CMP Road Trips

[Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)]

Good morning all (evening in Oz),

I thought this thread might be of interest to those relatively new to the CMP Madness who might be contemplating lengthy road trips to get to shows, parades etc (as opposed to trailering their beasties).

For those who do/have done this in past -- what tools, spares and supplies has experience proven you should take on a 'Murphy's Law' basis? Enough to undertake a minor rebuild on the side of the road, or is there a basic collection/set of spares (electrical, fuel supply etc) which is always squirreled away? Do you get into more complex stuff like clutches, universal joints etc?

Be specific as to Ford or Chev and please note your past experiences with reference to vehicle size. And what's the maximum distance you've driven yours in past? Terrain? What's now become your 'normal' maximum distance?

Finally, what are some of the adventures you've had enroute?

Have at it, lads.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Geoff

I posted a similar question a while back, http://www.mapleleafup.org/forums/sh...&threadid=8723 How Far Did You Drive Your CMP This Week. We had one hands down winner, for longest trip (Euan McDonald with his 16000km trip in Australia). So could we combine the threads and pick up from here.

I would be interested in how far and how often people are taking their CMPs out for road trips. End of July I'll be driving my 3 CMPs 45 miles for our Club's summer rally. Now does that count as 3 ninty mile trip or one long 270 mile trip. What I would really like is to convoy all three CMPs over at the same time.

Cheers

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally posted by Phil Waterman
Hi Geoff

I posted a similar question a while back, http://www.mapleleafup.org/forums/sh...&threadid=8723 How Far Did You Drive Your CMP This Week. We had one hands down winner, for longest trip (Euan McDonald with his 16000km trip in Australia). So could we combine the threads and pick up from here.

I would be interested in how far and how often people are taking their CMPs out for road trips. End of July I'll be driving my 3 CMPs 45 miles for our Club's summer rally. Now does that count as 3 ninty mile trip or one long 270 mile trip. What I would really like is to convoy all three CMPs over at the same time.

Cheers

Hi Phil...
Which one is the Bear driving..??
Sounds like a great adventure..
Have a great summer and hope to see you up here at BBB2..in August.

[Bob Carriere]

How do you drive 3 vehicles....... must be a lot of hitch hiking back and forth......

Geoff idea of what to bring as back up is interesting.....

I now what I used to carry for spares for my M37...... but what are the likely things to go on a CMP.......

Phil usually carries a whole case of fan belts...... what else have people experienced as breaking down........ let's face it even if NAPA is around the corner you are dead meat asking for 1940 CMP parts....

I suspect that most North Americans are probably going to consider trailers for the greater distances we need to cover..... I know I will...... our Aussie friends seem to be the longer distance drivers..... how about the UK or Continental Europe with all the truck shows and commemorative events.....

My favorite is still duct tape....fiberglass tape ...baling wire and cutters... wisegrips and a big hammer....

Bob

[Phil Waterman]

Well Bob “How do you drive 3 vehicles....... must be a lot of hitch hiking back and forth......” I’ve given that some thought, calculating number of miles driven total time taken extc. as to how many man hours are involved in having one person drive a regular car to bring one or two CMP drivers back to the starting point or my personal favorite one person drives CMP #1 two hundred yards, then walks back to drive CMP#2 two hundred yards to park it behind CMP# 1 then walks back to drive CMP#3 two hundred yards to park it behind CMP#2 at which time the process is repeated again with CMP#1, 2 and 3. Estimate time to complete a 90 mile trip something like 3 weeks. I think the better solution is teach my kids and their spouses how to drive CMP’s in which case the whole thing can be done in one trip, with one driver left over.

Cheers

[cliff]

Originally posted by Bob Carriere
How do you drive 3 vehicles....... must be a lot of hitch hiking back and forth......

Bob

Naaaa...drive #1 onto the semi trailer then #2, then #3.

Drive semi to new location

then drive #3 off, then #2 off, then #1 off.

see easy

[Barry Churcher]

I personally don't think you can ever take enough spare parts. No matter what you take, you will need something else. Brian Gough and I went to Portsmouth in 1994 and were amazed at some of the repairs the English guys were doing. At the show guys were replacing head gaskets, clutches and so on with little thought. Most were going from there to France. If I had to replace a clutch I would just go home. Preston Isac had his left front hub and brakes all apart on his Bofors truck and the ferry was leaving in the morning.
Brian drove a Canadian GPW with 19 set and I drove a CCKW from Holland to France for D Day. One of the guys in our convoy (Rien Mudde) had to overhaul his Jeep tranny one night. On the way home one blade broke off the fan on Brian's Jeep so I took the fan off. On some of those long hills in France it ran hot so I cut one other blade off to balance the fan and away we went back to Holland.
The most interesting thing that happened was one night at 22:00 just outside the Novatel (sp) in Bayeux the Jeep quit. I did some testing and we determined it was the coil. All our spares were in the CCKW 2 hours away. It was sooo cold, the Novatel was full and they wouldn't let us sit in the lobby and warm up. We sat on the side of the road and waited. Military vehicle guys kept stopping to offer help but no one had a coil. We started asking guys where they were from and there was 13 countries represented. Finally at about 1:00 a young German soldier in a Mercedes
4X4 (G-Wagon?) Stopped. He was taking a young fraulin home and said he would be back. He did return in about an hour and took us on about a half hour ride in the country to where he and his buddies were staying. They were also current serving German soldiers and had rented an old garage at a Chateau for the celebrations. We were a little apprehensive to say the least. (Play music from the movie Jaws) Brian slept on the floor and I slept on top of a folded up tent. The next morning he took us to the English Camp where a Swedish guy GAVE us a coil. The moral was we were rescued on the eve of the 50th anniversary of D Day by a German soldier. Sorry for the length.
Barry

