Road trip distance?

tgiaTDI

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2007
Location
Brossard, Canada
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI 5s
2800 miles (4500 km) in 44 hours

...from Montreal, Canada to Las Vegas, NV with a detour by Reno, NV.

...including 4 hours of sleep and a few 'coffee' stops.

Took this road trip in august 2002. I had only 12 days total to get there, enjoy and drive back so I wasn't going to 'waste' a lot of time on the road. Yea, I could've taken the plane, but where's the fun in that?

Being only with my gf who didn't drive at that time, the driving duties were all mine :cool:

I have to say, quite an uneventfull, boring trip. Nothing but straight line driving, no ups/downs, lefts n rights, just pure straight line flat pavement most of the way with exception to Utah. No break-downs either, just had a moment while crossing from Salt Lake City to West Wendover, NV... almost ran out of gas. Missed the last station and didn't think the darn crossing was going to be that long. Barely made it to Wendover.

Here's the thing tho: I did say 'gas'. No, I wasn't driving a TDI, although I wish I did, with what I know now. Shame on me, I know :eek:

The vehicle that took me there and back was a 1991 honda civic, hatchback, 5sp with 200.000+ miles on board, no a/c, no cruise control and averaged 6.3l/100km or 37mpg (US) or 45mpg(UK).

This was my longest road trip to date so I had to post it :rolleyes:

Don't think I'll ever do it again but if I do, it will be in a TDI :cool:

My longest stint (on the way back) was 28 hours without any type of rest.
 

nukemm

Well-known member
Joined
May 28, 2007
Location
San Diego, CA
TDI
2003 Jetta TDI
Lunch time tomorrow I start my vacation. Leaving Oak Harbor, WA and driving to Newhalem Creek Campground in the North Cascades National Park, camping for two nights, then driving the very scenic route through SR20 and picking up I-90 in Spokane, WA (about 350 miles of scenic driving). From there it's another 65 miles or so to our destination (Coeur D'alene, ID) for two nights, visiting Silverwood theme park on the second day. After that, it's a short 200 mile jaunt to Yakima, WA to visit family for a couple of days, then a few hours to Snoqualmie Pass where we will be camping for another night. Tuesday morning of next week we'll spend the afternoon at Snoqualmie Falls, then drive the 200 miles home to Oak Harbor, WA leaving me Wednesday to clean up the car & change the oil, and hopefully be well rested to return to work on Thursday.
 

bikeprof

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Location
Pagosa Springs, Colorado(YEAH!)
TDI
1996 Passat B4 Variant white, 1996 Town & Country 3.8 LXI
Hey, how about a "ROAD TRIP"...?

I am here in CHILE making do with a NON turbo :eek: , mini RV(I am the "genious" behind this...) in a Citroen C-15 city delivery work truck that I've modified somewhat:
taller tires,
panel carpeting,
4 speaker C/D MP3 :) ,
tint windows,
frontal intake air box(pressurized by speed, mini-turbo set up :D ),
narrow mattress w/-15 F/-28C down sleeping bag,
black cloth material for blocking light of off windows,
driver rear seat stop buttons removed/grinded :p (for relaxed driving),
OH! a metal front air dam for guess what...?
YEP!

My best tank so far and not close to empty: 900 kilometers @ 52 MPH.
(that's before the air dam, the winds here are very strong!)
It has been uphill since, seems like :eek: .


Maybe I will complete the schedule(HU?)
Got to get back by the 30th of October :confused:
So far:
Santiago via the coast torwards Arica.
in kilometers... 2.300.

I will be heading east to Iguazu Falls(Brazil/Paraguay/Argentina) on Monday/Tuesday and hopefully the eastern shores > :confused: , the south to Ushuaia, Argentina and return to Santiago.

I will be having a few PICS.

BYE!
 

nukemm

Well-known member
Joined
May 28, 2007
Location
San Diego, CA
TDI
2003 Jetta TDI
Quick update: I'm now in Coeur D'alene, ID. Total driving today: 381.2 miles, with the majority of it encompassing some pretty massive climbs (low spot today was ~300 ft. above sea level, high was over 6,000 ft. above sea level). I did my best to keep light on the accelerator, but it was rough with the automatic going up some of those climbs.

