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Greenville, SC to Bozeman, MT - 2300 total miles

RainbowDash

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Belgrade, MT
I am just getting settled in back home. I drove the new and rebuilt M35A3 with jeep cherokee in tow about 2300 miles, making pit stops in a few places to stop and smell the roses. We broke down only a few times (few filter died, out of gas, headlights burning out, etc) and it was quite the adventure.

I had the first 5 feet of the bed full of boxes of my stuff with a big cargo canvas thrown over it all and strapped nice and securely. The remaining 7 feet I had my fold up bed, desk, chair and a crate of food that was kindly donated by a worried neighbor before departing. My cherokee in tow was jam packed with the rest of my stuff and a box of tools and spare parts for both vehicles. I was running out of room so I chained the jeep's spare tire on top of the truck's spare tire with a bike lock.

I wired up a 24v to 12v converter in the cab and hooked up a phone charger for my phone and the gps on the windshield. My sweet little puppy dog had a nice little bed of blankets under the passenger bench and she didn't make a peep the entire trip. Took us about 7 days of casual driving at 48 miles an hour.

Of the mishaps we had:


  • A few days before the trip, the trucks won't start (eventually we find it was a loose ground wire)
  • Voltage reducer for the jeep's towing lights died
  • Clogged fuel filter left us going about 5 miles and hour uphill and eventually stranded us in Morganfield, Kentucky
  • Ran out of gas about 10 feet from the pump in St Luis, Missouri because the previous three stops advertising for diesel had none
  • First headlight burnt out in Tennessee somewhere
  • Got pulled over in Iowa somewhere for swerving around a bit (my friend had a hard time working with the air assist steering)
  • Right as I change the headlight with the spare, the other one cracks into pieces, bringing us right back to one headlight
  • A mysterious explosion rocks the truck just outside Grand Forks, North Dakota and still no clue as to what it was
  • The one time my card got declined for roaming was at the one gas station that was pump first, in North Dakota
  • And finally, the second we get to Montana it pours rain and my soft top starts dripping and streaming water in

Aside from all those problems, it was a great trip and we took so many pictures of all the scenery. We made hot cocoa every morning and drove under the star filled sky and we even made spam musubi one day with our burner.

Thanks to everyone who helped us along the trip and wished us a safe trip home
 

doghead

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Indeed, please share some pictures.

Sounds like a great trip!
 

RainbowDash

New member
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Location
Belgrade, MT
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My friend took the bulk of the photos and he still hasn't uploaded them anywhere, but here are the ones that I took while we were stopped
 
Last edited:

Uberlandwerks

New member
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Location
Montana
I'm heading to Billings aw we speak... of the rest of the trip goes well. Started Just outside of Indapolis and it's been a long week for sure. Great pictures!
 
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