VX KAT's "See America & the Great Plains" adventure
As some of you know, I just came back from a 12 day "See America's Heartland" road trip this month. It all started when I decided to go see a Canadian girlfriend of mine. We decided to meet in North Dakota. I went up thru Colorado and then on to see some of our great Heartland, the Great Plains of Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. Total of about 3,700 miles!
Passing thru Denver allowed me to meet up with some fellow VXers: General Garza, mdwyer and pbkid for a quick dinner and mini meet. Then on up through the Great Plains States. Weather was absolutely perfect, a little warmer than average, with clear and beautiful skies.
After I visited with my girlfriend, and since I was "in the neighborhood", I stopped in to see LDub and TLMP in Fargo. Larry was kind enough to mount the hitch I got from WelderGuy (thanks to T4B). He also installed the rubber headlight gaskets, adjusted my headlights and all kinds of other misc. things. :thanx::thanx::thanx:
Got to finally see Mt. Rushmore, something I've always wanted to do. On the return trip, I played a bit more tourist and saw Badlands National Park, Wall Drug Store :goof:, Mt. Rushmore, Custer, SD and then the Crazy Horse monument.
Drove through the Eastern part of WY, ending up in Cheyenne for a night. Then on down into Denver again, and got to meet up with another VXer - RallyDude just West of Denver by about 25 miles. He's a great guy. Jack joined us for a while so I got to see Jack x2 on this trip.
I ran into another VX in, of all places, Ogallala, NE...pop 5,142. A 2001 Ironman owned by a guy named Lane. Didn't know about the forum, so hopefully he'll join up. (trivia quiz...anybody know who was in Ogallala from the Lonesome Dove mini-series?)
Total of 12 days on the road and wow, what an experience! Had a great window of beautiful weather and thoroughly enjoyed the drive! VX performed like a real champ! MPG ranged from 13 - 17.5. Not bad for a flying brick heavily ladened with stuff.
Whew, had a great time....but am I pooped!! Got home late Friday eve after driving 12 hrs straight thru since I was loosing steam and needed to get home...
About 5 days into the drive I started hearing rattling underneath. Sounded like the Kilby skids may be loose or something. Dub and later Jack also looked at it, and both thought it was some exhaust component contacting the Kilby plate and rattling.
Some Observations:
~Our Recaro seats and the seating position in total is extremely comfortable. No knee pain after driving for hrs like I've had in other vehicles. Great lumbar support too.
~The transmission console heats up quite a bit the longer you drive. At some times, the passenger side of the black plastic next to the high/lo lever, as well as the cupholder and square area were really quite hot to the touch.
~Cooper Zeon LTZ tires performed great. Very smooth and quiet at highway speeds of around 75mph. Last day (Fri) driving home it rained the entire trip. The tires did very well in various degrees of water on the road.
~The HID bi-xenon headlights are, without a doubt, the best modification you can do to your VX if you EVER drive at night! I ran with lights on at all times as I was on many MANY 2 lane, narrow rural roads and they are truly amazing. Visibility is just unbelievable. I had these on, my PIAA white Fogs, and the 25 LED round front markers on...so I had 6 white lights coming at everybody....they sure could see me coming!
~Used 1.5 qts of oil in 3,700 miles.....oddly, mostly by day 3....then some on the very last day (12 hr drive) Friday. My VX only uses oil when I do long highway drives like this, BUT, it's not really consistent....very weird. I used 3/4 qt on day 3 which was a 550 mile day, and only 1/4 qt in 800 miles on Friday..:_thinking Different conditions though. Day 3 was long open flat roads, whereas Friday was at elevation, very mountainous up/down for a while, then long stretches of flat open road...all in the rain. I would have thought it would use more in the latter scenario.
~ Bump stops cut in half - I'm REALLY pleased with this mod. After driving so many miles, and different surfaces, I noticed a huge reduction in the rear slamming when hitting bumps. Colorado had many road seams that were very uneven, and I could really tell a big difference in the rear slamming effect. I had my Rancho shocks set at 4/4 the entire trip and that setting along with the cut down bumpstops in rear, really made a huge difference.
~ I also need to mention I've figured out what some of the "noise" I hear when hitting bumps/potholes...it's the big shackle I have mounted on the rear tie down...it slams into the TOP of that hole it's in...the top of the shackle has all the paint chipped off. So that explains what I reported earlier about "hearing" a loud noise but not really feeling a severe bump.
~The VX attracted attention, naturally, and I had several folks ask me about it. Man, that never gets old....:grino:
~I'm really getting used to the look of the black mini bumper on the rear.
Took almost 900 pics. Have sorted through and picked a few, :mbrasd:...okay, a lot, to share. Landscape pics are my fav subject, so this was definitely the trip for that. Enjoy!
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