Planning for Carlisle

Thinking about packing my Speedie for Carlisle. Sure ain't an abundance of space for stuff is it?? Not much room under the hood with a full sized spare tire either. I think I really want the spare though.

There will be two of us traveling --me and my son. If anyone has developed some smart,clever ideas for packing for a long trip as well as important items to load,I'd like to hear about them. I'm thinking:

LUGGAGE --seems like soft bags work best. Take that fake seat cushion out of the back and put one bag each there. Also maybe a
light-ish suitcase on the luggage rack on back--maybe 20# max?
Casual clothes--folded jeans, shirts, etc. (Don't forget the Hawaiian shirt--right?)

GPs (Can't see where to put it.--maybe get a smaller unit)
CELL PHONE
SOFT BRIEFCASE for travel plans--like Land's End or even smaller
TOOLS--per many reccomendations from this site on what to pack.
SPARE PARTS, Dist cap,spare Pertronix,oil pump, oil pressure sender,Fan belt,Gasket material,Brake fluid----what else??

Thought about a CB radio but the car is so noisey I don't think I would use it--will it work on a plastic car anyway?

For sure--AAA card, cash and credit cards.

Pretty random I know and I apologize for that---let's hear from some other experienced travelers with their ideas!

You Morro folks can chime in too--please!

---Jack

Soft luggage, good. Duffle bags work well. Wrap everything in plastic bags, found this out in 2006. Speedsters are probably more watertight than Spyders, but by how much?

Bring clean towels for wiping the inside of the windshield when it fogs up. If you don't have one, install a lighter socket for your phone/GPS. I have a triple socket under the dash, you can't see it.
I always bring a couple quarts of oil, and any really special tools. I have small wrenches for hexbar linkage and my synchrometer. Also the spring perch wrenches for my coilover rear shocks.

Put clear caulk in the base of the windshield posts so you won't get dripped/sprayed on. Bring duct tape to plug anything else, stuff is amazing. Just remove it soon as the rain stops and it won't leave residue.

Jack,
For tape only use wide, blue painter's tape. (it leaves no residue) Forget most tools and carry a cell phone and AAA card. For packing clothes use soft bags. For rain have a travel poncho, umbrella and a few lawn & leaf bags.

Don't over pack. My wife and I use rolling suitcases that fit in the overhead on an airplane and they fit nicely in the back of the speedster without taking out the seat cushion. In those 2 bags we get enough clothing for "knock around" and "elegant dining". We have traveled in Europe for two weeks with these small containers (and you KNOW how women pack!) Lesson here is .. don't overpack.

See you in Carlisle

Happy Trails,
Dusty and the lovely Miss Sharon

All good ideas! I'll add the Muir book!!---Jack

Daniel, My wife refers to our Spyder as "THE SPONGE" when we travel in the damp....

Jack, here's a thread that was posted back when I was planning my trip to California back in April of '05. It generated some interesting ideas and some amusing responses.

My trip was about twice as far as yours and I realized some of my decisions about what to bring were silly. I brought camping equipment since I thought it might be fun to tent out. It never got used. After the first night in a motel with air, cable TV and a warm bed I decided that this was definitely preferable to sleeping on the hard, cold ground, especially after 12 plus hours a day in the saddle.

http://speedsterowners.com/forum/readmsg.asp?t=4043

Don't over pack is good advice,

A few hand tools, duct tape, nylon ties etc. are good things to bring along for some small glitch you can fix yourself quickly. I think Gordon came up with a really comprehensive list a while back. Maybe he can be post it again?

There are a number of places to stuff things. A soft bag, umbrella, etc will fit on the floor in front of your son's seat under his legs. He can also put somethings to his right on the door sill but those items will be in his way when he gets in and out. In between the seats and behind the e-brake handle works too. Try not to overfill the front trunk and then "jam" the lid down, there is a good chance you will move the adjustment on the lid and have to readjust that later.

Have you tried driving in the rain yet? I put Rain-X on the windshield for better visibility, this also speeds the rain to the top header where my Speedster invariably leaks. When I see rain coming I put blue painter's tape ove the gap between the windshield and the top - the blue tape doesn't leave any residue - and remove it after the rain passes. Some people put Anti-fog on the inside of the windshield but I haven't had much luck with that and end up with a hard-to-remove mess.

Don't forget a flash light and one of those collapsible road hazard triangles.

Enjoy the ride!

ECB

All so helpful! John, my motto should be "post first then search"! I saw your thread right after I posted and it was very helpful along with the other good ideas above. good thoughts.

I just got back from Walmart having spent $80 on:

Rain-x--inside anti fog and outside windshield
Great Stuff--to fill all the openings that let riain in
Undercoat-to go over the great stuff
Blue painters tape--front-top of windshield
Clear silicone--someone said to put it around the windshield posts
two cheap raincoats
Small plastic gas can. 1 1/2 gal. (Is carrying extra gas a poor idea??)
Car jack--small bottle one

Whoever said "it's not the cost--it's the upkeep" sure had it right!

Anyway I WILL be prepared for Carlisle.

--Looking forward to hooking up with you, John for the Knoxville to Christiansburg leg.----Jack

Jack, one possible change: I bought as small a bottle jack as I could find, and carried it with me last year. It was only later that I realized it was too tall - even fully collapsed - to fit under the jacking points on my car. You might want to consider a scissors jack.

