@Local Hero , Man, you carry a lot of spares! Definitely better that have and not need than the other way around! Nice tip on the curb, I hadn’t thought of that!
@RDH69 , there absolutely are! I posted up a blog detailing the whole trip. Here’s the link: https://cccforum.discoursehosting.net/t/69-cougar-roadtrip/12710/1
@Rickyracer1983 , lug nut tightness absolutely must be checked! That couple that I helped on the side of the road had lugs that were WAY too tight, and actually broke their tire iron when we tried to use it to take them off. If I hadn’t had my nice heavy duty tool set, they would have been on a flat bed even though they had a spare. Torque wrenches are king! And very true about the not-Amex card, if not for the boating accident…
@Sir Ed , It was great meeting up with you, and you picked a great spot to do it! My expenses were all over the place and I haven’t (and probably never will because I don’t want to see that number!) total them all up. That being said, over ~30 days and ~11,000 miles, I spent about $6000. About $2000 was gas (I figure I was getting about 15 mpg), about $1600 was lodging (because of COVID I stayed in A LOT more hotels than I wanted to instead of staying with friends), and the rest was food, random parts and tools, incidentals, and Rotella 15w40. I had been saving for almost 4 years to make it happen.
What I could have done cheaper:
-I stayed in mostly nice hotels($80-140). I definitely had cheaper options available, but I found that not having to worry about having a clean room or having my car stolen out of the parking lot was worth the extra cash. I could have stayed in less hotels and camped more, stayed more with friends, or just stayed in cheaper places. COVID and personal preference pushed me to the route I took.
-Spend less on food. I eat a lot (probably twice the average person), so that added some cost. I also can’t stand most fast food (it makes me feel gross), and I require at least 1 large Starbucks coffee a day (I inherited that trait directly from my parents). You can do a lot of things to eat really cheaply, such as buying cans of soup at supermarkets, buying cold cuts and making your own sandwiches, and other things like that. Again, this came down to my own personal preference and what I felt was going to enhance my enjoyment the most. I wasn’t ordering the steak, but I also wasn’t eating ramen.
On budget/saving money for a trip like this:
Don’t try to do something like this on a shoestring budget; I truly believe you won’t enjoy it as much and it honestly might ruin it for you. If you’re sleeping in your car for several nights in a row you’re going to be sore and tired all the time, which is going to make you cranky and put you in a sour mood. If you’re eating the cheapest food you can find, you’ll feel gross and won’t want to get out and do interesting stuff. Having the bit of cushion that I was able to save up (and that I ended up using) gave me the piece of mind to be able to just swipe the credit card and buy the parts and tools that I needed when I broke down, and eat or stay at several interesting places along the trip. I would calculate out what you think you are going to spend on the trip, then add an extra 20-30% and save up that amount of money.
A lack of funds would be pretty much the only reason why I would recommend that someone wait to take one of these trips. You just won’t enjoy it as much if you’re checking your budget a million times today.
Ken