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and your point of suggestion to OP seeking a budget trip?
Chauffeur driven stretched Limo Hummer might be your budget travel, but OP has commented otherwise.
You probably don't drive a FREE fuel car either... Certainly there is SPACE to be different in USA.
Please send your suggestions here>>' Epic west coast US family trip, how to do it most efficiently/least costly?'
My 1 month trip ESTIMATE for 'normal' budget traveler would run about $1500, food / lodging / transportation. I do it most f the year for less than 1/2 that, but OP might not be willing to go that far.
each has their 'comfort level'.
I already gave my suggestions. They were realistic. Yours are not. Yours requires breaking the law (driving without insurance), going hungry, putting your kids at risk by sleeping in strangers homes, and wasting time attending auctions hoping to find a car that won't break down two miles down the road. Reasonable and prudent people would agree that none of that is a smart way to travel.
By the way, we typically use the Prius for longer trips. No chauffeur. I wouldn't drive a Hummer--or any gas guzzler--if it were free.
So just for grins ... thinking that maybe there's a 0.00001% that stealth hasn't been blowing smoke up everybody's nether regions about all the fabulous deals (under $100!!!!) cars that "run and drive just fine" in the Thursday Portland car auctions, I pulled up 3 different auctions. The link above is today's Thursday auction in Portland.
Just like in Denver (and other Front Range auto auctions) and Salt Lake City, where I've gone to a number of similar tow-away/abandoned vehicle auctions from the Tow companies licensed in the Cities ...
95% or more of the cars listed in the auctions are "collision cars", and about 3% were "Theft" cars . Most have Salvage Titles. A few were identified as "Runs and Drives", but looking over the photos of most of them with such a description ... they were clearly still pretty bent up and damaged cars. In some cases, unlikely to be "street legal" with the protruding bent/sharp exposed edges of the vehicle sheet metalwork. Very few of the cars had a "clear title". None had a valid license plate on them.
Of the few cars that had "runs and drives" and otherwise appeared reasonably straight from an exterior photo/description, few would fit a family of 5. Of course, all were total unknowns as far as driveability ...and you cannot drive these cars before bidding. AT the most, you can start the engine and hear it run in place.
Such auctions are not for the amateur car buyer unless it's simply a lark to get salvage parts or take a huge chance that on any given day, a car suitable for their transportation needs would be available ... and at a price commensurate with getting a real bargain.
Another way of looking at these auctions: Yesterday was one of the Wednesday "Big Iron" auctions (listed under that site name, I've bought a fair amount of farming equipment from this auction house). A couple of school buses went through the no-reserve auction, along with some municipal vans. All were listed as having engine or driveline problems, some were retired from service with a "knocking sound" in the engine. The buses still brought $3,000 and up. Great if you're looking for a conversion rig or restoration for your group. But as a transportation ready vehicle, all were many $'s and hours from useable from their tow-away condition for the auction.
The bottom line is that a family of 5 heading to Portland with a tight trip schedule and lots of miles ahead is setting themselves up for a giant failure to even contemplate flying into Portland for the auction and assuming that a suitable vehicle is going to be at the auction in a condition ready for them to drive away. As the listings showed for today's auction, few suitable vehicles were even listed as "runs and drives". "runs and drives" doesn't mean that the vehicle is by any means ready for a multi-thousand mile trip, nor that the comfort systems in the vehicle still function.
Look at this, too, from a financial standpoint. Who among us would walk away from a serviceable vehicle worth multiples of thousands of dollars over a parking fine and tow charges? One might, as stealth advocates, abandon a vehicle for other reasons ... the proverbial car tied up in a divorce dispute, or ownership dispute, or some other uncommon reason why an owner simply walked away. But counting upon such a resource to come up with the vehicle you need at the time you need it for "under $100, sometimes as little as $20" is not a good trip plan when you're miles away from home with a family of 5 to proceed on a major family trip. Maybe if you were up for adventure and had the luxury of a lot of time to indulge while your family couch surfed in stranger's homes and considered that an entertaining proposition for a vacation while you worked on a vehicle to make it roadworthy, got it licensed/titled/insured ....