At this point I would like to coin a new phrase, "Soap Box Derby Style" - which is to say, coasting, ie. in Neutral/clutch depressed. I had over 50 miles of Soap Box Derby Style driving today, hopefully balancing out the sizeable climbs.

The car is running well. I had a roofing tack removed from my LF tire & a plug inserted. Can't even tell I had a slight leak. I pulled in to Les Schwab and had them check the pressure as I had a bit of a shimmy at speeds < 40 MPH. Turns out I was at 15 psi on the LF and 30 on the other 3. I had them bump the pressure to 37 psi all the way around (max on the sidewall is 44 psi.) So far I have 444.4 miles and I've got about 1/3 of a tank left. My goal is 650 miles, but I have a couple of short jaunts that may ruin that for me, so I'll be pretty happy to hit 600. Besides the short jaunts, my wife is a bit skiddish of the fuel light, so I'll probably be forced to stop shortly after it comes in. No big deal, though... I can still calculate fuel mileage and see how far I could have gone...
 

bikeprof

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Location
Pagosa Springs, Colorado(YEAH!)
TDI
1996 Passat B4 Variant white, 1996 Town & Country 3.8 LXI
nukemm:
That is called "hypermile-ing" :), I do it also.

Sure makes a difference, as long as we NEVER close the ignition key tumbler all the way(which locks the steering :( ).

Talking about heights and drops...
I have LOTS of those here to deal with :eek: !
'cause the Andes mountains are steeper than the Rockies and taller.
(make sure that you know the point of lack of vacumm for the brakes, know what I mean ????)
 

bikeprof

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Location
Pagosa Springs, Colorado(YEAH!)
TDI
1996 Passat B4 Variant white, 1996 Town & Country 3.8 LXI
What is a good number of miles for a road trip....
or can it be in kilometers, HU?

So far, I have driven 7.000 kilometers and there is way more to go.

From now, about 17.000 kilometers is what the fortune teller is telling me, we will see.

In Londrina, Brazil today the 19th of September/07 on the way to Salvador de Bahia via Bello Horizonte.

Ta da!
 

TDIFred

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 29, 2004
Location
Hamilton, Ontario
TDI
Jetta Sportwagen, 2009, Graphite
crossed over the 7000 km mark yesterday, tho I am now on my way home. Castlegar BC to Longview AB today, only 523 km
 

bikeprof

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Location
Pagosa Springs, Colorado(YEAH!)
TDI
1996 Passat B4 Variant white, 1996 Town & Country 3.8 LXI
Halfway home...?

I have arrived in Salvador de Bahia!
(so far so good...)
and clicked about 10,000 kilometers on the way in four weeks.

This is my farthest north that I am going, next is to head south in about three days and see the rest of Brazil.

Brazil is Large, very hot/humid and quite weird (phonetics...).

I know:
American English
Spanish (more like Castillian)
pretty good in Italiansome French,
BUT this Brazilian is NOT Portuguese, it is Brazilian :confused: .

My little french snail mini delivery truck has performed quite well, even better now that some "MODS" have been performed on it.
Like a mufflerectomy, air box MOD. (depending on speed, more air pressure/mini-turbo), taller tires, synthetic oil.
Now I can petty much keep up with the 1,6-1,8 "gassers" that get in my way :cool: and still make about 20 kilometers per liter...@ 85 KMH
 

bikeprof

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Location
Pagosa Springs, Colorado(YEAH!)
TDI
1996 Passat B4 Variant white, 1996 Town & Country 3.8 LXI
Hmmm, seems that I am at the end of my road here in the Southern American hemisphere :( .

I am in Comodoro Rivadavia in the Patagonia and cannot go any more south because I HAVE run out of time...!

Re-adjusting a little...,
I am headed to Calafate, Torres del Paine(Chile) and then return into Argentina to the Petito Moreno Glacier before completing my journey in Santiago, Chile.

I know this sounds boring but three months are NOT enough for this trip, what am I going to do for three months you ask...
(hahahaha)

Brazil is nice,
Argentina is very pleasant,
Uruguay is VERY NICE and calm, it is a place where yu can let the kids run around with the cows(literaly...) and NOT worry where they are,
and at least northern Chile, well, they CAN keep it.
I am NOW going to the southern Chile, so i'll tell later about that area !

I had the pleasant-ness to share with a 1997 Passat B4 TDI Variant owner some of the tricks and MODS. that I have done to my B4, like change the air cabin filter(he did not know it existed !) and learned that this model, even here IS rare!
Oh, he is NOT selling the B4 Variant either...

