The Tires
The cross-country drive would be an extraordinary feat of endurance for the two men, the vehicle, and especially the tires. Of the 2.3 million miles of road in America at the time, fewer than 150 were paved. The rest were dirt paths, suitable for horses and slow-moving wagons. Undertaking this trip, in this amount of time, at this speed, would require much more than rickety wagon wheels.
People just didn’t go that far.
In 1896, BFGoodrich® introduced the first US-built pneumatic tires. In the early 1900s, they supplied tires for the Winton Motor Carriage Company.
These automobile tires were made up of an inner tube that contained compressed air and an outer casing that protected the tube and provided traction. The casings were reinforced with multiple plies of rubberized fabric cords, run at 55° angles to the bead.
They held up well for limited city driving, but on this journey they were being put to a historic test. The great-great-great grandfather of the KM3 would climb mountains, cross creeks, and slog through mud, arduously propelling two novice drivers on an impossible journey. Needless to say, with only 150 miles of paved road spread across a few cities, tires weren’t built for the challenges they are today.
Setting Out From San Francisco
On May 23rd, 1903, — four short days after accepting the bet — their journey began. The unlikely duo took off down San Francisco’s Market Street, embarking on what would become America’s first road trip.
Jackson and Crocker devised a route that would add over 1000 miles to their journey. Using old, unreliable maps, they carefully plotted to go north through Oregon, then headed east to avoid the Nevadan desert landscapes that had stymied the cross-country trip of an adventurer before them.
Jackson decided to follow railroads as much as possible, using their infrastructure to cross paths a car couldn’t otherwise cross.
Even so, their journey led them into arduous situations:
- The Vermont ascended into the Cascade mountains taking trails no car had ever taken before. These had to be driven in low gear, with frequent stops to fix the clutch.
- More than once, Jackson and Crocker got stuck in a creek that was too deep, using the block and tackle as a makeshift winch to pull themselves out.
- For miles, they drove through sagebrush to avoid hard-driven wagon roads.
...and that was just Oregon.
They fixed the carburetor, air intake pipe, oil pipes, clutch, batteries, replaced the worn BFGoodrich® tires with a fresh set, and lost plenty of gear. Near the Oregon border, they added a friend named Bud — a pitbull they purchased for $15.