I know this should probably go under "Have you driven your M3W today" but it was more than a daily drive. We left home in the Morgan on the 5th of August and just got home yesterday, the 28th. In the interim, we covered 2,428 miles with loss of only a single exhaust bobbin and never got rained on once! The Morgan is a July of '13 build and has a comfort kit, part of a Empire kit and an upgraded fuel sender. It still has the old style compensator and the same noisy bevel box everyone else has. For trip spares, I carried everything needed to fix a flat tire, spare bobbins, a spare HD style rectifier and a spare cam belt. Out of that, I used one bobbin and to be honest, it was fractured when we left home.
We left Wrightwood, Ca and proceeded to Bend, Ore to camp with motorcycle friends and visit relatives. You can only camp with a Morgan if someone else hauls your gear. We were lucky enough to have friends attending the camp out who were driving. From Bend, we headed over to McMinnville, Ore where we attended a family wedding and participated in a "cruise night" festival. There were probably 3 to 4 hundred really nice hot rods and muscle cars involved just cruising 3rd street with crowds on the curb and sidewalk enjoying the show. People would run out into the street to get a picture of the Morgan and to ask what it was, did I build it, is it a kit, etc?
From McMinnville, we went to the Oregon coast, turned left and ran all the way to Eureka, Ca, about 400 miles for the day. The Lost Coast Brewery was close to our stopping place so we enjoyed pub food and really good beer. The next day was the best road of the trip, Ca36 from Eureka to Susanville. This road has sweepers, hairpins, mountains, valleys, redwood forest, open vistas, live oak groves and more. The only thing missing was a water crossing and a Buffalo herd (although Elk are pretty intimidating when you are in a Morgan). We took a side trip through Mt Lassen National park and the scenery was just spectacular. Lassen last erupted in 1914 and you would not have wanted to be in the area.
From Susanville, we spent our last night on the road in Mammoth Lakes, Ca. It is one of our favorite places, part of which is the elevation of 8,500 feet which keeps it cool. The last day was a bear! You leave Mammoth and within 40 miles, you are on the floor of the Mojave desert with a couple of hundred miles to go. Open cars and desert do not go well together.
The thing that sticks in my mind is the public reaction to the Morgan. People just seem dumbfounded that such a vehicle exists, that they are actually seeing it and that we are actually traveling in it. I absolutely lost count of the number of people that we talked to and how amazed they were that it was a production vehicle.
There are some things I want to add or change. I want an oil temperature gauge and some sort of cooling fan (maybe the interesting named "Love Jugs") and eventually a Centra compensator. My compensator is quiet at 7,200 miles but it is a pain in the ass to have drive constantly in a "compensator friendly" mode (some roads and speed limits just don't have the right gearing available to avoid lugging or high rpms). In other areas, I have Blockley tires, a luggage rack and a slightly larger diameter steering wheel. For those of you who want your rig to be louder, spend a day on the road before you modify your exhaust, my ears are still ringing. We got about 34 mpg on the trip and I never felt the need for more power.
Get your M3Ws out of the garage and hit the road, they are more robust then we give them credit for!!!
Roland