I do the type of restoration work needed as a professional, for profit. There's a very small "fun" component anymore to this type of work in transportation cars. I wouldn't advocate doing it as a necessity in a limited time frame with the pressure of needing to rely upon those wheels to keep a tight time schedule for a major family trip far from home.
Try looking at that Thursday auction. SEE FOR YOURSELF if that's what you'd want to be dealing with for a car. Consider, too, what your day is worth. It's unlikely that you're gonna' head on down to the auction and the car(s) that fit your requirements are going to be the ones that are getting auctioned when you arrive there. You'll be sitting around, waiting to get through those other cars until they get to the one you want to bid on. BTDT ... as a collector, I've sat through many days of auctions where the items I wanted to bid on were many hours later in the day. But you've got to be there so that when it crosses the auction block, you're bidding.
Keep in mind that the way he advocates the use of biodiesel, the car purchased from the auction would have to be a diesel and not gasoline, eliminating 90% of the vehicles being sold.
I can't believe anyone would pay any attention to a guy who claims to often go hungry while dragging his kids around the world working on farms in order to earn a meal and place to sleep in the home of a person who has not been background checked. That isn't a vacation. If anything it's bordering on child neglect.
TBH, i hadn't even thought of buying a car at auction before. It might be an interesting thing to do if you were a european or australian with a 3 month vacation and wanted to tour around the USA. I've actually had people in that situation ask where to buy a cheap car, and I never had any good advice for them. I just tell them to look at Craigslist. However, it would be absurd to even attempt that for a 12 day trip with wife and 3 kids. Presumably any sane wife is NOT going to be on board with that. Even driving a good, legitimate car from Portland to LA seems like a waste of time to me, but that's just my preference after doing it about a dozen times.
Keep in mind that the way he advocates the use of biodiesel, the car purchased from the auction would have to be a diesel and not gasoline, eliminating 90% of the vehicles being sold.
I can't believe anyone would pay any attention to a guy who claims to often go hungry while dragging his kids around the world working on farms in order to earn a meal and place to sleep in the home of a person who has not been background checked. That isn't a vacation. If anything it's bordering on child neglect.
one slight ... but essential detail ... he's been touting getting FREE waste Vegetable Oil and running that directly in his VW diesel engines.
I don't know about you, but two things present:
1) all of the restaurants I've been around in my regional travels now have service contracts with bio-diesel producers to pick up their waste oils. IOW, they've discovered that they can recoup some of the cost of their cooking oil with a routine scheduled pick-up of what used to cost them money to dispose. Many of the bio-diesel outfits even supply the storage container, locked so that only their route driver can pick up the product, especially for the fast food chains. The waste product has value, and there's little reason for a restaurant owner to simply give it away when it's just as convenient for them to get paid for the product.
2) I don't know about you, but even if I were to drive up to a restaurant with a WVO container willing to allow me to pump out a car tanks' quantity of product (and my 300DT M-B has a 32 gallon aux tank in the trunk located behind the back seat), I've got to provide my own hoses, pump, and filtering system to obtain clean WVO. Just what you want to do on your family vacation trip, right? stop by a few places until you locate a willing donor and then spend the time to pump and filter the fuel ... a small electric pump and filter system is likely to only process a gallon every couple of minutes. 15 gallons could easily take a half hour or more of pumping time. What's your time worth on your vacation travels?
The stuff doesn't run very well in early '80's MB diesels with a Bosch mechanical injection pump, and the cars won't start on this stuff in cold weather ... as several of my diesel customers have found out. All have had to install a dual fuel supply/fuel return system so that they could start the diesel on proper fuel, then ... and only then ... change over to the WVO when the engine was at running temp. They had to change back over to conventional diesel fuel before they stopped, with enough time to allow that fuel to be completely in the injection system and fuel lines to be available for the next cold start. Again, this takes a dedicated owner to utilize this, and a lot of miles on "FREE" fuel before you possibly recoup the cost of the aux tank and dual fuel set-up. Even at that, if the temps are low enough, the WVO isn't going to flow like processed bio-diesel.
Well, David, did you ever decide what to do? I want to know!
