<VV> Getting Stranded

[Bryan Blackwell]

On Nov 2, 2014, at 10:10 AM, Smitty via VirtualVairs <virtualvairs at corvair.org> wrote:

> I know that most of my Corvair failures have not been because of an unreliability issue , but because of the tremendous number of miles traveled.  I don't care what car it is, if you drive it far enough, something will fail. You can Magnaflux the crank and the axles and put new bearings in your transmission and differential and the wiper motor will fall out on the ground.  That being said, I always came home in every Corvair I left home in.
> I submitted a piece last week to the Communique that is timely to this discussion.  Look for it.

I've read a few of Smitty's on-the-road-fix stories, they are some of the best around.

But really I think he hits the nail on the head above - most Corvairs nowadays don't do 7 day a week/20k miles a year service.  With some reasonable prep, a "hobby" Corvair should take you there and back without issue.  And cell phones - especially smart phones - totally change the game in terms of finding help.  A CORSA roster can help you find the local folks who might be able to lend a hand, and although Corvair parts are aren't as easy to find locally these days, FedEx can get you a vendor order the next day.

So, my trip list core pieces:

 - Cell phone
 - CORSA roster
 - Visa/Mastercard

And the most important piece of all is some advice I got from Bob Marlow some years ago prior to driving from Virginia to Florida with the family (Brenden was 9 months old) in our "new" Greenbrier:

Remember this is your *hobby*, the idea is to have a good time.  White knuckles on the wheel muttering "we gotta get there by 5" is not the way to approach this.

Final note - if you want to carry more than those four items, see the Corvair Basics book for an "on the road" toolkit, Bob and Smitty both gave great input for the list.  The rest of the book is pretty handy too :-)

--Bryan