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I'm strongly thinking about driving to New Mex from PA. Taking the car in to get scheduled maintenance work done. Has anyone driven from the North East to NM? And if so, what should I expect other than the obvious? (long drive @#s drive)
Make sure you trust your mechanic, or wait a day or two after scheduled maintenance to get on your road trip. A friend had a bad experience with their oil change (let's just call the company "Iffy Lube") where the drain plug was not correctly replaced and didn't fall out until 4 hours' drive from here, spilling all the oil and risking catastrophic engine failure in the middle of nowhere.
If you're like me and 10 hours a day is about your limit, recommend you look at stops in Tulsa OK and Indianapolis IN.
As a former mechanic, auto, motorcycle and aircraft mechanic, who use to do all his own maintenance on all those items, do not do any maintenance 10 miles before you go on a trip...
Your vehicle should be in good shape to begin with. Do the maintenance 50 (?) miles or more before leaving. Simple things fail after someone "checks" them...
Make sure you trust your mechanic, or wait a day or two after scheduled maintenance to get on your road trip. A friend had a bad experience with their oil change (let's just call the company "Iffy Lube") where the drain plug was not correctly replaced and didn't fall out until 4 hours' drive from here, spilling all the oil and risking catastrophic engine failure in the middle of nowhere.
If you're like me and 10 hours a day is about your limit, recommend you look at stops in Tulsa OK and Indianapolis IN.
Had my last oil change done at iffy lube. I figure me and my oldest can switch up every 5 hours or so. Maybe driving cross country is a crazy idea, but I figure since I've flown and taken a train to New Mex. Driving is the finale frontier for me.
Last summer, I drove from Poughkeepsie, NY back to Albuquerque (where I live) in 3 days. We stopped in Cincinnati, OH and Tulsa, OK. It was a long drive and we hit some nasty thunderstorms in western Missouri, but besides that it was a pretty uneventful drive. My only advice is to get a good night sleep every night - it makes a huge difference and to know where hotels and gas stations are located. There are long stretches of absolutely nothing, especially in Texas and NM. Also I would even out the trip a little more - if you are going to make it all the way to Amarillo, you may as well just drive all the way to NM. It's a completely do-able drive, but will eat a lot of time out of your trip, if you only have a limited time.
I drove from MD. I-81 to I-40. did it in 3 days with overnight stops in Nashville, and OKC. It took around 30 hours total.
We did South Jersey/Philadelphia - Harrisburg to Albuquerque in 2006 on that route. Took 5 days but we had a day loading in Harrisburg and drove a big Penske truck too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by thelazyone
Would you do it again?
H**L NO!
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I figure me and my oldest can switch up every 5 hours or so. Maybe driving cross country is a crazy idea, but I figure since I've flown and taken a train to New Mex. Driving is the finale frontier for me.
