[FC] A Rampside Trip

[Greg & Virginia]

In the few years since I got my Rampside on the road, I have also hauled a
beautiful old upright piano, new washer & dryer, crushed stone, mulch piled
as high as the top of the bed, firewood, and at least one memorable trip to
the scrap yard with the remains of a '66 Monza coupe.  I'm actually afraid
to make the Rampside look any nicer, for fear I will not want to use it for
what it was built for, a truck!  Greg in Alexandria, Virginia

----- Original Message -----
From: "J R Read_HML" <hmlinc at sbcglobal.net>
To: "VirtualVairs AA" <VirtualVairs at corvair.org>
Cc: "Corvanatics AB" <corvanatics at corvair.org>
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2005 3:11 AM
Subject: [FC] A Rampside Trip


> Yes, I know, I still owe you VV folks the final installments on the Route
66
> trip.  With any luck, I'll get to that later this week.
>
> This story is fairly short - about the utility of a Rampside.
>
> Saturday it was all cleaned up and participated in the first LSD (Lake
Shore
> Drive) Kruze in Chicago.  It was a good turnout - estimated 600 or more
cars
> on display at Soldier Field parking lot.  Probably over 1,000 that cruised
> the drive.  Six cars from CCE were in the cruise portion and four (parked
> together) stayed for the show portion.  There was another seven Corvairs
> scattered thru ought the shown - all cars that no one from CCE had
> previously seen.  Obviously, we did our best to talk those folks into
coming
> to our meetings.  We'll see what happens on that.
>
> It rained like H on the way home.  Several traffic lights are still out on
> some of the main routes near my home and many businesses were without
power
> for 8 hours or more.  We sent that stuff over to Indiana, right Warren?
>
> Anyway, Sunday morn was an "up early" day and a quick trip over to
Elmhurst,
> IL where I (and helpers) loaded a piano - probably around 550 pounds into
> the Rampside.  Staying on local roads and not traveling over 50 mph, I
> arrived at my daughter's place in New Berlin, WI.  Technically this was
not
> quite legal since I have AV plates (not truck plates) on the vehicle.  I
DID
> plan the route through Wheeling, IL where a relative happens to be a
police
> officer.  Hey, it couldn't hurt to mention his name if I should happen to
> get stopped for having a load on the truck.  Other than one wrong turn and
a
> stop to air up the tires (steering was much improved by that), the trip
went
> smoothly.  Perhaps these things were built for piano moving?
>
> After the unload and a quick bite to eat, the trip back was down the
express
> and toll ways.  I found that there was a fairly stiff wind.  Flags were
> standing straight out on about a 45 degree angle to my direction of
travel -
> so I figure that (subtracting the cross wind factor) I was probably
driving
> into a 20 to 25 mph head wind.  The ambient temp was in the upper 80s and
> fairly humid.  There is an air dam on the front so the cross wind factor
did
> not affect me very much at all.
>
> The Rampside has a Spider dash and I found that the head temp was right at
> 400 so long as I kept the speed below 60 mph.  I had done an oil change
the
> night before (Mobil 1), so I was not all that concerned even though it
> typically runs at about 375 head temp on cooler days and higher (like 65 -
> 70) speeds.  I got a spike or two into the 425 range when I tried going
over
> 60 or up long gradual hills or bridges, so I just kept it over in the
right
> lane and stayed between 55 and 58 mph.  In a total of 220 miles, it has
> fallen just below the full mark on the dipstick.  So it used a
"measurable"
> amount of oil during the trip, but not terribly much.  If it continues to
> spike temps above 400, I'll probably remove the lower shrouds.
>
> So, anyone else move a piano in a (nearly) 45 year old Rampside recently?
>
> Attachments (if any) are scanned with anti-virus software.
>
> Later, JR
> '61 Rampside Standard 4/110
> '65 Monza Convertible 4/140  (temporarily X 2)
> '66 beater Coupe - icemobile 4/140 (1/2 ownership)
>
>
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