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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (June 13, 1920)
THE SUNDAY OREOrONIAN, PORTLAND, JUNE 13, 1920 HERE IS THE OVERLAID SEDAN THAT MADE NON-STOP RUN FROM BLAINE, WASH, TO TIJUANA, MEX AND THE MEN WHO DROVE IT FROM PORTLAND TO SISSON, CAL. ROAD NOW OPEN TO BLAZES LONG TRAIL P Enclosed Car Makes'Non-Stbp Run, Canada to Mexico. But Maxwell Finds Deep Snow Beyond TTiat Point. FIRST TOUR OF ITS KIND GOING FOUND VERY FAIR Here's Story of Portland-Sisson Leg. 430 Miles, of 158 4-Mile Border-to-Border Trip. Dave Kllton IMlots Second Car oi Season to the Camp, Road Gen erally Being Excellent. 6 OVERLAND 4 SEDAN GOVERNMENT 1 t .V. ' -ft: " tfj , fM.&O S&lL & AoC V. - J 1 A , 4 (C"ntlnu-t1 From First Taa;c.V Sisson. which is right under Mount Shasta and the highest point the Pa cific highway attains in California after the Siskiyous. From there on to tne Mexican bor der it is either easy down grade for the most part or paved highway. The sedan reached Portland from Elaine. Wash., at 9:48 P. M. Thursday, 12 hours 4S minutes out from Blaine, With Clint Jones driving and E. 1 Marquart of the Seattle Times as ob eerver, and was formally turned over to H. H. Eling, manager of the Port land Willys-Overland Pacific branch. The oil was drained out and new oil put in the crankcase with the motor running quite a little feat in itself and then the car was held a couple of hours while the writer put the Sunday automobile section of The Or egoriian for that week to bed. Car Had Heavy Load. But at 12:50 we shoved off Harry Hays, tales manager of the Willys Overland branch, at the wheel; the writer as observer, and Mr. Eling and Henry Gilbert, mechanic and spare driver, in the back seat. A connoisseur in non-stop runs as they are usually made would have laughed at the idea of setting out in a car loaded down as this car was load ed when it left Portland, the idea in most such runs being to strip away all weisrht possible; for in a run of hundreds of miles over all kinds of roads every added pound of weight is that much additional load on tne en cine, just as it would be on a tired man in a long hike. To begin with, this car was a sedan, and accordingly considerably heavier than a touring car. Kach of the four men aboard weighed not less than ISO pounds. And each man had taken along with him a suitcase or a satchel, all making more weight. However, on the rear were two spare wire wheels with tires mounted in case of tire trouble. Believe us. two spare wheels are a heavy dead-weight load on the back end of any car. Later on the run the battery showed signs of becoming run down because of using too many lights in night driving two big spotllehts and a couple of large extra dashllghts in addition to regu Iter lights; and at Roseburg an extra battery was put aboard to play safe. All told, fully S00 pounds, was the load. Breakfast at Roseburg;. Ifone of the party had slept since the night before, and ail had done regular day's work before taking the car. and with Sisson 430 miles away it looked like at least 24 hours of con tinuous driving. But that was a small matter. With Harry Hays at the wheel we headed out the east side Pacific highway, and the miles began to roll away. Three hours of night driving passed without Incident, except that half way between Portland and Salem the lights began to dim, indicating bat tery trouble. We turned off the big fclJotlights and continued with the regular lights. The car had been too heavily lighted for the battery. Pres ently it became dawn and soon the eun was up. At 5:30. a 20-minute stop at Junction City, where George Wil helm was waiting to supply gasoline ana oil, and then on to Eugene. No particular incident so far and the roads all good. tugene - would have been a good place to stop for breakfast, but the run had got into Harry Hays' blood ana ne insisted on Koseburg. So with only a brief stop we headed on. Harry was not pressing the car for speed Ho- maintained a 30 to 35 miles clip, about as a tourist would travel, bu he kept up this steady gait for mile aner mile. AfCrr all. the wav to make time on any trip is not by flashes of 50-mile speed, but by hold ing the car steadily to an easy speed like 80 miles an hour and maintaining that speed all the time. Springs Smooth Out Bumps. Beyond Cottage Grove the highway began to roughen, but the Overland, with its easy-riding triplex springs didn't have to slow up. Jt was re markable how that car took the bumps. Ahead of you would appear a series of ridges and ruts in the road and you would instinctively look at the speedometer and grab something to hang on by. And yet nothing would happen, absolutely nothing. With a slightly swaying motion the little car would take the bumps and be on its way at from 25 to. 30 miles an hour. Koseburg at last, at 9:45 in the morning, not quite nine hours from Portland. Very good time, though nothing extraordinary. But especially