Advice for an epic trip.

[Spectatohead]

I'm still jealous of Ken and his trip. These guys give pretty good advise, even if it is to a TR3 driver. [8D]

http://www.sfgate.com/cars/clickandclac ... 827840.php

Jim Clark
'80 TR8
'06 G35 Sedan 6MT

[Last TR]

Jim,

It was an incredible trip. You need to do one when you can. I agree with Tom & Ray that you can't possibly take enough parts and tools to always have what you might need. I replaced belts and hoses, all hydraulics plus front brake pads and rotors before I left. I took a distributor cap and rotor, a 3/8" drive socket set, some combination wrenches, a couple pair of pliers, and a couple of screwdrivers. It turned out I had too many tools and not enough parts. But contrary to Tom & Ray's observation, parts availability seems to be better than it was 30 years ago, certainly for the older cars like that TR3 and my MGA and my TR6. Moss doesn't have many parts for the TR8, but there are plenty of other good sources.

The most important thing to have is some flexibility in your schedule. We made it back for my Dad's 95th birthday in spite of the water pump failure, but only because we had some extra days in our schedule for sight-seeing that we didn't get to do. We were also fortunate to have family 40 miles from where the pump failed, so we had a place to stay. Try to plan your breakdowns around family visits! And with the TR8, we were able to disregard Tom & Ray's advice on maximum speed, cruising across South Dakota, Wyoming, and Idaho at 80 mph (sometimes a little more.) Three other essentials for travel in a classic are a cell phone, of course, plus AAA with maximum towing range, and a VISA with a large credit limit!



Ken Morton
Anchorage, Alaska

1980 TR8, 1973 TR6, 1965 Volvo PV544, 1958 MGA, Jeep Cherokees

[Spectatohead]

Ken,

I did do a similar trip in my youth. I was in the Air Force and I had a '69 TR6. I was stationed at England AFB, Louisiana and we had a deployment to Nellis AFB in Las Vegas for "Red Flag" which is the Air Force's version of "Top Gun." I was taking leave around that time and I got authorization to take 3 days leave to drive to Las Vegas for the 2 week deployment. When the 2 weeks were up I drove from Vegas to San Jose to Tacoma where I spent two weeks with a friend at McCord AFB working on painting the car. After that I visited relatives around western Washington before driving to Denver and then to Ames, Iowa to see my parents. Two blocks from their house I lost teeth on the differential's ring gear. I had a spare diff in the trunk that I had from when I received a bad used diff from a supplier and they couldn't replace it right away and I found another one elsewhere. It was just lying around and I had room so I figured why not pack it. Good move. Anyway, after Iowa I drove back to base in central Louisiana. 35 days of leave after the deployment 11,500 miles total and I averaged 31 mpg. I bought the car in Denver 3 years earlier when I was stationed there. It was jetted a bit lean for lower altitudes.

It was a pretty epic trip but I was alone and some company might have been nice. Although then I probably wouldn't have had room for the spare diff. [8D] I was fortunate that I didn't have any more trouble than I did because I was just a poor airman with no credit card or cell phone. That TR6 had 69,000 miles on it when I got it and 210,000 on it years later when I sold it to a salvage yard to help pay for my '71 TR6. I never had the engine or transmission apart in all of that time. It did seem to eat diffs though, 4 of them in the time I had it.

Jim Clark
'80 TR8
'06 G35 Sedan 6MT

[Last TR]

Ah, the innocence of youth! In college I drove my MGA back to Portland from L.A. with a disintegrating u-joint threatening to interrupt the trip. Certainly in my younger days I would have replaced the water pump alongside the road instead of having the car towed to a shop.

Ken Morton
Anchorage, Alaska

1980 TR8, 1973 TR6, 1965 Volvo PV544, 1958 MGA, Jeep Cherokees