What Has My Trabant Ownership Experience Been Like?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
- I try to sum up three years of happenings into 13 minutes. Also, the engine falls apart.
Adam Benko currently has 3 Trabants for sale in the US. Two Sedans and one wagon. You can contact him here: adam.benko@yahoo.com
Patreon: / agingwheels
Merchandise: teespring.com/...
That looks EXACTLY like my mom's stolen Ford Taurus.
100 internetpoints for you!
I got bored and was looking thru people's sub lists. I subbed to you.
Wasn't the Trabbi used in a Dukes of Hazard episode??
You mean OUR Four Taurus
It doesn’t!!
The trabant wasn't a symbol of oppresion to the people of the eastern block, it was quite the opposite. It may have been a sympton of a broken system, but to the people that owned them they stood for freedom.
and east germans love their trabants still to today. in germany, east german cars and bikes are vehicles, loved and driven by young people too.
it took only 20 years to get em
@@Feliday I don't know if you are from eastern germany but in my village alone (~500people) 3 Adults own a trabant, 3 more teenagers want one as their first car, and almost every teenager has a S51/S50 or a Schwalbe
@@kemian4156 same here (between Rostock and Stralsund)
I went for a Lada 2101 as my first car myself, but a friend of mine has a few S51s and Schwalben
Even the words "broken system," don't seem to capture everyone's experience with it either. A troubled system, may be a better way to describe it. There was an interview I remember where someone who'd lived through the DDR and the transition to a whole Germany had something to say like "I may not have been able to vote for president, but I could vote to remove my boss."
Women's status in Eastern Germany was actually better in some ways than it is today in reunified Germany.
"We're not talking about ornithology, but about Germany's gender pay gap. Germany has one of the highest pay disparities between men and women in Europe. On average, German women earn 21 percent less than men, about the same disparity as the United States..."
"In East Germany, nine out of 10 women worked outside the home, as teachers and secretaries, but also as chemists, bus drivers and plumbers. That's a contrast to West Germany where, until 1977, married women officially needed permission from their husbands to get a job. In the 1980s, only about half of West German women worked outside the home."
www.pri.org/stories/2017-12-07/women-germanys-east-earn-close-what-men-do-can-we-thank-socialism
“Actively choosing not to worry about it until I absolutely have to” sums up the life of a Trabant perfectly
We have a joke in Germany about Trabants. How do you double the value of a Trabant? By filling the fuel tank.
Joe Sans No, That’s for Yugo.
And for Wartburg in finland
@@Lucas-tr9hh
Trabant, Zastava Yugo, Dacia 500 Lăstun and any kind of small eastern block piece of engineering.
@@vizmuvesjanos1045 but it is truly true for a trabant, because at one point, you could buy one for 30 deutsche mark, which is approximately 15€
Have a windshield wiper for a trabant?
Sure, sounds like a fair trade...
you should really take the holes out of the engine. maybe replace them with non-holes. it's not cheap but worth it.
That's the plan. I'm too curious about where the problem is to not take the engine apart.
Aging Wheels JB Weld 👌
You would need the BIG tube of JB Weld!
@@agingwheels Just put in a 4 stroke Honda
Flex Seal it!
A Wartburg next?
You are a car guy?
Never expected to find you here.
If this car passed safety inspection, it tells everything about safety inspection on the US
As someone who is also in Missouri and actually is licensed to do these inspections it honestly shouldn't have passed with those problems. It's pretty obvious the inspector didn't really care and did the old 'wiper check and sticker slap'. The grabby brake and malfunctioning lights are automatic fails for the MO safety inspection including that dim "Headlight".
On the topic of US safety inspections not all states even do inspections I know Kansas for sure doesn't and several others, but other states do more comprehensive inspections including emissions.
