Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Touring with an M3W

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

Sounds like a great trip I haven't been down some of those roads in years. Wish I could have been there as well.

δ am sure you can travel with Mtw
Since i bought it in october ( it is a february 2013 ) we have done Two trips about 1500 miles each. The first one we start from South in France near Toulon And were going to italia . There we were six morgan on the lack of como ( Peter And Alis home) . They organises a travel in the center of Italia to modena , Parme , Aqua therma And return to France . Without any problem.
The second one was to go with MSCC members to Le Mans Classic where we met some members from talk Morgan. It was a trip about 1500 miles to.
A lot of rain but Time to Time sunny weather. We returned by little roads.no problem at all.
And next monday you ll take ferry from Toulon to Ajaccio in corsica where we are waiting by thirteen other Morgan for doing à turn of Corsica.
Mtw ...what else...Only smiles on the road.

I know many of you have now done extended mileages [kilometerages?] but, I am finding that I get numbness and eventually cramp in my right buttock after about 90 - 120 minutes of driving, am I the only one to suffer, or is there a way around this?

I have to add, that I have already lifted the front edge of my seat by around 4" [10cms] to support my under thigh area, which has helped but not being able to stretch my left leg past the clutch pedal does make things difficult on these longer trips.

Paul can you get your foot fully off the clutch? Do you need a steering wheel spacer if not fitted?

Tim.

No, it's not that Tim, I am using a smaller 11" wheel, so no problems getting my leg up, it's stretching it out which is the problem, because sitting with my clutch leg up, then puts a lot of weight on my right buttock, which is stretched out on the accelerator.

Perhaps it's a bit late to comment upon the painful buttock problem, but anyway....
I felt after my first test drive that holding feet off the clutch pedal and keeping light touch on the accelerator was causing strain in my upper legs. Caused, no doubt, by the horizontal body position. So, one of my first jobs was to fit a board on the floor with heel-stops added, one for the left foot and another for the right, positioned separately by trial and error. This enables me to rest my leg and keep foot off pedal when its not required there. So much more relaxed.

Sounds fantastic, can we see any photos?

Just as soon as I can work my way through the complexities of adding a photo!

The best way I've found to add a photo is to use tinypic.com it will download the photo and give you a code which you copy and paste in to a post.