The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts Driving a '52 GMC Fire Engine across the country

He sounds very happy. Glad to hear he is making progress.

Good to hear you are well on your way home. keep us posted when you have time!

2-Ton

Sounds like you're making progress and having fun,
Thanks for the update!

Your directions seem fine to me, I'd stay on Rt30 whenever you can (slower traffic, more fun, more things to see, and more chances for help if need be), I-80 when you have to.
Then just before Salt Lake City pick up I-84, and about at the Oregon line take Rt20 to home.

Grigg

another update...
made it to kimball, ne today, almost into wyoming
had a very strong head wind pretty much all day, hold on to your hat wind. killed gas mileage, down to about 5mpg and top speed was in the 45-50 range. hopefully it dies down tonight, although now we get the rockies
truck was dying on coming down to idle, I adjusted the idle screw on the carb in as far as it goes, only a couple turns possible as it was already almost all the way in. I also tried adjusting the idle mixture screws per the manual which also seemed to help a bit although it was difficult to tell the effect these had, ended up with them both about 1 1/2 turns out. It was still dying occasionally coming down to idle so i held it open a bit more using the hand throttle cable and that has seemed to work.
pretty strong smell of gas in the cab, tank venting into cab? The outside of the carb is wet but some of that seems to be from oil leaking down from the air filter, could be some fuel though as well.
any advice for altitude adjustments? we will get up to 8,000ft tomorrow i believe. Don't have much experience with gassers, been mostly working on diesels.
other than these things it's been going well, was invited into a garage in a small town on the 30 to see a crazy custom built rv, on a '47 ford farm truck frame was built a 29ft riveted aluminum body and full finished on the inside. calendar on the wall inside was '64 and it was in remarkably good shape, must have taken someone years. Some interesting features like the only door to the vehicle was a side door into the living area, so no front doors, could easily seat 4 wide in the cab up front. crazy linkage all the way from the front to the engine in back. certainly one of a kind. for sale as well
talked to a number of fire chiefs who love it, meeting lots of interesting folks out here, nobody has seen anything quite like this
backing up traffic a bit even on the four lane divided highways as people like to drive beside us to take pictures.
which do you think is better mileage wise when i need to be just about between gears, running high rpm at the top end of 4hi, or lower rpm's at the low end of 5hi
don't need to go into salt lake anymore so we'll be able to skip it to the north, 84 up to through idaho, 20 across oregon
not sure if we will go 80 all the way to 84 or cut north on 30, ending up in pocatello then down 86 to 84, mileage seems to be the same both way, not sure what the elevation changes will be like either way

try to get you some pictures eventually
lebn schuyler

hey all,
made it home!
2046 miles and 325 gallons of gas, averages to 6.3mpg
lower elevations and flat ground we were getting 7.5, but we had nasty headwind through nebraska and oregon, and the 8,000ft passes in the rockies didn't help
16 gallon tank and ~6mpg meant we were stopping at just about every filling station along the way
50-60 in the flats, 40-50 going up the hills
All in all a great trip, talked to lots of interesting folks, got to light up many faces, slow down lots of traffic, had many pictures taken.
upsets were relatively minor,
fixed a upper radiator hose, replaced the fuel pump, re-bolted the hood latch, adjusted idle, limped the last 150 miles
Coming into oregon it was like she didn't want to make it home, driving wind, hail, rain and even a little snow didn't help
starting about 150 miles out the truck started to chug at high throttle, wouldn't do more than about 30-40mph on the flats, 20-30 going up hills. Seemed like it wasn't getting enough fuel, maybe clogged fuel line/pump/carb. It would perform better after stopping a bit or filling up. It was late and cold so we decided to just keep pushing on at the lower speed and stopped many times to let it rest/refuel.
eventually made it, pulling into home at about 1am.

Glad I decided to drive it instead of having it shipped, was a great father son trip, got to see lots of the country we had never been through
however it certainly wouldn't have been for everyone, loud bumpy ride, gas and exhaust fumes, cold nights, slowest thing on the road
None of that stopped us though
Now I get to start building out the inside, and fixing things up
I'll post some pictures when I get everything loaded up
try to do another update soon
lebn

Great story! glad you made it home in one piece and had fun doing it.

Hey Jay, Father and son trip, NICE! Good story, thanks for sharing and congrats! SEE YA! Mark

I love it. I'm just green with envy. Glad eveything worked out so well for you. That is one heck of a shake down cruise. Looking forward to seeing some pictures.
Scott

Glad you made it safely home

Very cool and enjoyable reading thanks, those memories will last a life time - well done!

Congratulations!
I'm sure it'll be a trip you remember for a long time to come, and just the beginning of your desire to drive long distances in old trucks

Grigg

That had to be a great trip. Sure you could be more comfortable & all, but it's doing it the way you did that makes it stand out. Cant replace good memories.
Now the real fun begins!

Thanks for sharing the trip. I enjoyed it very much even if I wasn't in the truck with you all. Can't wait to see the photos!