jdustu

iTrader: (2)

man alive, our group had some crappy luck this trip. this was my first trip, but a few of the guys we rolled with have done it 7 times now. after the first few days of constant breakdowns they kept trying to tell us new guys "don't worry about it, we're getting it all out of the way, we never have this many problems"
but it only got worse

we started out with a good mix of cars:

a super clean 327 impala(late 60s) he went to clev and k-zoo
66 grand prix
66(i think) impala with basically a race engine(high compression 383, this car was sick)
70 superbee w/440(the car that's on all the "power tour" adds in hot rod magazine
94 trans am w/396(10s on juice)
3 fox body mustangs
99 vette
dodge ram(tool hauler)
my 98 z28
chevy wagon with a fi 502

right outside of detroit the superbee needed a new ballast resistor, and then just inside ohio we stopped to help another mopar replace a tire. one of the mustangs met us there and had some trans problems as he was getting in, the linkage had come loose; other than these three incidents and waiting in line for 1 1/2 hours to register, saturday was a really good day.

sunday: they snaked us through a town with a dozen or so lights and no police escort. we made it through alright, but it was an hour and a half sitting in traffic that was not needed, epecially with the rain coming. between storms, at lunch i got under my car to remove a trans mount shim and tried to fix a squeak from my upper shock mount...still haven't fix the squeak...still in ohio, the wipers stopped working on a mustang....the air pump had gone bad and shredded the belt...after a while trying to find a belt to work at the autozone in coldwater, we got back on the road and got to k-zoo at quarter to 8.

monday: one mustang has a trans line leaking and the 383 impala gets a knock. another mustang is missing really bad, turns out the distributer wasn't tightened down...change the plugs on the imp and get out of town around noon. while they mess with that, i'm trying to fix my wheel hope to no avail....trans line comes loose again about 10 miles outside of k-zoo, and then right outside of chi-town.....a couple hours in a parking lot and then at a very helpful trans shop and we are on the road again...traffic through chicago wasn't bad, and we get to racine at 8pm, everyone is already gone from the water front....

tuesday: one mustang got a nail in his tire, had to get fixed....the impala is running bad again, can't go over 55.....we get outside of springfield and someone says " looks like we're gonna make it!" then the belt flies off the other stang we get there about 6pm or so, very early by our standards

wednesday: the fun really starts; me and my buddy take off, because i want the tech guys to check out my suspension to figure out my wheel hop. the grand prix and the truck headed home, one guy was sick and the grand prix owner was his son, so they left together....the other guys change the intake gasket on the impala, then the starter goes...they get it changed and get the motor running, but its still knocking....its my friends dads car, so he rents a truck and tows it to his home in louisiana, grabbed his l88 vette and met us in little rock. they pick up another z28 when they leave, and he has issues with a hose leak....then the trans am starts having starter issues..they don't get to evansville till 9:30.....we were there at 1:30 with my camaro, but the tech guys didn't get there till 4. so we got under my car and found that the panhard and lcas were loose. my freaking lca relo-bracket had busted off due to the wheel hop! when i welded them on originally, i used a mig welder that wasn't rated to weld that thick of metal, and i know better. i'm stilled pissed at myself about that i had been going 120mph with a busted lca bracket they let me weld it back on, and gave me some ideas about the wheel hop.

thursday: we make the drivers meeting and decide to follow the alternate route they print up for us. after fixing the leak on the other z28 we get going, and somewhere we miss route 81 off of 231 and end up way out of our way, on 65 south by bowling green. then my car dies in a construction zone....the new fuel pump i installed was dead. the tow truck didn't come for 2+ hours, and it ended up causing a huge traffic backup...me and my co-pilot were the only two white guys in the group, my car was broke down, and the idiots rolling by were yelling racial slurs at the guys who were with me trying to help me. that was nice our motto the whole trip was "no man left behind" and they stuck with me as my car was towed to a dealer in b.g. the dealer got it in and diagnosed it right away(i was right about the pump), but had to order it and they were closing up. so we ended up leaving the car there and picking it up on the way back. 900 freaking dollars for a job i could do for 60. **** happens.
we get to memphis pretty late on thursday, and go to the hotel that everyone else is staying at....our hotel was across town, so the clerks say they have room for us, and they call our hotel to see if we can cancel due to the circumstances. the girl at the other place says they can't, but she'll ask her gm and call back. ten minutes later they call back and check, still no answer. finally i call, explain the situation again, and they tell me the CANNOT cancel my room....fine. we go downtown and hangout, then they drop us off at our hotel which is quite a bit out of the way. i'm sure you can see were this is going: they freaking cancelled our reservations and already booked the room!!! she put me on with the gm, and i let him have it...my friend with the trans am starts telling the clerk "this is how people **** around and get killed, **** like this just puts you over the edge!! its not your fault, but this is how people snap, go get their piece and go nuts!" her eyes were as big as saucers the gm still hasn't heard the last from me. we call the other guys hotel, and they have a room still, so i reserve that. we go to leave and the starter on the trans am is still too hot.....thats when he started laughing "we can't sugar coat this anymore, this has been the worst power tour we've had, by far, not even close"

friday and saturday ended up being alright, other than the fact that my car was in bowling green. it may be hard to believe, but this is the short version of the crap that happened this week
we had some good times too, and i met some cool guys and got to know some other friends better. everyone stuck with each other as we pretty much all had problems at one time or another. i'll get some pics up soon, and i we've got some video to edit too. they're all hoping this week doesn't scare me from coming again! i think i'll do it again, but man was this week long

BigBronco

iTrader: (2)

my goodness man.

