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From Lostpedia

Purpose

• One of the functions of the van was to retrieve the log books from the remote capsule dump
  • Considering the immense size of the pile of capsules, it can be inferred that no one has ever retrieved the notebooks from the dump.
    • We do not know how often the capsules were sent or supposed to be retrieved. Once every hour, once every week, once every month would make varying sized piles quickly. Only that when a log book was filled it was sent. Nor do we know how long they were still being sent after no longer being collected.

Observations

• Music playing in van when Hurley jump starts it was coming from a radio station, tape deck, or 8 track player.
  • Probably the 8 track tape, since the shot specifically focused on the tape and it was the same song playing when Roger and Ben were in it.
• Headlights, towards the end of their lifespan, tend to fog up. The whiteness of the van's headlights may be attributed to this.
• The van may have been overturned later by Desmond's System Failure, the Discharge, a boar/polar bear, a storm or the smoke monster.
  • Although jungle plants do grow fast, it's more likely that the van was like that for along time due to the vegetation all over it.
• Given that gas tanks are not perfectly vapor sealed, either the van doesn't run on diesel or similar, or the van is modified; any petrochemical fuel would have long since evaporated while the van sat in the jungle.
  • Not necessarily. The amount of time the van spent in the jungle is dubious; it might have been a couple of years, it might have been more than a decade.
  • The van could have been powered by biodiesel fuel made from plants found or grown on the island.
• It's hard to believe that an electrical device as finicky as an eight-track player would still work after years in a van in the jungle.
  • If the player stayed dry then there is good chance it could still work. Wear from use and vibrations from travel cause stress which shortens the life span of electronics.
  • The Island has unique properties. You can't expect things work (or break) on island as they do in the real world. If a cripple man can walk again then a VW bus can still work after sitting in the jungle for a few years.