On the Road Again - Purple ZR-1 Road Trip to Utah

[QB93Z]

Originally Posted by Erik

Incredibly inspiring journey. I've thought of a long journey with mine, but wasn't totally comfortable with the idea yet. AC issues notwithstanding, you are inspiring me to plan a road trip.

I understand the need to be comfortable with the reliability of your ZR-1 in order to take a ZR-1 Road Trip. I would like to give you some things to think about.

Lyndi and I have driven more than 130,000 miles on road trips. We have had some problems on the road but have only had one failure that required towing the car for repair and losing a day of the itinerary.

When Lyndi and I prepared for our first big trip, the 2012 trip to Alaska, we made some decisions before we made the plan.

- Upgrade our AAA plan to ensure 200-mile towing. Verify CAA (Canada's AAA) honors your AAA plan. (We were covered)

- If we had a ZR-1 failure, we would tow it to a place that would manage car shipment home and we would rent a Jeep to complete the trip.

- Make a detailed, complete trip plan. Have hotel reservations for each day. On our first trip to the Grand Canyon, our Nikon camera became unreliable. We were able to buy a replacement on line and have the new camera shipped to a future hotel that we were comfortable would "receive" the package.

- Carry the tools and spare parts for the potential failure items that you are comfortable doing in a parking lot. I can send you a list of what I carry.

Travel with a ZR-1 group. A great event is the ZR-1 Mountain Run. We get together and spend a few days driving scenic routes. Also a group to The ZR-1 Gathering in Bowling Green, KY in May, or Corvettes At Carlisle in Pennsylvania in August.

Carry a Fuel Pump Jumper in your ZR-1 all the time. The jumper allows you to easily recover from a Fuel Pump Failure. The jumper can be installed in about 10 minutes. I invited the jumper and it saved me three times so far. Send me an email if you want a jumper. jim@gizmosart.com

I hope to see you on the Road.

Jim

[Erik]

Originally Posted by QB93Z

I understand the need to be comfortable with the reliability of your ZR-1 in order to take a ZR-1 Road Trip. I would like to give you some things to think about.

Lyndi and I have driven more than 130,000 miles on road trips. We have had some problems on the road but have only had one failure that required towing the car for repair and losing a day of the itinerary.

When Lyndi and I prepared for our first big trip, the 2012 trip to Alaska, we made some decisions before we made the plan.

- Upgrade our AAA plan to ensure 200-mile towing. Verify CAA (Canada's AAA) honors your AAA plan. (We were covered)

- If we had a ZR-1 failure, we would tow it to a place that would manage car shipment home and we would rent a Jeep to complete the trip.

- Make a detailed, complete trip plan. Have hotel reservations for each day. On our first trip to the Grand Canyon, our Nikon camera became unreliable. We were able to buy a replacement on line and have the new camera shipped to a future hotel that we were comfortable would "receive" the package.

- Carry the tools and spare parts for the potential failure items that you are comfortable doing in a parking lot. I can send you a list of what I carry.

Travel with a ZR-1 group. A great event is the ZR-1 Mountain Run. We get together and spend a few days driving scenic routes. Also a group to The ZR-1 Gathering in Bowling Green, KY in May, or Corvettes At Carlisle in Pennsylvania in August.

Carry a Fuel Pump Jumper in your ZR-1 all the time. The jumper allows you to easily recover from a Fuel Pump Failure. The jumper can be installed in about 10 minutes. I invited the jumper and it saved me three times so far. Send me an email if you want a jumper. jim@gizmosart.com

I hope to see you on the Road.

Jim

Thanks, Jim.
Already have the fuel pump jumper. Plus a pair of brand new Delco fuel pumps installed.

I do love the idea of travelling with some ZR-1 guys. That sounds like a fantastic way to get the journey going.

The list would be great. Very much appreciate it.

The planning part I certainly do. I'm a huge lover of road trips. I was supposed to do New York to LA last spring but... covid. I did Route 66 a few years before. Great fun.

Were the 130,000 miles in the ZR-1? Amazing.

Thanks
Erik

[QB93Z]

Yes, all in a ZR-1. "See The USA In A Chevrolet ZR-1"

Jim

[staminqia]

Originally Posted by QB93Z

Yes, all in a ZR-1. "See The USA In A Chevrolet ZR-1"

Jim

Jim what kind of drives do you guys do at Carlisle in August, that is one trip I will make from Pittsburgh!

[QB93Z]

Day 21: We left Blanding and headed Northwest to cross the Colorado River and drove to Torrey, UT and Capitol Reef National Park. We followed UT-95 again, past Natural Bridges and on to Hite where we crossed the Colorado River.

This route is my favorite scenic drive of all the trips Lyndi and I have done.


















to be continued......

[QB93Z]

Jim

[XfireZ51]

Jim,

I did a X-country trip last year in July from Chicago to San Francisco to see my new grandson (4500mi round trip). Because of your travelogues, I had images dancing in my head of doing it in the ZR, but decided to take my Volt instead. However, its beautiful but sparse scenery like this that makes me wonder about having a breakdown in a 30yr old car.
How do you guys keep from overly concerning yourselves about that? I know you do a great job of prepping for the trip.

[QB93Z]

The HVAC saga continues...... The HVAC system worked OK all the way from Blanding to Capitol Reef NP. Then we turned the car off to look a the Petroglyphs and the AC did not work at all when we started the car. We continued to the days lodging and the AC would not work. We adjusted our schedule to get underway very early (5 AM) to do most of our driving before the heat of the day. Today Tuesday, we left Torrey early and headed for the Rocky Mountains. Around 1PM, just for fun we turned the AC on and Lyndi notice a little cool air from here side vents. I took manual control of the Fan Speed and WE HAD AC again. It worked for the rest of the day. I think that the if the fan speed controller has a fault for High Speed, it will still work in Medium Speed. We will see how it works tomorrow.

Jim

[QB93Z]

Originally Posted by XfireZ51

Jim,

I did a X-country trip last year in July from Chicago to San Francisco to see my new grandson (4500mi round trip). Because of your travelogues, I had images dancing in my head of doing it in the ZR, but decided to take my Volt instead. However, its beautiful but sparse scenery like this that makes me wonder about having a breakdown in a 30yr old car.
How do you guys keep from overly concerning yourselves about that? I know you do a great job of prepping for the trip.

In my experience of driving thousands of miles in ZR-1's and helping get other people's ZR-1's back on the road, I can predict that the tools and parts I carry will keep me on the road. I am confident in my ability to do the repair.

Here is a question about car trips. What would you do if a sloppy driver hit your car while changing lanes? You would have to deal with a OOC car and you would figure how to get your car moved to a safe location and then decide if you rent a car and continue or you fly home. I think that my odds of getting crashed into is equivalent to the chance that I have a "disabling" equipment failure.

Lyndi and I will deal with it.

Jim

[XfireZ51]

Thanks for your perspective Jim. Be safe.