Our trip went over very smoothly. We kept the older cars down to a minimal. the power windows / A/C paid off WELL this year.

jdustu

iTrader: (2)

that's cool. no a/c wasn't as big of a deal as i thought it would be. of course maybe that was in comparison to everything else that happened


i want to get the buick going to take that out next time, but i think it would be cool to take a reliable late model one year just to make sure you can take everything else in. we pretty much missed every lunch stop, and we missed the memphis track all together...out of our group i was the only one to catch any of evansville because i needed to get there to work on my car. the rocket ship on the road course was a sight to behold

jdustu

iTrader: (2)

i don't think we passed an autozone without stopping the first three days:


changing the plugs on the impala(this car was awesome)


fixing the tranny lines on the stang:


this trans shop in indiana made sure everything was right(have i mentioned i loved this impala?)






at the tech tent where i figured out why my rear was swinging around:



don't mess with this vette :


there are some more pics at this link: http://detroitwheeliedog.com/v-web/g...album31?page=1

i think kenny took a lot of better variety and better quality pics, i don't have the patience. by the time i had to have my car towed i had had it.....i'll see if i can get his pics onto my site at that link as well....

rd_ls1_z

That has to be the roughest story I've heard in a while....Sorry to hear about the problems, and I hope all is well. If you try next year, I hope your luck is better....

mac_z_28

iTrader: (4)

im planning on going for my first power tour in 09... but im worried about having a horror story to tell for myself... my idiot buddy tells me if u break anything on the power tour.... the vendors and sponsors fix your **** for free. tells me this story about a chevelle that blew up his trany and tremec slapped a new one in it for FREE. im guessing hes full of **** but any of u guys hear about things like this????

jdustu

iTrader: (2)

Naw, not totally. Someone is always gonna be there to help you, but the more you stick to the schedule and route the better your chances are. We were always running behind or lost or whatever

Talking to the gm tech guys, their deal is that they will do the labor for free, but you cover the cost of parts. However, often times a vendor or GM(with GM rides) donates parts.

Last year I didn't make it, but my same group of friends went. My buddy's 10 second trans am blew it's motor(396 LT1). He rented a trailer and towed it the rest of the trip, but found out later that GM had room in a trailor and would have hauled it for him(granted it was his 8th straight year going). They gave him a LS3 and arranged for a local shop to do the install, but the parts for the conversion were gonna cost him. He ended up talking them into giving him a crate LT1 instead.

I'm hoping to go again this year. I don't have the car anymore, but one way or another I'm gonna make it.

-Josh

SPLATT

iTrader: (1)

wow, sounded like plain ol bad luck to me. hopefully better luck this year!

Racin96ss

iTrader: (3)

What no free labor for the engine swap? lol

pmbmax

Dang the bad luck the year i went we all just drove the entire trip had a hose leak on a camaro but that was it . Sorry to hear , heck they where 14 of us. i was worried to death the whole trip.

GTABurnout

iTrader: (1)

Wow thats a bad time. But to be honest it sound like you had a group of cars not ready for a long trip...

jdustu

iTrader: (2)

Not at all! The guys I was with made it 8 years in a row last year, and they had never had those kinds of issues before

Granted, the mustang with the trans problems(among other issues) was due to him not having the thing sorted out first. He wasn't much of a car guy and his cousins talked him into coming. But that was one out of ten or so cars. A relatively new fuel pump went out on my car, there isn't much I could do about that.

But like my one buddy says, "if your car ain't right, the power tour will tell on you!"

jdustu

iTrader: (2)

I may have a new truck by then, and I'm thinking about throwing my welders in the back and getting some "Brown Dog Welding" vinyl done up for it and making the haul. Make sure you say hi if you catch me!

hotrodscrap

iTrader: (10)

Sorry for the luck man, it's been fun but it ain't always easy! A few of our guys have been over heating waiting to get in the venues, the suede, LS3 69Camaro in our group needed an alt. last night, (not too serious). The 32' roadster driver has been in and out of his rain suit every day nearly. I've got a water pump leak, (LT-1), just a little drip occasionally for now. It's great doing this though, all goes well we'll ALL be rolling into Bristol for the last venue and Long Hauler........

-SS

jdustu

iTrader: (2)

It's a blast! I'm kind of cheating this time around, I'm driving a one week old 2009 Ram R/T(build date: April 26th, 2009). Hopefully I'll get the old buick going one of these years.

slt200mph

iTrader: (42)

Just like any other road trip ... if you hit the road with weak **** you can expect to have problems .... I have to stress that before you decide to go on the power tour or any other long trip to have your vehicle standing tall and ready to roll ... you may get some help from the vendors if you break down but you sure do not need to count on it ... treat it like any other road trip and be ready to take care of your business if you need to .... this will be my 5th hrpt in a row and I do not go expecting anything to rely on except my own resorces to get me there and back home ... do not get me wrong if you pull over to the side of the road 2 dozen + people will stop and try to help you and I have even seen people with trailer queens on trailers unload their car and load the disabled vehicle on their trailer and haul it to the next venue ... we are a brotherhood of hot rodders but you need to realize that just like in real life that you will have to tote your own load so to speak ... rock on power tourers .. the worst day on the power tour is better than any car show/cuise in that you will ever attend .. the trip is what you make of it .. ..

slt200mph

iTrader: (42)

A mod needs to pull this guys advertising...he has hit a couple of threads with this crap.

Just PMed a mod about this jerk and his bs will be gone shortly ...

hotrodscrap

iTrader: (10)

I got home last night after spending a day at my parents to rest before heading back to Texas, 4,200 plus miles in 8 days.........well worth it. There IS nothing else quite like Power Tour! I got hooked up with some great car guys from Illinois that I traveled and hung out with the entire time, it was great. This was the first year I got to go all the way, God willing I'll be there next year too. The car needs some work now though, water pump and opti, brakes, and an alignment, still worth it.

-SS