Nothing to report on the suburban. All the same, I hope everyone is doing as well as possible, I’ve missed the community here and without any updates to the Chevy...
Now for something completely different, but also kind of the same while being diametrically and philosophical opposites.
Oil and water...
Chevy and Ford...
“A Tale of Three 8-Lug Trucks”
Three years ago I couldn’t imagine buying AN 8-Lug, medium duty truck. Now I own two. I’ve bought THREE! Two of them are FORDS?!? and somehow I’m okay with all of it???
Remember the white diesel F350?!? The one I hate??? Primarily because I begrudgingly respect it while having no need for such a thing?
I was at the wheel this day:
In the truest since of the word, that tiny shitbox Hyundai TOTALED that massive white truck! The Ford running gear weighs more than the entire Hyundai, yet she couldn’t have hit the Ford in a worse spot. No sense even bothering with insurance... the Ford is valued at $908.
To add insult to injury I got the ticket... “improper turning”.
I think the cop “read the room”. Georgia state law doesn’t allow for a “no-fault” accident on a public motorway. He HAD to write a ticket and chose the path of least resistance. He had the very distraught young lady, in the very new, financed and fully insured Hyundai and the calm and collected dude in the old and paid-for (and barely insured) truck. She screamed at him just because, while I picked up the leftover Hyundai pieces. No matter what, he was stuck at the scene with this frantic woman until her inoperable car left the scene or she did.
I took the ticket, climbed in through the passenger side, and was able to drive off.
The Ford needs a new cab and while it isn’t gonna get any prettier, it was already a FrankenTruck and it’s worth fixing. I have the means and wherewithal to find another cab and swap it. I’ll spend another grand or two on a truck I didn’t own and don’t want because it’s the absolute best value decision.
In the interim, my girlfriend still desires a vehicle with the capacity of pulling her horsey trailer. After the last year that’s something I can’t take from her... even if she doesn’t use it. Her world has shrunk far more than mine this last year and she needs what the stupid big smelly Ford represents... even if it’s just walking the dog past the parked truck.
In one of those rare, serendipitous moments, this truck became available the day before the accident:
The previous and original owner was the farmer that boards my girlfriends horse. That’s her trailer beyond the front of the truck. The fact that it’s a Ford makes me want to vomit... but otherwise I got a really good deal on a really nice, all original and complete, very capable 3/4-ton truck. 90% is as it left the Ford plant. The only things that aren’t OEM or direct replacement are the shifter knob and lever and the factory AM/FM/TAPE radio.
It’s so complete I have to original warrantee cards AND the Ford-factory trailer adapter.
I choked back my Ford-induced desire to vomit, handed the old man 35 hundred dollar bills and made both of us happy with the transaction.
Despite being a vehicle I absolutely never saw myself wanting, needing or being happy with, I’m gonna keep it even after I get the other Ford fixed. Weirder still, I’m not gonna change or modify it beyond the barest minimum.
I have to cut the bed for a gooseneck hitch. I’m putting that off as long as I can, possibly indefinitely, if I can fix the white truck quickly enough. I’m gonna swap the automatic locking hubs for a set of Warn manual lockers. And then I’m gonna leave it alone, do the barest of maintenance and fix or “fix” it only IF and when it needs it.
Ironically enough, the same week the brown truck came up for sale and I crashed the white one, a Ford dually axle fell into my lap... almost literally:
We used a couple of E450 school buses at work and I could put the axle in the scrap bin or truck bed for the same amount of effort.
Version 2.1 of the diesel 350 will be a dually flatbed... if the title was in my name I might put an engine-driven welder on that flatbed, just because. Thankfully it’s not mine, so I can save that expense.
I’ll do my best to not add too much Ford-garbage to this forum dedicated to far-superior vehicles, but I hope I can conclude both of these projects before 2022...
Be safe.
Jeremy
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