• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

General TR Long Distance Trip Repair Kit

Share this page

R

rnpennington

Senior Member
Country flag
Offline
I've seem some threads on what to suggested kit to take on a long trip, but a search doesn't seem to reveal them, so I ask:

If you were taking a long trip from home (approx 3K miles), what would you bring along.
My thoughts are:

Credit card
Parts not found in auto stores (windshield wipers, oil filter, fuel filter, spare radiator hoses)
Pertronix spare ( I have it installed now)
fuses

Any other recommendations that do not make me a traveling parts store, as there will be two of us in a TR4 and will be gone for two weeks, so I must make room for clothes
 
Bob

You have a good start with your list, I'd add a few other things like
fuel pump
carb repair kit
fan belt
clutch master and brake master repair kits
auto association membership

Graze
 
Easy to start a list - what is harder is knowing when to stop.

My list is fairly long and my willingness to work in a motel parking lot proven (e.g. I carry a head gasket) but my wardrobe is small.

Since almost any component that is likely to let you down can be overnighted from one of the usuals - going with the AAA card and a cell phone is not foolhardy.
 
Fuses, wire connectors? Maybe more than your vintage tool kit? I bought a couple of these Crescent kits and found them quite useful and most importantly compact:
attachment.php

Also consider what you are able and or willing to do on the roadside or parking area.
Tom
 

Attachments

  • crescent.jpg
    crescent.jpg
    19.6 KB · Views: 117
  • crescent.jpg
    crescent.jpg
    19.8 KB · Views: 228
I agree with George, no need to carry a parts warehouse. You can have any part you need within 24 hours
Check with your insurance company about upping the towing range. I did this with Haggerty and the increase was minimal. Last year in Texas I was glad I did.
 
A credit card and a cell phone.

I used to collect a travel kit, that continually grew until there was no more room for me in the car. It seamed that, no matter how much i took, something new would break and had to be added to my kit for the next ride. It peaked when one trip, while 2,000 miles from home, I actually replaced a head, in a roadside park and wearing dress clothes...and without soiling my suite. After that I realized I reached the pinacle of mechanical ability...but had lost the fun of the road.

I got home, put all those parts in my travel kit back on the shelf, and have never regretted it for a minute. If I can't fix it with pliers or a screwdriver...the car and I get to ride home on a flatbed.

One last comment...to have my current attitude, I never leave anything on a car unfixed. If I don't think the car is 100% ready, I don't take it anywhere until it is. See, in the old days I would try to "stretch" a bad part to get the maximum mileage from it. I learned to fix things instead of stretching the enevitable.
 
Tom,
That looks like a nice traveling toolkit. Where did you get it?
 
Shirley and I have traveled coast to coast through 28 states and the three western provinces of Canada. When we went East on a trip a little more than 4,000 miles we left the spare tire at home. When we went West into Canada to the west coast and back across the northern states for a little more than 6,000 miles we took the spare tire and a small trailer so we could take things along for a family reunion in Provost, AB. Both times we had a small box with only a few hand tools and a spare breaker plate for the dizzy. When we went east I wasn't concerned about having a spare tire along because we had AAA and they sell tires all over. When we went west I felt it was a little more important to have a spare along.
We drive our car a lot around home and fix problems as they come up. I feel that makes our car a lot more dependable overall. In all the extended trips we have made we have only had 2 breakdowns. The first was when a nearly new clutch pressure plate failed. Something we would not have fixed if we would have had one along. Actually finished the trip without a clutch and repaired it when we got back home. The second was when a less than 1 year old clutch master cylinder failed in Provost AB. We drove to Calgary without a clutch and pulling our trailer. Friends in Calgary had a spare clutch master so we swapped it out and finished the trip. Replaced it when we got home and sent the borrowed one (which was for a TR250 and we had our TR6) back along with a thank you gift.

I think the best way to have a dependable vehicle is to drive it and maintain it. Finished restoring our MG Midget last Fall. Drove it a few hundred miles before winter and a little over 3,000 miles this season. All the time finding things that need to have attention to make the car more reliable. We think nothing of driving 200 or more and it is getting better all the time.
 
That tow truck pic leaves me to wonder:
is there a good place to attach a tow line on the front bumper or frame of a TR3?

my first thought is that it would yank the front bumper right off.
 
rnpennington said:
Tom,
That looks like a nice traveling toolkit. Where did you get it?
Click to expand...

Got mine at my welding supply, Airgas, for under just $100 but they are readily available. Just google "crescent tool kt". Tom
 
Bob - a year ago I drove over 7300 miles (Connecticut - California - Connecticut) in a 50 year old car.

Best thing I took was a list of BCF members around the USA who had volunteered to be "on call" in case I needed help.

I wouldn't have made the trip without knowing there were car guys along the way.

And a couple of these guys were put to use! (thanks Mickey and Keith!)

https://www.britishcarforum.com/bcf/showthread.php?92978-Tom-s-Road-Trip

Tom M.


rnpennington said:
I've seem some threads on what to suggested kit to take on a long trip, but a search doesn't seem to reveal them, so I ask:

If you were taking a long trip from home (approx 3K miles), what would you bring along.
My thoughts are:

Credit card
Parts not found in auto stores (windshield wipers, oil filter, fuel filter, spare radiator hoses)
Pertronix spare ( I have it installed now)
fuses

Any other recommendations that do not make me a traveling parts store, as there will be two of us in a TR4 and will be gone for two weeks, so I must make room for clothes
Click to expand...
 
NutmegCT said:
Bob - a year ago I drove over 7300 miles (Connecticut - California - Connecticut) in a 50 year old car.

Best thing I took was a list of BCF members around the USA who had volunteered to be "on call" in case I needed help.

I wouldn't have made the trip without knowing there were car guys along the way.

And a couple of these guys were put to use! (thanks Mickey and Keith!)

https://www.britishcarforum.com/bcf/showthread.php?92978-Tom-s-Road-Trip

Tom M.
Click to expand...

Was thinking about that when I first read this thread. Tom's was a one-time list that he generated specifically for his trip. If anyone's interested in being put on a contact list that we can post here, PM me. While this is posted only on the TR forum right now, if there's enough interest, maybe we can post this globally on the BCF, compile a list, and post it as a "sticky". Don't think we'd want to share email addresses or phone numbers online, but I'm sure we can figure out something that would work.

:cheers:
Mickey
 
As a follow up to Mickey's post, here's what I did.

Drew up a map of my (approximate) route.

Posted the map here on BCF.

Asked BCF members to PM me if they lived anywhere near the route, and would volunteer to let me telephone them if I needed a referral to a "classic car mechanic" they might know in their area. If they were willing to help, they would PM me their name, phone, and email address.

No volunteer was obligated to do anything but answer the phone. I wasn't asking for overnight stays, just sources of information.

And it worked!
 
Great idea, I'll do the same. The first leg is to the VTR, so I should have lots of help there, but I'll post a map of the rest of the journey. This should be a great father/son trip!
 
I don't think you'll need a spare generator. But with mine, I had 2) 1/2" wrenches, and 1) 9/16", pliers, adjustable wrenches, flat and cross screw drivers, assorted wire, meter, points/plugs/condenser,complete distributor, an above average sense of humor, and an attitude for adventure.

What could possibly go wrong?
 
Back
Top