I guess the genius mods didn't bother to check the 2nd gen. forum, but my thread got locked anyway.


I know there has a been a couple other post similar, but the other post were asking more of "Could my car make it on a 2,000 mile trip?" DUH!


I was just kind of curious what is longest road trips everyone has taken. Me and my best bud are taking a road trip next summer ('09) basically going all across the country. Starting in our home area of Houston, going to Los Angeles, up to Seattle, over to New York, down to Tampa, and back home, hitting pretty much every city in between. We determined it was going to be about 8,200-8,500 miles. We would do it this summer in a heartbeat, but my pockets aren't exactly pumping with cash right now. Gas alone for the trip is going to be between $1,200-$1,500. We are going to use this summer and my sophmore year in college to get some $$$$.

The only thing is I am a little wary with how long the trip is. What are yalls opinions about an oil change in the middle of it?

That's about it, just curious what yall's longest/best roadtrips were like.

 

i've done many 8-9 hour jaunts in the tsx going back and forth between tampa, fl and charlotte, nc. its approx. a 600 mile trip and my ride always feels poised and ready to go. i'm sure to check the tire pressure before i go and other than that its a breeze. i don't plan on driving as much as you are, but i would be comfortable doing so in my acura

 

I know there is the PSI guide on the sidewall but if you had a choice would you prefer to go a little bit to the high side? I wouldn't want to overinflate, but I would think that it would be wise to go a little high than a little low, yea?

 

^ you may be right, but i inflate with nitrogen, so psi ratings are pretty consistant

 

Great way to endear yourself to the mods... You just made the shit list

 

I've easily done 7-8 hours straight so long drives in this car are not an issue at all.

Get your oil changed before the trip and since you'll be doing a lot of highway driving, you should be fine and probably will not need to do another oil change until you get back. If you do need to do an oil change in between, no reason why a quick stop at dealership somewhere should take more than a couple of hours out of your total time.

And yes, go a little high on the tire pressure. 35 PSI all around is a pretty good compromise.

 

if you're using sythetic fluids, like myself, you'd be even better off

 

+1 ^^^

I have done several 2500 mile round trips in both Acura and Honda with no problem at all.

Be sure to have a bottle of windex and some towels, I promise you will take big fat bug in the windshield within 50 miles of a fuel stop!!!

 

Southwestern CT to Montreal and back, in my TL.

 

Exactly. Next time, post non-specific car threads in Car Talk and your thread won't be closed. Genius!

 

Gone cross country 5x's. Done the northern route, southern route, straight across the middle, etc.


All I can say is TAKE your TIME.....enjoy it. Our last trip was almost all of route 66 and we spent roughly 2 weeks doing it. Was a blast. I've also done it much faster (4-5 days) and that sucks. I find it best to do about 6 hours of driving...but if you are in a rush i've done 12 hours


you can check my blog for some "local" trips that I have up.

http://wideopentraveler.blogspot.com/

 

sounds like fun.

i'd like to go on a roadtrip too some day.

 

^Same here. Thats always been one of the things i've wanted to do.

 

Sorry...nothing personal, but I was successful in getting a thread closed that was a complete repeat. I thought I would ask fellow TSX'ers about Road Trips but I guess that's a sin around here. Everyone else seems to be more friendly anyways.




You've done it all eh? Yea, we plan taking our time no doubt. We have already starting planning it out, if for nothing else, cost reasons. We want to make sure we aren't sugar coating anything as far as cost goes as well as being able to have a few hundred dollars each in travelers checks just in the freak case something bad happened or some unexpected cost came. We are thinking it is going to take 3-4 weeks. We can't wait!

 

longest trips i've taken are from alabama to toronto and from texarkana, tx to north jersey shore.

those trips got long.

two of my uncles have driven from atlanta to seattle in an mg and back. that was during the eighties when the speed limit was 55

 

I don't think you would really hurt the car if you don't do an oil change until the end of the trip if you do one right before. But to be on the safe side, it really won't take a lot of time to pull into a dealership somewhere in the middle and get a change.

I think if you're running synthetic you should be fine.

 

CT --> AZ, more of a moving trip than just a road trip though. But in CT I drive up to Maine quite a few times for a weekend road trip. That's a good 8+ hour drive just for fun.

Like CLpower said enjoy the ride. There's tons of cool shizzit out there on the road that you never knew existed. I had a blast getting on and off the I-40 to check out Route 66.

 

done the cross country sf to upstate new york but that was in a budget rent a truck. what a boring drive 5 days of driving 12 hours straight. (55-65 miles per hour). we just took the 02 TL-S to seattle from Oakland no problem. we averaged about 400 miles per tank @ 80 miles per hour. consistancy is the best bet to get the best gas mileage.

have fun

 

be prepared when you are on the road to expect to pay $100-120 for a hotel room. Middle of no-where places are expensive. You may be able to find good $80 rooms, but you may not.

Also, get on a hotel rewards program (say holiday inn)...they usually have good deals (4 nights, get 1 free....etc)

 

also.......GO OUT AND BUY A VALENTINE 1 ASAP

 

Well, we thought of this. But we had also thought about 'toughing it out' and just crashing in the car and going to truck stops with showers to clean up. It would save an astronomical amount of money for the length of trip it is.


Oh, and about the Valetine, I've no doubt thought about it. lol The only thing that is bugging me about those is the wires. If anything, I'm thinking about a Solo S2. I just can't stand wires and whatnot and I don't have quite the 'car savy' to hard wire it. I know Valentine is pretty much considered the top detector, and private party test will sometimes say otherwise, but in REAL WORLD situations, is the Valentine much better than say an Solo S2???

 

I do Chicago -> Ft. Collins Colorado multiple times a year. Its 1000mi and my range of times is 13-15 hours. 13 is going pretty fast, and now i just chill out and do 14 hours.

 

Southern Cali--->Las Vegas--->Boulder Colorado, for my (at the time) best friend's brother's wedding. For some dumb reason, he (my best friend at the time) wanted to get there in a hurry... so we just f-ing hauled ass there (the wedding wasn't even for like a week. We got to Vegas first, stayed the night, then the next day drove all the way to Boulder. I really regret not spending more time in Utah, and some other parts of Colorado (other than Boulder), it was just absolutely beautiful. It was NOT a good trip at all.

 

I went on a trip a year ago in my Integra sedan. From San Jose to Los Angeles, about 350-400 miles and back. It was a lot of fun. We went to Disneyland all day, afternoon til near closing time and the Mickey Mouse fireworks show was great. His whole speech about following your dreams really inspired me and believe it or not it really changed my outlook on life. It was really fun and real positive, motivated me a lot.

If you hit your oil change interval period, why not change your oil? Only when its convenient though, obviously. Like CLpower said, a radar detector would be a good idea.....

Also, its a good idea to bring a GPS or invest in one, even if someone you're going with knows their way around the destination. Driving around blocks in circles over and over isn't much fun

 

Yea...for me it kind of goes back to the thing about the radar deterctor too. I'm kind of thinking about doing my car to a navi convert. There's nothing wrong with having a little garmin sitting on the dash or suctioned on the windshield, but I'm just one of those anal people that like to have things intergrated with the car and no wires hanging about if I can. The DIY makes it look like a real b*tch to install though. Lol, my luck, and get half way through it and then just flustered and put out.

That's no easy mod. I heard it takes some people about a week.