AU 1983 HJ47 troopy road trip - Long Beach to Iowa (1 Viewer)

[erics]

Just got word that one of our most esteemed Iowa cruiser contingent is embarking on one of those "wish you could go" road trips starting tomorrow.

Matt Tarnow, who is a long time member of the LC community but not an active Mudder, just pulled the last minute trigger on a ticket into John Wayne airport tomorrow to pick up an 1983 HJ47 troopy that recently arrived there from down under. Matt has been messing with LC's for many many years, having parted literally hundreds of them, and has sold parts to many many on this board.

He flys into John Wayne (Orange County) airport about 1:30 tuesday then is taking a shuttle van down to the Port of Long Beach where he expects to grab the truck and either head up to see Marv at SOR for a few things or just take off for home, depending on time and whether they were able to sneak a few parts inside the truck for the RORO voyage from AU.

Though everything is loose and subject to change, he's expecting to head north through Vegas to hit I80 at Salt Lake, then straight east all the way to Eastern Iowa (Quad Cities to be exact). He expects it to take about 34 hours of drive time, to get started tues aft/eve, plus then roughly 10 hours per day wed/thu/fri.

He's promised periodic updates which i'll post as received, and I told him Mudders would undoubtedly respond should he run into any issues along the way.

Here are a couple pics of the truck to fuel your imagination of the trip... give him a wave if you see him going by!

 

[bigassbike]

Very cool. I'll be watching for updates. I hope he has fewer problems than I had when I drove mine home from Salt Lake.

Just got word that one of our most esteemed Iowa cruiser contingent is embarking on one of those "wish you could go" road trips starting tomorrow.

Matt Tarnow, who is a long time member of the LC community but not an active Mudder, just pulled the last minute trigger on a ticket into John Wayne airport tomorrow to pick up an 1983 HJ47 troopy that recently arrived there from down under. Matt has been messing with LC's for many many years, having parted literally hundreds of them, and has sold parts to many many on this board.

He flys into John Wayne (Orange County) airport about 1:30 tuesday then is taking a shuttle van down to the Port of Long Beach where he expects to grab the truck and either head up to see Marv at SOR for a few things or just take off for home, depending on time and whether they were able to sneak a few parts inside the truck for the RORO voyage from AU.

Though everything is loose and subject to change, he's expecting to head north through Vegas to hit I80 at Salt Lake, then straight east all the way to Eastern Iowa (Quad Cities to be exact). He expects it to take about 34 hours of drive time, to get started tues aft/eve, plus then roughly 10 hours per day wed/thu/fri.

He's promised periodic updates which i'll post as received, and I told him Mudders would undoubtedly respond should he run into any issues along the way.

Here are a couple pics of the truck to fuel your imagination of the trip... give him a wave if you see him going by!

 

[Dudleyfj40]

Man that is a long way to drive with a vehicle you don't know.

Well, we are talking about Matt, he probably knows every part number on the that Troopy.

Hope everything goes well for him.

 

[Doc]

Kick @ss!

 

[mot]

That would be a blast!

As long as it doesn't break down.

 

[erics]

status report

I talked with Matt last night (early evening pacific time) and things had gone about as expected:

Flew in and got the shuttle to the Long Beach port, no problem.
Signed the papers, paid a few bucks for storage, and was handed the keys.
Wondered why the driver side door window was down... "hmmm, will worry about that later"
Got in, started her up, and drove off.
Went up to SOR for a few parts and see Marv but he was on vacation.
Realized two things:
1) there is no radio in the truck and he's going to get to know the truck's noises REALLY well over the next several days... no, he didn't bring an ipod of anything.
2)the initial growling he's hearing in the back end sounds worrisome enough that he called Jonathan at TLC and they're going to put it up on a lift and check things out tomorrow morning before he takes off for Iowa.

When I talked to him he was at a Target, across the street from the hotel parking lot (near TLC), where he was buying tools and adhesive to fix the driver side door window whose glass had apparently come out of its mechanism and was laying in the bottom of the door. At least it was in there and not broken... easy fix.

Will post more when I hear it. If anyone is near TLC and has the time/inclination, stop by this morning to say hi to Matt and maybe snap and post a couple pics...

 

[orangefj45]

sounds like a great road trip. he outta buy a small radio or an ipod cause it's gonna be a looooong drive.

i like the first pic. two troopies and a pickup. what else can a cruiser-head ask for?!

 

[Awl_TEQ]

For the sake of sanity - buy a radio or sumthin. I once drove from Titusville FL (Cape Kennedy) to Calgary AB with no radio - someone did a smash and grab in the Ramada Inn parking lot. Google Earth tells me that was 2831 miles (4500 km) - seemed more like 10,000.

