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Hey guys I got to thinking and I was wondering about the reliability of everyone's truck. Mine is my daily driver and wouldn't hesitate to take it on a 3 hour trip (any longer and I think it may just vibrate itself apart). How reliable is yours and how far would you be willing to drive it?
Here's a picture while driving 40 minutes each way this morning..
Anything that is still running 50 years later is pretty reliable, don't you think? The flip side of that though, if no preventive maintenance has been done, then there will be nothing but trouble. Pickup trucks were work vehicles in those days, and got used HARD. By the time we get them they are clapped out. They are very simple compared to trucks today and have lots of advantages over them in that sense. Now you have to bounce simple reliability off of parts availability.
I wouldn't hesitate to take a load of gravel to Grand Canyon but finding certain parts along the way would be tough if it came down to it. No big deal, part of the fun, right?
There is no way to compare reliability from one truck to the other. It would depend on so many variables you couldn't list them all.
I've driven my 1960 all over California, Arizona, and New Mexico. It's been to Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Vancouver, Idaho, Wyoming and can't remember how many times to Colorado. Last trip was to the Grand Canyon, Verde Canyon and Chama New Mexico and it never missed a beat.
prior to me buying the truck and parking it 3 years ago, the previous owner used it as a daily driver. I parked it to do mechanical repairs and i am doing a complete overhaul now. The truck had pretty much original everything and the engine was still running! 50+ yrs of use and its going to live again. Cant say that for electronics in newer vehicles.
I can't really speak on the reliability of mine, so far I've driven it less than a mile up to the gas station and back. I can, however, see how this thing is going to be a mule once it's fixed up. Everything I've done to it so far has been cheap and easy, coming from a guy who has been building European cars for years.
Anyway, here's a shot of mine while I had it on the road last weekend after getting it started for the first time.
Mine's driven year round, rain, snow, blazing sun
It took a while to get it to that point. Just about all of the important stuff has been gone through in my ownership. It's pretty much a new truck under an old rusty body. I'm sure it would get me wherever I need to go.
