Coast to coast road trip with a 5x8 enclosed trailer, follow along for laughs

[joekitch]

Too many things were happening at once for me to realize I could just give them out on the forums.
Hell I'm still packing, but most everything is in boxes now and the last step is putting into and organizing the trailer and strapping down, much later than I hoped.

The vacuum leak smoke test I had last week was to check for vac leaks but they didn't find anything at all. The car was dead cold when I gave it to them, dropped it off the night before

[joekitch]

Updates sparse now that I'm on the road for real.
I did make an Instagram for the trip, @joek1tch
The Southwest had a heat wave right now so I'm getting kind of worried, even though my cooling system has yet to go past 105 while hauling the trailer on this trip

[geargrinder]

https://www.instagram.com/joek1tch/

LOL dude, your trailer is basically half empty! You ain't hardly haulin nothin! I wouldn't be too worried about cooling, although you still have OE radiator right? That bears keeping an eyeball on regardless...



Did you ever say what you were doing w/ the Miata? Coming back for it later? Dumping it?

[JimLev]

Trailer is basically empty.
GG, pretty sure Joe put the M5 radiator in.
It was over 100 in Roswell the other day where Joe said he wants to stop at. Going to be 103 there for the next few days.
I should have told him about the t-stat hack I did, send some voltage to the heater to open it up so you can set the temp at what ever you want, all the way down to 85C if you want.

[effduration]

Think of all the parts we on the east coast could have shipped to our friends on the west...

[geargrinder]

I should have told him about the t-stat hack I did, send some voltage to the heater to open it up so you can set the temp at what ever you want, all the way down to 85C if you want.

Yep. Or he shoulda done the 740D t-stat conversion when he did his timing chain job. I could have coded his DME for it an everthin'.

Think of all the parts we on the east coast could have shipped to our friends on the west...

LOL. I can't beleive he's carrying anything in the back of the car at all... there's plenty of room in that trailer for everything he's got in the wagon and more.

[effduration]

With all that space is he still driving with the box on the roof? I don't do instagram...
He could put the roof box in the trailer for chrissakes...

[JimLev]

With all that room he could stop at every junkyard along the way to pick up parts!

[geargrinder]

He could have put his Miata INSIDE the trailer and STILL have room for the roof-box!

[joekitch]

I very much over-planned for storage just in case, hence the space in the trailer.
I'm already using that lower temperature thermostat so a tstat hack isn't all that necessary.
Also, I didn't want to put everything in the trailer, because some of it is very temperature-sensitive, and the trailer could possibly get pretty hot in the Arizona Sun and bake anything inside. The roof box is low volume and has lots of airflow, so that won't get quite as hot, and the car itself has AC

[StephenVA]

Keep rolling.....

[joekitch]

Just spiked to 108 in the mountain passed, details in my IG post but it's.... concerning
IG is @joek1tch, forgot if I put that already

[computiNATEor]

Assuming your cooling system is sorted with new rad, fan, etc, you should be ok. You're running a 50/50 mix and the 2bar pressure cap? If it keeps climbing and climbing, I'd be concerned past 115ºC, but not 'til then. I've personally seen 120ºC on my old 530iA (when the aux fan broke in heavy traffic) and drove 30k miles more on that engine.

- - - Updated - - -

You could remove the lower belly pan to let more air flow out under the car if you haven't already. Looks like you have plenty of room in the trailer.

[joekitch]

I have indeed considered removing the lower belly pan, my only concern would be possible road debris impacting the engine from below, but that's probably an extremely rare occurrence, even on well sorted major highways..... Right?

[StephenVA]

Ha ha. See the M5 forum for the road trip experience that ended after 12 miles when he hit the spare tire of a tractor trailer at 65 MPH. Not a pretty sight.

Drive and enjoy the sights. Send a few pictures of the wagon along the way.

Stay safe

[dannyzabolotny]

I’ve driven without my belly pan for the whole time I’ve owned the 540it... 35,000 miles, tons of road trips, and some off-roading. My oil pan has a few small dents but I haven’t really had any issues otherwise. My car runs fairly cool even in the Arizona heat. No clutch fan either.

[jp5Touring]

I have indeed considered removing the lower belly pan, my only concern would be possible road debris impacting the engine from below, but that's probably an extremely rare occurrence, even on well sorted major highways..... Right?

You over think things. I can't remember how long mines been off. Enjoy your trip,safe travels.

[Mike WW]

If it's plastic like the 6 cylinder cars I doubt it would be of much help if you did hit something big. It's a splash pan, not a skidplate. At the same time, I wouldn't be shocked if it cooled better with it on. Yeah, they did a few dumb things, but there's a lot of engineering that isn't obvious.

[berndtj]

Congrats on your move! I did the trip from TX to the Bay Area about a year ago when I picked up my 540. Its a good drive! Your car will do great. I wouldn’t worry about overheating. I’ve done a trackday in 100 degree heat on the stock cooling system. Aux fan would kick in and cool things down every so often, but it did OK. Well the water pump crapped the bed right afterward, but I’m sure that was just coincidence.


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[geargrinder]

If it's plastic like the 6 cylinder cars I doubt it would be of much help if you did hit something big. It's a splash pan, not a skidplate. At the same time, I wouldn't be shocked if it cooled better with it on. Yeah, they did a few dumb things, but there's a lot of engineering that isn't obvious.

This.

On my old audi, 1. the car def cooled better w the pan on, some kind of total airflow thing going on, the back of the pan seems to cause a low-pressure zone that pulls air through better than the random turbulence you get from just a big random opening... And ... 2. Several owners actually had road debris cause strandings. You'd think it would be a freak occurrence and I guess it was but road debris would get up in the bell housing and cause problems. That yes was prob some freak thing for that car but at the very least it's better to keep the 'bay clean and rock/sand/dust free...

[joekitch]

Not sure why I'm so paranoid about it to be honest, by all accounts my cooling system should be almost unkillable for the next 10k miles at least. I guess because breaking down in the middle of the desert, especially on a steep hill, is a pretty crappy outcome.
Oh well, I'll watch it closely when I'm in the high 90s going from Mississippi to Columbus Texas. Literally picked Columbus because it's an 8 hour ish drive from Hattiesburg to Roswell.

[joekitch]

There's also that slight drivetrain noise I've been hearing, I have a video of it on the Instagram, might be the center support bearing, might be the differential, I don't know. I'm also not sure if it's worth tackling right now,

[TexFinn]

Just relax and enjoy.

I've driven cars from almost all corners of the country back to Texas and nothing's ever failed even though you tend to hear and feel lot more things than you usually do when just driving around town.

Of course you shouldn't ignore any obvious signs, but just drive along and you'll be just fine. No need to start messing with the car on the road unless something actually breaks or becomes obvious that it needs work.

[JimLev]

Just turn the stereo up, it isn't a problem if you can't hear it.

[computiNATEor]

^ +1. You'll be fine. Highway cruising, even with a trailer, is much lighter on a car than my canyon driving