I have been jealous of the fly and drives you guys have posted here so I setup one of my very own.
I am flying and buying this badass Rampage from Ashyukun https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/201x-classifieds/1982-shelby-dodge-rampage-w-25-turbo-i-engine-fspickup-after-challenge-1900/143025/page1/
And then I'm driving it home to North Idaho, almost 3k miles. I am very excited by this and a little stunned that my wife may be even more excited than me. You know you've married the right woman when she's excited to drive a Rampage with no a/c for 3k miles on a whim.
Many pictures to follow, I'm flying in next friday
This thread is useless without pictures.
Have fun.
This is excited, glad its going to a good home!
Toyman01 said:
This thread is useless without pictures.
Have fun.
You are not wrong but sadly I have no pictures to give for now
If you were leaving today you'd be able to detour through the Milwaukee area and partake in the Shelby Dodge Club convention.
minivan_racer said:
If you were leaving today you'd be able to detour through the Milwaukee area and partake in the Shelby Dodge Club convention.
That would have been fun, now I wish I could have
I can help a bit with pics.... here’s the car sitting in my driveway now.
(taken out the window of my office upstairs)
I'll be making a few tweaks to it before they get here in a week- disconnecting the speedo drive so they don't want to kill each other due to the speedo's clicking (or replacing the cable and seeing if that helps if I do indeed have a spare), swapping the wheels back around so the better tires are on the front wheels (they were on the back for towing it back from last year's Challenge and I'm lazy and never switched them back), and installing the power outlet so they can use a GPS in place of the likely-unhooked-speedo.
In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
Thank you for the pics and everything else you are doing.
I am very excited to get this whole thing started! See you in a week!
Hotels booked and our route is set, gonna stop at a few cool places on the way.
2576 miles over 10 days, a nice leisurely trip IMO.
300 miles a day ain't bad!
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
I think it's a good number, plus it gives us a chance to stop at the sites along the way ( Yellowstone, museum of the Rockies, carhenge, cosmosphere etc) and it shouldn't be too bad with 2 drivers on the longer legs. 6 hours was the maximum I set
Subscribed. I'm a sucker for long, one-way drives.
300 miles a day is easy. We did Baltimore to Pheonix with an 18 month old averaging 400 a day. We finally settled into a good pace about Day 2, which mostly meant starting early, and stopping for the day at dinnertime. This also allowed us to relax and unwind with a few beverages before sacking out for the night.
We never were organized enough to make reservations; mostly we just plunked down wherever we happened to land. If you wind up in some small-ish town for dinner and ask around, they'll usually recommend good places to stay. Sometimes that's a Super 8; and sometimes its a cool little private hotel with loads of character.
Drink lots of water and eat light. And take lots of pictures of each other.
volvoclearinghouse said:
Subscribed. I'm a sucker for long, one-way drives.
300 miles a day is easy. We did Baltimore to Pheonix with an 18 month old averaging 400 a day. We finally settled into a good pace about Day 2, which mostly meant starting early, and stopping for the day at dinnertime. This also allowed us to relax and unwind with a few beverages before sacking out for the night.
We never were organized enough to make reservations; mostly we just plunked down wherever we happened to land. If you wind up in some small-ish town for dinner and ask around, they'll usually recommend good places to stay. Sometimes that's a Super 8; and sometimes its a cool little private hotel with loads of character.
Drink lots of water and eat light. And take lots of pictures of each other.
I booked thru hotels.com so all of them are free cancellation in case the trip goes differently then planned. So we aren't quite as well planned as it seems lol. I'm also staying out of spending the night in big cities, I'd rather stay in Springfield than St Louis. I think the biggest city we are staying in is Casper after Lexington
6 hours seems about right, I've done 8 and a half at once and it was a bit much.
When we travel it's usually one long day's drive to get where we're going- to get to the Dancer's family's place is about 10 hours. Definitely couldn't do that for multiple days though, it only works when you're going to be staying at your destination for a few days to recharge.
