Our Furnace Creek 508 crew vehicle after installing a Yakima roof rack, jerry-rigged flashing amber lights, and a Slow Moving Vehicle rear triangle.

Furnace Creek 508 Crew Car

Eight hours. That’s how long it took to transform a humble 2012 Ford Focus 5-door rental car into the eco-friendly crew vehicle pictured here. Despite taking most of the day I consider this “pretty good” considering that located, purchased, and installed all the external accessories shown in the photo today.

Businesses I visited today included:

  • Enterprise, to pick up the rental car. I got literally the last car on the lot.
  • Michael’s, to buy some stencils and black duct tape.
  • Harbor Freight for a magnetic tow light kit.
  • Home Depot, to buy white contact paper to make signs.
  • Lee’s Cyclery, for CO2 cartridges.
  • REI, for a Yakima bicycle roof rack ($$$)
  • JD Dollar, for gloves.
  • Napa Auto Parts, for a mandatory 12-inch “Slow Moving Vehicle” reflective triangle.
  • RadioShack, for a male cigarette lighter plug (for the tow lights).
  • AutoZone, for a flasher relay (again for the tow lights).
  • King Soopers, for a ton of junk food to fuel me during the 508.

It was a busy day then, but went about as flawless as could be for waiting until the last minute to procure the above supplies.

Mounting the bike rack took about 1.5 hours and rigging together the flashing amber tow lights was another 30 minutes. Making signs for the vehicles (like “Caution Bicycles Ahead” and my race totem’s name of “Asiatic Wildcat”) took longer than both of these things, although admittedly I wasn’t very focused since I was doing that while talking with a friend on the phone and I once again proved I can’t multi-task too well.

We’ll be driving the crew vehicle over to la-la land starting Thursday morning. I mean, once I get the rest of the stuff (like clothes) packed.

Our Furnace Creek 508 crew vehicle after installing a Yakima roof rack, jerry-rigged flashing amber lights, and a Slow Moving Vehicle rear triangle.
Our Furnace Creek 508 crew vehicle after installing a Yakima roof rack, jerry-rigged flashing amber lights, and a Slow Moving Vehicle rear triangle.