[T3] News and questions from the road

[Daniel Nohejl]

Wow, so since leaving Madison two days ago, we’ve been through Minnesota, South Dakota (including the Badlands overnight), and are now in Cody, WY which is a little bit outside of Yellowstone. We’re just shy of 2400 miles into our trip and have had no major incidents as of yet. I’ll spare you all the touristy highlights, though, and get to the T3 stuff!

Gas mileage has varied a lot. After leaving Madison, it was 24.7 but the wind in South Dakota killed us and we dipped down to 22. It’s such a big empty place (seemingly one huge farm tended by many farmers and a few towns sprinkled throughout) and the wind off the farms and prairies just pummeled the car which made it hard to drive above 65. Both hands had to be on the wheel at all times as the gusts were strong and unpredictable….it was quite nerve-wracking at times.

We thought that with South Dakota we’d been through the emptiest windiest place in the country and then we got to Wyoming! Almost as soon as we crossed the state line, there were signs warning us of 35+ mph wind gusts and they seemed to come from both sides. For long periods, we had to keep the speed between 55 and 60 as it felt like an invisible hand has preventing us from going any faster. The drive was slow and frustrating until we got to Bighorn National Forest. While there was a lot of downshifting into 3rd and 2nd to make the ascent up to 9,666 ft, we survived the ordeal. This part of the drive was largely windless and our MPG climbed back up to 24.7 despite the hills. 

FWIW, Wyoming is far and away the most beautiful state we’ve been through so far!

We had one small incident this evening:

—We checked into our hotel, got back in the car, tried to start it, and nothing happened. This happened the other day at Jim’s house. Everything clicked like it should (we have a hot start relay installed) but no dice so we had to push start. Last time, this was because our 15 amp fuse blew but now we have a 100 amp fuse. If that blew, then what the heck is drawing so much current in our starting system? We’ll have to check the fuse in the AM.

A small observation:

—Once we get to Oregon, we’re going to ditch our roof rack. We stopped packing stuff on it in Ohio when it became clear that the wind was steering the rear of the car on account of what we had packed on the rack. Took the stuff off and we haven’t had that issue since. Now, all it does is whistle and given the crazy winds we’ve experienced, I’m inclined to think that it’s not helping our gas mileage.