Two thousand plus mile road trip in my '69 Road Runner to get it home!

[Darius]

Nothing like an awesome road trip in a well performing classic Mopar! You got some wide open road to run in too. Spill it now, how fast did you get to in Wyoming...or any other place for that matter. One can NOT look at that much open road out front and not get on it!

 

[hunt2elk]

Wow, that is quite the trip. Bet you had a sore a$$ when it was over. Is your car T5 copper?

 

[Tempest 455]

Very cool.

 

[451Mopar]

Sounds like a cool road trip!
When I bought my '69 Coronet Convertible it was in Florence, OR. I stopped for gas in Eugene, OR and that city must be full of Mopar fans. The gas station guy calls his buddies, and we spend a few hours checking out their Mopars.

 

[Speedbird]

I remember that too with the 2 signs, had forgotten. Went West in late July 1991 in the 69 Sport Satellite Allentown to San Jose. Had only my Dad, Kirby, and microwave. Fried a wheel bearing in Laramie and got it fixed at a Conoco Station. Took all of my travelers checks. Remember those? Didn't take 1 picture. 10 mile hill into Ogden was fun. 10"drums and loose steering. Wyoming had the scariest weather.

March 2003
The Memphis to Seattle was a blur in 3 days.

Seattle to Atlanta 3 years later I stopped and took 6 pictures of the Dodge.
One at the first divide.
I had 5 gallon gas cans strapped to my little trailer.
Just in case.

 

[super-bee_ski]

Good job!
I may be doing the same thing.
How did the car run?

 

[Ranger16]

A daring trip for this time of year. Sounds like it was fun though. I'm a good 2 months away from even thinking about starting mine. Bill Monk nailed it...............ENVIOUS!

 

[burntorng70]

Cool trip in a great car! Can't wait to do something similar.

 

[idrivemopar]

I'll hafta check on some of that, but that 4th pic was just after I got into Wyoming from Salt Lake, Utah... SW Wyoming...

My car has 323 gears in the rear, and she stayed on exactly perfect temp the entire time... I believe i was at 7,000 ft at one point...

If you came across I-80 between Laramie and Cheyenne Wyoming, then you went across the summit which is the highest point on I-80 at 8,600 feet. I have driven my RR across that area many times. You are brave coming across southern Wyoming in the winter as the weather can change in an instant. By the way, this time of year, there is always a wind storm in Wyoming happening.

 

[Cranky]

Yup, nothing like a road trip in an old muscle car. Been years for me but I used just about all of mine for daily drivers and never thought about not taking a 1 or 200 mile run in any of them.

 

[Budnicks]

Sounds like a great trip, one you will remember for ever,
didn't sound too eventful as the car goes too, that's always a plus...

thanks for sharing

I haven't done anything like that with an older car since mid 90's
{1995 IIRC} Drove from Concord Ca. {SF east bay area} to LA
to meet up with a bunch of others driving the Route 66,
supposed to go to end destination Hod Rod Power Festival in Norwalk Ohio
we had a RV Motorhome "support vehicle" following us {my dad}
so it wasn't really roughing it...
I put 3.23:1 gears in the old girl so it could do 80 mph
without spinning to the moon, get a bit better mileage that way too,
12-15mpg was a god send compared to normal,
my 68 RR 479ci 6bbl/low deck a-727 at the time was basically
a racecar with license plates...
Not exactly a road-trip car...

They call it the Power Tour today,
seemingly never come out west anymore either...

only issue I had was bad gas in a few places, water laden...

I only made it about 1450 {?} miles from my place to LA
to some small town in north Texas, great weather nice old roads
for the most part
{of a 2000+ mile 1 way trip from LA, supposed to be about 2500+ 1 way from my place},
unfortunately it ended there, no more fun {work calls}
But another 1300 miles back home, I didn't need to go back thru LA
I needed to turn around, go back because of work,
problems with a devout customer, I wasn't gonna' leave him hanging...
Anyway;
A glorious 2700-2800 miles, trip in the ol' RR
It was me my dog, my dad following in the Motorhome,
my girlfriend, she spent sometime in the car, sometimes in the MH,
would rotate with my dog Duke {Black Lab}, he loved riding in the RR...
It was me finally taking a vacation/emptying my bank account...
I spent well over $10k+ in 7 days {?}, outside of that it was great time...
No real issues with a freshly built hot rod, that in itself is a miracle...

It's a trip I will never forget, specific details I have already forgot,
names & places, restaurants towns too, but the feeling
& that experience was great...
I've been all over the US racing, almost every state racing,
traveling for pleasure too...
But; it's not the same driving a "Tow rig or Motorhome vs a real Hot Rod"...
You end up feeling like your vibrating, when you stop for the night
& you freaken' love every min. of it...

 

[woody3037]

Sounds like you went on your own" power tour". I can't wait to get mine done to do the same kind of thing. Congrats on a beautiful car and awesome road trip.

 

[69roadrunner>>>]

Good job!
I may be doing the same thing.
How did the car run?

Car ran perfect! No problems except the newly built rear is really tight and the rear tire chirps when turning sharp n slow... Also, no power brakes/no power steering, but I have disc brakes on the front... My pops set it up that way...

Also, there's a vibration coming from the rear end when I go over 70, I think that is due to the rear end needing shimmed a bit inside to loosen it up...

 

[Basket case]

a buddy of my Uncle's had a four door Dart that he delivered mail in on back country roads. He put extra clutches in the rear. It would snap and pop on sharp turns...but was it a blast doing doughnuts in the winter.