good considering how heavily the car was loaded. Ralher late for a break fast, to be sure. But not a man aboard would have stirred another mile with out breakfast, not if a dozen non-stop runs'had depended on further fasting. At the hotel they thought Portland had run short of food supplies, for no Portlanders ever there made such in roads into the supply of ham and eggs. At Roseburg the battery which had shown signs of being overloaded in the night's driving was tested after breakfast and proved the diagnosis. Taose In the plrrore hit. left to rlgrht Henry Gilbert, mechanic and relief Jrlrert II. H. (Bert) EUnjr. Tlllya- Uverland Pacific man nicer In Portland, and Harry C. Hpj, aalea mmier, who drove moat of the 430 tnllea from Portland to SUaon, by Ions odda the hardest lefc of the non-stop Journey, ft waa not a non-stop run In the sense that the car was not to stop, bat In that the engine nut keep running; at all times, and this It did. And while In no aense a speed run, either, the total elapsed time from Portland to Sisson, where another crew took It, was only hoars 17 minutes, which averages nearly SO miles per hour. And at that SVi hours of the 22 bouri 17 minutes were night driving. It was very low and there was no chance to recharge it. of course-. So for precaution an additional battery, making more deadweight, was put in the tonneau to replace the other if need arose. A coil of wire also was taken along so the change could be mado without stopping the engine. Hard to Keep Awake Before reaching Roseburg we had to take the old, rough, steep road over Rice hill. On a run over the highway the week before to log it for the Ad club caravan, the new pavement elim- nating the old Rice hill grade had been open to travel. But this day it was closed for further paving work, and there was nothing for it but to take the old road. As the car rolled into the next town, Oakland, one of the rear tires picked up a nail or something and we bad our first puncture. The 128 miles between Roseburg. which we left at 11:10. were in some respects the hardest of the whole run. After working all the" day and driving all that night, there is going to be a time in the following day when you want to go to Bleep. More than one run of this kind has ended in wreck when the driver nodded near a curve. But Harry Hays did not nod. how ever much he may have wanted to. Hour after hour and hour after hour he stuck at the wheel, keeping the lit tle car steadily on its way. The en gine at times seemed to hum a hyp notic tune of sleep. Wre took to talk ing and telling stories to keep awake. and If momentarily someone would nod, he would be pounced upon and shaken and pounded into wide awake- fulness. Up over the steep ascent of Rob erts mountains and down the sharp pitch on the other side, with its Dead Man's curve, where many a car nas gone over the brink; through Cow Creek canyon, a mixture now of fine new road and old grade skirting the deep ravine; up curving Glendale hill and down the new grade on the south loDe: nast Wolf creek, station and up the new paved Wolf creek grade, and then the heart-breaking climb oi - ton mountain, sped the sedan. Kngrlne Begins to M Ins. It was about as we started the climb of Sexton mountain, a long grade at any time, with nlany 6harp curves, that the engine began to give signs of distress. It had run per fectly up to now, but an occasional miss seemed to be developing and on this climb it heated and boiled fur iously under its heavy load. At the watering trough half way up fresh water cooled it considerably, but as Harry headed up the grade from there, the miss became more pro nounced. From intermediate he had to go into low, and with the missing more pronounced than ever, hobbled over the summit. Gilbert, the mechanic, waa listening intently with puckered brow. What was the trouble? It sounded like a cracked Epark plug, but might be something else. All hands began to ook worried. To let the engine stop on us was not to be thought or, dui to determine what was wrong and adjust it with the motor going was a real problem. But about this time the car got over the crest, and from there on all was down hill and no trouble Into Grants Pass. There was a brief stop for oil and gasoline, and then on again over fine new paved highway. But here the miss became- prominent again. "Well." said Gilbert. "I think It's' a spark plug. We might as well stop right here and make the change." Foor New Spark Plugs. Did you ever change a spark plug while the engine is turning oyer? It's an interesting operation. To make perfectly sure that he would get the right plug. Gilbert took no chances but changed all four of them, one at a time, of course. He would unscrew a plug, and then with the compression whistling and shooting hot gas on his fingers, would ecrew down the new plug. He completed the operation successfully in five minutes, and his diagnosis proved absolutely correct. With fodr new spark plugs