[Bruce MacMillan]

When Western Command did it's Freedom Route trip back in 2005 we had two 15cwt cmps along for the 1000 km trip. Fortunately both were Chevs so the only repair we had was one brake cylinder. Most of the vehicles in the convoy carried the small bits for parts; plugs,coil,duct tape,belts,lubricants,u-joints,liquid gasket,duct tape,etc.

Because this was an organized club event for the vets we got support from Veteran Affairs and that enabled us to get a commitment from BCAA (automobile assoc) to provide free towing to a repair facility anywhere on the trip. It was a nice bit of assurance but was never used.

When I was in France last year for the Voie de la Liberte trip I was amazed at the support the European clubs bring. The Belgian's had there own breakdown truck with gantry, generator and welder. Good thing as it was needed!

[Howard]

Originally posted by Barry Churcher
I....Swedish guy GAVE us a coil. The moral was we were rescued on the eve of the 50th anniversary of D Day by a German soldier.
Barry

That is a great yarn Barry. I would personally find that fantastic experience.
HH

[chris vickery]

I always carrier the basics but two things that I have found to be most invaluable are a cell phone and at least a list of current part numbers. Barry is correct in saying that you can never carry enough spares, but at least being able to cross reference items is of some help. Murpy's Law applies, the part you need will be the one you don't have although you thought you had everything!

Knowing one's vehicle is most important, its particularities, quirks etc. Take for example any Ford, whether it be a cmp or universal carrier; have on hand a coil, points, rotor, cap or perhaps an entire spare distributor and a few plugs and the appropriate tools. These beasties are notorious for having ignition breakdown due to old or worn out coils. A spare fuel pump is handy too as these are also known for their vapour lock problems as well.

I learned the above from personal experience, having to change an entire dizzy along the roadside on my first 12 cab. Lucky for me I had my phone and was able to get my brother to run me out my spare from home and it was a slow country road with little traffic. Add to this that it was a beautiful sunny day and all in all it wasn't too bad. At least it wasn't in 3 feet of snow in a blinding storm fixing brakes on a 2 1/2 ton (been there, done that too!)

[Phil Waterman]

Short trip in HUP to take part in 4th of July Parade today, 60 miles round trip for a 3 mile parade that took nearly 2 hours. Un-characteristically the only vehicle having trouble was my HUP three miles at below idle speed with the lights on just didn’t make starting easy when I managed to stall the engine when trying to start up when the parade stopped on a hill. The engine would crank but would not catch, finally waved the vehicles behind around, so I could do a quick roll back start. Engine re-fired and off we went. Picture below is of the forming up we had 14 vehicles

[Mike K]

Phil

In the first pic, people seem to be besotted with the Jeep , your handsome HUP is being ignored !

Haven't you educated them yet .

I concur re: the Ford electrics and spare everything on board .

The RACV here has a roadside service for vintage cars . It's a special deal or plan you sign up to . All you need is a mobile phone to call them , but if a tow truck is needed , I think they pay for a certain number of kilometers , then you pay for the rest of the trip . Still, its peace of mind I guess . Ideally , it would be sensible to travel with another vehicle in convoy , but these days people are so busy and times need to be co-ordinated .

I cannot wait for the new club reg. system to come in . 90 days of driving , the C8 will be on the road again , even if its only into town to turn heads and give it a run .

Mike

Mike

[Phil Waterman]

Originally posted by Mike Kelly
Phil

In the first pic, people seem to be besotted with the Jeep , your handsome HUP is being ignored !

Haven't you educated them yet .

I concur re: the Ford electrics and spare everything on board .

The RACV here has a roadside service for vintage cars . It's a special deal or plan you sign up to . All you need is a mobile phone to call them , but if a tow truck is needed , I think they pay for a certain number of kilometers , then you pay for the rest of the trip . Still, its peace of mind I guess . Ideally , it would be sensible to travel with another vehicle in convoy , but these days people are so busy and times need to be co-ordinated .

I cannot wait for the new club reg. system to come in . 90 days of driving , the C8 will be on the road again , even if its only into town to turn heads and give it a run .

Mike

Mike

Hi Mike

The staging pictures are just our club people, and after 30 years of showing up at events with my BEAST they are well familiar and tend to gather around the new arrivals. However the crowds really appreciate the HUP and my co-driver the Canadian Uniformed Bear who waves. People see the bear in the normal drivers seat and think it is a person in bear costume waving at them then they realize it is a stuffed bear.

As to the tow service we have a similar thing through one of the antique car insurance companies which is fine for the HUP but they haven’t worked out all the details for a 3 ton with radio box on the back.

Cheers Phil