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2 hours ago, Joey Mack said:

Thats Higher Leve Redneckin'   and I Love it!!  You see.....   your truck wears a ''Bow Tie''   Now that's Class  :) 🤠

Ain't no bowties on that truck...it's a GMC. It's for us literate folks who can read instead of needing a fancy logo to know what we're looking at.

All my other trucks are Fords. And all my other trucks put together haven't cost me as much over the years as this one. But this one can haul 8 people, where all my Fords are 3-seaters. That's why we bought it. At the time, we needed at least 7 seats. Paid $3k for it. Probably $40k deep into it. Sad, too, because the cancer is getting her. Need to either do a ton of body work to get her right again, or find a clean shell to swap over onto my chassis...preferably one with a roof rack, but I don't want one without the clearance lights...kinda like those. And I like the barn doors rather than the tailgate, too...

Funny thing is, though, I've FINALLY got the wife on board swapping out the 4L85E I put in there when the turbo 400 took a crap for a manual transmission. Damn thing wouldn't hold 1st gear when I needed it to & we ended up stalling out on a pretty steep hill on a 2-lane road just a couple miles before the camp ground we'd be staying at. Got her fired up again, put the t-case in 4-lo, drove to the top of the hill, and pissed off everyone behind me again when I stopped to put it back in high range.😂 Would've pulled the hill just fine in 1st @ 3000-3500 RPM, but kept deciding it didn't want to stay in 1st and would shift itself into 2nd...lose speed...and I'd have to move the shifter up to 2nd & back to 1st to get it to drop back into 1st...repeat...losing speed every time until it just stalled. Probably just a setting I can adjust on the transmission controller...but don't tell my wife that. I hate automatics, and only put the 4L85E in there because I was building it for her. She never drives it, though, so now I'll build it for me.😎

 

When approaching a 4-way stop, the vehicle with the biggest tires has the right of way!
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Too much there for me to make good comments on..  I guess you need a 4 door F-350 with a C-6 or granny gear 4 spd..  at least you were able to get it up the road..   Ford trucks are tough and pull real good..  Myself I am a Bowtie guy..  I have 5 of them.  one is home made and pisses me off at times, but it IS tough and gets what I need done..  :)  

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My F250 is a 460/5 speed 4x4 with manual hubs & t-case...none of that electronic crap. I put it in gear, it's in gear. Both of my Rangers are also 5-speeds. The '86 is a 4-banger (have a 289 from '66 Mustang to build for it) & my "daily driver" is a '92 with a V6. They're both 2wd, although that'll probably change for the '86 when I get a round tuit...them things are dang hard to come by. Hell, even the 1st semi tractor I looked at was a '97 LTL9000 daycab...it just needed too much work to make it road-worthy. Not mechanical work, either...electrical. Next truck I looked at was the '01 CH parked in my driveway.

The Suburban was parked at the farm where our horses are boarded. It was his brother's, who sold it to his son, who tried making a mud truck out of it & parked it for 9 years. It had a 6" lift (springs in front, blocks in the rear) & 35's. Exhaust was a set of long tube headers & ended right there. Rear 14-bolt axle was missing all of the parking brake components & seems to be from a 70's era truck...'90 brake drums wouldn't fit. Had to weld a piece of angle iron onto the backing plate with a 1/2" hole drilled in it to run the cables and find the other parts & pieces to put the inside of the drum back together so everything would work. Put new springs on all of the way around...3/4-ton front +2" over stock, and 1-ton in the rear +2" over stock...then because I hate that GM squatty look, added 1-1/2" blocks to level the ride. Built an exhaust from scratch...magnaflow 3" cat, Flowmaster 70 series muffler (that's since rotted out & been replaced with a 50), and a 3" tailpipe. Couldn't keep gaskets on the collectors, so ended up replacing the headers with manifolds. TH400 started slipping, so put in a GM performance crate 4L85E in...voided the warranty converting it from 2wd to 4wd, but went from 9.25 mpg up to 11.25 mpg. Then the 190hp 350 started knocking, so replaced it with a GM performance crate 260hp Vortec...voided the warranty on that, too, throwing a cam at it before I installed it. TBI wouldn't run, so had a chip made. They missed. Down to 7 mpg & it couldn't get out of its own way. Tried a bigger throttle body. Got me a LITTLE more, but not enough to write home about & was still in the low 7's. Scrapped the entire intake & ignition system and went mechanical with an HEI distributor and a Quadrajet. Dumb me went with the stage 2 from Jet...still had the headers at the time and the cam was borderline between stage 1 & 2. Should've gone stage 1. Anyway, picked up a ton of power, but still runs rich. It's averaging a little better than 10, but not quite 11 mpg...I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be able to hit at least 12- if I could just get the carburetor tuned right. Finally got a wide-band O2 sensor & air/fuel ratio gauge and installed it before the trip out west, so at least I'll have an idea what needs adjusting & by how much. Runs around 11.5 (14.7 is ideal)...but was seeing 8's & 9's at the higher elevations. It wasn't happy. Need to open it up & see what jets are in there to downsize a bit & lean things out. Also put new shocks (long overdue...they were still the same +6" shocks) & steering stabilizer on before the trip, as well as a rear sway bar. It had one up front, but not in the rear. Also replaced the ball joints on both sides & the power steering pump before the trip...only to find the power steering gearbox also leaking. Should've gone with my gut & replaced the steering box with a manual box from a 2wd and picked up a few extra hp by removing the power steering altogether. Since I just spent the money on the pump, though, I'll probably just get another power steering box.

I've done a lot to it over the years. Really didn't do TOO bad on the trip...5-1/4 mpg on the way out & 6-1/2 mpg coming back. Not bad considering my F250 only got 4-1/2 pulling a 2-horse bumper pull trailer with 2 horses inside up from Texas when I moved the wife up here...although pulling the gooseneck it'll get 7-1/2. Problem is, F250 only seats 3...so to use it pulling the camper I'd have to either leave the wife or one of the kids (2 & 5) behind...so that's not really an option.

We've been looking at 4-door trucks. I won't even consider one if it isn't manual transmission, 4x4 (manual shift t-case...hubs I can change if they aren't already manual locks), and has an 8' bed. Wife insists upon the 4-doors, which is fine as long as it's got a pair of shifters poking through the floor and an 8' bed. Don't care if it has a big-block gas motor or a diesel...both have their pros & cons, although being as long as it'd be the pros of a diesel probably outweigh the fun that can be had in a gasser...besides, my 250 ain't going away. We're not trading anything away, just adding to the fleet.

 

When approaching a 4-way stop, the vehicle with the biggest tires has the right of way!
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It's a Hell of a Novel..   I agree with manual trans, and hubs..  I keep my 97 Tacoma running.. I have had to repair the frame 3 times.  But it is a great little truck.. my 1 Ton C-30 is a home made work truck.. made from 3 C- series trucks..  One of these days I will be posting pictures of my '48 Int.  As it goes up the road.  I'm glad camping was fun..  

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