How NOT to Drive Across the USA-- Part I

Wednesday; Reporting via Cable from Florida--

A week ago tomorrow (Thursday) morning, #1 Son Ward and Grumpy set out on an adventure that neither could have anticipated. During an earlier shopping expedition to Wal*Mart, the First Wife and Grumpy spotted this pair of stainless-steel, insulated travel mugs that we thought to be perfect for the up-coming leisurely (planned) trip driving the old, trusty '86 Ford F-250HD and 32-foot Holiday Rambler travel trailer kitty-corner across the USA. Wisely realizing that these two identical mugs needed personalization so that we didn't inadvertently drink out of the wrong one, Grumpy cleverly wrote our names on each. Upon arriving at "Dave's" house in Spokane, he suggested a pair of more apt names that might be more distinct: "Grumpy" and "Popeye". Not having a felt-tip marker handy, Grumpy was not able to update them at that time.

Before embarking on this great journey, wisdom of Ward the Younger dictated that new tires were to be installed on both the old pickup and the travel trailer. The new "General Grabber" tires on the old pickup made it look like it was really ready to go. Subsequent experience riding and driving the rig with these tires convinced Grumpy that this brand and model of tires were a huge improvement on the handling, quietness and ride comfort! [Grumpy is seriously considering replacing the tires on his Accord with an equivalent General tire when the time comes!]

Taking precautions to insure that everything practical is working right is always a good practice when starting out on a long trip. Grumpy and "Popeye" thought that we had adequately covered "all the bases". Our first surprise was when we approached the first major hill just before getting to North Bend WA. The engine acted like it had a NACAR restrictor plate under the carburetor! However, we were able to achieve the top of this hill at the "blazing" speed of almost 45 mph. Grumpy opined that maybe the timing was off -- delayed ignition, he thought. Well, we managed to get to the top of Snoqualmie Pass by staying in the "slow lane" where all the non-turbocharged trucks were exiled -- 35 mph. Oh well, we thought, most of the road is going to be more or less level from here on -- at least until we get to Idaho (Fourth of July Pass and Lookout Pass), so we just kept on "truckin'".

Having to stop every 100 miles or so for a P-Stop gave opportunity for the two Ward's to think about tinkering with the timing -- perhaps other thoughts about the wisdom of this whole escapade floated through their minds as well, but we won't mention them here.

The pickup is equipped with two standard 19 gallon gasoline tanks plus a bed-mounted 108-gallon "reserve" tank. The reserve tank is connected to the main fuel supply system via a manually-switched fuel pump and three-way valve that allows transfer of fuel from the reserve tank to either of the two 19-gallon tanks, depending on which one is selected in the truck cab. A few days prior to leaving, Grumpy had found that the front tank would not deliver fuel to the engine; time ran out for us to find and fix the problem so we embarked knowing that we had the rear tank plus the reserve tank at our disposal (total capacity: 127 gallons). This was thought to be sufficient for about 1000 to 1100 miles at an anticipated 8.5 to 9 mpg. The first "leg" of the journey, from home in Seattle to Missoula MT, which we determined to be our first refuelling stop, told us that we were a little too optimistic: 8 mpg. "Must be the timing", was our joint thought. Oh well, we'll just modify the refuelling range downward to 800-900 miles. And so on we journeyed.

More "adventures" in subsequent posts!