Ciao!
 

bikeprof

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Location
Pagosa Springs, Colorado(YEAH!)
TDI
1996 Passat B4 Variant white, 1996 Town & Country 3.8 LXI
20.000K kilometers/12.5 K miles where I am now and not finished yet!

I have entered into Chile via Chile Chico(CH) from Los Antiguos(AR) after driving on route 40(the road that CHE took to make his historical journey before becoming "EL CHE").

Very different here, very OPEN and few places to break down ad get any aid :( .

Got to go...north on the "AUSTRAL" which is the end of the Panamerican highway.
 

bikeprof

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Location
Pagosa Springs, Colorado(YEAH!)
TDI
1996 Passat B4 Variant white, 1996 Town & Country 3.8 LXI
At the end of my rope...
actually at the end of the trip :) or :( depending later on my memories...

It has been GREAT!
Nothing major to relate except that my bank account is smaller now :eek: .

I have been to great restaurants because the food was GREAT; locations that I COULD return in a second to and some that I´d really rather not even think of them EVER(like the bigger cities in ALL of S.A.).

Many pesons became "my" friends(or I, theirs) and got to LOVE my little Citroen(wished many times it was a turbo :( ), my "home away from home"

For anyone..., yes!
DO the trip, make sure that the Spanish and Portuguese IS very strong ´cause you´ll needed :eek: .

So on to later...
I am arriving in the USA Wednesday and won´t know how to behave...

Ta Daa...
 

cowboyjack

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2005
Location
Vail, Arizona
TDI
1998 Jetta TDI
I drove an air cooled VW beetle from El Paso, Texas to the southern end of Chile and back to Peru back in 1970, (I was 19 at the time, young and dumb), but the speedometer didn't work, so I have no actual idea how far I actually drove. But then I took almost a year to do it. Lots of wacky adventures.

Welcome to the U.S.!
 

bikeprof

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Location
Pagosa Springs, Colorado(YEAH!)
TDI
1996 Passat B4 Variant white, 1996 Town & Country 3.8 LXI
Home again...

cowboyjack: WOW! is what I have to say... :eek:.
Kowing what I know of my travels and THIS travel..., I give you and all the others that have done a similar trip many KUDOS for having such big (....) for doing such a "thing".
And you did it on a very slow vehicle, :eek: again!
Wha was the speed going up the mountains in the Atacama desert???, not much, EH?

So this is it for me, I board the plane tonight and will be AND AM, very thankful for having such a GREAT 90 day vacation and only one tire that began to separate on me(about 22.000 kilometers into the trip/S. C. de Bariloche, Argentina).

Chile, hmmm :(.
Let someone else deal with it .
 

EVO&TDI

Active member
Joined
Nov 15, 2005
Location
Texas, USA
TDI
2012 Q7 TDI
I talked my wife into going with me from Richmond, VA to Lawrence, KS 1400/1500 miles (one way) over Thanksgiving to see to KU games and one Chiefs game in a 2 day span. I think she might hate me before we even get to kentucky but I'll let you guys know in a couple of weeks.
 

bikeprof

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Location
Pagosa Springs, Colorado(YEAH!)
TDI
1996 Passat B4 Variant white, 1996 Town & Country 3.8 LXI
You better dot the i's and cross the t's while on the road, and make sure YOU stop for a rest for her whenever SHE needs/has to stop.

This will make her trip easier for her and may go with you again:)confused:).

Good luck!
 

bikeprof

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Location
Pagosa Springs, Colorado(YEAH!)
TDI
1996 Passat B4 Variant white, 1996 Town & Country 3.8 LXI
Turning 290K old...

I could not get a better picture than this one :( !

My 1996 Passat TDI Variant made it to the sum of
290.000 thousand miles or 464.000 thousand kilometers on the trip back home to Pagosa.
I am the second owner, don't know about the PO and that maintenance.

Great trip except for the State Trooper pulling me over because he "could not see the front license plate" when it was there ALL along!

Got 42+ MPG @ 70MPH's on this trip and all of it was UPHILL from Houston to Colorado.

(yes, the compression is getting worse every mile, start ups are taking longer and the performance is comparable now to a less classy vehicle{you fill in the blank...}

No mechanical problem on the trip or the last one(s) :D .

