective. By deadening the blow with a piece of lumber, I could hammer a concave section into the tank. This would not look pretty. I could rupture the tank. But, most important, this would take a bunch of time and still may not fit right. It could be done without pulling the tank, though.

option 2 - buy a splitty tank
The old split-window bus fuel tank held between 8 and 10 gallons of fuel (depending on the year, with the last few years having 10 gallon capacity). The bay window tank holds 15 gallons. A split-window bus (manufactured through 1967) can stil be found in the Pacific NW. In fact, people with split-window busses frequently swap their small-to-them tank for a bay window tank. I don't have the dimensions of the split window tank, but it would have to be at least an inch if not 2 inches less deep to be worth my while, fitment-wise. If I learn the dimensions, I'll post them here. The original tank is 36" wide by 11" deep by 9" high. Its not a square box for those doing the math at home and asking why am I saying the capacity isn't 15.5 gallons. Either way, if I were to go this route, I would be choosing to reduce my miles-per-fillup by 1/3. Of course, I'd also be choosing to not carry 30 pounds (5 gal @ 6 lbs per gallon), so there is a small upside.

option 3 - unhook the tank and try again
Basically, with this option, I disconnect the hold-down straps and push the tank around to see if I can make it fit with the engine. I don't think its possible, but it might be worth trying just to see how far it misses by. Regardless, I'd rather have a full inch between the engine and anything that's not the engine, so this would probably be a waste of time.


In the end, I'm going to yank the tank and mount the engine without a fuel tank. Once I know I can mount the engine, I can drop it later to get a tank in there. My biggest enemy right now is time and the weather. Here, in the Pacific NW, the darkness comes very early, making night-time work impossible. The nearly constant rain (that usually is hammering us by now. its late) makes daytime work very unpleasant when I can even find daylight hours to do bus stuff. My goal is to get the engine in the bus and the bus into the garage as quickly and as soon as possible. To meet that end, the fuel tank is coming out on Friday, and the engine is going in.

I'll post pictures once its in. I hope that will be this weekend.... after turkey. I hope you have/had a nice Thanksgiving holiday. Personally, I'm grateful for employment, a leak-free roof over my head, food in the kitchen and smiling faces when I arrive home. Everything other than that is just gravy.