driving across canada
 

has anyone done it?
i want to do it this summer from victoria to st johns in a van with some friends

68style

its fun except for the prairies.
it gets really hot in summer.. 40+ in some regions and high altitudes.

my eg civic si did not have air con and i drove during summer.. air con is highly recommended.
i avoided driving during the day coz it was so freaking hot. did most of my driving at night.


do your typical tune ups before you go and take some interval rest .rest not for you but for the car so it wont over heat. last thing you want is to be stranded.

why start from victoria? i am from victoria so i didnt have a choice.. it is going to cost you more than 120 round trip ferry..

so what do you do once you get to st. john?

get your rest dont drive more than you should. i got pulled on the way back from calgary for being too tired lol :bluemad:

i want to start from victoria just cause its where mile 0 is

and i have no idea what i'll do in st. john. piss into the atlantic? eat lobster? sing sea shanties?

im a little afraid of night driving because of deer/moose/etc... prob do like 10-12hrs during the day every day for 10 days should cut it.

It's a really nice drive until you hit the prairies.... then wow it sucks.

Berz out.

I actually loved St Johns (and the maritimes in general). Good food, WONDERFUL people. St. Johns was perhaps one of the nicest places I've ever been.

They do have a huge problem with elk on the road so be careful there at night.

The prairies aren't so bad. I highly recommend taking a detour off the hwy in Manitoba to go to Grand Beach. It's one of the best inland beaches I've ever been to. Bring bug spray and sun block. :P

I know it's all fun and one of those once in a life time thing to drive across a country, but just the thought of having to drive back prevents me from doing this. I guess if I ever land a job in Toronto, I'll do it.

st. johns and that whole region would def be good for the food alone if nothing else. Stuff your face with shellfish when there!

Drive back through the states. Cheaper gas, different scenery, and more stuff to see.

donezoed budday, it's fun and I hear what these guys are saying about the prairie flatlands being boring, I thought the same myself but honestly the roads are so long and smooth it's just a joy to drive and though the land is flat it's still scenic, never ending scenery... and yea DON"T do night driving, I pushed it a bit too much one night and almost had 3 mishaps with deer/moose, very close calls!

but here's a few pics to encourage you to do it from my trip last summer, all in order from the rockies going through the prairies and finally entering lake filled Ontario.... first pic is to show how many bugs I killed just on day 1, whole bumper was covered with bugs by the time I got to Toronto, so much bug juice attracted bees, I had a bees nest inside my bumper for a week after


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and hey stop by some of the bigger bubble tea places in Toronto, Richmond Hill specifically and this ice cream crepe desert awaits you my friend, worth the drive alone!

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...e/IMG_0530.jpg

My brother drove with 2 other guys in a prelude, 600$ gas + 2 1/2 days of nonstop driving. He said it was ok and he would only do it if there was someone else that would alternate because it gets boring at times.

sweet pics

actually my plan (which isnt certain yet) is to buy a cheap van for like 1500 bucks and dump it at a wrecker in st john or even sell it at a used car dealer for practically free, and fly home.

i can take all the time off work i want but my friends prob cant, or i'd drive through the states on the way home.

watch this movie:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1104806/
i saw it last night and it re-sparked my interest to go on this trip, which ive been thinking of doing for about 6 months now. time to make it happen! as nike says, "just do it"

@G-spec- did you cover car with tape to protect the paint?

^ No, he did it so he can get a temporary blue paint job.

bring lots of weed.

a friend of mine has gone back and forth from bc and ontario a few times and the only way he made it is because of the copious amounts of weed he smoked along the way.

I just haven't seen anyone do that before, pretty clever actually, most people would just add a thick coat of wax.

JordanLee has done it too, as seen in his build thread:

http://www.revscene.net/forums/jorda...t584702p3.html

Its actually a common thing to do to protect the paint from rock chips and bug juice.

yea blue tape to prevent rock chips, everyone does it on road trips, think it started with guys in the states road tripping from car show to car show, I'm surprised you haven't seen it before.

got hassled big time by cops in Ontario at a road block though, he kept asking me what I was hiding under the hood I had it all taped up, fckin state/province troopers man, cracked me up



oh and Unit, 1 more word of advice DON'T SPEED IN ALBERTA! I only got 2 tickets whole road trip, both in Alberta...
soon as I entered me and a bunch of other BC drivers got stuck in a road block all ticketed coming out of a tunnel, mostly young guys in nice cars, M3, Audi, Benz....etc.....and right before I exited the province I got another ticket as well... turns out from what my friend told me, the RCMP uses parts of the Alberta highways to train their new recruits

i drove from ottawa to vancouver in a uhaul + trailer. Make sure your car has cruise control

Last time I drove back from Lethbridge in my work van. My coworker and I walked out to the lot where the Van was parked and I went and picked up a brick. The company owner said "What's that for?" I replied "Cruise Control" The work van has a speed limiter of 145km/hr lol.

Berz out.

+1 for pissing in the Atlantic.

that's gonna be on my todo list when me and my friends do the same road trip.

Should definitely take pics and share your journey with us after.