C2C test run

towd-dude · Post by **towd-dude** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 4:07 pm

Yesterday (8/18) Bob Hunter and I made a test run in preparation for the Sea to Sea Safari trip. We ran from Reno to Winnameucca and back. For me it was a 402 mile round trip (shorter for Bob as he live in Reno) everything went great. The oil cooler/fan I installed to keep the oil temp down did it's job. In 99 degree temps my oil never got over 220 degrees which is Ok with me. I did develop an oil leak from the trans I think is coming from the seal behind the drive flange. I also will need to replace the king pins as I get a slight shimmy at 70 mph. The tires were just balanced. After the first 2 hours of driving it became necessary to make stretch stops every so often. I forgot to bring a cooler along so Bob keep passing me water as we were driving. In one case we were passing a Nevada State Trooper parked along the Highway... got lucky.
Really looking forward to this trip..

Bob

jsturtlebuggy · Post by **jsturtlebuggy** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 7:14 pm

Just a slight shimmy at 70MPH? What happens at 80mph does it smooth out?
It all sound good Bob, glad you and Bob H. were able to do a road trip test.
I go about a 1 to 1 1/2 hours between stops now, to get the blood circulating in the legs and stretch the back.

The leak is on your new trans? Is the vent open on the shift housing (nose cone) ?

towd-dude · Post by **towd-dude** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 8:54 pm

Joe,
The faster I go the worse it gets. I'm also thinking about stopping more frequently for the blood thing. Needn't be a long stop just walk around some.
Vent on nose cone ??? where is it. Oh, I was getting 20.2 mpg but I was not loaded and no trailer.

Bob

Tom-Kathleen · Post by **Tom-Kathleen** » Tue Aug 20, 2013 1:12 pm

C2C Safari, AKA the Geezer Run! I am with you Bob on the frequent stops. Some to stretch but more to pee. I carry a portable folding toilet and pee bottle in the White Whale on my cross country trips. I have yet to use them, but it is nice to know they are there.

Now I just need to finish the mechanical restoration of the '68 Manx so I can get my trial runs in. Tom

manxvair · Post by **manxvair** » Tue Aug 20, 2013 4:09 pm

GEEZER RUN! you're only as old as you act Tom!

Tom-Kathleen · Post by **Tom-Kathleen** » Tue Aug 20, 2013 8:01 pm

Mike - I turn 63 this week. I only feel it, Kathleen will vouch that I don't act like it. LOL Tom

towd-dude · Post by **towd-dude** » Tue Aug 20, 2013 8:01 pm

Good idea about the bottle Tom. I have a HERE bottle "Human Element Range Extender" I used when I was flying a lot. I found it works best when wearing shorts. I just got all my accommodations made, so just a few issues to take care of and I'm READY...!
Your restoration project looks pretty awesome. Send more pictures as you progress..
Bob

dcamomanx · Post by **dcamomanx** » Wed Aug 21, 2013 6:20 am

Bob
Are you running the mini mags up front? If so I'm wondering if the aggressive threads cause some of the shake on pavement. I'm thinking a set of 205/75r15 size street tire might work well. On the Tow'd I've got a set of of mini mags and it has a strange shake on pavement around 60. The other buggies all have a set of 205/75r15 and even unbalanced (couldn't find a tire shop with the adapters for wide five) they seem to ride smoother with no shake. Plus you can air them down and get a better pouch factor.

Just some thoughts

Doran

towd-dude · Post by **towd-dude** » Wed Aug 21, 2013 3:17 pm

Doran,
Good thoughts. I did remove the Mini Mags and ran some 205/75r15 that you suggest. The mini's were indeed not for street use. I swapped tires off the Baja, they are 10 years old so I had them balanced. The tire shop said they were out of round but did not have that size in stock so I ran them. When I built the car I had the link-pin bushings replaced but not the kingpins, so I'll install new ones and have new tires mounted. I had the same problem about balancing so I have a 5 to 4 adapter and that seems to work on their balance machine.

Thanks for the advise,
Bob

Scott-Drolet · Post by **Scott-Drolet** » Sun Aug 25, 2013 3:20 pm

A couple of thoughts . . .

Bob, see if you can find a alignment place that can high speed balance your wheels and tires on the car. Balancing the wheel, hub, and tire as a unit will remove the shimmy completely. I had a '73 Thing that would shimmy wildly at 55MPH, but not above or below that speed, no matter what I did. I found a place that could balance them on the car, and the front end was perfect from that point forward. A lot of times its the casting of your hub that's out of balance and you'll never be able to fix that by balancing the wheel and tire separately. It's a bit of a lost art, but I bet someone in Reno has the capability.

The running of the C2C - Stopping every hour will greatly expand our day, but that's OK, as long as every is disciplined about being ready to go.

As an example of what I'm talking about - When I drove the Manxter to Bruce and Winnie's and back, a few weekends ago, it was 158 miles each way . . . 316 total. I left at 5am to attend "Breakfast with Bruce" and got there at 7:45am inclusive of a quick 10 minute stop to top off the tank. I hung out for awhile and left at noon, getting back home at 3:30pm because I stopped to fill up again since I wasn't really sure of the cars range, and because I hit some horrendous traffic in the Inland Empire for about ten miles.

