Monday Mystery, guide
2 hours ago
Thursday, December 15, 2016
New Ride...
Well new for me anyway. It's a '96 Ford F-150. I'd been driving the '84 Ford F-250 for almost twenty years now and while it still ran fine, the heavy duty suspension made for a hard ride and the big V-8 was a gas hog. Since I'd sold the trailer a few years ago, there was no longer a need for a heavy duty hauler. The new ride's a straight 6, 5 speed manual, the last year they used that motor, so it should be better on gas.
Was originally looking for a similar set up in a Dodge Dakota, but they went to an aluminum head for their motors a while back, which don't do well in the extreme cold. It was really hard to find an older iron head one in Fairbanks that wasn't a total beater. Besides, would have had to build new boxes for hauling dogs, since it has a smaller bed. So the Ford means a lot less work. It was apparently well maintained by the second owner, who had it for 18 years. As my neighbor Bert said, it's way too nice a truck for me.
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It looks really clean. Around here a '96 would be rotted out from salt.
ReplyDeleteThe DOT doesn't use much salt here, it's too cold most of the time for it to be effective at melting. But they do mix in a little in the spring and fall when it's warmer, so the '84 is starting to get some rust spots. But not like the midwest. I drove some rigs back in the day that had more holes than metal.
ReplyDeleteThe Dodge I run at work is so rusty that the cab has settled enough to screw up the shift linkage. We bought a new cab from down south but there never seems to be a good time to do the swap.
ReplyDeleteKnow what you mean. My first car was a '58 Plymouth. One day when I hopped in, the seat collapsed. The brackets on the drivers side had broken through the rusted floor boards. Wound up jamming a couple of 2X4's under the seat to shim it up and drove it like that for a couple of years until the engine expired. By then you could feel the cold air coming through the rust holes. The good old days!
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