Ohio only does e check.....but Ive seen rusted out box trucks on the road that smell like rotted eggs on the road. There is one where I swear the entire thing leans to the left Ive seen on the highway a few times. Cops dont care about unsafe vehicles here at all
As much rust as a shark has eyebrows. Now that's a remarkable thing to say...
69th like
What's unremarkable is the owner used primer to "stop the rust" - Primer is not a sealer and will only marginally slow the rust down. Especially if he stripped the factory paint.
@@the_kombinator it's called rustoleom
@@gabrielgomez2483 Point to the part of the video where that is said or it is apparent and I'll take it back.
(too lazy to check an old comment, I could be wrong)
With change.
An Amerikan was visiting his Norwegian cousin and claimed: My farm is so big that I use a day to drive around it. Oh, the Norwegian mumbled, I also had such a car!
I have heard the joke in the more classic way: Me too, years ago I had a similar horse.
Kraftstoffmomentanverbrauchsanzeige = momentary gas consumption gauge.
Wie bekam der Zweitaktmotor eigentlich Löcher im Zylindergehäuse?
Maybe the piston rings failed in a spectacular fashion?
Ich würde sagen es liegt daran dass er einen schlechten Ersatzzylinder gekauft hat ich weiß aber nicht ob das ein Originalteil war.
Keine Ahnung das hat mich auch gewundert er kann sich mal eine SIMSON kaufen da hat er garantiert nicht solche Probleme
Der Abgaskrümmer hat sich anscheinend gelöst, sagte er - das passiert öfter, wenn Leute vergessen, die vier Sprengringe nach der Demontage wieder aufzusetzen. Dadurch, dass der Krümmer an den Haltelöchern jeder Flansch zwei minimale Vertiefungen hat, hält eine Mutter in der Regel nicht lang ohne Sprengring. Eine Alternative wäre das Verkontern mit einer zweiten Mutter, ist aber auch aufgrund des entstehenden Hohlraumes sowie der zu kurzen Gewindeausstände suboptimal. Durch die Formung der Rippen und die vorderseitige Abdeckung mit der Motorverkleidung erscheint es dann so, als würden die Abgase rückseitig ausgeblasen werden. Wir hatten damals öfter Leute da, die ebenfalls ein Loch oder einen anderen Schaden vermuteten - jedes Mal waren es aber die fehlenden Ringe.
@@bekarecord6985 Ja, hab das Video schon gesehen. Konnte mir nicht vorstellen, dass einfach so zwei Löcher erscheinen und der Motor trotzdem noch läuft.
I just stumbled over this video and I cried from laughter while watching. Thank you from Germany.
Poor running in twostrokes is usually an exhaust leak.
Turns out the exhaust manifold was loose..
And crankbarings are shot, but that's besides the point lol.
@@baronvonlimbourgh1716 Ahhhh yup, that'll do it!
@@skonkfactory well spotted sir.
i have an 80cc 2 stroke motorized bicycle kit and yes. i had my exhaust manifold hit on a rock and it broke off and it idled lean and high as fuck. i replaced the studs and its all good now but yea loose exhaust it will run lean and wont want to idle down after its had some throttle if it ever does start to idle. you can re jet them to run right with the exhaust off but then it will be way rich with it back on. but it gets more torque with it off cause no restriction at a supprisingly low rpm. if you took the exhaust off the trabant and replaced it with an open header the size of the exhaust ports it would very likely double in torque through out the whole rpm range and you would be supprised at how well it climbed hills afterward
@@chaytonruijsenaars3971 Uh, no. A twostroke engine depends on the reflected pressure wave off the back of the exhaust in order to get anything approaching full power and reasonable fuel consumption. Walter Kaaden figured that out in the 50s. I'd suggest googling him.
Hello from Germany, as someone who is doing an full frame off restomod on a Trabant, I have reason to believe that tiny bit off rust under one of the Axles is actually a hole. Since all not preserved Axles rust trough at the point below the bearing's.
You are great. Thanks for taking care of this car. It was probably build by one of my relatives and I really appreciate it.
