Well I finally got the beast out of the city to give it a try. It was... well... fun. Wanna hear the story? Good. I knew you would.

Wednesday was the last day I could hunt on my elk tag, so I drove 80 miles up to Dubois. Then I went another 15 miles north into the Absarokas and promptly found a nice steep muddy hill to climb. I didn't make it. In fact, I slid back down into a tree and dented up my already dented up driver's side rear fender. Cool! Oh yeah and I folded the mirror forward. It's not supposed to fold that way. All it did was bust up the plastic trim. Mirror's still there!

Then I went up to my favorite fishing spot, Bog Lake. About 2,000 ft up the mountain on a rough, muddy, rocky two-track road through the forest. I couldn't avoid the deep ruts in one portion of the road. I fell in and BANG! scraped bottom through a mudhole filled with rocks and broke my brand new $50 Rancho steering stabilizer in two. Note to self... don't worry about having a stabilizer on this truck.

So after a day of romping around and seeing plenty of elk and deer, but nothing i can shoot at, I head back home.

100 miles later, I pull into the driveway and inspect the damage. First thing I notice is the unmistakable smell of gear oil. Peer under the truck and find gear oil RUNNING, not dripping, out of the front diff. Seems the previous owner thought it would be funny to pry the cover off for some reason and not flatten it back out before re-installation. There is a 1/4" gap on the bottom and the silicone that was holding it together is now gone.

Oh yeah the silicone blew out because the passenger side hub didn't unlock (auto hubs) and the axle was spinning at 70 mph the whole way home. Guess I'll be putting good ol' manual hubs on soon.

I loved the power of the V-10 and verified that the limited slip rear does indeed work. All in all, a good day. My new old truck kicks ****!