Road Trip from NY to MI

[Trackster]

Well I bought another Trackster and it is located in MI. I am making a road trip soon to get it, it should be ~1300 miles. Hopefully all goes well and I will have a nice uneventful trip to tell you about with success pictures at the end.

I am towing my utility trailer with my Crown Vic, empty trailer is 900 lbs, Trackster is about the same. To get ready I put new tires on the trailer, services the bearings, checked the car over and packed a slew of tools. So far I have a floor jack, spares, socket set, straps, ATF, oil, starting fluid (for Trackster, not car) grease, tape, saw, hammers, screwdrivers, pry bars, and pretty much all of the hand tools needed for any reasonable roadside repair.

I am putting all the tools on the trailer in an aluminum truck tool box so the trailer has a little weight on it on the way out. I will move it as needed to get the weight right on the trailer when I load the machine.

I will let you know how things go, maybe fuel mileage, and get some pictures when it is all said and done.

Nick

[amphibious drew]

It seems to be getting common for NY and PA guys to be going to Michigan to get stuff. I picked up a Gotcha, and a Superchief in Michigan over the last year and have to make a run to grab an engine in a few weeks. MaxIV Mark just ran out there about a week ago to grab a sled, and I think even picked up some parts for JPswift off Buggyman. Come to think of it, we still need to get a Max IV upper from Buffalo out to Buggyman sometime.

[thebuggyman1]

Mark was good enough to stop by and chat for a while...thanks Mark.

Trackster, If you are near by, please feel free to come by and say hi.......I have cold beer.

[Trackster]

I think Charlotte is out near Grand Rapids right? I won't be making it that far west, I am going up near Saginaw. I appreciate the offer though. If I get out west I will let you know.

Sounds like I should have asked if anybody was heading that way before I planned my trip. If someone needs something light from the east side of the state let me know maybe I can help.

[thebuggyman1]

I'm about 18 miles south of Lansing, about an hour from Grand Rapids. But that's also an hour from where you will be driving.......maybe next trip?

[dzg]

Just a word of advice....id throw some air shocks on that crown vic They will actauly tow alot, just the suspension is ridculously soft

[hydromike]

Your tongue weight on a single axle trailer should be about 10-15% of the load you're towing. Assuming a 900 lb. trailer, 900 lb Trackster and 200 or so pounds in tools and equipment, you should only have about 200-300 pounds maximum tongue weight on that hitch. Even that seems like a lot to me. Air shocks wouldn't hurt, but Vicky should be able to handle that, I'd think....

[Trackster]

I agree about too soft on the rear suspension, they changed to a watts link set up in 2003 and it is not nearly as good for trailering. I just put some new heavy duty shocks in so at least it is under control, I thought about putting air helpers but didn't, maybe I should not sure. I have towed my other Trackster with this set up and it was ok, of course I wasn't going this far though, maybe I will regret the no air spring decision before I even get to Toledo...

[dzg]

Yeah there definatly worth the 60 bucks. I once pulled a 4000 lb trailer up north with mine handled it well. There rated at 3500 lbs but there basically a F150 with coil springs.

[Trackster]

The car is packed and ready to go, I put the toolbox on the trailer just to get a little weight on it. Nothing fun about an empty utility trailer at 75 mph.

[brushcutter]

It seems to be getting common for NY and PA guys to be going to Michigan to get stuff. I picked up a Gotcha, and a Superchief in Michigan over the last year and have to make a run to grab an engine in a few weeks. MaxIV Mark just ran out there about a week ago to grab a sled, and I think even picked up some parts for JPswift off Buggyman. Come to think of it, we still need to get a Max IV upper from Buffalo out to Buggyman sometime.

Wow, that's actually a lot of back and forth. You guys could just about keep a hotshot driver in business just in aatv hauling alone.

Good luck on the trip Nick, been about to bust waiting for those pics ....

[Trackster]

I will try to get some pics up tomorrow. There is one in my last post on page 1 that I must have messed up.

Here is an update. I picked it up this morning in Sebawaing MI. It was actually in a little better shape than I thought, my hopes were low though because my other one is such a wreck.

We are all the way back to Erie PA now, narrowly missed a huge wreck in Ohio, I will give more details when I get to a computer tomorrow. But seriously it looked like going through a wreck at Daytona.

[Trackster]

Final update:

Well I am home safe with a new trackster in tow. The mighty Crown Vic handled the task pretty well. Air springs would have been nice just from a ride height perspective but the vehicle was in good control even at 70-75 mph.

I took good notes of mileage and speed which probably don’t matter to anybody but I thought it was interesting.

I traveled at 69-73 mph at most times during the trip, both ways, I was surprised that with the machine on the trailer the car was still happiest going around 70, 65 was a little slow which put the car into harmonics with the road. I also drove the flats in OD (hate if you want) so going a little quicker kept the torque converter locked up and the transmission happy.

This car usually gets about 23-25 mpg on the highway, it got 18.3 on the way there and 14.7 on the way back. The trailer is ~900 empty and I had about 200 lbs of tools and spare tires on it. So on the way out ~1100 lbs on the way back ~2100 lbs.

The only scary point was just east of Cleveland on the way home. I was in the right lane of a 6 lane highway (3 each way), there was a car a couple hundred feet in front of me that made an abrupt lane change. He made it because there was a car dead stopped with their left turn signal on trying to turn across three lanes of traffic into a U-Turn. All I had time to do was hit the shoulder and lay on the horn, I didn’t even take my foot off the gas. I said to my passenger that ^$#%* is going to get someone killed. Then look in the mirror and cars are spinning. I ended up having to tell the cops what happened, the worst part is after that the car left! I say it when I got home. Willoughby Police searching for car that left I-90 crash on Sunday (with map) - news-herald.com

[brushcutter]

I'm sooo jealous right now... Ok I'm over it. Congrats on the new toy, and...and it is pretty much ride ready! Glad you guys made it through the pile-up safely. You didn't say but did the cops ever ask you the inevitable "what is THAT thing?" bet you got a bunch of gawkers as you pulled it down the road. Now get us some ride videos!