I picked up the van that my son had asked for last year. He didn't want a car or truck, lol, he said he wanted to have plenty of room to make road trips with his buds.

1972 E200, 302, C4 and 9" rear.



He is two years away from his permit so this gives me a little time...

 

The Arkansas has finally dropped below flood stage...but the weather guessers are saying rain likely Saturday night, basically all of Sunday and into Monday morning. And they're still saying up to 4" of rain is expected. Guess it's time to start sand bagging the house in our non-flood plane area. So, is that a 3/4 ton chassis? Looks like the body is solid and won't need a bunch of work.

 

The worst part of it is the rockers but I got new panels with it. The E200 should have a 3/4T payload. On the Econoline some of the E100 vans still had the small wheel pattern and the 3/4T had the big 5 lug pattern that was later the standard for 1/2T. This one does have heavier springs and overloads on it. I honestly didn't pay any attention to the tag to see what the GVWR was.

I hope this weather holds out for you guys!

 

I know Ford offered the 3/4 ton back in the mid-'80s...some of which had 6.9L in them. I wonder if you could shoe-horn that 391 in there...assuming the 302 is shot. Eh...not much hope there; been sprinkling/light rain off and on since mid-day Friday. The fun stuff is supposed to hit after midnight tonight and last pretty much all day Sunday into early Monday morning. The okies have tornado warnings up tonight...and the weather guessers can't seem to make up their mind just how big the hail is. All things considered, I hope it's just another rain event...no high winds/tornados or crazy stupid amounts of rain in a short period of time. Someone has really ticked the psycho off...and we're going to pay the price now.

 

I wish I knew who, I'd make em apologize until the sun shines! And just when the flood waters were starting to recede the weather guessers are calling for 2-4" of rain statewide Mon. and Tue. :-( I'm afraid if that amount of water falls in the Ouachita River watershed I'm screwed.

 

So the weather guessers are reporting that 14.75" of rain has fallen on the fort since the first of the month; average is about 5 to 5.5 inches. Had to go look this up, but it appears we've sent a new record for monthly rain fall (records go back to 1883)...and there's still another week left in this month. We drove over to see just how high the water is at Lake Wister (Wister, OK)...there is a highway that goes across the spillway. Normally it's about eight to ten feet above the lake. This afternoon only the top foot or so of the highway signs were visible next to the roadway. And it was still raining. Good thing this water goes to the Arkansas and stay north of the Ouachita watershed.How do I put this without getting in trouble....

If I were you Jeff, knowing your homestead location...I'd plan on rising water and soon. It has been raining up here since late last night. While I can't speak for the entire Ouachita water shed, I know the area of the head waters have been seeing the same amount of rainfall as we have here at the fort. I know, not exactly what you wanted to hear...but I felt someone needed to shot it to you straight. That's just the kind of guy I am.

 

Yeah, I know! Just checked the NWS river forecast site, showing the Ouachita rising to near 90ft. at Thatcher locks by next weekend, about a ft. higher than the last high crest. Looking like I may have to drain the hot tub and raise it for this one. :-(
We have tickets and a hotel room for Sat. night in Dallas to see Jimmy Buffet, hope this doesn't screw that up.

 

I've talked to several customers down south of Fort Smith in Ok. that have had a lot more rain than we have Zack. I've measured almost 20" at my house in the past 3 weeks. Insane amount of rain.

Just drove down to Arkoma Park to look at Poteau River. All the swing sets are in the water and park is closed. If it comes up another 4 feet as forecast it'll be as wide as the Arkansas. I'm glad I'm up the hill quite a ways.

 

Good to hear yall are still above water. The rain here is crazy. Been joking that I could grow rice in part of my yard & this year I really could.

Steve, we (at work) have had to buy a few allisons & they werent cheap. Could easily buy a first gen superduty when it was all said & done.


Messed with the rollback yesterday, took the alcoas off to put a little bit better tire on them & kind of fond of the black steel wheels.



Air wipers can suck a fat one.....

 

It is official, the weather guessers have confirmed an all time record of rainfall has fallen on Ft. Smith since the first of the month. As of 0001 hours this morning...16.28" of rain has fallen at the fort since the first of the month; well over three times the normal amount we're "blessed" with.Rising to 90 feet? Holy smoke that's a heck of a dam/lock to be able to absorb that kind of rise in water.

I say drain the tub, jack it up even with the deck & head to Dallas early. Supposed to be crappy most of the week...again; mine as whine enjoy the weekend away before reality sets back in.We were out a couple of hours ago (before the most recent storms blew in) to see just how high the river is getting. I know the downtown park is under water; as well as the one over on the north side that faces VB. Port of Van Buren has the flood gates up and is covered by at least a foot of water...if not more (didn't wade down from the levee to find out). It has been 25 years since I've seen the water this high...but this is defiantly a good one as far as volume of water. The during the 1990 flood the river got up to 36.0 feet; NOAA folks are saying this time around it's supposed to read 32.5 about dawn in the morning. Oh well, I figure if the river backs up to were we live...FEMA is going to think NOLA was a cake walk.

 

 

Sorta looks like my garden. :-(

 

I'm beginning to wonder if joining the Navy or Coast Guard might be the best course of action in light of the weather this month. Maybe building the first amphibious SuperDuty is the direction I really should take.Jeff...did you try to wade out and check the wife's flower beds again?

 

That definitely gets my vote!

 

All in all I had a good productive weekend, the rain held off for us here.

I was able to have the all terrain fork lift at home along with the dump trailer, both from work. Every spring we have to move all the little projects, that came in over the winter, from the edge of the drive to the lot behind the shop. The ground was just firm enough.

Also removed an 11' flatbed dump from an F350 I bought last year. The bed is for a future COE project.

Used the dump trailer to haul four loads of scrap block home from work to build up a staging area where we can park projects when they come in.

Other than church services and a couple hours for a birthday party, I was running full steam all weekend, finally shutting the lift off at 9:14PM Monday!