The Mini roadster NOT being your typical car I'm curious to start a new thread to discuss experiences and tips to go on long trips with your roaster.

I'm growing more and more into long trips (exploring the States, places I have not seen while enjoying "motoring" ) and was curious to hear about anyone's experience traveling for a week or more with a roadster...

- How do you pack? What do you take and leave home?
- How do you manage with what you did not bring along?
- Any tips related to traveling with a roadster whether it is about what you take with you or what you do to prepare your roadster before a long drive?
- Types of places you go to or avoid.
- etc...

This should be fun! though I realize there isn't a huge R59 fan base on NAM so it's hard to get a lot of discussion going

 

Roadsters are not typical, but our NAM R59 fan base is growing! I'll gladly participate in your intriguing thread once my '14 MCS Roadster arrives the first week of October. Since most of us have significant others, luggage space becomes a thorny issue. I can't wait to see your responses.

 

When I had a Z3, my wife and I went to Canada, on the road for about 8 or 9 days, about half way thru the trip, we mailed our dirty clothes back home to make room for things we bought on the trip!
We should be getting our roadster within the week, I'll see how the trunk space compares!

Steve

 

I guess it would depend on how long/how far you are planning to go. My wife and I went on a 1200 mile, 4 day "long weekend" trip last week in our new Roadster. We easily fit 2 small suitcases (aka "overhead compartment size) in the boot, with room on top for a small overnight bag for my wife's toiletries, etc. The boot has 8.5 cubic ft. of storage, which is twice what we had in out 2010 Convertible S. We put a small 12 can cooler in the rear storage area for sodas and snacks, and there was room on the floor behind the seats for some books, laptop computer case, map, etc.

Unless you have little experience in packing for a trip, or have a compulsive pack-rat syndrome, I don't see any reason 2 adults should have any significant problems packing a Roadster for a week long trip. I had far more problems packing my Harley for a week long trip motorcycle trip with my buddies.

 

I went away for a long weekend and took 2 largish duffle bags and a GUITAR! The neck was fitted through the ski pass through, but still, that is quite impressive.

 

The boot is rather spacious for a two seater. We had two small luggage bags, shopping bags, and boxes with plenty of room. And the space behind the seat allows for a variety of items to fit. My wife and I enjoyed our 400 mile trip in ours.

 

I took mine on a 1,200 mile trip from Portland OR to Missoula MT and back in August and it was a blast. Me and my friend were able to pack an 80liter hiking pack filled with his hiking pack, and all of our hiking gear, along with two carry-on sized suitcases and a duffelbag kind of smooshed behind our seats. We even had a tiny cooler (like a 6-pack cooler) that he kind of up under his legs without it being in the way. It was pretty loaded since we were going to be gone for 10 days.

If you have soft luggage that would work best as you can kind of wedge it in to the trunk. By the time we were loaded there was literally no open space left in the trunk. We weren't crowded at all in the driver or passenger sides!

The BEST thing you can do for yourself is get those runflats replaced. I'm just about to put some Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 tires on, they outperform a lot of summer tires and they're all season.

The next trip I do I will probably pack a little lighter if possible, or I will combine my clothes into the 80l pack rather than bring it AND a suitcase. Having the tiny cooler was fantastic. We drove for probably 4 hours straight with the top down until we hit thunder and lightning storms. Having cold drinks for the long trip really augmented the trip for the better. Also - SUNSCREEN. We were fried haha.

 

One more thing I meant to include:

-PREPARE YOUR CAR for whatever you might encounter. Before I left, I cleaned and waxed the whole thing, with a nice generous double-wax on the bug-killing surfaces. Despite that, it was still a lot of work to get the bugs off, but the montana dust almost rinsed away.

-Proper tire pressures ensure best MPGs, even with runflats.

-Check your oil level before leaving, even if it's recently been changed. You don't want surprises on a long trip away from home.

-Consider treating your rag top with a protectant. I did 303 on mine (you can find a lot of info on it and others in the detailing 101 section). I always park in a garage, but on my trip I had sap drips, bird drips, and rain mixing with the dust to make mud drips. The 303 caused all of this to virtually rinse away, the sap just dried as little round beads!

 

Me and my wife went on 5600 16 day road trip with ours and visited 5 national parks, vegas, and numerous other places in between to include 15 different states up and down the midwest. We had one big suitcase in the trunk, my 11yr old std issue military basic training laundry bag that's traveled the world jammed next to it, backpack with everything needed to repair a tire, 2 other small soft duffels(gym bag type)(one on each side of the trunk latch fit perfect), a 6 pack cooler behind my wife's seat, and my old desert Bugout Gear "3 day pass" pack behind my seat that we packed for hiking or whatever we we were doing for the day.

We packed really everything you would need for 2 weeks of traveling the country except we only brought cloths for 10 days and when we had time(eating dinner ect.) we did laundry at the hotels with laundry soap we purchased from those hotels. It was still warm with lowest temp along our journy in the upper 40's so we only brought 2 days worth of pants/hoodies, the rest was shorts/hiking gear.