Jack: I think I sent my spares list via email, so I won't copy it here unless someone really wants it (it's extensive).

Anyway, Rain-X is fabulous. Drove from Washington DC to Beaufort last Christmas in a constant downpour, at night, and never used the windshield wipers. LOVE Rain-X!!

Not as sure about the anti-fog stuff - I have some but never used it. Instead, I have an Eddie Bauer anti-fog sponge - it's a sponge wrapped in chamoix leather. Just wipe it across the windshield and fog is gone but the anti-fog stuff is intriguing.

I also have a roll of blue painter's tape for outside use on seams that leak (especially the top of the windshield to convertible top).

Tool kit: multi-tip screwdriver, 3/8's ratchet, short extension, several metric sockets, spark plug socket, tranny drain hex drive, adjustable (Crescent) wrench, feeler gauges (for valves), mini-Mag lite, small pliers, some tie-wraps, all in a roll-up, canvas tool holder and all put down next to the battery up front. Have a modified Ford Windstar scissors jack (it comes with a 19mm wheel stud socket/jack crank) stowed right behind the driver's seat. Behind the pass. seat is a small tool bag with a couple of FRS radios, dipstick thermometer, dual-sided velcro strips (used in IT places for cables), couple of bungee cords, couple of terry rags, spare glasses, earbuds for my radios and IPOD, micro-fiber cloths and a small tube of silicon adhesive/sealer (may be more, I just can't remember it all).

There is also a lot of un-used space all around the cockpit, under the hood and in the engine compartment: behind and between the seats, under the seats, the rear seat area, the battery well up front, left and right of the spare tire, in the engine compartment (I've seen quarts of oil stored back there away from the engine and held in with small bungees) and so on. Get in the car and sit there and look for spaces to put stuff, especially soft, crushable stuff.

Put soft, light weight but bulky stuff into that water-resistant suitcase on the rear rack.

I installed a 12V aux socket for the GPS up under the dash and just stick the GPS on the windshield.

I have a CB radio in the truck, but not in the Speedster. I've used it in the speedster, though. Works OK with a truck mirror mount attached to my nerf bar, but I got a little alternator whine. I just get real tired of the raunchy language you often get, even though sometimes the info about what's ahead is good. Just went to New England and back in the past two weeks without CB and didn't miss it.....got 5,000+ tunes on my IPOD and listen to that, instead (and I subscribe to "CarTalk with "Click and Klack"....10 hours of it on the trip down, until my wife said; "ENOUGH!!!!").

Stay tuned, we'll all probably think of more stuff, too.


gn

I've yet to get any result but a cloudy mess with the anti-fog Rain-X.

Bruce, what is that triangle really used for?

Hint, anybody want to take up a collection for an anti-shin-bashing exhaust?

I have a Subaru scissor jack in the front, but no spare. At least I can take it off and bring it somewhere for replacement! Actually if anyone has a spare narrow 4-4.5" wide-5 I'll buy it or get you an egg sammich for your trouble.

Lane, could you make that a big bottle of "Jack" for you buddy Hoss.
Thx man.

Danny - LOL. Some people actually use them if they break down on the road (in addition to stopping someone from breaking their neck by taking a header over your pea-shooter exhaust). :>)

Jack - If you take a jack along you might also find a collapsible lug wrench for a couple of bucks. An alternative could be a can of tire inflator. A spare ignition key, spare fuses, a couple of extra bulbs, and a backup fan belt don't take up much room.

OMG! I realized when I re-read the link to the thread I attached above that it was for 2004 and not 2005; this was the Carlisle event that I didn't attend because the car wasn't ready. Had I known what I was missing out on, I would have come anyway. Maybe I could have found a couple of open right seats for Sarah and myself.

In case you need to stay overnight somewhere,
Add an AARP card to your list of Cards.
It'll get you a discount at most motels. Even ones that don't take AAA.

Greg

And they laughed when I whipped my AARP card out and got the 12 riders in our group discounts on rooms enroute to a Harley event.
He who laughs last, whatever.

OK guys, here is another back-in-the-day story, but I'll keep it short. I'm supposing a '56 A coupe has about as much room in it as a Speedster. In 1967 I lived in (and out-of) that car for six solid weeks running across the country and back again. Car was a little beat up and rusty, and leaked around the windows, esp'y the rear, plus the floor pan was "ventilated", so it was only marginally more water tight than a Speedster. It was a great road trip, BTW; my first exposure to the PCH: SF to San Diego -- glorious. The car held a rather too large tent, sleeping bag, camp stove, food, clothes, tools and so forth. [The tools advice here is about right on, sounds like.] Did not have a right seater except for a few days at the beginning, and a small cat that adopted me in Arizona during my run back east at the end of the trip; implication: had to make room for a litter box in the right foot well. Certainly you want soft bags for clothes and such, and the idea about plastic to put over/around them is a great thought. The Speedster specific ideas about blue tape and towels is good. I'll be giving the Rain-X a try. I also have the bottle jack, although no spare -- just fix-a-flat. I have not raised the car w/ this jack yet and think it will not be possible to lift the front because of low clearance. Have yet to sign up for AAA, but I sense this is a good idea.

Taking out a secound mortgage to be absolutely sure I can cover the probable increase in fuel costs.........

For real, no sh*t, pack a yellow onion and a knife.
The vapors from the onion will keep the windshield clear. Cut the onion in half, naturally ...