A friend of mine and I decided to drive from Colorado to Chicago to pick up a trailer and an older Porsche project car. When we planned the trip, we thought that the shortest time we could do it would be three days, which we did and the longest would be four days if something went wrong. It turned out that our biggest challenge was wildly incorrect weather forecast and self inflicted issues with the Grenadier. Otherwise, the trip was an overwhelming success and exhausting trip.
Day 1. The goal of the first day was to make it from Colorado to Davenport Iowa. When we started out the weather forecast showed no rain and sunshine the entire way across the Nebraska and Iowa. The first 3/4 of the day were fantastic, cruising along at or slightly above the speed limit. Right around sunset the skies turned black and the wind began to pick up. Once the sun went down, we found ourselves in a serious downpour with very high winds. Then the tornado watches started coming across our phones and the Garmin GPS I have. After about three of those, we got a tornado warning and noticed a couple of cars in the ditch. About thirty minutes later we got the seek shelter immediately warning but by that time the rain, wind, etc began to let up so we continued. While driving through the storm I had adjusted the headlights a couple of times and then almost completely randomly I got a headlight position sensor warning. At the next stop, I checked the headlights and they were both on and aiming in the right direction, so we ignored the warning and kept on driving. After about 14 hours of driving we made it to Davenport and spent the night.
Day 2. The goal of the second day was to drive to Rockford Illinois to pick up a lightweight trailer then to Plainview to pick up the Porsche along with as many tools, parts etc that we could load up the back of the Grenadier. When we started up the Grenadier the error message was gone, so everything seemed fine. Once we got to Rockford, we hooked up the trailer and thought we were all set. I turned on the ignition and the running lights flashed then went out. I looked at the dash and had a trailer light warning with the red lightbulb on the dash on. After about an hour of checking the connection etc we thought we had solved the problem and drove to pick up the Porsche about 90 minutes away. The Grenadier was all loaded up and we headed out with one problem, the trailer light warning came back on. I decided to drive for a couple of hours before it got dark, just to make some progress. A couple of hours later, we pulled over, I shut the ignition off, took my foot off the brake, turned the ignition on, the lights came on, then I started the Grenadier. So we continued until we needed to stop for gas. At the next stop I repeated the process that made the lights come on but I had no luck. I tried a bunch of different sequences, plug and plugged the trailer and just about everything you could imagine and they wouldn't come back on. Finally, I moved the Grenadier from where the pumps were located over to the side of the gas station and gave it one more try, presto they came on. Unfortunately, I had triggered about 8 other warning messages by facing toward an area that the camera couldn't recognize. I scrolled through the messages and decided that I was basically going to be driving an old-school SUV with no help but everything else appeared to be working fine. By this point, we had burned enough time that I was happy to make it back to Davenport, so we checked back into the same hotel knowing that we could make it back in one day if we started out early. As we pulled into the parking lot of the hotel, the trailer running lights went out again and the warning message came back regarding the trailer lights.
Day 3. Once again, I came out to start the Grenadier and all of the error messages were gone and the trailer lights came on! It had started pouring rain and it was dark, so it was a really good thing that the lights came back on. We drove for about an hour then stopped for gas and breakfast. I decided to get breakfast first just incase the lights didn't come back on because the sun was rising and I figured if it was daylight, I didn't really care about the running lights. After about 45 minutes the sun was up, the severe storm warning was over and we headed out again. I left the light switch in the off position, just to make sure I had no error messages. For the next 10 hours or so everything went flawless. About an hour outside of the garage the sun was setting and I knew I was going to have to turn the lights back on. I clicked the light switch to ON and the lights worked! So about 15 hours after we started out, we made it back to my garage without any more issues.
Lessons learned:
1. I suspect the issue I was having with the trailer had to do with the LED bulbs the previous owner had installed. Don't use a modified trailer!
2. If you are going to cycle the ignition on and off, you might trigger a bunch of error messages. Park the vehicle overnight and see if they go away.
