Toyota Tundra Forum

Last Thursday afternoon I was sent to Travis Air Force Base to pick up two containers, weighing 700 lbs and deliver them by 2:00 PM Friday to Pinal Airpark in Marana, Arizona, thirteen hours driving time away.
Cool, thinks I. I'll just go home and nap until eleven then take off, rested and refreshed and be there in plenty of time.
My Garmin Nuvi said to get on I-5 and blast south until I reached I-10, in Los Angeles, then hang a left and follow it all the way to the exit, just North of Tucson.
So I did. I wanted to run a mileage test, so I set the cruise control on 'Clyde the Ride' at 65 MPH and just kept going and going and going all the way to Burbank, where I dropped by the Costco and gassed up.
An aside; the Tundra is the first vehicle that could make that trip in one shot. Not the Caddy, Volvo, Sonoma or Dakota, Not Judy's Prelude, nor the Accord or Fiat. Not even the Chrysler Imperial, I inherited on my grandmother's passing. Fun, having long-legs, so to speak.
Well there was a ..... pause. There was a 'sig-alert', meaning go anywhere but on this highway, but by the time I knew about it I was in stopped traffic and we crawled along for almost two hours at 5 miles per hour until we passed the pile of smoldering rubble that was the tractor and front of the semi's trailer, just as we began our drop off the mountains of the infamous 'Grapevine' down to the LA basin.

I wanted to see how good mileage the Tundra would get. This is what I got:

Station Location .... Mileage .... Gallons .... Cost .... Total Cost .... MPG .....MPH
Concord, CA .......... 2,1515 .......... N/A .... $3.699 .... $40.3 .... N/A ....
Burbank, CA .......... 2,1867 .... 19.998 .... $3.779 .... $75.57 .... 17.6 .... 65MPH
Phoenix, AZ ........... 2,2237 .... 20.910 .... $3.479 .... $72.75 .... 17.7 .... 65MPH
Mesa, AZ ............... 2,2441 .... 11.708 .... $3.479 .... $40.73 .... 17.4 .... 65MPH
Henderson, NV ...... 2,2742 .... 16.206 .... $3.659 .... $59.30 .... 18.6 .... 70+MPH
Traver, CA ............. 2,3096 .... 21.853 .... $4.059 .... $88.70 .... 16.2 ....75MPH
Concord, CA .......... 2,3297 .... 12.273 .... $3.699 .... $45.40 .... 16.4...75MPH

1782 miles....... $422.75 for 102.95 gallons of gas by 6 = 17.31 Miles Per Gallon, average.
The Dakota gets only slightly better mileage.

So, you might be asking.....and I did ask why..... a contractor for the Air Force couldn't find an airplane to deliver from one airport to another. I was told that the company, Evergreen, carries cargo for the Air Force, but gets no favors.
Hmmmmm.
Here, is one thing Evergreen does: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvBRWTumoZI

I spent the entire trip wondering what was in the large plastic containers that had the wording "Clamshell Brake" on them. I tried picturing "clamshell brakes on an airplane. The man who accepted the cargo pointed out the word I missed. It read "Clamshell Brake Container." This referred to the two piece plastic container, not the contents.
Oh. Something like this, according to what he told me, was inside. Brakes for a plane they were overhauling:


Drove up to Apache Junction and visited my mom, now living with her daughter and husband, in the shadow of Superstition Mountain. Took them to dinner, and while we were dining, one of the last rains of The Monsoons came through. Lots of lightening and thunder, buckets of rain then poof! gone.

"Phoenix, which covers 514 square miles, is the fifth-largest city in the country with a population of more than 1.42 million people (Source: City of Phoenix)." Which is why I could drive for an hour, at 70 MPH and still be in greater phoenix.......

I emailed Bette and her sister and told them I could drop by and say hi as I passed through Bakesfield. Fortunately, They didn't get the message; which was just as well as I still have the vestages of a cold, and they don't want to infect their mother, undergoing Cancer treatment.

So, I'm back.
_________________
98 Dakota 3.9 automatic, long bed.
Retired with broken A/C, July 2008.
623,000 miles.
On original engine and transmission, using Amsoil by-pass filters and lubrication.
Bet I could have passed 700.......

+Everybody knows something you don't know.
+Truth does not need to be 'balanced' and it ain't caused by voting or consensus or polls or yelling louder or silencing someone.
+Artists prove truth can be in forms you don't understand.

Low-Risk Option Trader
Retired Pro-Hunter featured in; 'African Hunter', by James R. Mellon III. and listed in; Rowland Ward's Records of Big Game.