trip report ( totally successful!)

bevans6 · June 17, 2014, 05:51:22 AM

Well, just back from 3,300 km on the road and three days of vintage car racing, and all went very well indeed. Towed my 20 ft race trailer with the Lola T-492 that I just finished restoring, with the trailer in at around 6,000 lbs. The car ran flawlessly, was very quick, the owner loved it, and the bus ran very well. It handled the hills in New Brunswick (quite steep, lots of long 6% grades as New Brunswick is the northern end of the Appalachian mountain chain) quite well with some third gear work at 55 mph. All the rolling hills in Ontario were taken in fourth gear with ease. Big scare just as I was parking the bus in the paddock - the clutch stopped disengaging fully and was dragging badly. Parked, set up camp and ignored it all weekend, just worrying at 5 am as I was waking up each morning. Adjusted the free play, which ended up being set exactly where it was in the first place, and zero issues on the way home. Conjecture is that while I was driving through 2 hours of monsoon-like extremely heavy rain just before getting to Mosport the clutch got soaked with water up through the hole in the bottom of the bellhousing. The heat from maneuvering in the paddock must have caused some issue, but when it cooled down and dried out it came back to normal.

Brian

lostagain · June 17, 2014, 07:00:20 AM

Just saw this post after asking about your trip on the group 31s thread... Not enough coffee yet. Still early here in the West. You make it sound like you towed your trailer with the car... I was wondering about the tongue weight of your big trailer on the rear end of your bus. Do you think it is excessive? Were you worried about it. How did it feel going over bumps? Glad it went well.

JC

bevans6 · June 17, 2014, 07:23:04 AM

Aside from looking back there to make sure it was still there, and allowing for it on turns, I literally didn't know it was there. The weight slows the bus some on hills, it probably cost about a mile per gallon, but handling and such - I could not tell it was even hooked up. Zero change to the feel of the bus on the road. The hitch is rated to 10K, so 6K was well within it's capacity. I used a straight ball hitch, I didn't use a weight distribution hitch.

Brian

lvmci · June 17, 2014, 08:39:10 AM

Brian, how many miles is 3300 km? Lvmci...

bevans6 · June 17, 2014, 08:45:22 AM

A little over 2,000 miles.

Brian

John316 · June 17, 2014, 09:00:43 AM

Quote from: lvmci on June 17, 2014, 08:39:10 AM
Brian, how many miles is 3300 km? Lvmci...

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=3300+km+to+miles

I love you man, but I couldn't help myself. I always enjoy doing this.

Brian, glad your trip went well. That is always a good feeling when a trip goes well. Now you should do it again. Where next?

lvmci · June 17, 2014, 09:12:17 AM

He, He

, they didnt teach meter reading in the 50s & 60s, in LV, lvmci...

bevans6 · June 17, 2014, 09:53:31 AM

Our next event is the Sommet Des Legends at Le Circuit Mont Tremblant, just north of Montreal, in July. They don't allow camping at the track so I will be pulling with the F250. Should be a nice event, though. http://www.sportscardigest.com/ferrari-honored-at-2014-hmsa-sommet-des-legendes/

Brian

Seangie · June 17, 2014, 11:48:12 AM

55 on a 6% grade...so jealous

Fulltiming somewhere in the USA
1984 Eagle 10S
www.herdofturtles.org

uncle ned · June 17, 2014, 05:42:44 PM

I think he figured his speed like I figure mpg.

Take his going up speed and going down speed and add together.
that is what it is.

uncle ned

Midwilshire · June 17, 2014, 06:32:27 PM

Quote from: bevans6 on June 17, 2014, 07:23:04 AM
The hitch is rated to 10K, so 6K was well within it's capacity. I used a straight ball hitch, I didn't use a weight distribution hitch.

Brian

Great to read of things going well.

Where did you get your hitch?

I've been mulling over the idea of fabricating one for our 5C, but not sure I trust my welding that much yet. And after a marathon bus-building six-months, I wouldn't mind letting someone else build something for a change.

eagle19952 · June 18, 2014, 08:27:05 AM

Quote from: Seangie on June 17, 2014, 11:48:12 AM
55 on a 6% grade...so jealous

Fulltiming somewhere in the USA
1984 Eagle 10S
www.herdofturtles.org

55 kph = 34.1754 mph.....

bevans6 · June 18, 2014, 10:15:24 AM

55 mph is governed top speed of 2300 rpm in third gear according to the speedo anyway. If the hill was a half mile long or less, I'd crest the hill between that speed or maybe 50 mph. If it was longer, I'd go over the top at 50 mph, never got below that on the main highway (Canadian verion of Interstate). In Quebec on 185 there are a lot of 8% to 10% grades but mostly fairly short. Those would pull me down to around 45 mph. Now, mpg was kind of low, maybe 6. It smoked a fair bit on full power at lower speeds but once the turbo got going it blew pretty clean. With N75's and the biggest air cleaner and lowest restriction muffler I could find it's probably making 350 hp and 1100 ft lbs or thereabouts. With the N80's I took out it would smoke like a bandit at full throttle at any speed...but was rated at 400 hp. Bus weights 26000 and the trailer I figure around 6000 to 6500, so gross weight around 32000ish. It would run to 75 mph, again governed engine speed, on the flats pretty easy unless I had a head wind. All in all I am very happy with the new engine. It has around 3200 miles on it so I guess it's not really broken in yet. I'm hoping the oil consumption goes down a bit, I used about a gallon and a half of oil on the trip and it probably needs topping up now.

When I drove it from Ontario to Nova Scotia the first time, just after I installed the new engine and we were finishing up our move East I was just towing a 3000 lb car. It had the N80's in it then, and with 400 hp I had to downshift out of fourth exactly once due to a hill. It never slowed down to 55 mph on a hill except for that one time, or if I got stuck behind a truck and couldn't pull out to pass safely. There is a lot to be said for an ex-NATO tank engine, sometimes...

Brian

Brian