As an east german who survived his early childhood in one of these I'm very happy to see an american being so dedicated to keep a Trabant running and functional xD
That thing sounds like our old 99 jet ski. Probably because it was a two stroke, two cylinder engine with no muffling of any kind in the exhaust. Man I miss that thing. Don’t miss having to warm it up to go skiing, though. Had to get rid of it because it couldn’t get warm enough in the winter. Who’d’ve thunk that literal ice water is too cold to go skiing in?...
Can't say I've actually laughed this much while watching a car video in a long time
You, sir, are a master of words and comedic timing!
5:34 I see u having the air intake in winter position. The black cap is pointed at the warm exhaust. Turn it 180° and the cool air gives u more "power" and less consumption. The warm air position prevents carburator iceing.
Interesting fact. The engine in the Trabant is a pre-WWII design originally made by DKW(part of Auto Union,whose old factory in Zawicku was taken over by the Russians and used to produce the Trabant for the GDR.With Unification,the plant was sold to Audi and in effect returned to Auto Union).
Even more interesting: This engine design was used in the Panzer IV tank as a seperate engine for turning the turret (the Panzer IV was the first ever tank build this way).
The trabant car was a nice tiny car not far less then a mini cooper in the old days. If trabant 601 was a decent cheap car people who still own one today they should be proud of the sentimental value that this kind of car accumulated over the years. I believe with today's modern technology the trabant little car can really come back to life as a hybrid rechargeable car. Nice video with very good sense of humor.
4:53 You need to look into that by taking the fender off. There's usually rust on the body under the duroplast, and you need to fix that if there aren't any holes yet
I like how clumsily he walks away. I once lost a job offer doing that in an interview.
Google turned me down because they didn't like the way I shuffle my feet when I walk.
I applied for a nail salon and walked in wobbling doing a stupid walk. The girls inside thought it was funny and gave me the job on the spot. I wasn't serious about werking there so I didn't show up.
How puerile. At the very least, you waisted the shop owners time. She is trying to earn a , living on a very narrow margin and you did harm to that. You should be ashamed of yourself. I swear to god you millennia's don't have a lick of sense.
@@servicarrider Actually I'm 61 years old. The owner molested my son in a Wendy's bathroom 20 years ago. Despite having video evidence of her misbehaving, the judge threw out the case because of how the video was obtained and I was convicted of several felonies. I'm sorry if I inconvenienced this woman by waisting (sic) a few minutes of her time while my son has to deal with a lifetime of physical and mental scaring.
And yet you still haven't learned to stay away from her. You have bigger problems than I thought.
@@servicarrider lol. 😂 That's just it. We moved 28,000 miles away to Anchorage Alaska, then she goes and buys the house right next to us. My wife gets her hair done by this individual because it's the only place in town.
For what it's worth...I decided after your previous post not to put any stock in a word you said. Now if you will excuse me I am in the middle of enjoying a tumultuous thunder, lightening, rain storm on the beautiful Puget Sound of the PNW.
What I want to see is some Trabant performance parts. Bored out cylinders, maybe a better crank, some better shocks. Then RallyCross again.
As someone who has been to Marion, Kentucky, I shall ascertain that daily driving the Trabant in such a place would be entirely feasible. The town is small enough that when your Trabant breaks down, just pushing the darn thing back home isn't entirely out of the question.
If the float level in the carburetor is low, raise it. that should make the mixture richer. If that doesn't work, carefully drill the jets a bit larger.
I'm from Poland, we had a lot of Trabant's. Even my friend had one in high school. Very funny car, we took off the whole engine on a skateboard with two-person, with no lift.
Way back in 1978 an East German guy walked into a Trabant showroom and ordered a Trabant. The dealer told him it would be ready on April 14th 1988 i.e. in ten year's time. The buyer slapped his forehead and said "On No", not April 14th 1988". The dealer asked why he was so annoyed. "Because the plumber is coming that day to fix the tap in our kitchen".