I LIKE my TDI, especially when drinking BIODIESEL @ 100% :cool: !
 

Zippy_car

Trouble Maker
Joined
Sep 21, 2005
Location
Farm country, Sacramento, CA region
TDI
Previously:'02 Jetta. Now: '13 Subaru XV Crosstrek!
bikeprof... sounds like you really did make it out to your south american road trip. i'm please to read about it! Glad you made it through safe and sound and had a blast doing it. Post pictures sometime. ;)

as for what makes a road trip, i guess my 13 day excursion, over 4,000 miles across the country from RI to CA is dwarfed by your road trip! Congrats! :D
 

Ponderosa

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2003
Location
High Plains CO
TDI
02 Beetle
Not for the road trip...

EVO&TDI said:
I talked my wife into going with me from Richmond, VA to Lawrence, KS 1400/1500 miles (one way) over Thanksgiving to see to KU games and one Chiefs game in a 2 day span. I think she might hate me before we even get to kentucky but I'll let you guys know in a couple of weeks.
I am sure she doesen't hate you for the road trip. It probably has to do with being a Chiefs/Jayhawk fan....:D
 

FL2AK-tdi

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 19, 2006
Location
Tampa, FL
TDI
'01 Jetta GLS Sedan
cowboyjack said:
I drove an air cooled VW beetle from El Paso, Texas to the southern end of Chile and back to Peru back in 1970, (I was 19 at the time, young and dumb), but the speedometer didn't work, so I have no actual idea how far I actually drove. But then I took almost a year to do it. Lots of wacky adventures.

Welcome to the U.S.!
I think we have a winner!
 

bikeprof

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Location
Pagosa Springs, Colorado(YEAH!)
TDI
1996 Passat B4 Variant white, 1996 Town & Country 3.8 LXI
I will also applaud the trip to South America in a VW bus(in the 70's, no less...) of COWBOYJACK.
He has won the "bestest"(possibly) and farthest road trip in my opinion!

The CD's of pictures of my trip are lost, where is where I do not know. Hopefully they can be located.

My trip highlights :eek:.
1. a dead Brazilian man in the middle of the highway(probably got hit by a truck mirror)
2. a car in a tree in Brazil BACKWARDS, seems that they were getting ready to pass the car in front of them but after applying the brakes really hard , the car swerved off the road hitting a curb(with the back wheels) launching them airborne backwards.
3. a dead cow that had fallen off a very tall cliff in the south south(region Xl) part of Chile.
When asking her if she was OK., I noticed that the cow was "udderly dead" , she was on her back! :rolleyes:

Thanks Zippy for the nice words of my road trip, this was the first trip of a couple more that I should be doing later...
You are welcome back anytime, you shouldn't have to worry about wheel bearings anytime soon ! :p

The best part of my road trip was that MOTHER NATURE cooperated !
 

Nico3d3

Veteran Member
Joined
May 13, 2007
Location
Quebec City
TDI
Golf 2001
I drove an air cooled VW beetle from El Paso, Texas to the southern end of Chile and back to Peru back in 1970, (I was 19 at the time, young and dumb), but the speedometer didn't work, so I have no actual idea how far I actually drove. But then I took almost a year to do it. Lots of wacky adventures.
Did you really drive from USA to South America? I thought this was impossible to do because of the Darien_Gap. There's supposed to be a 100 miles wide area of undeveloped deep forest without any roads, between Panama and Colombia.

Anyway, the last road trip I did was this summer with my newly owned TDI (bought it in may 2007). I started in the southern area of Quebec province, near USA. I crossed the border at Coburn Gore (Maine, USA) and then, I headed to Bangor. From Bangor, I got to St-Stephen (New-Brunswick, Canada) and I slept there. Next day, I headed to St-John and I took the ferry to cross the Fundy Bay and get to Digby (Nova Scotia). I slept there and next day, I visited an acadian village from where my ancestors where coming from and then I slept in Liverpool (on the south shore of Nova Scotia). Then, next day I headed to Moncton (New Brunswick) and I slept in a tent for the last time in my road trip. Next day, I was in the Gaspesie area of Quebec province where all my family are coming from.
 
