My road trip thread...Boston through the SE US and back in an 85 300D
 

Hi everyone,

My girlfriend is losing her job at the end of April, which is bad. But there's a good part - we now have an opportunity in May to go for a 4 week road trip. This is a dream of ours and are really excited.

I'll be taking the '85 300D naturally :D

Tentative route:
Boston to Wilkes-Barre, PA, then to the start of the Blue Ridge Parkway and drive the length of it. From there, Knoxville. After that is a big ???? but we want to go along the Gulf Coast and visit friends in Corpus Christi TX, San Antonio, Austin and maybe Albuquerque. and then back somehow.

Anyone along the route? I'd love to have your number and maybe meet up. And perhaps have a friendly emergency place to do some car work if the need arises (oh my goodness I sure hope not).

Before we launch down South, I need to fix the AC. It hasn't worked since I got the car, I think the compressor is blown, and was past converted to 134a. In other words, a project. But thats another thread and lots of reading.

Any advice for taking long road trips in the 300D? Any other ideas/experiences to help us most appreciated!

(For those of you into the WVO thing, I'll be running the trip on WVO in my Frybrid kit, so if you have some good clean oil to spare I'd be most appreciative and pay you for it.)

-dd

PS Good to be back here and posting...

While the circumstances suck, it sounds like a fantastic opportunity to make the trek. I don't have oil, and I'm not going to be very close to where you're driving, but I wish you a great voyage. As for advice, if your car has been maintained, I wouldn't do anything special. I would make sure the spare has air, and I may bring some oil and water. Just have a blast and go.

road trip
 

i was driving my 84 300SD up and down the east coast until my company car was delivered. I miss driving my SD as it was much more comfortable and a pleasure to drive.
Take along spare fuel filters and assorted tools in the event of trouble.

Enjoy the ride down the blue ridge parkway. This time of year it is starting to wake back up. The scenery is incredible. You may want to try the Skyline drive although there is a cost of admission but its worth it. Take I-81 down below Winchester VA and over 66 towards Washington. The entrance is not far off of 66.

Bring a camera!

Make sure your seat is comfortable, if it needs some help, now is the time!

Have fun!:D

take a fire extinguisher! tools! check the condition of your CV axles and wheel bearings! Check you spare! Make sure you have a jack! Get a case or more of VO filters and a couple stock fuel filters, and tools to change them.

lets see, what else, hmmm. For me, I usually take about 4 rolls of paper towels, some packages of those handi wipe things, the ones made for incontinent seniors are great for getting VO off of your hands and car, plus they smell great. they are way tougher than the typical stuff. VO stuff your don't care about- change of clothes for collection, and gloves and shoes for collection

make sure to drive that sucker everywhere on that trip, ford any rivers, drive through any mud and take lots of scenic pics! Im envious already and I just did a 5500 mile trip last november!

oh oh, check out Rickets glen state park outside of wilkes barre, theres an awesome 3 or 4 mile hike down a multi waterfall glen. Perfect place to take the GF and do some swimming under the waterfalls. Plus, early in the trip, the car will probably be running great and she won't be irritated with you yet.

couple pics from my last cross country trip and my "distance VO trailer" with 50gal fuel capacity, and twin parts and tool bins-


Good luck!

I'm not quite on the route, but I'm not far away, in NC if you have trouble.
have a great time!

DD,

Lets get together before you leave. I have a vacuum pump that might be usefull for your AC project. Isn't Mr Balles planning a similar long trip- though he is probably leaving in June?

If your roadtrip can spill over into the first weekend in June, you should come to the Fifth Texas MB GTG, click the link in my sig for more info.

I wish i had the time/money to do that. sounds like so much fun. We're just outside Philadelphia if you need a quick fix!

Yeah buddy I am, although I be seeing all four corners of the U.S., so it's a tad longer.

This is good, so if anything bad goes down, I'll know to take care of it before I go :D.

All I can say is (probably because I just read about it) check the harmonic balancer on the front of the crank for all the bolts. Apparently that can be quite troublesome.

more ideas-

Take a mity-vac for road related fuel issues. Couple nut drivers, a hose cutter, some hose clamps, some spare hose of various sizes, maybe a rubber mallet and a regular ball peen. Take a spool of 14 gauge wire, maybe some 12 gauge, a wire cutter/crimper, electrical tape, fuses, a roll of duct tape. Id take some jb weld, maybe some RTV silicone. Grab a range of a few pipe thread plugs and random metric bolts, useful if something like your oil pressure sender breaks and you need to plug the hole in the filter housing.

I had a whole kit once laid out but now ive dispersed it and can't remember what all was in there! All the contents collected into a portable tool chest size though.

what kind of collection pump are you using? how are you powering it? a crappy battery sitting in the trunk might be in order as well. I tried the whole hot leads thing back to the trunk, and ended up not using it really. It was just simpler and easier to use a random battery with a handle. Probably a personal preference thing though.

If your in the Tampa Bay, Lakeland, Orlando area drop a note. Good luck. Take only secondary roads. No interstates. Should make for a nice ride. Avoid 95 its pretty boring.
Rt 6 would be nice. Slower paced. From Phily west on 30 out to 81 is a nice route.

Thanks for all the replies!

I'll definitely be building my parts/tools kit in the next couple weeks.

For WVO, Im going to get filtered stuff from friendly trusted WVOers only. No on-road dumpster diving. Im way too finicky with my oil for that :-)

Paul - ill definitely catch up with you, maybe this weekend?

JEBalles - I'll check my harmonic balancer...easy enough to do.

H-Town - I have to be back first week of June for a music engagement, otherwise Id LOVE to go to the TX get-tgether. But then Id get jealous seeing all of you with your rust free gorgeous cars.

dropnosky - fire extinguisher - good call. Girlfriend is from W-B, we've been to rickett's glenn many times. Its an awesome place and a hidden gem for anyone in the middle of nowhere NE PA. My '85 looks just like yours....

I will be going to Wilkes-Barre PA to my 'in-laws' next weekend. I'm bringing extra oil so I can re-fill up when we pass back through there on the trip :D I can carry 25 gallons in the trunk plus 20 in the WVO tank.

We're planning to travel really light. No Thule rack/box (we have them), no trailer. Trunk will have all fuel/tools. Just a tent, duffle bag, folding chairs computers and a cooler.

dd

Bring extra:
-rad hoses top & bottom
-Fuel filter
-injection pump (filter small)
-fuel line hose
-jumper cable
-fuses
-wire
-asstd wrenches & sockets,pliers etc..
-oil
-jug of water
-coolant
-Flashlight/emergency triangle

yours is the same royal blue color? I loved that color, not sure what the paint code was. Sold that car last year and I kind of feel some regret as the replacement car is needing so much work.

I did not realize yours only has 150 K on it. Last trip I took, I was up over 360 K, so this should be a cakewalk for your car!

do you have one of those MIFI things for rolling internet access? I got one last trip and was able to telecommute on the road and prolong the trip.

Other nice improvements that added to my car was a aux in stereo for the ipod/whatnot connection, and twin electrical outlets hardwired so I could run a bunch of extra stuff like radar detector, GPS, computer, ect. Worth checking the power outlet and radio to make sure its up to snuff. Nothing like a radio breaking mid trip!