the motor turned over as sweetly as any racing driver could wish. From Grants Pass Into Medford It was easy to make good time, the road being uniformly good and much of It paved. At 5 P. M. the car stopped at the Overland dealer's in Medford and THIS IS THE CONDITION OF THE ROAD FROM GOVERNMENT CAMP THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS TO CLEAR LAKE. - 5- V 5 J a. v x A - - ' J ?L til s all hands tumbled out for dinner. All but Harry Hays. With Sisson still a good hundred miles ahead, the Slski yous yet to climb to a height of 5000 feet, and the road beyond an unknown quantity, he was like a caged tiger to be on his way. Not a bite would he eat. The time to Medford from Portland was 15 hours and 40 minutes, includ ing all stops, not a record, but sur prisingly fast for an enclosed car, loaded down as this one was. It was 5:45 when we set out from Medford and headed for Ashland and, beyond that town, the Siskiyous and Cali fornia. Long Climb Over Siskiyous. The climb over the Siskiyous is a long one and a hard one, with eight miles of rough, cut-up road in the 13 miles of mountain going to the Oregon-California line. But the sedan plugged right along and soon this obstacle had been put behind us. On rushed the car over good roads in northern California and presently was in the winding canyon of the Kla math river. It was now turning dark. With misgiving we decided to turn on the light switch, wondering how that weakened battery would take the strain. Sisson was jet far ahead, over unknown roads. We dreaded the possibility of having to undertake the ticklish job of changing batteries and perhaps stalling the motor as we did so. Golly! We held our united breaths as Gilbert, who had now "spelled" Harry Hays at the wheel, turned on the lights.' Ah! They burned! Burned with a bright glow, throwing a good driving light well ahead. "Good," said Gilbert. "They'll hold out till morning." At Medford we had been advised to take the canyon road to Yreka rather than the more used highway via Montague. It was dark as we turned away from the Klamath river and took the highway up the narrow, deep canyon towards Yreka. l"p the Canyon at Night. What a road to drive at night! Luckily for us. perhaps, we couldn't see what was below us as we swung around hairpin curves "alone the brink. We did see this road by day light next day when we returned to Ashland from Sisson in another car, and were just as well pleased that we hadn't known its full possibilities there in the dark. If you have ever been ovetthe Tygh Valley grade in north centralCregon, you can get an idea of this one. which reminds one much of the Tygh grade. A beauti fully built road, at that, but whip ping and twisting around the canyon wall and skimming the edges of pre cipitous drops into a rushing stream below. The truth is. that Gilbert, driving over this road neltt day, could not be persuaded to hit 'er over 20 miles an hour. But he took It that night at 25 and 30 and Hays in the back seat. was worrying because we were not going faster. From Yreka. reached at 8:50, to Sisson. 40 miles, we felt our way and blessed the California road signing system. At every place where we could possibly have gone astray was a reassuring sign and an arrow, with the distance to Sisson plainly stated. The Oregon state highway, commis sion has just officially adopted, the California road sign system for Ore gon, and the blessing of all motorists should be bestowed upon the com missioners for their action. Speed the day when all our roads are signed like the California highways! They "W ere tonic, Lang Miles. No need to detail the final two- hour drive through the dark into Sisson. Desire to sleep had long since gone. But never were there longer miles on this continent. We reached Weed, finally, six miles from Sisson, and then the lights of Sisson glowed in the distance. The engine was run ning beautifully, the lights of the car burning without a flicker. But we had driven far enough. Twenty-two hours on the road is a long, long time when you begin the 22 hours after a day's work and without the little matter of preliminary sleep. At 11:00 o clock the night of Friday, May 14. 22 hours and 18 minutes after we had left Portland, we drew up at the hotel in ssisson. "Where's that other crew?" asked Hays. 'Down at the garage. Drive down block." someone answered. We drove down there and into the garage. a man stepped rorwaro. Are you Trenery, who waa to meet us?" inquired the observer. "Yes." "Then sign this, quick." And he thrust at Trenery the offi cial observer's book, with this to sign: "Received Overland sedan with engine running from H. H. Eling, 11:07 P. M., May 14, 1907." Trenery signed. "Brother," said Bert Eling sol emnly, "the car is yours. The engine is still running. Now take it and break it if you want to. I'm going to sleep. From Portland to Sisson. 