3. If you need to drive a vehicle cross country through all kinds of bad weather pulling a trailer, the Grenadier is a really good choice! Just don't freak out over the warning messages.
Lastly, the rain on the third day morning completely shredded the car cover.
Day 1. The goal of the first day was to make it from Colorado to Davenport Iowa. When we started out the weather forecast showed no rain and sunshine the entire way across the Nebraska and Iowa. The first 3/4 of the day were fantastic, cruising along at or slightly above the speed limit. Right around sunset the skies turned black and the wind began to pick up. Once the sun went down, we found ourselves in a serious downpour with very high winds. Then the tornado watches started coming across our phones and the Garmin GPS I have. After about three of those, we got a tornado warning and noticed a couple of cars in the ditch. About thirty minutes later we got the seek shelter immediately warning but by that time the rain, wind, etc began to let up so we continued. While driving through the storm I had adjusted the headlights a couple of times and then almost completely randomly I got a headlight position sensor warning. At the next stop, I checked the headlights and they were both on and aiming in the right direction, so we ignored the warning and kept on driving. After about 14 hours of driving we made it to Davenport and spent the night.
Day 2. The goal of the second day was to drive to Rockford Illinois to pick up a lightweight trailer then to Plainview to pick up the Porsche along with as many tools, parts etc that we could load up the back of the Grenadier. When we started up the Grenadier the error message was gone, so everything seemed fine. Once we got to Rockford, we hooked up the trailer and thought we were all set. I turned on the ignition and the running lights flashed then went out. I looked at the dash and had a trailer light warning with the red lightbulb on the dash on. After about an hour of checking the connection etc we thought we had solved the problem and drove to pick up the Porsche about 90 minutes away. The Grenadier was all loaded up and we headed out with one problem, the trailer light warning came back on. I decided to drive for a couple of hours before it got dark, just to make some progress. A couple of hours later, we pulled over, I shut the ignition off, took my foot off the brake, turned the ignition on, the lights came on, then I started the Grenadier. So we continued until we needed to stop for gas. At the next stop I repeated the process that made the lights come on but I had no luck. I tried a bunch of different sequences, plug and plugged the trailer and just about everything you could imagine and they wouldn't come back on. Finally, I moved the Grenadier from where the pumps were located over to the side of the gas station and gave it one more try, presto they came on. Unfortunately, I had triggered about 8 other warning messages by facing toward an area that the camera couldn't recognize. I scrolled through the messages and decided that I was basically going to be driving an old-school SUV with no help but everything else appeared to be working fine. By this point, we had burned enough time that I was happy to make it back to Davenport, so we checked back into the same hotel knowing that we could make it back in one day if we started out early. As we pulled into the parking lot of the hotel, the trailer running lights went out again and the warning message came back regarding the trailer lights.
Day 3. Once again, I came out to start the Grenadier and all of the error messages were gone and the trailer lights came on! It had started pouring rain and it was dark, so it was a really good thing that the lights came back on. We drove for about an hour then stopped for gas and breakfast. I decided to get breakfast first just incase the lights didn't come back on because the sun was rising and I figured if it was daylight, I didn't really care about the running lights. After about 45 minutes the sun was up, the severe storm warning was over and we headed out again. I left the light switch in the off position, just to make sure I had no error messages. For the next 10 hours or so everything went flawless. About an hour outside of the garage the sun was setting and I knew I was going to have to turn the lights back on. I clicked the light switch to ON and the lights worked! So about 15 hours after we started out, we made it back to my garage without any more issues.
Lessons learned:
1. I suspect the issue I was having with the trailer had to do with the LED bulbs the previous owner had installed. Don't use a modified trailer!
2. If you are going to cycle the ignition on and off, you might trigger a bunch of error messages. Park the vehicle overnight and see if they go away.
3. If you need to drive a vehicle cross country through all kinds of bad weather pulling a trailer, the Grenadier is a really good choice! Just don't freak out over the warning messages.
Lastly, the rain on the third day morning completely shredded the car cover.