I was thinking, if I covered 318 miles in 6 hours and fifteen minutes of drive time, I could cover an additional 203 miles in four hours, totaling 521 miles in 10 hours of driving with two fuel stops. I don't think I ever went faster than 65, and usually 60mph was far more likely. Our longest drive is under 500 miles, but if I ran my performance against a 10 hour drive day, we'd need to stay in the cars about 2.5 hours, based on a 7:30am departure time.

This is based on the following:

Drivers focusing on our daily drive plan, realizing we need to aggressively stick to our deadlines.
Us leaving the hotel at 7:30am every morning.
Completing a gas stop in 20 minutes with a restroom break. Bathroom stops always combined with fueling and lunch stops.
Stopping just two times a day.
Starting in the morning with our tanks already filled, then stopping and filling up twice, at 150 mile (2.5 hour) intervals, and then again at our destination point to be ready for the next day.
Lunch will be short and sweet - 30 minutes tops, and combined with our second gas stop, so 50 minutes total.

I beleive that would work out to :

7:30am to 10:00am - Drive time (150 mile goal)
10:00am to 10:20am - Gas. Bathroom break.
10:20am to 12:50pm - Drive time (150 mile goal, 300 miles cumulative)
12:50pm to 1:40pm - Lunch / gas break
1:40pm to 4:10pm - Drive time to final destination (150 mile goal, 450 miles cumulative)

Obviously, this schedule requires that everything and everyone runs smoothly, follows directions, and the road, weather, and local traffic flows all cooperate! And, knowing that on some days that 4:10 arrival time could slide out to 5:10 if we crossed one of the time zone borders along the way.

I recognize that driving 2.5 hours straight at each sitting simply won't work, so stopping for ten minutes every hour means we'll add and hour an a half to each days run. We can leave at 6:00 am, still arriving at 4:10 pm to accommodate the stops, or, leave at 6:30am and arrive at 4:45 to 5:45pm, depending on the time zone.

Personally, I'm fine with either!

towd-dude · Post by **towd-dude** » Sun Aug 25, 2013 4:25 pm

Scott,
My issue is more of vibration than a shimmy. It comes on around 60 and increases as my speed does. Great idea about balancing on the car. I'll look for a place that can do it.

Your driving tips, good. But for some of us (like me) sitting in a confined space for very long is getting harder to do. When we arrive I'm sure we will all like to do some quick maintenance. So if there is a drivers meeting can it be held later in the evening or early before departure..

Do you plan to stager start times or everyone leave at their convenience?

Bob

Scott-Drolet · Post by **Scott-Drolet** » Sun Aug 25, 2013 6:11 pm

Hey Bob, You know, when I re-read that, it might be the wheel adapters on the balancer as well. Either way, I know balancing them on the car will fix it.

It looks like we'll probably have 17 - 18 vehicles total, with four of those being rigs pulling toy haulers or car trailers. Joe Spittler has put together some really nice triptiks that cover the route each day. All drivers will receive that packet in San Diego, and I'll email them a week or so before we leave (because by then we KNOW the route will be locked down).

I completely understand the need to stop frequently, and some days we may need to stop more or less than the preceeding days drive. Drivers meetings will be held the night before each days run, and given the low number of buggies, I'd like to try to leave, drive, and arrive together. So, I think we'll need to have a conference call with everyone going along to come up with an overall strategy that we can all live with.

I think we should include tips from Vincent as well. While 13 cars doesn't sound like all that many, keeping everyone focused and moving towards the same goal will be crucial to arriving at our hotels on schedule each day. We also don't know what will happen with media participation. If every morning, afternoon or evening we are talking with news crews and journalists, those interactions can eat up a lot of time.

We can always completely change the approach if, after a couple of days, drivers want to break into smaller groups. Overall, we need to know when to be disciplined, and when to be flexible. It's just a balance we'll find as we all move down the road together. The real focus should be to make the drive as comfortable as possible and have fun! Here's the distances again . . . the shortest day is 298 miles, the longest is 470 miles.

BOB, how long did it take you to run the 402 miles of your test rive the other day? And, how many times did you stop?

Official 7 Day Route ‘Sea to Sea Safari’ (C2C)
San Diego, CA to Nags Head, NC.[/b]Day 1-Thur, October 10, 2013 – San Diego, CA to Tucson, AZ – 425 miles - 9.5 hours (I-8E/I-10E/E22nd Street)
Day 2- Fri, October 11, 2013, Tucson, AZ to Roswell, NM.- 460 Miles — 10 hours (I10E/US-70E)
Day 3- Sat, October 12, 2013, Roswell, NM to Oklahoma, OK – 470 Miles — 10.5 hours (US-70E/I-40E)
Day 4- Sun, October 13, 2013, Oklahoma City, OK to Little Rock, AR - 337 Miles – 7.5 hours (I-40E)
Day 5- Mon, October 14, 2013, Little Rock, AR to Nashville, TN - 431 Miles – 9 hours (I-40E)
Day 6- Tue, October 15, 2013, Nashville, TN to Winston-Salem, NC - 298 Miles – 7 hours (I-40E)
Day 7 – Wed, October 16, 2013 Winston-Salem, NC to Nags Head, NC – 345Miles - 6.5 hours (I-40E/US-64E/NC-12)
Total Miles: 2766
Driving Hours: 60