Quote:
Originally Posted by N2TRUX
Ken that is too cool. I would love to have the time and fortitude to buy a truck site unseen and drive it half way across the country. I think once you get the old boy cleaned up your gonna be driving it a lot more...  |
Ken, the concepts of "having the time" and "fortitude" are virtues that probably don't apply to me; in my case, an "inability to prioritize" and "foolish impulsiveness" are more likely relevant!
Thank you for the uplifting thought, though, my friend!
magnethead, thank you for the advice; will do!
84 400, the fellow who sold me the truck included the sides with the purchase. One of the things I like about this flatbed is that the design makes it good not only for hauling vehicles (as a rollback -- the bed manufacturer's original purpose), it also appears to be good for hauling cargo like fruit bins and other agricultural/industrial items. I say this because it does not have fixed rails on the side (which would prevent using a forklift to load from the sides) and most of the winch is actually under the bed (which makes it minimally invasive in terms of conflicting with cargo).
Of course, the farm usage was largely just an excuse to myself to justify the purchase! The truth is, it's a '78 Chevy and as a member of the '73-'87 fan base, I just wanted it, LOL! Occasionally I will ALLOW a chosen few of our most careful foremen to use it to transport a tractor or a few bins or something, but unlike our regular farm trucks, I am keeping the keys for myself (just as I do with my '79 Big 10). Otherwise, anyone who works for us would simply jump in anytime they want and beat it to death, which is standard practice for most of our trucks. In one week, those mirrors would literally be ripped off, in an additional year the doors would be tweaked and crudely rewelded back onto their mounting points to forevermore rattle with 1 inch of play, and the windows would be left open on a nightly basis to encourage rainfall in the cab and to invite rusted floors (I have truly described the plight of our other Chevy C30 flatbed...a 1979 Custom Deluxe with a dump bed hoist rather than a rollback).
This '78 will be my personal occasional use truck, used occasionally for moving around my other "truck projects", and maybe will, itself, someday be a show truck.
Incidentally, I just tallied up my trip fuel tickets...the stats are as follows: 2,282.67 miles travelled, with about 277.36 gallons of gas consumed. My exact fuel mileage for the entire trip was 8.23 mpg. Oh, and did I mention the 4 quarts of oil?!
Anyway, thanks again for all of your comments, guys!
Ken Lewis