We left out unnecessary stuff such as laptops(waste space and heavy for the size compared to cloths), different shoes for different "outfits"(picked one for public, sneakers for hiking in the heat, boots for hiking everywhere else), and did not bring excessive snacks/drinks. Each morning we got stopped and got whatever drinks/snacks we wanted for the day and put them on the shelf behind the seats. It cost more than going grocery shopping before and packing a big cooler once, but much more convenient and saved a lot of space. You gotta stop for gas anyways get cold stuff and eat it first. We didn't buy a whole lot of stuff, but we didn't need more stuff. LOL

Our roadster was new this summer and we had only put 6000 miles on it before the trip so we looked over the basics to include tires, oil, windshield wipers, washer fluid, coolant, and then also cleaned it very well, and put rain X on all the glass. We planned to stop at the Mini in Vegas for it's first service also and just as planned we rolled into Vegas with 10000 miles on odometer and Mini was asking for service! LOL. 100 miles AFTER being serviced we got a very persistent check engine light, 900 miles and 15 starts later picked up some fuel system cleaner and check engine light went away 3 starts later. Bad gas in southwest? Maybe?

For types of places to go/avoid... We found no place in the midwest that wasn't friendly to the roadster. But for our personal preference we tried our hardest to stay in smaller places. Even hiking at national parks there was waaay too many people for me. Vegas... Never again. Too many people, too much traffic, and HOT!

I do however have to say that Yellowstone, Zion, Grand Teton, Grand Canyon National Parks are fun driving at in the roadster. Great views with the top down and fun twisty roads there. And I think my favorite place to be with the Roadster is the southwest. Nice sunny top down weather most of the time.

And everywhere we went people asked about the car. Most people did not know what it was. But everyone complemented it and stared at it. LOL. You would have thought it was a Ferrari by the looks it got.

 

Makaveliks:

Looks like you had a great trip experience...thanks for sharing!

I agree that in a Roadster (especially with the top down), I can't stop for gas, wait in a restaurant parking lot, or sit at a stop light without someone looking at the car, giving a thumps up, asking questions, etc. This car is definitely not for someone who is shy and withdrawn and wants to blend into the background! Best wishes.

 

Especially when it's bright red!

 

I just wanted to say thank you for sharing those stories.
Lot's of great take on roadster travels on this thread

I don't have much to participate just yet but this confirms our plans to do more distance travels in the roadster. How could we not

So far have a slim kit seating under the passenger seat (compressor + slim bottle together) and a Dynaplug kit in the glove compartment.
For the rest we are still planning. I have to look at what will be the most efficient luggage to use... I also need to find a compact first aid kit... to be continued...

 

Traveling Tip:

Turn your car on, top down, and go...

 

As someone who likes to take week-long trips by bicycle, the Roadster's luggage capacity seems enormous!

 

Also, there is a "hidden" area that can be used for storage directly under the area where the ski-pass-thru is located on the boot side. If you have a semi-auto top, the space will be smaller, but the manual top has a large space here. When I first saw it, I thought it was a drink cooler since it's lined with styrofoam!

There's also some additional space between the boot floor and where the spare would be located - use it for items that aren't needed as much.

My best tips are: use smaller, cloth type luggage (not hard sided). Hanging clothes can hang behind the seats, have fun!

 

Great tips! I need to get some soft luggage though having one small hard luggage can be convenient at times but generally speaking I agree soft luggage can be squeezed
I'm starting to learn how to use storage available. I like how our air pump and slime fits perfectly under the seat. That said I'm thinking relocating it else where for longer trips. I'm thinking there could be a neat way to install a box under the chassis next to the S exhaust to place tire repair items but I don't know about that just yet. It would have to stay practical to a degree...

I love the new space I found by accident behind the dash panel. It's perfect for small items to reclaim the glove box for larger ones.

 

Military Flight Bags work wonders in the trunk.

 

Bringing this thread back just to ask you guys some advice...

We're planning a road trip Pittsburgh - New Orleans.
I need some ideas of what to see along the way.

Please check this thread out. Thx!
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...w-orleans.html

 

Agreed! My wife and I are used to traveling by motorcycle. The roadster boot is like a steamer trunk!

 

We have not had any problems with packing. If we're staying in one place for a while at the far end of the trip we'll put stuff we don't need along the way in a large suitcase, and use smaller bags to take the overnight stuff in and out of the hotels along the way. My wife isn't tall, so there's a bit of room behind her seat for the stuff we need during the day (drinks, lunch, jackets, etc.)

We have done Boston->Eureka Springs AK for MITO 2012, and Boston->Minis On The Dragon 2014 with stops along the way and haven't had a space crisis yet. This is one of the things I love most about this car, if a future version had a folding hardtop and there was less boot/trunk space it would be a darned shame.