Dr. Donuts's Dolly
Going West in my Mirage
Hello,
I've finally hit the road in my fully loaded Mirage. I am moving from MD to CA and am bringing all my left-over stuff along. My lady friend is also aboard. My Dolly swallowed two big flip-boxes for docs and clothes, three smaller crates for kitchen stuff and food supplies, a 48 quarts cooler, a small children table, a large duffel bag, a folding bike, two day-packs, a tent with mat and sleeping bags, a stove, and my tool box. The hitch carries camping supplies, likes tarps, poles, coal, and additional linens.
On the first stretch, we crossed MD and WV into OH. It's very hilly and the highways take you up and down with speed limits of mostly 65MPH and up 70. Going uphill with such big load is quite interesting. In 5th gear, there is little hope to maintaining the speed-limit, but switching into 4th is in principle ok, but at 70MPH, you'd have to rev the engine beyond 4k RPM which I don't really like. Also, the cruise control is not too good with these steep tracks. I just moved over to the snail lane and climbed up with my 60MPH or 65MPH at more shallow slopes. I typically would also switch off the AC at the foot of an incline and get a better pull on the ascend. On the other hand, I believe that my Dolly was not too big of a traffic obstacle since I mostly drove the posted speed limits on the rest of the route.
The first fill-up showed 48.7MPG, which is quite ok, considering the high speed, difficult terrain, load and the use of AC.
I did log the first stretch of the drive (speed, temperature, GPS, ...), but unfortunately cleared the data instead of sending it. Better luck on the next miles.
After 500 miles on the first day, I want to say that this is possibly the maximal distance we will be driving per day the next three weeks. The comfort is ok, and greatly improved with the presence of the cruise control (compared to my last trip around Lake Erie)
I'll update this post as we move along. The next stops will be IL and then northwards towards Minnesota.
Just enjoyed a some kind of spaghetti chilli in Cincinnati.
Update #1: (2500 miles done)
Thank you all for the wishes. Just a quick update; we were playing the game, spot a Mirage while driving. The latest score is as follows:
Update #2: (4000 miles done)
Just popped the 4k miles cherry at the gates of Las Vegas, NV. To make matters more ceremonial, we were accompanied by two Mirages when the odometer jumped to 4000. For a short moment, we three owned the I-15 SB with our little Mirages. A silver California Mirage followed us for about 10 miles, before zooming along and a white Mirage carried her bearded driver in haste towards Las Vegas. This day was also a Mirage fiesta, with a record of 5 cars spotted in a single day. Three were spotted in Zion National Park, UT and the two others were mentioned above. Curiously, all had different colors. After the insane drive across South Dakota, I decided to change my driving pattern to a more relaxed mode. I used to travel the speed limit, but 70+ MPH, uphill, and the crazy cross winds made the drive too tiresome for me and to uncomfortable for my passenger. Also, the fuel economy really sucked and dropped below 40 MPG. I switched to a 60 MPH cruise mode, without using trucks or other bigger cars for wind-cutting. Since then, I am getting constantly above or around 50 MPG, which is a really good number, considering my payload, the hitch, and heavy AC use.
One thing I noted and is not necessarily unique to Mirages, the long stretches on the highway have left zillions of bug corpses splattered all over the hood and clogged up the grill. Not only will this be annoying to clean, it is also a wasp magnet. We've already woken up twice to discover the Mirage totally covered with these buggers. The first time, I tried to sneak into the car through the passenger seat and to drive fast enough to get them off my tail, but since I had to return to load our luggage, they obviously were coming back. The second time, we used bug spray with a much better response.
Another issue that bothered me was the weird octane ratings in some gas stations. In Wyoming and Utah, many offer either 85 or 91. But since, the manual stated to only use 87 or higher, I've always reluctantly fueled my Dolly with premium gas.
I am still working on my logs, I will need a bit more quiet time for these files to process. There were a couple of interesting climbs on the trip which the Mirage took surprisingly well.
Mirages spotted on the trip:
State #Mirages/state Colors and locations Maryland 0 West Virginia 0 Ohio 3 green, Columbus
green, Springfield
blue, SpringfieldIllinois 0 Wisconsin 0 Minnesota 2 red, Minneapolis
blue, Mall of AmericaSouth Dakota 3 red, I-90 EB near Sioux Falls
silver, Badlands
red, Mt. RushmoreWyoming 1 silver, Yellowstone Utah 5 green, I-15 SB near Provo
white, Red Canyon - Dixie Forest
red, Zion, Watchmen campsite
black, Zion, East exit
blue, Zion, Visitor centerArizona 1 silver, I-15 SB near Littlefield Nevada 3 white, I-15 SB near Mesquite
blue, Las Vegas
black, Las VegasCalifornia 2 purple, route 66 near Barstow
blue, Victorvilletotal
20
This is a shot of the packed Mirage. Not visible in this pic are the folding bike (trunk) and the flip crates that are already packed inside (rear seats).
The Mirage at Devils Tower, WY.
Wasps take on Dolly for the first time in Buffalo, WY.
Dolly at watchmen campground in Zion Nationalpark
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2014 Mitsubishi Mirage ES
2015 Test Mirage
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Originally Posted by Daox
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