Road Trip OH-FL-OK-OH

Damn it was cold today, 48 in Florida feels like 15 in Ohio, you just do not expect that.

Great racing for 24 hours, congrats to the number 70 Mazda, again...woohoo.

Fun and games, had a great time, chatted to staff and fellow readers all day, walked around, bought some expensive junk, ate some Sahlens food won a Mazda poster signed by all the drivers of the 7 RX8s, woohoo x 2

Went to sit in the van by the edge of the compound to watch the end in a warmer environment, started it up to keep the battery charged and warm up, runs for 30 seconds then just dies....uh oh, cranked it, click click click, damn it.

Sneaking suspicion of a bad alternator, borrowed a jump, thanks to Mick and Matt, but no change, a few taps on the starter but no change, dammit. Now what, ah ha, I got Greg Voth's number the other day. "Hello Greg, whatcha doin right now"

Greg brings me two alts from Advance as there are two for my model marginally different in size, quick install and charged the battery, turned the key, vroom. Whew, thanks to Greg again. He dropped everything including a promise to his new wife to help me out, thanks Monique.

back on track, called the OK link to check on weather updates, Justin advised me they got 5" of snow and are still clearing it up due to lack of equipment, think we will wait a day or two here in freezing cold Daytona. Just because we can.

Glad to hear you got it sorted out man.

Good plan, they are already closing the schools for tomorrow. the stuff thawed and then refroze Sat and is doing it again today.

Of all the places in the world to break down, the GRM compound is about the best

Fixed alternator, then had a small coolant leak addressed by a local mechanic as recommended by Tom, by the way cheap, fast and knowledgeable, Andre's in Ormond Beach, big heads up if you have a problem in this area.

Visited the GRM shop in Holly Hill, everybody snowed under but friendly as always.

Had breakfast with Greg Voth, he keeps on offering me the Volvo for a drive/day/week so far I have resisted but I am taking his offer on at the the Mitty.

Thanks to all at GRM again.

We have eaten a LOT of seafood this week, stocking up for the barren Ohio period ahead.

FIL and I visited the Nascar Museum and went karting today, rain smain.

Slow afternoon today but we get going early in the morning, updates pending.

Three days driving, 2500 miles, major snow storm, broken trailer, 3000 lbs of parts in the van, a stressed FIL.

Makes for an interesting trip home, we drove 950- miles the first day, Day two 400 into OK to pick up the car/trailer/engines/trans/etc, trailer had a few issues but thanks to Justin we got it sorted and after 4 hours were back on the road, did another 200 for the day.

Day three was not so easy, got moving early, checked trailer and tie downs again, all seemed good. Drove around 400 trouble free miles across the Ozarks and into the snow, for a total on the trailer of 600 at this point just cruising at 65mph.

A truck driver hits his horn and points back, I had felt nothing but pulled over to check, walked back to find we have a three wheeled trailer. Drivers front wheel completely gone, four lugs had undone themselves and the 5th must have broken. The trailer was not dragging the axle and we had no spare so I made it to the next gas station and inspected everything. Apart from the obvious lack of a rim everything seemed OK so I set off again, made about 100 miles when I felt a vibration, stopped to check the trailer, the rims were there but it was dark, had FIL move the van forward and the load is bouncing badly, I checked around and the other rim on the same side came off, all 5 lug holes were wallowed out badly and the lugs were damaged.

Time for a tow truck, by this time it was dark and snowing heavily while we are stuck on the side of I-70. Tow arrives winches trailer and car up, we get moving to finish our run home, it took 6 hours to go 150 miles and I was one of the fast vehicles due to the ballast.

We got in this morning at 3.30am after driving for 20 hours, FIL was stressed, I was whipped, and I have to go back to get the car and trailer.

ouch

a couple weeks ago i picked up a truck in the snow on my trailer. got to the guy's house way down in the middle of nowhere and heard hissssssssssssssssssssss. had a nail in my trailer tire. i loaded up as quick as possible, hard to do because the seller was a tool and said it would be ready and running when i got there and he was trying to start it with starting fluid - never did fire there, we had to winch it up. asked if he had tire plugs, no go there. my kit was in the other truck. half a mile down the road i know i'm going to have trouble so i threw on my strobes and went 25. smoke coming off the tire that was now empty and rubbing the trailer frame, bouncing like crazy. i made it 25 miles to civilization and a tractor supply, that had no trailer wheel the correct bolt pattern. had to get my dad to bring me down a spare and jack. the final dagger was he brought me the emergency jack from his truck instead of a real jack, so it took forever to crank the trailer up.

Ah, checking lug nuts is such a neat idea.

iceracer wrote: Ah, checking lug nuts is such a neat idea.

Now you tell me

jrw1621 wrote: I look forward to the tales of your adventure. Please keep us informed. I suspect that you and your FIL are close. If you are not now you will be by the end of this trip. Either close or the exact opposite.

Sorry to hear some thing did not work as planned.
I hope all is well with the FIL.

I read this recently and think it applies:
Adventure is never much fun while it's happening.
-author unknown

We had some problems but all in all it was a great week, his first time at a road race, he will be back and as stated it was an adventure.

If everything went smoothly there would be nothing to remember, we got home safely and the van made it through the rough weather.

Maybe when we lost the trailer it was some form of intervention to keep us safe in the really bad route conditions.

Glad to hear you made it somewhat unscathed!

Although I will say I was happy when I drove from Newark to Tulsa, trouble-free, a few months ago.