What about a Dog Box?
Strap one to the trailer with the car on it and let the pooches and kittys ride in the box.
Skipper
You asked for suggestions fishbone; I only provided a few scenarios as to what could happen with your car.
You obviously don’t care to hear of any potential problems so if you’re a gambler and willing to use your Volvo engine as gamblin’ money then ante up and play poker.
Another suggestion is leave at sundown and travel at night. The dark should keep them pacified somewhat.
And I also agree with BustedKnuckles.
I live here in Oklahoma where it can get brutally hot sometimes; as in 110 or better and which is something Louisiana doesn’t see. I also have a couple of cats and while they certainly don’t like temps like this they survive just fine.
I wish I had thought about it first, but driving at night would seem to solve all the problems. While it is true that cats have survived without AC, outside for a long time, they were not forced into the solar collector that modern cars are. Hold that thought, if you cover all your car windows with foil, you can cut the heat load.
Actually the record temp for Louisiana was set in Plain Dealing at 114.
Night travel will also keep you from passing through rush hour in Atlanta or Nashville and Memphis, depending on the route. The animals in the car could suffer if you stay in one spot too long. Since the cats are in arriers, the widows could be left down. I’m sure that you will stop every 4-hours or so so that all the animals, including you, wil be able to stretch their legs. BTW, how do you plan to use a litter box (for the cats, siily) if the cats are cooped up for 15 hours? Just curious. I wish you and the 8 kids good luck.
You’re one of those people who just has to always be right, aren’t you. You probably came here with your question and your mind already made up. You are going to idle that car for the 15 hour trip. Good luck to you.
The 114 you mention was a brief hiccup in the weather and not indicative of what it’s really like. The average temps run about 82 and the area you mentioned is in the far NW corner of the state.
The Hubble analogy is pretty weak. The odds of the Hubble falling on a vehicle is as close to non-existent as it can get.
However, the odds of an engine burning itself up due to another hiccup is far greater. That’s proven countless times every single day in every state of the union.
I made some suggestions in an effort to help you head off a potential problem. Since you don’t even want to consider the possibility of a problem developing on a non-attended running car then have at it and do it your way.
While you’re at it (and also not likely to ponder this one either) consider what the effects of that low pressure area that will develop behind the truck as it moves is going to do in regards to carbon monoxide circulation.
who cares.
let common sense enter your world.
With 6 cats and two dogs you are asking for common sense?
Very good point.
Assuming that your car is fine, no overheating problems, there’s no reason why this shouldn’t work for you. Your car uses a computer to tell when the fan kicks on so even w/ the 75 mph “breeze” plenty of air should get through to cool things off. Me, I’m the paranoid type so I would check the car every couple hours or so just to make sure. One option would be to try to drive as much as you can in the late evening and through the night so the car wouldn’t have to run the whole time. (When I met my wife she had 6 cats and a dog…we just moved 7 hours w/ 2 cats, a dog, 15 chickens, and a turkey so I understand where you’re coming from).
As far as hurting the car, you won’t. As far as the cats are concerned, you have all the bases covered with the remote thermometer. Have a nice trip.
As a slight digression, I know of dozens of people who routinely tow FWD automatic transmission cars with all four wheels on the ground. The trips they make are 16 hours, and they do it in a day. They save their transmissions by running the engines on the toads. (An RV term there.) Would I do it? No, but it seems to work. Since you will be trailering the car, the transmisson is a non-issue.
I doubt idling the car for 15 hours is GOOD for it, but I doubt it’ll kill it either. Cars are pretty tough these days. I can’t see why the wear on the alternator would be any worse than usual; it may be spinning more slowly, but then again there’s little drain on it (the only components it is powering are the condenser fan and the cabin fan). I see no reason to expect failures of 3 year old fans, and you seem to have that covered anyway.
But I also think it’s unnecessary. As someone else noted, cats are perfectly capable of dealing with summer heat. If the windows are open, and the cats have access to water, they’ll be fine. They’ll hate you for making them take the trip, but cats hate people anyway. Fasten a towel or two over the sun-side of the cages on the sun-side of the car.
The A/C may not do much cooling when the car is merely idling. And the air across the radiator of the trailered or towed vehicle will not be moving at you rroad speed, In fact, it may even be moving in the opposite direction due to a vortex behind the front vehicle. Your only solution is to drive the Volvo.
tremendously good point
When I was a kid, my dad took (read “forced”) Mom and four kids to go on road trips during the dog days of summer every year (100 degrees and high humidity) in a '54 Chevy and then a '64 Chevy. No A/C, no radio, plastic seat covers. Motels at night with no pools and no A/C (too expensive) No complaints allowed.
We survived. We never quite forgave him, but we survived.
yep,if you cant handle the job ,dont buy the pets.
like having too many kids ,for the wrong reasons.
no excuse.
This subject brings up a hot political issue about the way our police use our resources. I have recently had 3 conversations with law enforcement officers. The first one was running the squad car for hours on end, parked with the air on, while he was outside the car doing PR work. When queried didn’t know why, they just always do. He said he didn’t have a computer in the car. The two other indicated that they needed it running with the air on to keep the computers cool and to provide power for the arsenal of radios and electronic equipment or the battery would immediately go dead. None of these officers were in the cars. Is this hard on the vehicles and do they burn a significant amount of gasoline at idle?
In early 1998, my wife and I, both retired, moved from the northern US to McAllen. We had all our stuff in a large rental truck. I can’t say it was a 24 footer, because they may not come that big, but that’s how I remember it, in any case a large rental truck.
Behind it we pulled a full car trailer, not a two wheeled dolly type. We had our mid-80’s big station wagon on that trailer.
One night, when we stopped at a motel I heard a beeping. Upon searching a while, I found inside that big wagon, a carbon monoxide detector, and it was in full cry.
Not to worry. Your animals will die painlessly. Go for it. Just don’t say no one here warned you. And, they would have died anyway, as you were also warned, because that car is not going to get cooling behind that truck.
On the other hand, it has been said that God does take care of fools and drunks. I would never accuse you of being a drunk.
You remember correctly that a 24’ truck is the biggest you can rent.