Trabants back in the day would be rebuilt quite often. I think your car was maybe way way overdue. :) There would be a state-issued "rebuild kit" that a Comecon mechanic could install twice in a day. The Trabant doesn't last very long without help but its goal wasn't 100,000km, it was %100 employment.
Love the editing, especially the ending! :D
These are just the best videos, every one puts a smile to my face!
Looking forward to the engine re-build!
Am avut TRABANT 601S timp de 17 ani , am colindat ROMANIA in lung si-n lat . Am fost foarte multumit .
You should get a Lada Riva or a Zhigouli or however it is referred to in your area. Maybe also a Lada 2121.
A Lada Niva is a solid off road car. First built in 1977, its lasted from the Soviet period. Still made in Russia. Importing it from the motherland is a pain in the current international climate.
A company in the former East Germany makes parts to enable you to re-build the engine up to Aviation standards as it is used as the powere unit for a powered glider (amongst other things).
Z plates are for export. Regular Hungarian license plates have 3 letters and 3 digits. The side bar on the left is also different. Since 2004 it's blue and sports the yellow stars of the EU instead of the Hungarian tricolor.
Sorry, I'm just being a smartass. Great video! :)
This guy has great natural comedic timing
The car, on the other hand, should probably just be donated to a museum at this point.
The Hungarian plates are temporary "zoll" plates toll plates.
Normal Hungarian plates have tre numbers tre letters like large parts of the EU.
Danish plates have 2 letters and 5 numbers. And of course custom plates
(i.e. AB 12 345) or ("Example")
Just out of curiosity, what happened to the old video? The “is a trabant reliable” one? I loved that video, was absolutely hilarious. As is this, but I miss that video!
Those walls look so clean in the dark till you installed the new lights on a newer video
I LOVE this video! I just saw my first Trabant at the Lane Motor Museum here in Nashville a couple weeks ago. Not sure why I am so fascinated with these cars. haha Great job!
Come join us at the Parade of Trabants held by the International Spy Museum in Washington DC every November!
Suggestion: Make the transmission have a freewheel on all gears please and thanks
Also suggestion: Interstate travel / hypermiling
Go fast or save gas, those are the most entertaining options I think
Holes, Eyesight 20/20 love vid bro. Working way catalog and having a blast.
No one else is saying it so, nice job on the SFX editing. Looks great.
what a pity i got used to your videos so late... my uncle had three Trabants and which were all running plus tons of spare parts.. and he gave it away for a few bucks a year ago
.... greets' from the Vaterlands Capital City!
have you considered an LS swap which is do popular these days? Seriously though, love it the way is is. And thanks for owning it for me/us
Clean it with comet cleanser and a sponge and you will be amazed how good it looks
You should really get a towbar for it!
Mostly because I'm about to get one myself... And I have no idea what i'm doing...
My sister-in-law is from the former East Germany. She still misses her Trebbie.
Why wont she buy a new one? Does she live in a town or something? Considering how cheap trabbies are
@@AveragePootis In Arizona. Not so plentiful there.
Nice of your twin to film with you.
Nice piece, and looking forward to the restoration series. Have you any forthcoming plans for a continuation series on the Saab 96?
it reminds me of a Russian lada. maybe many more available parts if you use interchange guide. just a thought.
You might also enjoy the polski fiat aka the 126p.
If you did not know it's a rear wheel drive, 2 stroke, 2 door tiny hatchback that's equally as cute as the Trabant.
But heres the thing: from what I've heads it was designed well.
The problem with the fiat 126p is that this car is not creazy at all. Trabant is like: We have a 30' great depression engine and an old pants, let's do a car of it! Maluch (oficial name) was just the next generation of a cult fiat 500 with a 70' style body - nothing to shock anyone.
