2016 Reliability Tour

[R W Burgess]

I will try this again guys. I mistakenly deleted the previous thread completely. You can tell I am not on here enough anymore. Sorry Howard, I deleted your post too!!!

 

Gloria and I just got home last night from the 2016 Reliability Tour and it was a special one. We have been wanting to visit Savannah Ga. since the 2006 ? Sentimental Tour in Ocala, Fl. We met Nevy and Kerstin Clark there and really wanted to tour with him that same year, but 10 extra days on the road was not a good idea for us. Savannah is a beautiful historic early American town not destroyed by Mr. Sherman, and has been preserved ever since. Everyone down there was the friendliest people you will ever meet.

 

Let me say that Tour Chairman Ralph Tolman and his team did a wonderful job in hosting this event. His main girl, Lee Froehle was an energizer bunny and helped my wife and others throughout the week finding our way around town. Thank you again, Lee.

 

We began the week at Hilton Head SC at the Concours d'Elegance, our first. I was surprised they even let my unrestored Ford T on their show field, or I should say, the Greens!  There were a lot of spectators interested in our 100 year old cars. I explained as much as I could about my Model T and loved messing with the folks with my red neck behavior.

 

Steve Renaldo let one young spectator sound his T's "squawker" (what I call it) off. I added to it by responding in kind. The young fellow and I had everyone laughing until Gloria snatched on my "leash"! Whoops, must have went overboard.

 

Everyone had fun, and we left the field at about 3pm headed as a group back to our trailers and on to Savannah, GA to begin the rest of the week. I will not go into detail about the stops we had in Savannah, but this link will cover it. http://savannahaaca.org/2106reliabilitytour.html

 

Pictured is half of our group on the Greens at Hilton Head!

   

[R W Burgess]

We had very few problems with our cars, some minor ignition issues, very easily repaired. I did manage to have my left rear wheel pass me, maybe because I was driving too slow. 

 It rolled down the left side of the highway and wobbled to a stop 50 yards in the middle of the road after we came to sudden stop. It had us laughing  hysterically, the funniest thing we have even seen. It wasn't long before 5 other cars stopped by and helped get the wheel back on the T. I lost the axle key, so ended up putting it back in the trailer. Morris Cameron of Ashland, Virginia had a replacement key, but it was the last day of the tour, so we drove modern on Friday. Thanks Morris.

[R W Burgess]

Looks like Gloria is looking for a more dependable ride? 

[Joe in Canada]

A friends 27 t did the same thing in town and the wheel hit the same parked car two times. I hope your worked out ok.

[R W Burgess]

We are good Joe. I will be putting the T in my storage shed today, making sure to leave enough room to repair the rear wheel. Time to drain the fluids too. As it dipped to freezing last night.

[AnniesSS]

Wow!! Glad you can laugh about it and all is well.  

[Marty Roth]

The 2016 Reliability Tour was very well planned and executed. We had a great time driving our 1915 Hudson SIX-40, both to the Hilton Head Concourse, and through the entire sun-filled week and around Savannah, GA and South Carolina's Low Country to Gregory Neck Plantation where Mr & Mrs Bob Jepson were perfect hosts, sharing their exceptional car collection and magnificent home with us.

 

As Wayne noted, mechanical complications were few and far between. This was our first National Tour with the Hudson, and I prepared as much as I could, driving long distances almost every day for a couple of weeks. I tinkered with the new packing for the Water Pump on the Hudson, and had to keep snuging up on the packing nuts on the water pump shaft, but other than occasionally adding water, the car ran like a Swiss Watch, easily holding with modern traffic.

 

The day we drove to Tybee Island, we shared the ride with Jan-David and Anna-Lena Skaven, a delightful "Old-Car" couple visiting from Stockholm, Sweden, and friends of one of our host families, Nevy & Kirsten Clark who also hosted the Savannah Tour we did nine or ten years ago