Well, I went and did it....
#1
Well, I went and did it....
Well fellas, it's done. I went and jumped on the "buying a 'new' truck" bandwagon. I blame Bill, myself but you're all to blame really. Look what you made me do:
The truck is a '97 F-350 CCLB (obviously) with 201k on the clock. I have been working on this for about a week and a half and over the weekend dad and my son and I drove the 900 miles to southern Goeorgia and brought it home. It's a little rough around the edges, but that is how I like them. It doesn't need anything major and it is way, WAY cleaner underneath than anything I was going to find locally.
I had to work Saturday morning so we left OH at about 1 PM Saturday and arrived in Valdosta, GA at about 3:30 AM Sunday morning. We parked the loser limo and caught about 3-4 hours of shut eye in the Wallyworld parking lot and then headed out to see the new truck. Turbo end-play checked out okay, blow-by was minimal, truck runs good and we agreed upon a price, so papers were swapped and away we went.
We had some minor issues with the brake lights and turn signals that we had to stop and rectify but I had come prepared to handle whatever we ran into so it didn't take us long.
Aside from that, the trip went off without a hitch! We made tracks for home, leaving down there about 11:00 (after a great breakfast at Hardees -- man I miss those up here).
We got home last night about 12:30. It sure was a lot of driving (about 1800 miles round trip), but we all had a good time. Dad and I are both ham radio nerds, so we wired up the vehicles with 2 meter radios and a couple CB's and chatted our way home up I-75. All in all, the trip was a success. My son had the time of his life and has already said that if I ever do this again he wants to go along (even if it is farther away than this one was). The truck averaged 18.01 MPG on the way home which isn't shabby at all considering I was using the cruise and driving 75-80 most of the way. All in all, I'm thrilled!
The truck needs a SERIOUS cleaning, a clean bed, and a bunch of other little things, but this is going to be a great foundation for me to build on. Oh, and here's the best part:
Oh yeah! The "Man Pedal"! It's a ZF5 truck and I'm loving it. I know this will push some buttons but as good as these trucks are, they're even better with a 5 speed.
Here are a few more random pictures I shot while we were stopped for breakfast.
Can you tell that someone likes the truck?
Made a little stop in TN too on the way through, hehehe
All in all, I'm happy to be home, but ready to go do it again.
Now let the process of cleaning that thing up begin...
The truck is a '97 F-350 CCLB (obviously) with 201k on the clock. I have been working on this for about a week and a half and over the weekend dad and my son and I drove the 900 miles to southern Goeorgia and brought it home. It's a little rough around the edges, but that is how I like them. It doesn't need anything major and it is way, WAY cleaner underneath than anything I was going to find locally.
I had to work Saturday morning so we left OH at about 1 PM Saturday and arrived in Valdosta, GA at about 3:30 AM Sunday morning. We parked the loser limo and caught about 3-4 hours of shut eye in the Wallyworld parking lot and then headed out to see the new truck. Turbo end-play checked out okay, blow-by was minimal, truck runs good and we agreed upon a price, so papers were swapped and away we went.
We had some minor issues with the brake lights and turn signals that we had to stop and rectify but I had come prepared to handle whatever we ran into so it didn't take us long.
Aside from that, the trip went off without a hitch! We made tracks for home, leaving down there about 11:00 (after a great breakfast at Hardees -- man I miss those up here).
We got home last night about 12:30. It sure was a lot of driving (about 1800 miles round trip), but we all had a good time. Dad and I are both ham radio nerds, so we wired up the vehicles with 2 meter radios and a couple CB's and chatted our way home up I-75. All in all, the trip was a success. My son had the time of his life and has already said that if I ever do this again he wants to go along (even if it is farther away than this one was). The truck averaged 18.01 MPG on the way home which isn't shabby at all considering I was using the cruise and driving 75-80 most of the way. All in all, I'm thrilled!
The truck needs a SERIOUS cleaning, a clean bed, and a bunch of other little things, but this is going to be a great foundation for me to build on. Oh, and here's the best part:
Oh yeah! The "Man Pedal"! It's a ZF5 truck and I'm loving it. I know this will push some buttons but as good as these trucks are, they're even better with a 5 speed.
Here are a few more random pictures I shot while we were stopped for breakfast.
Can you tell that someone likes the truck?
Made a little stop in TN too on the way through, hehehe
All in all, I'm happy to be home, but ready to go do it again.
Now let the process of cleaning that thing up begin...
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Congrats on the new truck, Nate! looks like a nice one - and a nice winch bumper as well - just need a winch to put in it now :-)
that is some serious driving for a truck, though. and a lot of confidence that it would make it home :-) must have been a great deal!
good luck with it!
that is some serious driving for a truck, though. and a lot of confidence that it would make it home :-) must have been a great deal!
good luck with it!
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Congrats on the truck. Looks RRE-ready to me! No excuses for next year.
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We'll see! This certainly gets me a lot closer!