Well this morning I woke up in Ogden, UT. What the heck? I was hired to drive a Mercedes-Benz Airstream RV from McCall ID to Colleyville TX. Yup you heard right. As I'm typing this I'm enjoying my morning coffee. Waiting for my client to show for breakfast.

 

I might make it to New Mexico tonight but the depends on weather and wind being there is flash flood warnings, and good amount of wind this morning.

 

I will say the Benz is quite a trip to drive. Way too much stuff on the steering wheel, two video screens I can control. Being it diesel it's it got DPF and DEF.

 

Client is here. Catch ya.

 Safe travels @Mopar1973Man, don't going falling in love with that Mercedes-Benz.  We may have to start a new forum. Lol 

Not going to happen. For a vehicle with less the 3k we just had our first failure. The braking assist just shut off about an hour ago. Now has an error saying to read the owners manual. Don't have time just kept trucking. Made to Cortez CO. I'm done for the night.

 

 

Morning all. As for power to weight of this RV it's OK for flat ground but put it in the mountains it will be backing down on speed. 7% grade it might do about 40 to 45 MPH. As for MPG it's not bad at 12 to 14 MPG. Lots of comfort features, auto braking, auto wipers, auto hi beams, the list goes on.

 

As for travel I've got to make it to a Amarillo TX today it's going to be a long day. 

 

 

Edited October 17, 20222 yr by Mopar1973Man

 Just don't make a wrong turn at Albuquerque! 

 By the time you male it home your gonna sleep for a couple days straight. That's a lot of driving.

 I covered about 500 miles today and tomorrow probably another 300 but I do it for a living. I'm used to it. It does wear you out though 

Pulled 535 miles today. Made to Amarillo TX. Only 340 miles to Colleyville TX. That will make my final 4th day a walk in the park easy. My client Carolyn has been impressed with my ability to drive and handle everything. Every morning I study the map on my phone and pre-plan the trip and managed to hit my target every day. Carolyn's friend Georgia also along for the ride has made nice comments too. Both them had the luxury of napping most of the day and I drove. Been a long day I'm calling it quits. Post more tomorrow.

I made it to Colleyville TX yesterday at about 3:30pm CST. Just a bit over 1,700 miles from home. I'll be here till Friday morning and then heading out for my return trip home. I'll be driving a rental car and heading back to Idaho. 

 

As for driving a Benz RV all in all I very comfortable vehicle but just way too complex with all its extras. Yeah it nice to have but at time all you want to do is turn all that stuff off. I was very surprised that the DPF never regen the entire trip. I was checking on the cluster and when it rised to 70 to 80% I would make the effory to find a way to run WOT operation like up a short hill to gain the EGTs to clear it out and it always dropped back to about 35 to 50% load in the DPF. As for DEF fluid it only used a 1/4 tank to travel over 1,700 miles. As for economy it roughly came in at about 14 to 15 MPG. Not bad for the weight of this 25 foot RV. The only thing that I was not impressed with is power. Anytime you hit any kind of hill or grade it could not hold road speeds of even 55 MPH it would fallback to about 40 to 45 MPH. 

 

Controls... Well this can get rather confusing to a first time user. The steering wheel is full of controls. So the left spoke has your cluster display controls, cruise control, etc. On the right spoke has your entertainment screen controls and phone controls. Now just the cruise control set switch is double duty in a way. Just a light click up will set but also increase speed +1 if you full click the same switch it was a +5 gain always 60, 65, 70, etc. Now around the speedometer rim it lights up in red LED. Now if you close in on a vehicle then the speedometer LED rim will show thechange in cruise, start backing down. When you change lanes and you have clear road ahead it will accelerate and resume back to normal cruise speeds automatically.

Been a few days. Hope he isn't in a pit somewhere in Texas being told "it puts the lotion on it's skin"

 

😂🤣😂🤣

Michael and I were going to meet up for a few days while he was in Tx but as things would have it all blew up starting with I had a funeral I had to attend then Thursday I had scheduled a guy to help me replace the clutch in my truck. Then he had to head back a day early so that was that as they say. Michael and I have been friends for a few years now I guess since 2005 when I was in the hospital for two TIA's. I was so bored in the hospital with test I started searching for truck forums and now its 2022. I got a feeling its my turn to head to Idaho next. It wont happen till summer I can say that. You wont get this Tx guy in no -20 weather.  Safe travel Michael.

Yup gave it a try but timing was poor. All the pre-planning it sad we were so close to getting to meet but... Next time @jlwelding...

 

We rental a Kia Forte 2022 from Dallas Airport this thing has like no miles on it. It brand new. As for this morning we are in Colorado Springs and heading back towards Idaho. I'm very please with the car it running at about 45 MPG. Every fuel stop is right at 1/2 tank its like 20 to 25 dollars. Already drove like 700 miles from Dallas to Colorado Springs.

 

Personal note I'm glad to get back to the mountains. Flatlanders, you guys can keep that stuff. I like the twist and turns of mountain driving over blindly staring down a long flatroad.

10 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Personal note I'm glad to get back to the mountains. Flatlanders, you guys can keep that stuff. I like the twist and turns of mountain driving over blindly staring down a long flatroad.

 HMMMM, sounds very familiar.  I live in N.W.Ohio, it's pretty flat here 

Well as of right now ive made it to Boise ID. Now ive got plans in place to get home from here. My good friend Muddy is going come get us from the airport when we drop the rental off. Then Mark is bringing Minnie from home so we can get back. Gotta give credit to all the people that are aiding me in this adventure.

Edited October 24, 20222 yr by Mopar1973Man

 Glad to hear you made it back with no major issues. 

Shouldn't have many issues, the rental car was a 2022 Kia Forte when I picked it up it had like 25 miles on the odometer, yes just 25 miles. Now it's closer 1,700 miles later. Thankfully it was getting like 54 MPG. Even at today's fuel price it's only 25 dollars to fill up from half tank. I think I spent roughly 200 in fuel from Texas to Idaho.

 

Yup that's @Honey Badger in the photo just as we left Colleyville TX.

 

Edited October 24, 20222 yr by Mopar1973Man