BeeBee's Build Journey

[M_Pluto]

Plans for the road trip are coming along nicely. The originally planned date of departure had to be pushed back to September 4, but it ended up working out because we no longer have a solid return date, and the trip is pretty open ended.

Current plan is to leave on September 4th, and make a straight shot across the country on the I-80 to NJ, planning to arrive in NJ on the 8th.

Spend a couple nights and then leave NJ in the late morning/early afternoon of the 10th.

From there we go back home in a bit of a round about way.

Trenton, NJ –> Charlotte, NC
Charlotte –> Memphis, TN
Memphis –> D'lo, MI
D'lo –> New Orleans, LA
New Orleans –> Red Rock, TX
Red Rock –> Moab
Moab –> Seattle, WA
Seattle –> Home

It would look a little like this:

Stops may be added, stops may be skipped. We do want to do more trails than just in Moab, but I'm not very seasoned and anything beyond a decommissioned FSR/skid road is not something I'm super comfortable with doing solo (I grew up, driving back country roads and the village I grew up in just got its main road paved a couple of years ago, so to me a well maintained FSR might as well be a freeway), especially as I do not have a winch right now. Which reminds me: note to self, start building out recovery gear bag.

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[Themistocles]

Plans for the road trip are coming along nicely. The originally planned date of departure had to be pushed back to September 4, but it ended up working out because we no longer have a solid return date, and the trip is pretty open ended.

Current plan is to leave on September 4th, and make a straight shot across the country on the I-80 to NJ, planning to arrive in NJ on the 8th.

Spend a couple nights and then leave NJ in the late morning/early afternoon of the 10th.

From there we go back home in a bit of a round about way.

Trenton, NJ –> Charlotte, NC
Charlotte –> Memphis, TN
Memphis –> D'lo, MI
D'lo –> New Orleans, LA
New Orleans –> Red Rock, TX
Red Rock –> Moab
Moab –> Seattle, WA
Seattle –> Home

It would look a little like this:

Stops may be added, stops may be skipped. We do want to do more trails than just in Moab, but I'm not very seasoned and anything beyond a decommissioned FSR/skid road is not something I'm super comfortable with doing solo, especially as I do not have a winch right now. Which reminds me: note to self, start building out recovery gear bag.

Some great eastern wheeling, even for a solo vehicle, along your path. I would recommend ( not in any real order)

1. Uwharrie National Forest North Carolina. Dickey Bell is the BoH trail but there are good number of other fun ones. These are not that hard (except Daniel) and would be very doable solo.

2. Windrock OHV park Tennessee. This place is amazing. Absolutely huge with every type of trail available. Very good wheeling and lots of options. The BoH trails, Panther Rock (easily doable stock), Trail #26 pretty easy as long as you take your time and it isn't raining. And trail #16...maybe best bypassed if running solo.

3. Stony Lonesome OHV park Alabama. A lot smaller than Windrock, but still a lot of fun with lots of options to try with fun to be had from stock to custom built buggies. It has 3 BoH trails... probably only #404 is doable solo. Gut Buster is essentially closed and Switchback to Whose Your Daddy is probably better run with a couple other vehicles and an experienced spotter...and a winch.

There is also Peter's Mill Run in Virginia but that is really not much more than a two-track dirt road with the occasional bump. Rausch Creek and Anthracite in Pa look great (haven't been there yet) but they both require two vehicle minimum....which is why I haven't been there.

Road trip looks awesome, very envious....great adventure.

 

[blnewt]

Wow Jayne, what a trip you've got planned and how cool is it that @19 JLUR Bright Whit3 is going to help you build the beast along the way. Now that's some forum networking at it's best!!!
How many miles you think that whole journey will take (not including any extra plans that is)?

 

[M_Pluto]

Wow Jayne, what a trip you've got planned and how cool is it that @19 JLUR Bright Whit3 is going to help you build the beast along the way. Now that's some forum networking at it's best!!!
How many miles you think that whole journey will take (not including any extra plans that is)?

As of things stand right now, it will probably take ~10,000kms for the round trip total. So about an oil change's worth? ?? I already have an appointment scheduled for just before we leave and week or two after we are scheduled to return.....

