240D road-trip worthiness?
 

My friends and I are thinking about a continental U.S. road trip for next summer. Boston, Chicago, L.A., Dallas, New Orleans, back to Boston. Approximately 7,000 miles. The best car seems to be the 240D, but I need some experienced input. My other friend is suggesting buying a van of some sort. That just seems like an awful idea to me. Would the 240 make it? Engine is healthy, transmission shifts well, may need a new clutch soon (plan on doing that any), drives fine. How about crossing the rockies? Could that be a problem?

Will it do it? Yes, unless there is some problem already present with a major system on the car.

Crossing the Rockies: Not a problem as long as you like staying in the truck lane and getting your doors blown off by semis.

I drove my 240D back and forth to San Diego several times this summer. It always made it without a hitch, but it was pretty annoying spending 30-50% of a ten hour trip with the accelerator floored.

I've been meaning to take a trip back east. The 240D would do it, but I'm holding out until I get some issues sorted out with my 300D so I can take that and be able to drive like a "normal" car.

My 240 passes "some" semi's up the hills, keeps on running at 10,000 feet . . . take it, it'll be trip of your life!

How is the acceleration? I did some work on the throttle linkage and it made a world of difference. Before that work I would not have thought about that kind of trip, but after, I am sure it would be fine.

It will do just fine, but run it on diesel.

Well, it'd be VO for the first bit, then I was thinking biodiesel after that. It's cheaper on the farm belt, right? I'm sure at least some of it will be on regs petrodiesel, though. I'll be damned if the VO or bio sets us back, and I just can't rationalize a 7,000 trip on petro for fun.

Slow, but not any worse than a tractor-trailer.

You don't live in the mountains, do you? On flat land or downhill a 240D will keep up with all but the fastest moving traffic. Climbing steep grades, particularly at higher elevations, is a different story. I have yet to meet a (paved) hill my 240 wouldn't climb, but in some cases I end up doing 20 under the speed limit with the pedal on the floor.

biodiesel is usually more expensive (IF you can find it) in the CORN belt. They want the world to use Ethanol, remember?

Definitely doable. How fast you cross the Rockies depends on which route you take. Wyoming and New Mexico--pretty fast. Colorado--much slower but still doable. I'd take blue highways myself then you won't have to worry about semi's as much.

There's a hill near my grandma's in new york, 240 could only just make it in 1st gear at about 15 mph. 3 other guys in the car, mind you. I made it over one of those vermont mountain roads (unpaved) in 2nd gear. that was exciting.

It will do it if nothing breaks; if not you will have to get it fixed to make it home. I've driven my 240D across the rockies on I-70 without incident (on real fuel), but there are places where you will have to downshift and your speed will be limited by 3'd gear. I prefer the 300D for highway driving. If you have time consider taking lots of secondary roads (Rt 66, etc.). You won't save any money by using BD, it seems to cost about the same in most places. Plan on spending about $7-900 for fuel.

Yep, that's $700 assuming 7,000 miles, 30MPG and $3/gal... dang. I know you won't like this, but does anyone know where one can buy filtered WVO? Greasecar sells it at their HQ in Holyoke, are there other places like that?

All I know of are the commercial BD places you can find on the web. I don't know about the legality of folks advertising and selling WVO to the public for use as road fuel (without collecting taxes). I think you are going to have to hit all the forums and line up some contacts.

It will do it. The MT version has slightly less parasitics, and thus likely puts a tiny bit more power down to the road. A car full of people and luggage will be relatively slow, given that you have 67hp, but youll go along. For maximum comfort, Id take it slow and easy, drive 55-60 most of the time, and the 240 should keep up on all but the highest steepest hills.

My 81 has a suprising amount of pep, especially given that it is an AT, but it does only have 72k miles. Stay right and don't expect to be doing 80, and youll be fine.

My only real concern would be driving a slow car on roads where you may not understand or be used to the merges, and where some may be really short/fast. Since I would anticipate that youll not be the only driver, this may be a worry with folks who are not as well versed in low-power diesels.

Yeah, I forgot about that, it's almost certainly illegal. I wonder what greasecar does? Maybe put it under the drug and prostitution income? What about the commercial places? Would they sell that cheaper or something?

And I'd definitely be doin 60 the whole way, that's the most efficient speed and I think I might be the only one driving. I'd only trust one of the other kids and he usually drives a turbo v-6, so he'd certainly need some experience with the diesel before he drives without my supervising (aka sleeping).