I told this story a whole lot over the weekend but there was no time to write so as to fill in those at home. Here is more of that story...
I dropped the kids to school and hit the road about 8:30am Weds. At 9:30am, I picked up DeadSled (Jonah). We both had failed in getting our cars prepped but we were now just planning to go to attend, maybe help with the Parking Lot Build or jump in where needed. The original plan was to take it cheap and easy driving down in my 44 mpg Prius. We were shooting to get most of the way Weds or at least South Carolina and then finish the remaining 4 hours Thursday morning with a goal of lending a hand to the parking lot build at Noon Thursday. At Noon Weds, we were getting gas and a stop at Wendy's in Marietta, OH at the W Virginia border. This is where the phone began to blow up.
The basic story is that Joe's Mystery Machine car is in Canton, OH. They are super behind on getting it ready. Much of this behind-ness is because they spent all the previous night tuning the car on a dyno where it now makes 350 hp!!!! The car weighs 1500 lbs with the driver in!!!!!
I knew the car because I had been in it's presence for $2017
The issue these guys are facing is now that they have wrenched all night and day on the car, no one is rested enough to actually start driving the RV Rig the required 900+ miles or about 13.5 hrs w/o considering time to stop or considering the slow pace of the big rig. (Actual time down was closer to 17 hrs)
After a couple of phone calls, first Stampie, then Joe, that then got me the phone number of Rick. I had never met Rick but the car was at his house and he owned the RV. I asked a lot of questions about the RV. I was very direct that I did not want to drive something that would be over taxed by the load. When you hear camper and trailer that gives visions of some bad combinations. I did not want a van with a box on the back which is too much load for the van in itself and then you add a trailer making it really unsafe. I then find out that the RV is based on a Kodiak 5500. I knew what this means and that its a real truck. Closer to the biggest Uhaul, the 26ft Uhaul type frame.
So, now at about 1:00 and about 4 hours traveling 200 miles in for the day we pointed the Prius 2 hours back north. Super thanks to Jonah, who agreed too to go back. We arrive at Ricks shop a little after 2:30pm Weds. We see the Mystery Machine in what seems like complete disarray on Rick's barn floor work area. If becomes real evident that even if we help this car still might not make it. At the shop there are 3 guys working on this tiny car. Two guys will then be traveling forward to Gainesville and one guy will be staying in Ohio. They have more than capable hands working on the car. An issue that you facing when potentially helping with a Subaru on a Legends chassis, with a motorcycle engine running a turbo is that you first have to understand some of these things before you can help. Looking over the list we also say that there were need for the RV so Jonah and I went and worked on that. These included:
- Change oil on the 8.1L GAS engine that calls for 9.5 quarts. Lucky, lots of ground clearance so no jacking truck required.
- Check issues with house batteries
- We then pulled the two batteries and took a wire bruch to all the connections (which seemed to be the solution)
- Tighten differential bolts
- It seems the the lower bolts loosen and then leak. They have been marked and sure enough, to look at them you can see they have loosened. The main issue seems to be they have gotten wet with dif oil so they never perfectly tighten. The needed method is to drain all the oil then clean and refill. We will leave that for another day. At this point, just tighten.
- Fix, correct the aftermarket remote tire pressure monitor system.
- He has a very cool aftermarket TPMS that will give you a reading of every tire including the trailer tires with little sensors screwed onto the valve stem. After reading the manual we thing the issue was a bad battery in one sensor, replaced.
Then some food arrived at the house so everyone at. From there Jonah and i helped with what we could and I continued to drive the pressure of we need to get rolling at Midnight. At about 11:30pm I was starting to get drawn into the issue these guys were facing already. I was still working and no one was rested enough to drive. At Midnight I dropped out and went into the RV to sleep, Jonah too. I had resigned myself to the idea that I was driving at 6am for sure. That could mean I am driving the RV but if not, I'm driving the Prius at 6am.
At 2:30 am I was awoken to the sound of the Mystery Machine being loaded in the trailer!!!
At 3:00 am, exactly, I was turning the key of the RV and pulling out onto the super dark country road that Rick lives on. With Jonah riding shotgun, I was at the helm until 8:30 am and got to the Tamarack plaza in West Virginia. At that time Jonah took the helm and drove us until Noon. That then means the other two, Rick and Lon had then been laying down in the back of the rolling RV since 3:00am - Noon or 9 hours. At noon then Rick too a shift followed by Lon taking a shift. About 7pm Thursday, I got back on the helm again and drove the short leg from Jacksonville to Gainesville which is a drive I have made multiple times going the The Challenge. All done and pulling into the hotel about 8:20pm Thursday.
Jonah and I had intended to split 1000 miles in an easy approach of 2 drivers. Instead we became 4 drivers and I personally drove the most but it was only about 350 miles. We intended to arrive Thursday at Noon and instead arrived Thursday at 8pm.
