Roadmaster wagon road trip...DONE.

Hey guys:

This past week was vacation week for me, so me and a good friend took the '91 RMW on a tour of Florida beginning on Wednesday.

We started out here in North Alabama on Wednesday morning and arrived in Pensacola Beach Weds afternoon. PB was DEAD. We stayed at the Hampton Inn right on the beach for $99 per night. Ate at Sidelines near the hotel...was very good.

Thursday morning we loaded up and headed east, then south. We left PB and hit I-10, passing through Tallahassee before picking up I-75 South at Lake City.

We drove about 550 miles that day and found a place to stay near Bradenton. Ate at Outback Steakhouse that night...predictably tasty.

Friday had us on I-75 south through Sarasota and Naples, east through "Alligator Alley" and to the outskirts of Miami. We picked up the Florida Turnpike(with it's numerous, but cheap tolls) and drove that down to Highway 1 around Florida City.

We followed the 1 as far down as Islamorada, and that's where we decided to end up at. We didn't have any interest in Key West. We just wanted a laid back place to sleep at that was pretty close to places to eat and drink at

We found a neat little place called Drop Anchor Resort and Motel. Nothing fancy, but built in the '50s with nice clean rooms.Beachfront, and had plenty of chairs and hammocks and a pool.

We unpacked the car and got to our rooms(friend snores), then he hit the pool and I hit the hammock. The temp was about 84 degrees F..it had been about 45f when we left home.

About an hour later I got up to discover my friend nowhere in sight. A call on the cellphone disclosed his location as down the street having drinks at a watering hole...next door to a place called Hog Heaven.

We went looking around, bought some stuff and looked for a place to eat supper. We ended up eating at a Brazilian steakhouse which was stupidly expensive, but had everything from sushi to clams on the salad bar, plus they start bringing around 16 different types of cooked meats for you to select from. It was great, but expensive..like, over 2 tanks of gas expensive.

This morning, we got up and drove south for a couple dozen miles to see more of the scenery, then turned the Roadmaster around and headed north for home. This time we took 1 and the turnpike around Miami, the caught I-95 up the coast to Jacksonville. We took I-10 to I-75, I-75 N to Atlanta, I-20 west to our highway home and that was it.

All told, we covered 2200 miles, 950 on today alone.

A few thoughts:

The Roadmaster is very nice to take on a long trip. I am a bit tired right now, but not stiff or sore or anything. However:

It's WAY underpowered with the 305. With the 2.73 gear, 80mph is 2000 rpm and the converter unlocked on anything but relatively flat ground. Occasionally I had to run a 1/2 mile or so with it on the floor to be able to get around traffic.

Gas mileage didn't seem too bad. I didn't measure it but I got around 350 miles per tank.

The gas gauge is out of calibration. Filling it completely causes the needle to end up 3/4 inch past the full mark.

Other than that, the wagon didn't give any problems at all. The third day out it was acting really sluggish when giving it gas away from a stop, but that might have been gas because it didn't happen anymore after that.

I made some video which I will get edited and posted to Youtube soon.

Sounds like a fun trip. Forget your camera????

If you do the 9c1 y-pipe and a 2.5" single exhaust and the caddy intake mod, it really does help the car out, so it's at least tolerable. My Fatwagon (91 OCC) served me very well that way. At least that R12 AC is nice and ICY COLD!

Yup, the 305 in my sedan is a gutless pig, I can just imagine one in a wagon

Gonna put headers and duals on mine soon. It's getting a better engine in the near future anyways

Yeah I just watched your video, nice clean car and that LO3 sound good. I should do a horn button video for you one day.
as for being guttless imagine towing a wagon behing yours from Delray Beach to my place? or Virginia to Bewbz place, it gets the job done but you are not breaking any land speed records doing it.

buickestate wrote:

Yeah I just watched your video, nice clean car and that LO3 sound good.

Where is the video? I wanna see....

Sounds like you had a nice time. I have the 3.23 gears with my 305. I would not want a lesser gear with this motor though, I feel for you.

brokecello wrote:

, I feel for you.

really????? guess thats ok in these times,..


Nick

phantom 309 wrote:

brokecello wrote:

, I feel for you.

really????? guess thats ok in these times,..


Nick

..it's better than saying I fell for you. Lol

Just finished a 1000-mile road trip in my '94 RMW for a funeral in Detroit (couldn't visit any car friends, had to turn-n-burn). Bonneville 12-way seats properly adjusted for the way home resulted in absolutely no backaches after 7.5 hours in the car. Got crappy mileage though due to snow tires and an intermittently unlocking TCC (commanded by the PCM) that I haven't yet figured out.

sherlock9c1 wrote:

. Got crappy mileage though due to snow tires and an intermittently unlocking TCC (commanded by the PCM) that I haven't yet figured out.

you sure have problems with those lockups huh,. switch on your 9c1,. now this wagon,. oh, and my wagon,..you are going to get a new forum name soon i speckt,. "Mr Lockup"

Nick

K guys...I've started uploading clips from the trip to Youtube. I started a fresh account since I HATED the username the old account had.

I planned to condense all the clips into one video but I'm having trouble finding a good mpeg2 editor, so, clips it is, bad camera work included.

Here's the link to my page:

www.youtube.com/WhoSaidTyler

BTW, the lockup on my car works ok, but it sure disengages abruptly under load.

TylerW wrote:

BTW, the lockup on my car works ok, but it sure disengages abruptly under load.

I had a girlfriend like that once,....

Nick

And I`m sitting here with 12inches of snow and 15 deg.F ! ?
Ed

lol. nice vids. was hoping to see the keys, lol.
next time you come by this way lmk and we can have a beer. you went by my house by less than half a mile on your way back.

I'll be sure to, Sprocket.

I have a few more clips up, so check them out if you wish...

Like the videos! Like the "checking your oil" one the best. Lol From the underhood shots I saw, your wagon is clean! Very nice!