Needing some in progress pics. This is a really neat project, can I borrow the truck for a few months every year?

Ron

Glad to hear you removed the bubble wrap effect. lol

I want pictures as well .

Brad

I thought my 97 Silverado C3500 6.5 turbo was a truck.....until now.

quote Originally posted by Hulki U. My-BFF: I thought my 97 Silverado C3500 6.5 turbo was a truck.....until now.

Yeah, I'm just waiting for John to show up pulling his pop up camper (500 lbs.) with that rig.

Ron

I decided you're going to have to wait a couple of days.

Wednesday morning it goes to the painter and gets some pinstriping done as well as new back tires. After that, I'll snap some shots that will show it 90% complete. 90% because I won't have the DVD/GPS/Radio or the Bakup Camera installed yet, but I'll have everything else done by then. At least that's the plan.

I'm curious to see what my striper comes up with. On all my cars I've just taken it over to him and said "Mark, you're the artsy guy, you know what I like, do your thing." He's never disappointed me yet.

John Stricker

quote Originally posted by jstricker: I'm curious to see what my striper stripper comes up with. ...said "Mark, you're the artsy guy, you know what I like, do your thing." He's never disappointed me yet.

fixed that for you?

I do have a couple of friends that are strippers. I even bought a car from one of them a couple of years ago. I have some serious questions on their ability to handle a paint brush though............

John Stricker

quote Originally posted by blakeinspace: fixed that for you?

His stripper's name is Mark? Jeeze, you think you know a guy.....

quote Originally posted by litespd: His stripper's name is Mark? Jeeze, you think you know a guy.....

I was waiting for someone to say it.

Ron

Never met a girl named Markie?

You don't remember Markie Post from "The Fall Guy", "Night Court", and "Hearts Afire"??

I'm not the only one that freaking old.



John Stricker

quote Originally posted by litespd: His stripper's name is Mark? Jeeze, you think you know a guy.....

quote Originally posted by jstricker: Never met a girl named Markie? You don't remember Markie Post from "The Fall Guy", "Night Court", and "Hearts Afire"?? I'm not the only one that freaking old.

Of course I remember Markie Post. I actually got to sit in the audience for a taping of Night Court once when I was in California. She was as cute in person
as she was on tv.

And....you definitely said "MARK", not "MARKIE"....... Ron will back me up on this.

quote Originally posted by jstricker: OK, here's the deal. I'm considering buying a truck. That's not good, I have too many vehicles now. I've been looking for a truck like this for over a year and finally found one. That's good, I finally found one. It's a very reasonable price. That's VERY GOOD! It's a gas motor and a 6-spd, not a 3126 Cat and Allison. That's not so good, but I can live with it. It's located in Limetone, TN. (The Bristol Area). That's not good, since it's 1100 miles from me. Anyone in the Bristol/Knoxville area want (and know how to drive a truck) want to drive it back for me? I'd pay a little something, pay expenses, of course, and buy you a plane ticket back. I know it's a long shot, but who knows, maybe someone's bored and wants to come to Kansas to be more bored. Actually, if some of you were actually looking for a short term job, I could use some help for the next 2-3 weeks harvesting wheat. So, if you're in the Bristol area or can get there, know how to drive a 2T truck (no CDL required), need some work for a couple or three weeks, then let me know. I'm so swamped right now I don't know which way to turn but I'm really thinking about pulling the trigger on this truck. John Stricker

I WOULD BE HAPPY TO DRIVE IT ANYWHERE YOU WANT.
IF YOU HELP ME WITH THE AIR FARE TO THE USA

OK, here's some pictures. Still some work to do on the interior with the stereo/nav system and some details to finish up. Found a third member with a friendlier gear ratio in CO for $800 so it's on the way.











So there ya' go.

John Stricker

[This message has been edited by jstricker (edited 07-23-2009).]

its a really nice truck
If i could i would buy this truck myself.
Air fare
AAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmm
Sydney ,Australia to USA
?????????????????

[This message has been edited by proff (edited 07-22-2009).]

John,
Very nice rig. Let us know your fuel mileage once you get the new differential gearing. You'll be hauling in the first class section. Very nice and you made some nice improvements to it. On the first pic, the image is a little blurry, I could have sworn it said student driver.

Ron

[This message has been edited by blackrams (edited 07-22-2009).]

That's just temporary, it's only there when you want to borrow it.

