Next summer we plan to take several road trips with the '01 convertible and one cruise will be 2000 to 3000 miles total round trip. We may camp a few nights so a tent and sleeping bags etc will be needed. We did it before with my 80 C3 and I had it packed to the roof with gear, left the spare at home and even put cargo in the spare tire carrier. It was probably carrying more weight than was recommended but never had a problem. It even ran level. I see load recommendation for the C5 is 350 lbs. Since I am 190 and my wife is 110 it does not leave much for cargo. Anyone take long trips with a fully loaded C5? Did you have any problems?
I think we can get by with 100 to 150 pounds of cargo. Do you think the car will handle it?

 

The door sticker on my coupe says 399lbs, which gives you another 50 to play with.
(Curb weight of vert is only a couple pounds more than coupe.)

And those GVWR numbers tend to be very conservative.

 

Load it up and go it can handle it. No need to worry about weight.

 

Add 5 more lbs of air to the rear tires. It can handle the loads.

 

Load 'er up. A C5 can take a couple hundred pounds of luggage.

 

Ex wife and I took a 2435 mile trip a year ago and had a ball. Had three suit cases and two duffle bags with a cooler and still averaged over 30 mpg's for the whole trip. She is gone but the vette is still in my garage. Just pack it and have a good time!!

 

You won't have any problems taking the stuff you mention. The car should handle it just fine.

 

I had 17 cases of beer in mine plus a hundred pound date, no problem

 

My wife and I drove my C5 from Illinois to California, with lots of side trips; last September. Through the Badlands, Mt Rushmore, Devils Tower, the Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons; then thru Utah, Nevada, and then to home (moving there soon) in So California.
Don't worry about the weight. Your C5 has the power to handle it. We don't 'camp out' so didn't have tents and all that. But, we had the rear compartment full, for sure.
You just plan, and pack the stuff you need least often, on the bottom. That way, you don't have to unpack everything, each night to go into a motel. Of course camping for you will be somewhat different.
You'll need a couple rolls of good paper towels, wet-wipes, a bottle of windex and detail spray to clean up your car when you can. Fill a large zip-lok bag with microfiber clean towels. Have a whole box of large Zip lok bags; they fill lots of needs when travelling.
Keep cameras within easy reach. All your 'rechargable stuff' within one bag, for plugging in at night. I bought a 'power pak' to recharge cell phones, camera's, and laptops; when you are away from a power source. This is a very good purchase for us as we travel a lot; and these things carry a lot of juice for recharging cameras, phones, etc.
We went on a cruise to Italy, France, Spain last August, and I needed the power pak recharger often for cameras.
Don't worry. Just pack, get a good GPS, and go. Threre's no better way to travel, than in a C5 Corvette. These cars rock, on the open road.

 

Candy's dandy but liqour's quicker.

 

I agree. We took a short 500 mile trip a few weeks ago. It was great.

 

She-Who-Tolerates-the-Corvette and I took a 2800-mile, 7-day road trip Spring Break road trip a couple of years ago - Tail of the Dragon, Mississippi Gulf Coast, Bowling Green - in my '99 convertible, much of it with the top down. No camping though so no tent, sleeping bags/pads. But, we could have fit those in. Load up the 'Vette and go.

K9Leader
Red cars are faster. They did a study on it.

 

my friend had a bunch of small batteries that we took to this salvage yard.. i put a blanket in and stacked em up.. didn't think it was a lot of weight but the scale said 630 lbs.. the leaf spring in the back wasn't even level and it rode fine... i totally thought it might be 200 lbs of batteries but turns out i was wrong... she handled it just fine..

 

That was a good test for it.

 

Mine has been on two Hot Rod Power tours and I never had a problem. Car was packed tight.

 

One thing I would be concerned about is that if some of your campsites may be off the paved roads, could be a little rough, especially if you want to park your vette next to your campsite, but You have done this before in a vette so you know the ropes, so enjoy your summer in the vette

 

We always camped at state parks with the C3 and it was never a problem. I doubt if we will camp too far from civilization. One trip we are planning is up through Wisconsin, across Upper Peninsula Michigan, down through Canada to Niagara Falls. After reading some posts I do believe I will invest in a jump starter/tire inflator. The camping may be more for when we can't find a vacancy in a motel. That has happened before.

 

I've driven the PCH from Vegas via SF and from the Channel Ports to Northern Germany. If the trunk takes it load it up and enjoy

 

My 01 has been to all the lower "48" and on some tough roads. The longest trip was over 9000 miles for more than six weeks in the pacific north west. There's not to much that bothered the car except rough roads and bottom clearances (ouch!) I go 3# over on tire pressure and keep the DIC on rear tires.

I carry a "California Pop Top" made of Tyvek to keep small animals off the top. Good flashlight for backing down bad roads. A small compressor for filling sleeping pads has double use for tires. Have fun!

I did the same in my C3 years ago and the C5 is a gazillion times better.