m16ty

When I asked the museum about my RD822sx they sent me a owners manual, truck build sheet, sales literature, engine service manual, and truck service manual.

Had a 3/4 ton Dodge 4x4. Ball joints lasted less than 100k. Replaced them with some you could grease and put on another 200k on them without problems. In my opinion, the main problem is not installing grease fittings at the factory.

When we bought our Explorer, first thing I did was locate all the check points. I looked all over for a trans dipstick. I called the dealership and found out it didn't have one. I've got a friend with a Dodge. He threw the belt and we couldn't find belt routing info anywhere in the manual or in the engine compartment. I guess that's a dealer service item also now. We did manage to finally figure it out after putting it on wrong once.

I've been a diesel fan for years. When I bought a new truck last year (2015 Chevy 2500 6.0) I went with gas. There's just too much crap on modern diesels and you've got to deal with the DEF. The engine base may run 100s of thousands of miles but all the electronics and such will have to be serviced much sooner, at great cost. It used to be that if you bought a diesel and drove it long enough, you'd finally save money over a gas engine due to fuel economy and cheaper price of diesel. Now I don't think you'd ever get ahead cost wise.

Kind of OT but why does everything you read these days have to mention "global warming"? Seems everything these days is linked to the global warming hoax. Fires- global warming, too hot- global warming, too cold- global warming, too much rain-global warming, drought- global warming.

Call it what you want but the government is still dumping tons of money into biofuels. All I'm saying is that if biofuels are such a great idea and so efficient, let the market decide. We don't need the government pushing it down our throat and spending huge amounts of my tax dollars on it. David Pimentel, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University, et al., wrote the following in their Sep. 2008 article titled “Biofuel Impacts on World Food Supply: Use of Fossil Fuel, Land and Water Resources, published in Energies:

Nice truck but that Maaco paint job is awful. Least they could have done is keep the overspray off the tires.

I live within a mile of the highest point in my county and probably just a few feet less in elevation. If I flood, you better have a ark ready.

I'm always getting cheap wrenches for Christmas. They go in the bottom of the toolbox and I'll pull one out anytime I need to make a "custom" wrench. I've cut them all sorts of lengths, bent them in all sorts of shapes, and ground them down to make them thinner to get to that occasional tricky bolt.

We had a big flood here in 2010. It's was nowhere on the scale of what we saw in LA but a good portion of Nashville and surrounding counties were underwater. It the small community I'm a part of, we rescued a bunch of people and as far as I know no "organized" help was even involved. It was neighbor helping neighbor. We will dial 911 when it's truly needed but otherwise go somewhere else and help the people that can't help themselves. It never actually even dawned on any of us to call for help.

Heard from a guy the other day that accidentally put a little diesel into the DEF tank and ran the truck. That little screw up cost $6,000 to get fixed.

That's what I say, if any of these products are economically viable, more power to them. Let the market decide, not the government. All I see is billions of taxpayer's dollars and billions charged to oil companies ( which gets passed on to consumers) and not a thing to show for it. Then add in all the other billions of dollars we spend on other worthless crap. This country is in a world of hurt.

The military uses JP-8 jet fuel in just about all it's diesel vehicles. It's pretty much just a better refined grade of diesel and they use it for everything to keep from having to have two separate fuels on hand.

1998 Ford Explorer isn't any better. I sold mine with number six plug in it that was in it as long as I owned it. Wasn't any way to get to it without pulling the exhaust manifold or removing the fender that I could find.

Looks like a beer bellied trucker and a pimp crossed paths. Interesting concept but I can't get over the looks of it.

It actually looks like the pickup survived the crash pretty well. I know it's totaled but look how the cab is still intact, not really much damage for a 35 mph crash. The truck did exactly what it was supposed to do, protect the occupants.

The military multi fuel does have what they call a "fuel density compensator" that adjust for the viscosity of the fuel. It's not needed to still be a multi fuel though, the power will just be different with different fuels without it. The multi fuel capability has mainly to do with the injector and combustion chamber design. I think they run a 22:1 compression. They will run on almost anything but still run best on straight diesel. I know I've run a diesel fuel/ used engine oil mix in mine and it didn't run very well. It ran but was harder starting, smoked a lot, and just ran rough. The military advises to only use straight gasoline in emergencies.

I've been wanting to paint my RD822sx like the red one. It's good to see an example to see how it looks, I like it.

About a year ago I saw what could be described as a paving train. I think it was six trucks pulling various equipment, all hooked together. Basically what it did was took up the old asphalt, heated it, mixed some new oil with it, and put it back down. It was a huge contraption with a big propane tank to supply the heat. I stopped and talked to one of the flagmen about it. He said it was a experimental project they were working on. I don't know how well it turned out long term but it looked as good as any coming right out of the machine.

He probably gets decent mileage but I doubt that 30mpg claim. Those old 2-strokes aren't known for being particularly economical on fuel. It probably makes up on fuel savings with oil consumption and leaks. Just kidding but we all know those old Detroits like to leak.

Just about any diesel engine will run fine on veggy oil biofuel if it's refined good. At least the old ones will, I don't know about the newer ones. I know a guy that experimented with refining animal fats in a Dodge Cummins with bad results. Just about any of these biofuels aren't viable without heavy government subsidies. They are getting better but they aren't there yet.

Yea I've been there. Complete rebuild on a Cummins is a big job. I just got done doing the head gaskets on a N14 and even that's a pretty big job having to deal with jakes, rocker boxes, and heads on 3 heads.

It always puzzled me that when the stock market takes a dump, everybody sells out. When the market is high people buy. That seems completely backwards to me. When the stock market falls, that's the time to buy in my book. I prefer to buy low and sell high.

Around here everybody wants a narrow front super c with cultivators. They were a great 2 row cultivator tractor. Tobacco and truck farmers still use them quite a bit.

I'm just curious, why did you keep paying union dues all those years when you weren't doing union work? You don't seem overly fond of unions, just trying to understand why you kept paying them. Was it to get some sort of pension when you retire?