I've been planning a road trip for several months now (though 2 of my friends dropped out, including the guy with the the minivan) The trip was pretty well dead until I saw an ad for an 85 Tercel Wagon for sale in the paper for 1250 CDN. I went and checked out the car. Surprisingly there is almost no rust, and the rubber is good (as is pretty well everything else to do with the suspension and drivetrain) Being somewhat mechanically inclined I brought my tools. The engine was fairly good, except that one of the cylinders had very low compression. it basically wasnt serving much purpose. So basically the car is in OK shape, but no guarantees on how far its going to take me.


My planned trip (get out your map of canada) is south from where I am (middle of B.C) down to Oliver. Then East over the rockies into Alberta. North through Calgary and Edmonton, and the back west over the rockies again to home.

I've been set on doing this trip for over a month now, and though the little voice in my head is saying "the car will break down in the middle of nowhere" I am (maybe naievely) telling myself that this little toyota will run forever.

If it does break down i'll be pissed off because we will have to hitch hike home or take a bus or something.

So if you were in my position, would you take the risk and trust a car that burns oil and runs on 3 cylinders to take 2 big guys, a little guy and a big, heavy cooler over the rockies? or would you sit at home?

Get AAA? heh, Bring some extra money, if it breaks down, get it fixed.

oh yeah go ahead do it. What's a road trip without a problem?

If you really want to do it, then do it. But these are the precautions I would take:

1) Bring extra parts, oil and gas just in case.

2) Bring a couple of cell phones (I don't know how much use this would be in the middle of no where) and walkie talkies.

3) Be sure you let people know where you are going before leaving and when you are expected back so if you get lost people will be searching for you.

Originally posted by WoodShedd
. . . . . . . . .

So if you were in my position, would you take the risk and trust a car that burns oil and runs on 3 cylinders to take 2 big guys, a little guy and a big, heavy cooler over the rockies? or would you sit at home? Sure sounds like worthy road trip material to me.

We must be neighbors. LOL

I'm in Kelowna, how about you? I'm guessing Vernon.

Or maybe Kamloops.

At least if you make it to Alberta before you break down you have a better chance of getting help on the road.

Good Luck,

Dennis

not quite neighbours ;) I'm about 5 or 7 or so hours north of kelowna. I'll be spending the night there probably.


oh yeah go ahead do it. What's a road trip without a problem?

exactly what I'm thinking.

If it does break down, I'll fix what I can. If it's too expensive, I'll just sell the car to a junk yard or something. BCAA (same as AAA) would be a good idea, too I guess.

Let me know if you need some recommendations for cheap accomodations.

(no not my house) lol

Dennis

thanks :) I have relatives there (do you know Avalon Party rentals?)

I'll I need for accomodations is a lawn on which to pitch a tent.

I know of them and where they are located, yes.

Not far from where I live.

Dennis

cool. I'm getting back into the trip state of mind. I think I'll pack up all my stuff and leave tomorrow or tuesday. I think I'll hit the roots and blues festival in salmon arm while I'm at it.

Well, travelling during the week is definitely better. Especially around here in the summer time. It gets so busy with traffic on the weekends it's wacko for sure.

If you do leave later in the week and come through Kelowna on Thursday or Friday give me a ring. I've got free time those two days.

Dennis

Sure thing, Dennis :) I know that the traffic is crazy over that bridge and through the main strip.

Yes, and for the number of times (and money) they have spent on studies of how to improve or widen the bridge. They could have built another 6 lane bridge that in conjunction with the current one would handle traffic for a couple or three decades at least. It's a joke. :angry:

Dennis

Not exactly sure of how many are in your party...

An alternative would be to rent an RV...

Not as expensive as you think...

http://www.cruiseamerica.com/rv_rentals/available/StandardRV.asp

Sleep 4 adults and the total cost for 7 days is $1075 (CDN)..

$1074
-------- = $268...
4


But, I also understand that if you actually purchase the car regardless for what troubles you have you'll actually have a something of value aside from returning the RV after your done..

Maybe not the best solution but, simply another one...

If you do purchase the car goto a Pep-Boys, Autozone or another similar store and purchase the Haynes manual for the car...
Haynes manuals are kinda a crap-shoot (coming from alot of experience). There are alot of things in it that are very usable and extremely detailed. Others are completely useless and extremly wrong (although if you get stuck with this, you'll notice it pretty quickly), and other things are probably something you'll never do... About 25 pages of the manual is usually dedicated to rebuilding and taking apart the engine block...

One other quirky thing about Haynes manuals are that a fairly complicated procedure will be in detail about disassembly for about 30 steps... Then the last step will be "Assembly is the reversal of removal."; That's pretty much the most annoying line in the entire manual because it's usually not completely true...

None-the-less, good luck..

Thanks, Studio64. We were thinking of renting a car, but one of the requirements is that the renter must be over 21 years of age.

I would assume the same would be true for RVs.

I'll look for one of those Haynes manuals. If worse comes to worse we can always light a fire with it:D

Or take it to an old gravel site and fill 'er full of lead.

Yee haw!

Dennis

I'd suggest walking.