John Stricker

quote Originally posted by blackrams: John, On the first pic, the image is a little blurry, I could have sworn it said student driver. Ron

quote Originally posted by jstricker: That's just temporary, it's only there when you want to borrow it. John Stricker

Then, it ain't temporary!

Ron

being the kind of guy i am, i would drive that sucker daily if it was diesel and had a good enough fuel economy, just to always win in the arguement that i'm bigger than you and can/will out pull you in a game of tug-o-war


how small does that 454 look in that gargantuan engine bay?

[This message has been edited by greasemonke50613 (edited 07-22-2009).]

quote Originally posted by greasemonke50613: how small does that 454 look in that gargantuan engine bay?

427

Since it's a Medium Duty Truck, it looks like it belongs there.

John Stricker

wow... Mr. Mikes does really good work...



pop's... she looks great!

Got most of the electronics in. Still need to get the camera on the trailer and hook up the satellite receiver adapter to the Kenwood, but the dash work is pretty much done.







The backup camera is just temporarily installed on the headache rack to make sure everything works. The monitor accepts inputs from three cameras so I think I'm going to get another camera and mount it there permanently to help when hooking up the trailer then switch to the trailer camera when I'm on the road.

The radio is a Kenwood DNX6140 with DVD/Sat Radio/Garmin GPS all built in. I have all that in my pickup but they are hanging all over the dash and this way they're all integrated into one unit. It took a lot of time to modify the dash to make everything fit. The color still isn't right. I'm either going to have to repaint the whole thing the new black or figure out a closer match to factory, but at least everything is in and works.

John Stricker

Got the pieces painted much closer to the correct color.





The little gap on the right hand side of the backup monitor is the only thing I'm not really happy with but since the factory bezel isn't square there isn't much I can really do about it.

When I activated the Sirius radio on the unit I got a lot of grief. It wouldn't take a credit card, ANY credit card, on the website, so I had to call customer service. In the past Sirius has always used US reps. Not anymore. Plus they tried to stick me with a $5 service charge for NOT activating it online. After finally gettting a rep that could speak understandable english, I explained if they were going to do that, they could just cancel all four of my other Sirius radios and I'd send this one back. She kindly agreed to wave the charge seeing as how the credit card I gave her worked fine when she put it in and wouldn't online.

Only a couple things to do yet. I'm putting a new front balancer on it. I fixed the seal and it started leaking again even with a speedy sleeve. BTDT before and the only way to fix it right is a new balancer. I also still need to put the third member in. That's not that hard, but it's awkward and weighs about 300#. Just takes some time.

John Stricker

John,
I'm ready for a road trip, please quit messing around with this truck and get it finished.

Look'n Good!

Ron

pics of the stripper please.

heh... j/k...

I was curious though... Is it a commercial truck?... and is it for hire?

I might get down to Houston at some point to see this for myself... is this the 'Lemons' hauler?

If that GPS doesn't work... Houston is South.

[This message has been edited by blakeinspace (edited 07-29-2009).]

No, it's not a commercial truck. No, it's not for hire. That would be illegal and I thought I raised you well enough to know that I would never do anything like that.

Yes, this will be the "lemons" hauler.

A quick update. Tracing down the elusive oil leaks has proven tedious. I finally pulled the pan off because it looked like the front pan gasket was leaking. Started cleaning it up and there was silicone all over the side. Scraped that off and the passenger side of the pan itself was all eaten through. Not rust, really, corrosion of some king, but not rusty. I put it in the blast cabinet then washed it with soap and water. Blew it off and then filled it with water. The pan looked like a lawn sprinkler. Not good. So, with a call to Chevy, found out a new one was about $130 so now it has a new pan and gasket. So far, no leaks, but it only ran for about 15 minutes or so.

We also got the third member changed out yesterday so now I'm anxious to drive it and see how it goes down the road without the engine screaming at 4,000 rpm. Still have to put lube in the rear end and get the outside duals back on (they had wet paint on them last night when we quit). Go over it with a grease gun and do some cleaning up today and I will pronounce it "DONE" finally. I hope.

Unless I find something else.

John Stricker

quote Originally posted by blakeinspace: pics of the stripper please. heh... j/k... I was curious though... Is it a commercial truck?... and is it for hire? I might get down to Houston at some point to see this for myself... is this the 'Lemons' hauler? If that GPS doesn't work... Houston is South.

<< proff is putting his hand up
the air fare from Sydney to the USA is about $1100 Australian Dollars
I could supply half, you supply the other half and I will drive the truck any where you want

Somewhere in here I think Blackrams asked for mileage figures.