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FL2AK-tdi

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 19, 2006
Location
Tampa, FL
TDI
'01 Jetta GLS Sedan
Yeah, last year or year before, the group that drove the three Toureg TDI's on biodiesel form up here at Prudhoe Bay to the southern tip of south America on 100% bio diesel, were going to have their three vehicles flown across the gap. I don't htink they got that far did they?
 

bikeprof

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Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Location
Pagosa Springs, Colorado(YEAH!)
TDI
1996 Passat B4 Variant white, 1996 Town & Country 3.8 LXI
For those who wonder...
getting a ship from Panama City to a port in Colombia(either ocean), would be the best way and manner for "crossing" the Darien Gap.

Here is from Wikipedia:
The gap itself was first traversed by the Land Rover "La Cucaracha Cariñosa" (The Affectionate Cockroach) and a Jeep of the Trans-Darién Expedition 1959-60, crewed by Amado Araúz (Panama), his wife Reina Torres de Araúz, the late former SAS man Richard E. Bevir (UK), and engineer Terence John Whitfield (Australia)[1]. They left Chepo, Panama on 2 February 1960 and reached Quibdó, Colombia on 17 June 1960, averaging 201 m (220 yd) per hour over 136 days. They traveled a great deal of the distance up the vast Atrato River.

Notice that a lot of the trip in the Darien was done by barge/boat...
 

FL2AK-tdi

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 19, 2006
Location
Tampa, FL
TDI
'01 Jetta GLS Sedan
Let's plan a panama GTG and we'll cross the gap in our tdi's. At 220 yrds per hour, I can walk ahead of the convoy with a diesel powered chainsaw.
 

bikeprof

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Location
Pagosa Springs, Colorado(YEAH!)
TDI
1996 Passat B4 Variant white, 1996 Town & Country 3.8 LXI
To South America>>>>>>>>

Hmmm, I am going back again!
Maybe I can volunteer to actually do some sort of study to this sort of slow movement...?

That is, going to South America but not anywhere close to the Darien Gap, I 'll leave that to another less wise person :rolleyes: .

Actually, what may work great in a circumstance like crossing the Darien Gap is to manufacture a couple of HUGE chain saws, add a seat on top of them, "vwehicle" controls and "get" after it...!
Anyone?
 

uberdiesel

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Mar 15, 2005
Location
Columbia, SC
TDI
2015 Night Blue Golf TDI SEL
bikeprof said:
Hmmm, I am going back again!
Actually, what may work great in a circumstance like crossing the Darien Gap is to manufacture a couple of HUGE chain saws, add a seat on top of them, "vwehicle" controls and "get" after it...!
Anyone?
Didn't Speed Racer have something like that on the Mach 5? :)
 

Tom Servo

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Joined
Jul 9, 2000
Location
LA (Lower Alabama)
TDI
2005 Gol TDI, blue and falling apart
bikeprof said:
2. What IS the magic number of mileage to call it a trip?
Ever since moving to the 'boonies' that magic number has changed drastically. Back when I lived in the city, a road trip was going to any other city - 40-60 miles or more. Now that I live in a small rural town, it's different. It's 100 miles to a real city with real 'shopping options'. A trip is anything over ~200 miles now. :D
 

bikeprof

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Location
Pagosa Springs, Colorado(YEAH!)
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1996 Passat B4 Variant white, 1996 Town & Country 3.8 LXI
Tom Servo> "Ever since moving to the 'boonies' that magic number has changed drastically. Back when I lived in the city, a road trip was going to any other city - 40-60 miles or more. Now that I live in a small rural town, it's different. It's 100 miles to a real city with real 'shopping options'. A trip is anything over ~200 miles now. :D "

HAHAHA...
My trips these days are closer to 1.000 ONE way to get some good REAL Chinese food(from mainland China) all the way in Houston where my family lives !

I do know what you mean though about drastic changes in driving "habits"..., I would drive 285 miles one way to visit the EX-girl/woman friend without any hesitation :D .

But I LOVE being home where the snow is so deep that my 1989 Jetta gasser/auto(FOR SALE, TDI swap?) is nowhere to be seen(under all the snow), waiting until my next trip!
 

cptmox

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Joined
Feb 15, 2001
Location
Villa Park, IL.
TDI
01 Jetta GLS, Silver 5-spd
bikeprof said:
HAHAHA...
My trips these days are closer to 1.000 ONE way to get some good REAL Chinese food(from mainland China) all the way in Houston where my family lives !
You drive to China! :)
 
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