Trip Report: Yellowstone - Banff
Number of States/ Provinces:7 States and 1 Province
By: Ray and Ruby (Surfgeek 33)
Start Date: 9/14/08
End Date: 9/27/08
Vehicle: 2008 SportsMobile 4x4 V10 EB 71 Mod
Miles driven: approx. 3300 miles
Miles per gallon: 8-12
Fuel Cost: $3.42-$4.19/gal
SMB Sightings: 2 SMB and 1 EarthRoamer
This is what we saw when we came back from Old Faithfull!
Daytime Temperature: 70 and 80's
Other Parks (side trips):
Wasatch-Cache NF (Utah)
Bear Lake, Caribou-Targhee NF (Idaho)
Bridger Teton NF (Wyoming)
Grand Teton National Park (Wyoming)
Gallatin National Forest (Montana)
Camping: Yellowstone National Park, Banff National Park
Hikes: Short hikes around Grant Campsite and small trails along Banff National forest
Animals Seen: Moose, Deer, Bison, and other little critters.
Best meal: Alberta Steaks, Spam and Eggs
)
Best Drive: Experiencing the Gallatin Gateway with my wife and daughter.
Bonehead Award: We stopped and ate lunch somewhere in the middle of Montana. During lunch, my daughter accidentally put the 4x4 shifter on neutral without my knowledge. When it was time to go, I placed the shifter to Drive and nothing happened, all we heard was a clicking sound and no movement. We were trying to troubleshoot the problem for about half an hour, with out even thinking of the 4x4 shifters. Finally I made a call to Peter at SMB West and told him the symptoms. And of course, first thing he asked was the location of the shifters. When I looked down they were both in the neutral position.
D’oh!!!
Issues: There were only a few minor issues;
1.) Our
Aluminess racks made humming sounds at high speeds. (We do love it and Aluminess did a great Job on making it to our specification. I just need to find a way to make an in-expensive fairing for it)
2.) Our
furnace never fired up in Yellowstone. It blew cold air and shutdown after a few tries. Our Campsite was at 7000 ft.
3.) Our interior developed an annoying squeaking sound, while driving, by the electric penthouse mechanism (passenger side).
4.) The
Hella TPMS dropped signal twice on the right rear and the spare tires. Before the trip, I relocated the antenna position to the doghouse (taking advice from the Forum). It worked better than where it use to be. But we still have issues on dropping signal intermittently.
Summary: Our rig performed awesome! My wife and I were surprised how comfortable it was to drive cross-country on our SMB. Sleeping in the SMB was comfortable as well, couldn’t even think about sleeping in a tent with 2 year old with temps dropping around 30 degrees at night. The
Honda generator worked and sounded great. We never felt that we had limited power through out our camping trips. The
Aluminess rack was very useful. Dave installed 2 cross-bars across so we can mount our cargo box on it. There were so much room for gear and cargo even with the solar panel taking most of the front section. This was an amazing experience for my family. You can never know the beauty of our country until you drive it!
Special Thanks:
Peter D. from SMB West
SMB Forum (Thanks for the advice)
My Brother (Showing us around Calgary and Banff)
So it began...
View From Above Bear Lake
Yellowstone
Continental Divide at 8400 ft.
Our home away from home!
Gallatin Gateway
Banff Canada
I will definitely keep everyone posted on "Project Fairing"
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