Been driving one for so long and never had these problems. Your car is badly put together when it's been rebuild back in hungary or by you. The Trabant is an amazingly reliable car, but you need to be familiar with it.
They say that eight out of ten Trabants ever built are still on the road.
The rest made it home.
I hope you can get that Saab with the Ford V4 running on the two-barrel, eventually.
It's running well now.
can't you prime the trabant through the new "exhaust ports?"
Assuming you're talking about the saab. Good, those old Ford engines are extremely interesting, and the Saabs are good looking cars! Also, good luck with the holes. I have no idea how that would happen, but if you have an idea on why it happened.
Oh, and how in the world can you drive that thing on the road and your ass not pucker every time someone in a Prius or BMW bumper humps?
Seems to me, the easiest fix would be to put your lawn mower's engine in it, and get another lawn mower. Cheaper, too.
Thx for your video enjoyed it on my laptop while eating my scratched off my head dandruffs and boogeys from my noise holes.
how does an old thing like this get spark without an ignition distributor? what's controlling the engine timing?
Well, lucky that the holes were actually just a loose exhaust manifold after all
Please do a roadtrip and and Document peoples reaction .
Since I live in Northwest Arkansas, and you live in MO, I would be happy to help out with some of your projects, I happen to enjoy your eclectic and strange collection, and I am pretty decent at wiring and mechanical things :)
I love that car!! I would love to paint that sucker!! make it smooth and shiney
You know, that looks like Excastly like our stolen trabant :):):)
You should try as hard as you can to make this sound exactly like a snowmobile
I WANT ONE !! (No, really, I do- I saw hundreds of them in Germany back in the day just after reunification and I've been crazy about them ever since. WHERE FOR TO GET ONE, COMRADE?
I will bet money that the fact it created holes in the cylinders is because it is running lean. a lean AFR burns hotter than a rich one. I bet it melted holes in the cylinders. I would screw with the idle adjustment or replace the jets in the carb
The paint color is called sky- gray
try replacing the crank seals
happy thanks giving my friend and if you need any help on what bits of motors are called jus EM me "the bit that connects the piston to the con-rod" LOL_LOL_LOL
More interesting than a Lamorghini review.
hungarian plates has 3 letters and 3 numbers our number plate was ARH-630... le letter A means it is prety old since it goes in alphabetic order... now we are at M or maybe O... trailer usualy start wit X for some reason
It's an export plate, you get these when you want to export a car from Hungary (which is how the original owner of those plates probably got it).
0:42 Not a super long german word. Rindfleischetikettierungsuberwachungaufgabenubertragungsgesetz . yup, that's actually a thing lol
Its not from "Das Vaterland"
Its East German technologie w. Russian standards.
Like a T-34. Simple but works.
god bless you for restoring it :)
in a world full of government regulated car design. Oddball or *aweful* cars. And i say this with a bit of sarcasm, because i personally like these kinds of cars as well. They are the cars that stand out in the crowd.
I've been told that speed holes make the car go faster. You should enter that car in 24 Hours of Lemons.
Would it be worth putting some clear coat on it so the paint doesn't wear down any more?
After my days living in Berlin, I wanted to get one. After the wall came down I saw one of these cars in a dumpster in a back alley. At that time you could get em for $100 since nobody wanted them. I would love to get one and do a driveline swap with something a bit more reliable like a mini engine or honda driveline.
I really like trabant but I’d only have one if it had a engine swap
Yes, vtec honda would surprise a lot of people, driver included. Or maybe to retain the ring ding soundtrack some two stroke snowmobile lump. Some of those things had a lot of development on them!
New information on the Trabant!
This car had no means of active cooling because it had a two-stroke two-cylinder engine. Most of the motor's internal heat was blown out with the exhaust. Making for a very inefficient engine. This maybe why the car's cabin-heater was designed to blow the heat off of the exhaust manifold, and not the engine itself. The Wartburg had a three-cylinder engine , thus a little more efficient, and needed forced air-cooling, later water-cooled.