 

[erics]

Update

Just got off the phone with Matt...

At TLC yesterday morning they did new rear axle seals and wheel bearings (it had been leaking pretty bad on the shoes), along with some front and rear brake work to make sure it was road worthy. Though they cut him a deal on the shop rate, it still hurts to pay someone to do work you can do yourself. He drove away happy, however, to be on the road and headed up I-15 hoping to make it to State Line to find a cheap room to crash for the night (which he did).

He was calling just now from Mesquite NV where he was filling up for the first time. He had gone 358 miles on 17.5 gallons... pretty good at 20.5 mpg. Said the 2H was running like a champ, though he mentioned it important to remember that LC's do not accelerate, rather they "gather speed". He said he's able to maintain speed up the grades as long as he got a little run at 'em, but that old tires on split rims and a loose steering center arm were making 60mph feel like the right top speed even going downhill.

He wasn't sure how far he'd make it yet today... probably somewhere between Salt Lake and Cheyenne assuming all goes well.

 

[Doc]

All that space in the back and he's paying for hotel rooms?

A $20 air matress from walmart and a couple of blankets would solve that issue.

 

[landcrusher909]

Man i wish I had know I would have been your taxi !!!!

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

I'm sending my contact info via PM, I remember Matt from the old school! We never actually met and I even drove through a couple times. I don't remember hte specifics but if I remember correctly he is right on the Iowa/Illinios border and I think I might have sold him some parts of vice versa once??

If he wants to stop by our shop just east of SLC in Heber City we'd love to have him.... I am at work during the day but there is fun concert in SLC tomorrow night if that's his bag otherwise could give him a tour of the shop tomorrow. We are all about 30 going on 23 except we're married and have real jobs Fun projects: FJ62 with Isuzu diesel, FJ55 with Cummins 4BT, factory '83 BJ42 diesel, etc Cheers! Andre

 

[fjwagon]

Sweet!!!!!!

 

[erics]

Just got another call (7:40 central time) and Matt was filling up just east of Salt Lake City in Jeremy Ranch UT. By mapquest he did 348 miles on 19.5 gal for 17.8 mpg.

He's sounding a bit worn, and said he was going to go another hour or two and then put up for the night. Still doesn't have tunes... just the sweet song of the 2H to keep him company.

Thanks for the info and offers of hospitality dieselcruiserhead. Matt did remember you, but he' already off to the east and on a mission to make it home tomorrow night...

more as I hear it...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Doh, Jeremy Ranch is Park City... We could have put him up, not a problem though. I would recommend Evanston Wyoming about an hour east of Park City or about an hour or hour and a half past Evanston is Green River Wyoming... Wish him luck and sorry I missed him!

 

[packman73]

999 bottles of beer on the wall, 999 bottles of beer, take one down pass it around, 998 bottles of beer on the wall. Sure hope he got himself an iPod or something...

 

[erics]

Morning update... he's up and at it early this morning - on the road at 7am local time.

Made it in to Rawlins, WY last night and is facing about 950 miles for the home stretch today.

Everything continues to work ok for him, though the tach and odometer quit and he's missing some fuses for the horn, cig lighter outlet, etc.

He's also noticed a pool of 90W amidships each morning so he's pulled the tranny boot and is pouring a quart of gear oil down the tranny top plate each day. The rig has a tranny to transfer fill plug equalizer hose setup on it, so the leak could be coming from there, but who knows. Just gonna get it home then deal with it.

Said he's doing about 125km/hr now... if true that means his confidence in the rig has improved because that equates to almost 78 mph. I think the desire to get home may be factoring in a bit

Closing in a Laramie now (9:30 central time) where he'll gas up again.

 

[packman73]

Where's he @ now?

 

[erics]

I would expect him to be in Central NE now - I know, makes me green with envy too...

As of this morning he was going to see how he felt whether he'd make it here (Des Moines) by early evening or peter out between omaha and here. If he makes it here it'll probably be in the 7-9pm time frame.

Tentative plan is for him to jump off I80 at Greg's shop up in Johnston for a hideyho either tonight (if he makes it to us) or tomorrow morning. I'll post up when I know so local folks can swing by to see the truck... uh, I mean, to welcome our good friend back "almost-home".

If he makes it here, he might be talked into crashing at someone's place for the night then shooting the remaining 3 hrs home in the morning.

He'll call soon I'm sure with another status.

 

[erics]

Got the call a while ago... Matt was just coming into Omaha but pretty much done for the day. He expects to plunk down once he gets a ways into Iowa, probably about and hour from here and four hours from home.

He'll probably stop in the Des Moines area mid-morning-ish, so be ready if you want to stop by and see the truck, I mean him (damn, I did it again...).

Details tomorrow once he gets rolling.