Will update while/after it happens with some sort of trip report.
Turns out we are not flying, we are not cutting much of anything, and we are ending up with much more money to do it with than we thought. We are driving our own vehicle.
There are only going to be 2 truly bad driving days w/o any sort of sight-seeing, 2 reasonable driving days (+/- 8 hours), and the rest with very little/local, or up to 4 hours driving the rest of the days. The trip might be more for the journey than the destinations. It could all get thrown in the shredder between now and then, but tentatively:
June 3, Denver to Superior, MT
June 4, Superior, MT to Everett, WA. Brief stop in Spokane. Possible Mariners game.
June 5, Seattle area, mostly open, Mariners game if not going on June 4. Sleeping in Everett.
June 6, drive to Portland, mostly open after that. Sleeping in Beaverton (free)
June 7, Portland or OR Coast at TBD location with boss (free sleep again)
June 8, Portland/OR Coast to SF
June 9, SF to Ridgecrest (probably free sleep)
June 10, Ridgecrest to LA, beach, possible Dodgers game
June 11, Disneyland, sleeping in IE or OC
June 12, Mostly open, sleeping in IE
June 13, Mostly open, sleeping in IE
June 14, Riverside to Grand Junction
June 15, Grand Junction to Denver
We're forecasting at least $600 in gas, and at least $800 in lodging. Breakfasts will be continental, lunches will be out of a cooler, and dinners will be at our discretion (most likely out/or with hosts, possibly fast).
We've gone back and forth on every facet of this trip since I last posted this thread. We even scrapped it last week. My wife will not relent. It seems like an enormous undertaking (to me), but I'm at the point of not trying to question it anymore, and just say eff it, let's give it a shot (if I'm going to kill myself, I'm going through Spokane/Coeur d'Alene one last time). Sure beats working.
If there's anybody I'm worried about, it's my 14 year old. He's doing this trip. June 18, he leaves for Florida. He comes back June 29, to promptly leave for Mount Rushmore for July 4. He'll have plenty of fodder for "what I did this summer" essays once school starts.
Responders are so serious... I don't think you are ready for:
" Epic west coast US family trip, how to do it most efficiently/least costly?
The OP had his mind made up from the first, you can clearly see that
I trust some future (adventurous) reader will be interested in an" Epic west coast US family trip, how to do it most efficiently/least costly?
Many many more options than have been stated above (Conventional trips).
Most of us are quite capable to 'get-in-and-go'.
Have a nice trip.
Gotta a LONG day ahead
June 8, Portland/OR Coast to SF
June 9, SF to Ridgecrest (probably free sleep)
If staying in SF, consider Ft Mason (excellent location and free parking). Our kids always got a real education staying at an IYH. (they called them "Foster Homes for College kids"). They can be spendy as a family. There are some $60 hotels nearby on edge of Marina district. (Or the excellent guest homes I use in the area ($10 / night including meals). Be sure to run up to Legion of Honor park and area if you come in across the Golden Gate. http://www.yelp.com/biz/legion-of-honor-san-francisco
Make sure the toll taker counts the kids! (reduced Car pool fare).
You can 'zip' across Lombard St and stop at Swensons for Ice Cream, then continue down the windy street and up to Coit Tower for sunset.
Last edited by StealthRabbit; 05-14-2015 at 12:52 AM..
Probably obvious to every one but me but whats an IE?
Inland Empire, ie Riverside, etc. I would NOT suggest doing this and commuting to Disneyland. It can take three+ hours in the morning due to insane traffic. You'll be very tired at the end of the day at Disneyland, and a 90 minute drive back isn't worth the price of a nearby hotel room IMHO.
Look at the Residence Inn by Marriott that is walking distance from Disney. Spacious rooms with a full kitchen that will comfortably sleep all. Maybe make dinner the night before, then let the kids play in the pool for an hour before an early bedtime. Free extensive hot breakfast in the morning--eggs, breakfast meats, pastries, yogurts, fruit, pancakes or French toast, etc. Have a big breakfast then walk to Disney without spending a dime that morning. Parking is free at that hotel as well.
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... I don't think you are ready for:
