[FC] Future FC Owner Questions

[Chris & Bill Strickland]

>1)? How hard is it to lower and lift the ramp on a Rampside?? I've got strong arms but weak legs and I walk with crutches and I'm curious if dropping the ramp will be a big deal or nothing much to worry about.
>  
>

Your choice -- IF you lower it, you'll have to raise it to drive away.  
Excellent advice has been given, find one and try it, as your mileage 
may vary from our experiences.

>2)? I've read that Greenbriers have troubles in cross winds.?
>

The only real issues I ever had in the Corvan was running accross 
northen New Mexico on a two lane road with about a 60 mph crosswind -- 
yeah, you knew there was a cross wind -- only issues were the big rigs 
that thought this was a short cut to somewhere, also -- when we passed 
in meeting, it was "interesting" -- no worse than any other similar 
sized vehicle. If one wants it heavier, and if I lived where the winds 
blew hard a lot of the time, I would consider that, a piece of half inch 
plate cut to fit into the lower floor would solve the problem (and 
generate others, probably).

>For those of you that have driven both Greenbriers and Dodge Caravans, how would you compare them?  
>

We owned an extended  V-6 Voyager during the 90's long enough to get 
near 200,000 miles on it -- about the same length of time and mileage we 
put on our Corvan in the seventies.  (Also have three Fieros, among 
others.)  They don't compare -- the Plymouth is like driving a poor 
handling passenger car (nearly rolled it once on ruts on I-5 (seventy 
mph lane change) -- replaced the oem tires with new Michelins and fixed 
that).  The Corvan drove like a great handling truck (most trucks drive 
pretty nice -- one would be hard pressed to stay up with my son-in-law 
and his one ton Dodge diesel p/u), but with forward seating -- if one 
can get comfortable with having the road in your face, they are great!  
It took a bit to get comfortable with it, mostly you tend to follow 
other vehicles at a more respectful distance when you first start 
driving any rig where you sit in front of the front tires instead of 
behind them.  They need "very good" shocks on the front, ala the 
optional oem heavy duty or better. My wife had no "issues" driving it 
either.

Currently have a 1960 700 for an operable collectible Corvair for 
driving (like the 22nd last, car events) and am working on a rampy as a 
to be daily driver, fwiw.  The Corvan was used hard in it's day, shows 
excessive wear and rust, and is now the parts source for the rampy project.

mo,

Bill Strickland
Oregon City, OR