Neat article with Old Chevy's

[Yooper truck]

http://driving.ca/auto-news/news/why...ar-old-trucks/

I think one of these needs to find my garage. From the looks of things they must not be used in winter or are only used in a controlled area as there appears to be limited rust. Now to find wait for when they go up for gov't surplus auction.

[GRX]

Down with spark plugs! Probably no rust because they are only used from the parking lot staging area to the telescope. The way they are making everything electronic in modern vehicles it doesn't look like that fleet will be replaced any time soon.

[In The Ten Ring]

Well guys, guess what? Yours Truly has DRIVEN several of those Suburbans (and the Checker Marathons, although not in the pics) when taking two graduate courses there at NRAO in 2004 and 2005.

The Suburbans were 3 speed manuals in the floor and you actually pulled the manual throttle all the way out to shut off the diesels. I actually won an impromptu "drag race" in one of the 'Burbs because, I guess, I was the better of the two drivers.

My time at NRAO was truly great. It was an unique experience and I am honored to have been chosen for admission.

[Yooper truck]

Do you have any pics to share? Were the burbs in as good of shape as they appear?

[In The Ten Ring]

Originally Posted by Yooper truck

Do you have any pics to share? Were the burbs in as good of shape as they appear?

I didn't really have a camera then.....but I'll tell you what. I will look into getting a hold of the one guy in our class that took a pic every few seconds. I was thinking about him just today....maybe the teaching staff on site will still have the school he was from on record and I can get in touch with him.

From what I recall, the vehicles (my interest was mainly the Checkers then) were NOT maintained very well. See, these things don't drive on the main road, so they are never inspected (and I assume, never have been). On the Checkers, and it was a crying shame, the staff never bothered to so much as change a wiper blade. The Checkers had deep gouges into the windshields from the wiper itself being allowed to scrape the glass.

I do recall the 'Burbs I drove being in better shape than the Checkers.....the wood in the floors was still intact. Actually, that was the first time I had seen a Burb from that time period and I was very interested in why it had wood in the back floor (dad having replaced my truck's wood floor with 1/8" steel before I was old enough to remember). I did speak with the maintenance staff about the vehicles and they confirmed that their own mechanics (NRAO on site mechanics) put the diesels in them.

[19673ontree]

I like those burbs and its very cool that they are still using them , I must admit that whoever wrote the headline for that article wrote that they are using 30 year old trucks ? Ummm they are using 40 year old trucks LOL

[hamjet]

I wasn't aware they had diesels in them back then...

[litew8]

^ Don't think they did. There's another thread on this.

[In The Ten Ring]

Originally Posted by hamjet

I wasn't aware they had diesels in them back then...

Read my 2nd post on this thread. According to NRAO staff about 2005, they put the diesels in the 'Burbs themselves.

[WIDESIDE72]

I had an 82 c20 suburban with a 6.2L diesel that would have fit right in there! I parted it out about 6 years ago. It had 300k + miles on it and was still going!