We took the truck on a trip to the races that ended up abotu 850 miles round trip. This was loaded with everything we needed. Fuel cart, race car, four wheeler, tools, etc., as well as Chris and I and all our luggage. I don't know what the total weight was, but I do have some weights because we have since done some weighing.

The truck empty weighs 11,150 pounds with two full fuel tanks, no human souls on board.
The truck with the trailer, no tools, cars, fuel cart, four-wheeler, etc., weighs 19,010# with about 1/2 tank of fuel.
That makes the trailer weigh about 8,000#, give or take (older S&S steel trailer. heavy, but it will never break and it's optioned out with generator, air compressor, workbench, etc.)
We know the car weighs about 2,100# so that makes us weigh about 21,200# with the car. With the tools, four wheeler, fuel cart, etc., we are going to be pushing my 24,000# tag, but should be close enough to BS our way out of the weigh stations.

I've had varying opinions on whether or not we're subject to stop at weigh stations in KS. Highway Patrol trooper says we probably should. DOT (got a spot truck inspection in the semi last month so I asked) says we should probably pull in but we'd most likely just get waved through. Nebraska there is no question, you're supposed to stop. Their signs say "All trucks and pickups with trailers MUST stop", although I have driven by them in my pickup when I pulled the trailer and they didn't chase me. I'm thinking they probably would chase me down in this so I guess I'll stop next time I go by one up there and see what they say. I'm legal so it's no harm other than the time lost.

Mileage averaged right at 6.5 mpg and I can't really say that it did better or worse when I had the trailer off (before we left) or on, but that's about what we got.

That makes our cost per mile at $2.33 at about 35 cents per mile for fuel. I have a friend with a Kodiak in his service truck that has a 3116B Cat in it and never tows (it's set up with a service/utility body to service heavy equipment). He gets 12 mpg consistently. Remember, that's not towing. He may get that hooked onto my trailer, it may drop to 10, I don't know. Diesel around here right now is $2.54 so that makes it about 21 cents per mile. If towing drops it to 10, that's about 26 cents per mile. Not much contest on the fuel economy gas/diesel in this particular truck.

The rub comes in that I couldn't have purchased my truck for $4,000 if it had the Cat in it. Most likely, it would have been closer to $10,000 or more, set up as it was when I got it. I'm probably going to drive it about 4,000 miles a year (maybe) and it should pay out in 4 years, IMHO, so that's 16,000 miles to pay off about $6,000 or 37 cents per mile. Of course, the resale will also be a lot higher when I get rid of it if it's a diesel, so that should come back out.

My point is, yes, a diesel would be cheaper in fuel costs, no doubt, but by my calculations in total expenses, fixed and operating, I don't think there's a whole lot of difference. All that said, I'm on the lookout for a wrecked Kodiak with a 3126 and an allison to repower it if I can find one for under about $4000 or so, then the payout considering resale value would be a lot different.

John Stricker

edited to add that I forgot to mention the change in gearing. We now cruise in 6th gear at 70 mph right at 3100 rpm. On interstate where we can run 70-75, it pulls it good. On two lanes where we only run about 65 the revs are just under 3,000 and that seems to be dogging it a little so we normally shift it down to 5th and run about 3600 rpm.

[This message has been edited by jstricker (edited 09-09-2009).]

John,
Want to thank you for following up on this. You must have been reading my mind cause I was just thinking about our truck this evening.
Well, we both know I'm a Cummin's man but, you've got a very nice rig and I won't deny that I'll enjoy using it once you're out of the way.

I'll think of you often when I transport antique tractors with it.

Oh, BTW that ain't bad mileage considering the non-aerodynamic load you're pulling.

Ron

[This message has been edited by blackrams (edited 09-09-2009).]

I'm not unhappy with the mileage and it's about what I expected. My pickup gets about 8 pulling the trailer and this truck weighs at least 5000# more and has two more tires on the ground (and that makes a big difference).

I'm also a Cummins man, but I won't settle for one of those "puny" 5.9's in this truck. I want a REAL motor.

John Stricker

quote Originally posted by blackrams: John, Want to thank you for following up on this. You must have been reading my mind cause I was just thinking about our truck this evening. Well, we both know I'm a Cummin's man but, you've got a very nice rig and I won't deny that I'll enjoy using it once you're out of the way. I'll think of you often when I transport antique tractors with it. Oh, BTW that ain't bad mileage considering the non-aerodynamic load you're pulling. Ron