I am prepping my truck for a cross country trip. I got in and installed my new Extang Trifecta cover. I'm pretty happy with it so far... At least now my gear will be protected from rain or dust and prying eyes...







I also had new Monroe shocks installed in all 4 corners. The old shocks were pretty much toast. The front shocks had been changed at some point in the parts 79K miles and the rear ones were the original equipment! I could easily compress them and they would barely return to full extent after some minutes...

Also had the serpentine belt replaced. It was looking worse for wear and I would hate for it to break on me in some place far from anywhere.

Once again I flushed the radiator. Using a kit with a "tee" in the inlet hose of the heater, I back-flushed the system until water came out clean. This time I put in a rust remover/inhibitor product with the fresh water and I'm driving with it in the system with the heater on "max" until tomorrow when I'll flush it again and fill it with a 50-50 mix of antifreeze and clean water. Maybe I should add a couple of gallons of distilled water...

I also added the tail gate theft deterrent consisting of a screw type hose clamp. Now at least they have to get a screwdriver or socket and full around foe another minute or so.. Oh well, every little bit helps

 

nice ride! yey thats what scares me someone could just open my tailgate and steal my tonneau in a matter of minutes they made it so easy to use lol I just a rad flush too! replaced the overflow tank they all seem to crack on the supports o well bad engineering

 

Thank you, and yes, you are right. The only thing that could prevent it is to lock the tailgate... I've been looking at the tailgate locks to see if I should get one of those.. Other than that the clamps in the front of the truck are a bit of a hassle to turn, but that would only slow them down a little bit... Maybe I could rig up some sort of more secure cover over the clamps....
My overflow tank is still good (knock on wood). My problem is that the cooling system is extremely rusted. I'm sure it's not about to break, but there is so much actuall crud flowing through, that I think it could actually block the flow one day... The first time I flushed it, the thermostat failed during the flushing. I cannot keep from thinking it was due to rust and crap clogging it up!

So far no problems at all with cooling. I only started messing with it because the water looked so brown that it actually looked like a thick mud! It was not thick, but it sure looked it!

 

Bladez, keep a water pump in the back of the truck, since you did that flush and the system was in that condition, probably a lot of particles and rust that was at the bottom might have been disturbed and might kill the pump soon, believe me, it happened to me. It's a $30 part anyway and if you don't use it it's a good spare to keep around anyway. Good luck with your trip .

P.S.: I'm not a big lover of long trucks, but yours look great.

 

haha soo true mine was murky yellow never flushed since it was new. And it had a lot of chunks of ...something lol I know because idiot me disconnected the lower rad hose and got it all over my face before flushing it haha o well.

 

Well, I finished flushing the water again today and refilled it with 1 & 3/4 gal of antifreeze. I also bought 3 gal of distilled water, but could only get about 8~10 quarts of liquid back in. According to the books the capacity of the cooling system is 14 quarts. Anyway, I hear you can never get all the water out of the block anyway... Going back to the rust, It's pretty impossible to get that rust out. My hope is that I've done some good....

 

14 quart capacity.
4 quarts in a gallon.
You put 1.75 gallon of antifreeze in = 7 quarts antifreeze
Leaves you 7 quarts more room for water.
If you got 8 quarts in, I think you had the system pretty well empty.
Should be good to go

Very nice looking truck BTW.

 

Thanks, I do think I got about 8 qt. in there. I'll be watching the coolant level and add more distilled water as needed. I also got all my wheels balanced today! and the best thing was the cost, $0.00
It helps to have friends in the car business . They were not busy today and I got the truck up on the lift and removed the wheels with the impact wrench. One of the guys balanced the wheels for me and helped me get them back on

 

Don't forget to check your spare tire!

I would take it down just to make sure you can get it down. Those carriers like to rust in place.

Also check your jack, handle, tire iron, etc just to make sure it's all there and in working order. Those jacks like to get rusty and not work since they never get used.

 

Yes, it's a good idea. I was actually thinking of doing one drill to get the spare out, jack up the truck and make sure I can break the lugs (it hit them pretty good with the impact wrench, they are at least 100 ft/lb). I did check the air in the spare and it's good....

 

Best thing to do is to hit the spare carrier, get everything loose, wire brush the CRAP outta it, and then add a nice thin layer of blue greae to it as you put it back together.....Will help keep ya from having a bolt sieze up...

 

Went out this afternoon and took the spare down and checked the jack, lug wrench and jack handle. Everything was there and worked OK. I did clean and grease the spare holding screw and the screw that retains the jack and lug wrench.

The bad news is that the spare tire weights a ton! even with the lug wrench in the hole provided, It was all I could do to take it down safely and put it back up . The jack works nicely in that it's easy to raise the truck with it. I already know that it takes a long cheater bar for me to break the lug nuts, so the lug wrench provided is probably useless for removing the lug nuts. I'll be sure to have a decent socket and breaker bar as well as a good pipe extension... Probably a good idea to take my cordless drill with the right adapters so the tire removal wont be such an ordeal.. I just hope I never need to change a tire in this monstrosity. If there is any way possible, I'll cal, for road assistance

 

I simply rip mine off anyways.....Always rusted horribly....Have been concocting a spare tire carrier that utilizes the passenger side of the bedside....haven't really gotten to measure, etc yet though....

 

Mine is rusted too, but it's only surface rust. I guess GA trucks don't suffer from extreme rusting . Do you have a stepside? I don't think I could hang a spare off the side of the bed without running it into things... Still, it could be a good idea if I could do it so it looked good... I wonder if I might be better off to carry a tire puncture kit, a can of fix-a-flat and my 12V air pump. Leaving the huge spare and all the heavy crap that mounts it could save me a mile or 2 per gallon

 

No, I don't have a flairside....I have a longbed...