430 miles by the speedometer, we had made In 27 hours 17 minutes total elapsed time, with all stops, including several for photographs, just under 20 miles an hour for the entire distance. And at that, 64 hours of the 22 were night driving, three and a half hours of the night driving being; over un familiar road. Total stops for all purposes were 4 hours and 15 minutes, making the total driving time 18 hours 2 minutes. Total gasoline used, 20 gallons, 'which is 2Hi miles to the gallon. And that not by a light touring car, but by a sedan, under actual touring con ditions, loaded as a tourist party would load it. but driven harder than any tourist would drive his car and under conditions that made it im possible to save gasoline. Never at any time was the ignition plug disconnected when going down hill, for the rules of the run required that the engine must run at all times under its own power. IS OAKLAND SALES MAXAGER XOff ASST. GEXEBAL HEAD. The road to Government camp at the base of Mounts Hood, though not yet In good shape all the way, is now open to travel by automobiles. There s some snow along the road on the final hill, though not much, and only patches of snow remain at Govern ment camp. From Government camp on to Clear Lake, however, the road is still closed by snow. Dave Kilton. salesman for the C. L. Boss Automobile company, drove to Government camp a week ago in a Maxwell car. He intended to press on to Clear Lake, about 12 miles fur ther, and hava some good fishing, for j the water at this lake teems with gamy trout. But he revised his plans after running into mqow four and five feet deep three miles beyond Gov ernment camp. Mr. Kilton s Maxwell was the sec ond car of the season to arrive at Government camp. The first car there was a Ford sedan belonging to tne Palace Garage company, which went out for the cup offered by Mr. Pride- more to the first car reaching the camp each year. New Road From Toll Gate, To Government camp is 56 miles ! from Portland, or was by the old road via Toll Gate. But Mr. Kilton says motorists going there now will be surprised to find that the old Toll Gjjte road has been partly replaced by tx now ana very niuun uciLcr i vau, which is part of the grade for the projected Mount Hood loop. This new road is now In such good con dition that 30 to 35 miles an hour can be made over it for four or five miles. Imagine trying to do that on the twisting, tortuous old Toll Gate road! This new road not only Is oil a bet ter -grade but it shortens the dis tance quite a little to Government camp by eliminating many of the jogs and crooks of the old one. It is now completed about half way from Toll Gate o Government falls. according to Mr. Kilton, but from the end of it to Government camp the old road still is the only router How ever, a crew is now at work at Yoak um falls, two miles below Government camp, continuing the grade which eventually will be built to the camp itself. Mr. Kilton left Portland at 5 o'clock in the morning and reached Govern ment camp at 9:30, which of itself indicates that road conditions are not bad. Four persons were in his ma chine. Though he took chains along he didn't have to use them between Portland and the camp. Drive This Sedan For Economy - Rich Gaaofine Mileage; Low Upkeep Cost; , Greater Comfort: Because of Triplex Springs THE OVERLAND SEDAN AND COUPE have all the convertible car's advantages but they have more amazing economy ! In the recent 355-mile Los Angeles- Yosemite Economy Run, an Overland Sedan took first place in Class Two with a gasoline average of 27.6 miles per gallon! Such performance emphasizes again Overland' s stamina and low-cost of operation. This economical Sedan keeps you cool on sultry days, shuts out ' the rain and dust and gives you greater riding comfort,' Touring, $985; Roadster, $985; Coupe, $1525; Sedan. $1573 Price f. a. a. Toledo, subjoct to chaace without notice Willys -Overland Pacific Co. Broadway at Davis St. Phone Broadway 3555 FAHM EXPERT IS HUD B. KROH MAKES ADDRESS AT TRUCK QUARTERS. Motorirc-the-Farm Man Gives Ex pert Sale Talk and Demon strates W ith Cljdesdale. and that at lower relative costs and with less labor. He cited figures showing labor costs to farmers have increased from 19 per cent in 1913 to S9 per cent In 1519. A large number of Goodyear em ployes heard the lecture. In the course of which. Mr. Kron "sold" them the truck. During his visit In Portland he made several other ad dresses, including one before the, Chamber of Commerce. JllllllllillllIlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllIIlllllllllllllllllllllllllIlllllIlllIIIIlllllltlllllllH Favorable Comment Made Over Selection of Man AVho Is Popular in Trade. W. H. Masten, for four years gen eral sales manager of the Oakland Motor Car company, has been ad vance4 to assistant general manager. Announcement of his promotion is made at the factory. Pontiac. Mich., by Fred W. "Warner,- president and general manager. C. J. Nephler. Masten's aid of sev eral years, has been appointed gen eral sales