0:40 Every time I see a German word, I get happy. Quirk of being half German.
Hey man look to the east Germany community, they tune it and everything and they are proud about it.
Reed valves check to see if you even have them they're supposed to be on all 2-stroke gasoline Motors.. if you don't have any buy them if you install them backwards flipping around if they're bent buy some new ones make sure your gaskets are all sealed from the carburetor to the Jug. but I'll say it again Reed valves Reed valves Reed valves Reed valves. It should run sweet afterwards
Why is there a 944 in the back of the garage?
Is there? Weird
Just curious, how do you pass emissions tests in that thing?
These videos make my day and illustrate how horribly unreliable my modern car is compared to a Trabant ffs lol
Leam Seaton haha wow what car do you have ??? It really can't be that bad??
@@televisionandcheese got myself a Peugeot 206 and it's hopelessly broken. Hardly any brakes. No power steering. Parking brake doesn't work, pulls to the left and occasionally a bump causes the windshield washers to come on for absolutely no reason lol. Oh and did I mention it decided to be a three cylinder engine and no mechanic nor myself can figure why. I also drive an 04 high mileage Volvo V70 which presently has a power steering rack leak that makes niagra falls look like a drip ROFL.
Holes in the engine? You mean "Speed holes"?
@4:29 ... but this cheeky Aging Wheels guy strongly disagrees. :D
@4:33 Agne are neither proof nor evidence for anything serious but as far as I can tell but... if something rusts from the inside to the outside that most likely is indicative for a rust bucket.
@7:17 I like your subtle humor. :)
putting some kind of 2 cyl 2 stroke motorbike engine will actually make this thing move
You probably won't read this after 3 years, but: Consider hoarding some spares, Trabants are picking up in popularity and prices are climbing
_"I've had it for three whole years now, so it's about time I tell you what's wrong with it..."_
LOL
why did the number plate change in 2020?
Instead of doing that all engine work, why not swap it out for an air cooled two stroke VW engine? More powerful and reliable than the stock engine and easy to maintain.
Hey Rob, what is your normal monday-friday job? What do you do for a living?
I'm an Android developer
Cool! So you work with smartphone OS's but would rather use your time breaking down car engines? ;) That's a decision I could support
How about converted to electric?
put a Saab 2-stroke in the Trabi? They're putting Subaru motors in VW's you know
How do you double the value of a Trabant? ---- Fill the gas tank! How do you triple the value of a Trabant? ---- Install new tires!
On that car if you burned though the paint with a buffer you might actually catch the panel on fire
That car looks like a stolen Ford Taurus!
A very Hungarian and Communist Ford Taurus
it was after customs got their cut of it
We all know that’s bull!
@@thelazyyinzer5548 - Taurus the bull, funny!
Cool crab
We used to go on vacation to hungary back when i was a child. 4 people all their luggage and a trailer. My dad were able to fix most of all problems that accrued with just simple adjustments or replacements. I still have that trabant in my barn. I converted it recently to a 12 Volt system with vape ignition and now i am going to do some body work. Next year "we" will travel to Balaton. My wife is from cologne and the only experience she had with that car is the smell and the noise when i started it last year in the barn after two decades and it immediately backfired on her a dark and oatmeal thick cloud of old two-stroke smoke. To say the least she is concerned . Greetings from Germany
It must require a lot of strength to push a trailer and a Trabant up all the hills.
Oatmeal thick I'm crying
This is one of the most heartfelt stories I've read. Thanks for sharing.
>To say the least she is concerned
Wäre ich auch. o.o
Ich glaube da würde ich dem alten Kadett D mehr trauen den mein Schatz mal fuhr.
>To say the least she is concerned
Wäre ich auch. o.o
Ich glaube da würde ich dem alten Kadett D mehr trauen den mein Schatz mal fuhr.