 

[M_Pluto]

So, spent some time recently looking in the back of my jeep to get an idea of what the situation is with the carpet in my quest to remove any and all carpet from the jeep. I've come to the conclusion that there are 3 components/bits of carpet that cannot just be simply torn out along with the floor carpets.

1. The carpet on the backside of the rear seats. Probably can be dealt with by taking the seats into an upholstery shop and asking them to rip/cutout the carpet bit and replace it with another kind of vinyl/heavy duty canvas. Not sure how much this is gonna cost.
2. The tie down rails are carpeted. An easy drop in solution to this seems to be the Mopar Cargo Rails
3. The carpeted flap/board that goes between the tie down rails to cover the cargo tub. This one is a bit more tricky, as it seems the carpet is glued on, and I need this piece to give me secured storage when I'm running open top and/or tube doors.
   • Current thoughts are I could either try to shave down the carpet as best as possible, and then glue another fabric of my choice over that to replace it.
   • Another possibility would be for me to make a new replacement out of wood, but I lack a lot of the proper tools/patience for this option if I want something that looks nice.
   • Possibly make another flap out of some kind of non-wood material (I'd just need to remove the hardware from the back of the existing ones that keep them in place), but I can't think of anything that would be both rigid and sturdy enough for me to use that isn't wood.

 

[M_Pluto]

After about a dozen or so small delays departure for BeeBee's cross country got pushed back a day and a half (we crossed the border around 13:00) just to give both myself and my co-pilot an opportunity to not start the trip completely worn and stressed out to start. We have just pulled out of Yakima, and had some absolutely massive burgers. Pictures below.

Managed to catch this on route from Kamloops to Vancouver. Will be hitting even 20,000 on this trip and I'll try to catch that too!

Border Crossing at the Peace Arch Bridge

Rest stop to let the doggo out to stretch her legs

Stopped in Yakima for dinner at a place called Miner's 10/10 would recommend. Burgers were both delicious and massive. About as big as my face.

Lastly my payment to the doggo tax. She's such a good dog on road trips and has spent most of the trip napping. Would be nice if the little bitch could pull her weight behind the wheel and let us two humans take a nap for a bit..... ? ??

 

[Krondor]

Are they really huge burgers or small hands? ?

Enjoy the journey! Hope it's a great one. ?

 

[MeatRack]

Are they really huge burgers or small hands? ?

Enjoy the journey! Hope it's a great one. ?

 

[M_Pluto]

Are they really huge burgers or small hands? ?

Enjoy the journey! Hope it's a great one. ?

Lol, I'm holding it directly in font of my face and it's bigger than my face! ????

 

[MeatRack]

 

[TheBirdie72]

Welcome to America, again! ?

Drive safely!

 

[M_Pluto]

After 14 hours, we are calling it for day one. A little over 1,100 kms done. Not super horrible time made, but not the best time made either. But having said that, it should be taken into consideration that we didn't leave Vancouver until about 11:40 local time, and it was almost an hour long wait time to cross the border, so the fact that we got this far with such a late start is pretty alright.

If all goes well over the next few days and we are able to more or less stay on schedule the hope is to touchdown in NJ around midday on Saturday. Though y'all know what they say about the best made plans and intentions.....

Doggo tax

 

[americonium]

If you're going to be near Cedar Rapids, IA on Friday around lunch/dinner time, my suggestion is the Blind Pig. Order the best pork tenderloin sandwich in the world, and enjoy.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/WWTRsWw49eM3DufMA

 

[M_Pluto]

If you're going to be near Cedar Rapids, IA on Friday around lunch/dinner time, my suggestion is the Blind Pig. Order the best pork tenderloin sandwich in the world, and enjoy.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/WWTRsWw49eM3DufMA

Once we hit salt Lake, it's a straight shot east on the I-80, but depending on when we get to the area, I'll be sure to look it up!

 

[M_Pluto]

One thing that is driving me wild on this trip is how good my fuel economy has gotten. I went from anywhere between 14-16 L/100km (16.7 - 16.8 mpg) to now I'm at 12.1L/100km (19.4 mpg).

I used to think because I had 4.88 gearing was the reason why I had shitty mileage, turns out that was wrong. It was the hilly/mountainous the region I live in was fucking with my fuel efficiency. Either way, I'm not going to be spending anywhere near as much as I originally had thought I was going to be spending on gas for this road trip, which is wild to me.

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