manager. Both Masten and Nephler have assumed the duties of their new positions. The advancement has caused favor able comment and feeling throughout the Oakland organization and branches, for they are further proof of Warner's determination to train men already in the organization for the bigger positions, rather than to import outside talent. The wisdom of this policy is stressed at this time because of the extensive and en larger porduction plans of Oakland, which call for familiarity with the corporation in direction and execu tion. The change will not affect in anv way Oakland's policy of furnishing tne most economical means of mod ern transportation," it is announced. Masten was here a few months ago looking over the Pacific Coast territory. Tar plcrare shows a MsxTrrll car in fonr feet of snow three miles beyond Government ramp. It was driven to Government (imp a week ago San day by Dave Kilton, salesman for the C, L. Boas Automobile company, betas; the second car of the season to reach there. Klltoa -thought he would drive on to Clear lake and do some fishing, bat ke got only three mules, and the. picture saowa wby. - . Closing Out Sale Trailers 2 and 4-Wheel Models - 750 to 1500 capacity Camping and Commercial Trailers Write for prices NOW . Our stock will not last long; ,," Speedometer Sense. When the car has a transmission driven speedometer the rear wheels should never be spun or permitted to slide. This habit is likely to spring or break the speedometer shaft, some times causing an error in odometer reading of anywhere from 2 to 6 per cent. Final Hill Stl Rough. To Rhododendron and Toll Gate he says the road is now very fair, though a good many of the light planks laid last year are out. There is some mud but very little of ft. Beyond Rho dodendron comes the new road de scribed. The final hill into the camp over the old road is still very rough going. After reaching Government camp Mr. Kilton shoved right on for Clear Lake. To his surprise, he found new road for a mile beyond Government camp, this also being a part of the Mount Hood loop. From this new road the Maxwell traversed about a mile, pretty well clear of snow, and then hit the big tlmbe. That was as far as the trip went, for immediately the car ran into snow which soon became four and five feet deep.- Mr. Kilton put on his chains and bucked some of it. but desisted after a time and walked ahead half a mile to look things over There seemed to be no end to the snow, which became deeper instead of the reverse, so he postponed his Clear Lake trip for a few more weeks. He figures that by two weeks from today the road should be open to that point, and very shortly there after to Wapinitia. . From the snow Kilton drove back to within a mile and a half of Gov ernment camp, where he and his party pitched camp and remained for the night. The following day tbey took a side trip to Mirror lake near Gov ernment camp, fished a little with some success, and then drove back to Portland. It snowed quite heavily at Government camp on Decoration day. White Tires. Almost one-half of the compound of the many automobile tires on the market today Is lead-free zinc oxide. This filler- gives the tire its white color and resiliency and increases Its tensile strena-th and durability. J. B. Kroh, representing the motor- ize-the farm bureau of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber company, while in Portland a week ago on a tour of the Pacific coast in th interest of farm motorization, made an interest ing sales talk and demonstration at the quarters of the Butler Motor company. Tenth and Glisan streets, distributors for1 the Clydesdale truck. Mr. Kroh used a Clydesdale as the theme around which his talk was based and illustrated many points in it from the truck, which was pneu matic-tire equipped. He spoke very highly of the truck. - Mr. Kroh cited figures relative to the number of farmers in the coun try with and without trucks. He said there are only 13.TJ0.O00 farmers in the country today who produce food for 115.000.000 people. Of this number, he declared, only 80.000 as yet have motor trucks, and in Ore gon the number of farm truck own ers he put at only 318 out of about 5000. . By motorizing their farms, he as serted that the farmers can consid erably more than double production. DOMINANT' MOTOR TRUCKS l1, 2y2, 316- 5 Tons FAGEOL SEVEN-SPEED COMPOUND TRANSMISSION Give five forward and two reverse speeds by the use of a variable speed countershaft with no more gears than in an ordinary four-speed transmission, and has an OVERDRIVE for speed and GREAT GEAR REDUCTION for power. Without added Motor power, this gives 36 More Truck Speed and 91 More Pulling Power TIRES Your Own Price All sizes, new or used. Some guaranteed, some not. nox.t'i Used Tires S4.00 to 8.00 New fl3.O0 to JI26.0O Other sizes in proportion.' Trade Your Old Tires for New tines. We handle both old and new. 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