Hopefully you won't need a chiropractor from spending so many hours sitting in the seats on the road... from my past experiences I probably would... but I also never really tried figuring out if a lumbar pad or the likes would improve them.
Ashyukun (Robert) said:
When we travel it's usually one long day's drive to get where we're going- to get to the Dancer's family's place is about 10 hours. Definitely couldn't do that for multiple days though, it only works when you're going to be staying at your destination for a few days to recharge.
Hopefully you won't need a chiropractor from spending so many hours sitting in the seats on the road... from my past experiences I probably would... but I also never really tried figuring out if a lumbar pad or the likes would improve them.
I'm not too worried about the seats but just in case a few of the hotels along the way have hot tubs
Antihero said:
Ashyukun (Robert) said:
When we travel it's usually one long day's drive to get where we're going- to get to the Dancer's family's place is about 10 hours. Definitely couldn't do that for multiple days though, it only works when you're going to be staying at your destination for a few days to recharge.
Hopefully you won't need a chiropractor from spending so many hours sitting in the seats on the road... from my past experiences I probably would... but I also never really tried figuring out if a lumbar pad or the likes would improve them.
I'm not too worried about the seats but just in case a few of the hotels along the way have hot tubs
Are they heart-shaped hot tubs? If they aren't, you're staying at the wrong sort of places.
In reply to volvoclearinghouse :
Lol no just the standard jetted tub
volvoclearinghouse said:
And take lots of pictures of each other.
This. My wife and I love going back through our long roadtrip photos, and the photos of us are the most cherished.
If you come through Kansas, hit me up.
To add to my earlier comment: you will underestimate how much water you will drink/ need. You're going to be cutting a swath right through the hinterlands of this country during the swelteringest time of the year. In a car without air conditioning. And the car's gonna get hot, too, which might necessitate you running the heater to keep it cool. Good for the car, bad for your festering case of swamp butt.
A good plan is to pick up a cheap (but not disposable) cooler at your jumping off point, and every morning load it up with ice, washcloths, and a gallon of water for you and another gallon for each of your traveling companions. Get some cheap white t-shirts and put them over the probably black, and likely vinyl seats. T-shirts work better than towels because you can literally put them on the seat, like you would put them on your torso, and they don't slide off.
"So volvoclearinghouse" you will probably say, "I get the gallons of water, but whats the deal with the washcloths?" A trick I learned: when you get hot, take a cold, soaking wet washcloth from the cooler and wrap it around your neck. The blood flowing through your neck will be cooled by the ice-cold washcloth and you'll feel 1000 percent better. Never mind the trickles of water running down your spine- they'll evaporate off in a few minutes in the triple-digit temperatures. When the washcloth gets warm, toss it back in the cooler and grab another one if you want.
Get the smallest cooler you can find that will hold 2 gallons of water+ some ice; soft-sided ones are nice- you can stash them behind the seat or in the middle or wherever. I still have the one I picked up at Target 11 years ago when I drove my Corvair cross country in July on Rt 66. It's tall and thin and stashes perfectly between the back of the front seat and the front of the lower rear seat cushion.
You'll thank me.
When do you leave? Post here lots along the way, we love to read and see pictures of other people's adventures. And don't hesitate to reach out for assistance if you need it. That's what we're here for.
In reply to volvoclearinghouse :
The seats currently have cloth (difficulty: polyester) covers on them that are black & grey. The seats themselves are... velour, is that the right description? but not vinyl, and are red. There is a 'package shelf' behind the seats to put stuff on, and some space behind the seats to store things.
I've never had a problem with the car overheating, but at the same time I've not driven it for as long in the middle of summer as this trip is going to involve. Since the car does not have its AC installed it does have something of a cooling advantage since the radiator is less obstructed and gets better airflow over it, so hopefully running the heater will not be necessary.
JohnInKansas said:
volvoclearinghouse said:
And take lots of pictures of each other.
This. My wife and I love going back through our long roadtrip photos, and the photos of us are the most cherished.
If you come through Kansas, hit me up.
We are going thru Kansas actually. We stopping in Hutchinson for the Cosmosphere.