The United States Of StanceWorks - 2009 Cross-Country Tour

[mpower5266]

IRcurious2

That sig is awesome.

Cause I'm the man, just had to pull over outside of memphis to pull the hood off, back on the road!!

Was it over heating or something?

[notloEnuf]

That sig is awesome.



Was it over heating or something?

probably

[Gator]

It was getting a little hot, now we're sitting under an overpass is luisiana, it's absolutly pouring! Probably leave here in a few.

[JSanders]

Are you guys coming through east Texas?

[Gator]

We goin throu all of Texas, back on the road now, just took a hard couple of hits

[grippymonkey]

so are you expecting to be in Socal tomorrow?

[Stephen]

what day is the caravan from socal to norcal? i may be down

[Gator]

We're a little outside of Dallas Texas right now, we decided to call it a day and get a hotel room. The room is pretty ballin and we're pretty much ready to crash at this point. Mikes going to post some pictures of the trip so far, I'm also going to post my non-artsy iphone pictures.

[notloEnuf]

We're a little outside of Dallas Texas right now, we decided to call it a day and get a hotel room. The room is pretty ballin and we're pretty much ready to crash at this point. Mikes going to post some pictures of the trip so far, I'm also going to post my non-artsy iphone pictures.

it's been 42 minutes where are these photos you speak of....

[4eyes]

cannot wait to see the first round of pics.

good luck tomorrow. you will be in texas most of the day. should make for some good photos though.

[M.Burroughs]

Chapter One: Two Takes to Get it Right

We had originally planned to leave last night; however, storms and tornado watches made us decide to stay home and give it an early start.
After waking up at 5am, and packing, we were ready to roll at 7:30.

On the open road, we made it all of 4 miles before pulling over and removing the wheels, trying to come up with a quick solution for the new-found rubbing from all of the weight.
After beating it with hammer, we decided to head back to the house and do it the right way.



We clearanced both sides by a solid inch... two fingers easily... so fitment is no longer an issue. After rolling both sides and re-hanging the exhaust, we decided to give it another go.

So what goes on the trailer you ask?



From left to right, top to bottom:
5 Gallon tank of water
Oil, ATF, Coolant
Cooler
Tool box
5 Gallon tank of gas
Radiator
2x4
Jack stands
Jack
4 "Ammo" boxes full of spare parts and useful items
Spare tire
Light stand case






Gee, that looks kinda low. How low is it?



Low enough to lean a quarter against.

Anywho, we were off, rolling strong for a few hours, when about an hour before we got to memphis, the car started to overheat.
Of course it would happen, it was inevitable.. it was only a case of "when" it would happen...



So we threw the hood on the roof, and we were ready to go. She's been running cool the entire day since.

We stopped for gas (many times actually) and pretty much every time, people had to come look at the car.



They asked if we needed help.



Ground clearance, cross country.




So there was a lot more driving, and of course it was hot as hell. You have no idea.

I dare you to go drive around with your heat on full blast all day.



We were originally going to drive 40 to 30 through little rock, however, we quickly found out we'd never make it through with the condition of the roads... So we had to go the long way, down to Jackson, MS and over through Louisiana.



Gas at the LA border.

As soon as we crossed in to LA though, we got hit with the ultimate suckage:



Rain.



After killing about an hour waiting for it to pass, we finally got back on the road. We've been driving since, and we're finally just outside of Dallas. We wanted to keep going but we're absolutely beat.

We grabbed some waffle house and called it a night.



And now we're at the Marriott.



Tomorrow we plan on making it to Tucson. The desert may kill us though.

<3 you all, and thanks for the motivation so far!

[mojocoggo]

You didn't bring an extra oil pan?

Love the gas station pic rofl.

[M.Burroughs]

There's a spare pan in the trunk.

[Stephen]

Sweet. Looks good so far.

[Gator]

Time for my pictures.

This whole time I've felt like a little fan boy asking Mike many, many pointless stupid questions. It almost feels like I'm interviewing him for my first article in the school paper. So I decided to take some photos as well, only I'm using my iphone, so heres my view of the trip so far.

Tub


Emergency fender rolling


The trailer touching the ground


The only wheel gap you're going to see in this thread, trailer tires lifted off the ground when we jacked the car up


Legit fender rolling


Right when we pulled over to take the hood off


My leg


Mike


Right before the rain


The trailer, sitting lower than any car I've ever had, we had to raise the fender a little, It was rubbing too hard, like actual rubbing


Rain, we literally almost died, had to dodge pot holes while in the pouring rain, we made a mad dash form our under pass hide out to a rest area, scariest mile of the trip


more rain