So what did you do with your truck today?

[KansasIDI]

Well, I’ve been on this forum for a year as of today. What a wonderful, insightful group of people y’all are. You have all been tremendous help. I don’t know where I’d be without y’all. Countless questions have been answered on this forum. I deeply appreciate everyone’s advice and input. Thank you all.

 

[Old Goat]

Here it is Sunday Morning, checking in to see what every one is up to.
Thursday afternoon loaded up 2 of the Studded Tires in the loader Bucket from the Little shop to take over to the house where the truck is parked. Threw them on and torqued them down.
(Just hit me, I set them to 80 ft lbs, suppose to be 150, my Mercedes is 80, too many vehicles)
Put on a lil Anti Seiz. I use a short handled Flat Shovel to take off and install the tires. Helps taking off, lift tire with Shovel and slide back, and installing, get it close to Hub (Rear) lift and slide on. Saves back from lifting. Learned this from when I was working and we had the 10 hundred x 20 and later the 22.5 tires.

Friday, I finally got the Brakes bled. Had to remove the Switch from the center of the proportional valve. Then used an awl to center the valve and add the tool that hold it.

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The valve slid back and shut the fluid to the rear brakes. once centered and tool holding it got it done. Had my Wife helping me.
The 2 rear bleeder n i p p l e s took a 10mm wrench, R/F an 8mm and L/F a 3/8". What a P I T A.
They work good now with the upgraded newer MC from 88 to 94, better than the old rusty 86 one. New valve and every thing flushed.
If you buy the tool, don`t buy the plastic one, get the metal one, the plastic threads would not catch the ones in the P valve. Metal one worked great.

https://www.amazon.com/WISPAUSU-Compatible-Proportioning-Combination-Replacement/dp/B08N6C1YP3/ref=asc_df_B08N6C1YP3/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=485450968700&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17830250713226429887&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9030900&hvtargid=pla-1128070711188&mcid=da2b02670fcd32ea8a5bbb4dc9d293a6&gclid=Cj0KCQiAnrOtBhDIARIsAFsSe53pxasOpNt2DFs0UiVTzgU9O0n99A-RgeBnDcoZ10T_Yve5cPeG9goaAnKzEALw_wcB&th=1

Took her for a drive to Carson City, 25 miles doing errands, new 12" LUK Clutch works good, soft peddle. Just need to adjust the rod to the MC, too much travel before the clutch moves.

Haven`t driven the truck since OCT, I missed her.


Goat

 

[IDIBRONCO]

I knew that the truck was going to start on it's own despite everything that was stacked against it and I was right. I went out about 9:30 or so and raised the hood since the sun was shining. A little solar engine heating never hurts, right? It was starting to cloud up by 12:30 so I went out and started the engine about 12:45. I hooked on to my trailer tp go get some more firewood from behind my garage. I got into town and stopped at a friend's house for a while. Then I drove through a snowdrift to go behind the garage. I got backed up and loaded up what was left of one stack. I tried to back around my storage shed to get to a different stack, but between the snowdrift and the fact that the ground slopes down to a farmer's field, I wasn't able to get the trailer backed around the shed. I put the trailer back to where I first had it and just had to walk in between the shed and my camper. I finished off the load with some old locust from another stack so I'll be ready for it to warm up here this coming week. Most of what's in the trailer was split by hand so it took some time to get a load. Fortunately, none of it split really hard since it was all still frozen on the inside. On the way back out to the street, the first snow drift almost got me. I didn't make it to the street and almost couldn't back up. I took a couple more tries and finally made it out to the street. When I got home, I wanted to put the trailer behind my house so I had more snow drift fun. At least this one wasn't quite as bad. Then when I was cleaning out the stove, I saw that the rope seal around the door was starting to pull loose so I put some more adhesive on it so no fire tonight. I have a feeling that the seal won't stick so I'll pick up another seal install kit tomorrow. At least I got to drive the truck again today.

 

[Old Goat]

I see your problem, you don`t have a tractor with cup holders to push the snow out of the way.


Goat

 

[nelstomlinson]

Goat, that says it's for GM valves? Is this what we use for our old Fords, too? Or do you have a custom setup?

 

[Brian VT]

I finished off the load with some old locust from another stack

Great stuff if you can find it. It's the 4th highest BTU of all firewood.
It was more common in VT than here in Maine.
But we have lots of Beech here. Almost as good. And most trees in my area are red oak. Also good stuff.
I don't burn wood since I left VT. I really do miss it. But I don't have the trees to cut here and I don't want to buy it.
I plugged our fireplace here with a propane insert that even has remote control. Pathetic, yes. But it also works when we loose electricity, which is not uncommon here. I'm getting too old to make firewood anyway.

 

[Brian VT]

The single digit temps here finally notified me that my batteries weren't as good as I assumed they were. No start.
I "upgraded" the starter this fall but didn't notice a huge difference. I was a bit disappointed.
I just threw 2 new 850 CCA batteries in there (1,000 CCA not in stock :-() and holy crap! It seemed like the starter could flip the truck over! lol

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Great stuff if you can find it. It's the 4th highest BTU of all firewood.
It was more common in VT than here in Maine.

Yes it is. It's pretty common around here. The last big load that I cut back in October was all locust. I still had green leaves on the trees when we cut them down so it probably won't all be ready to burn next winter.

I don't want to buy it.

I can't blame you there. Buying firewood is usually a rip off.

The single digit temps here finally notified me that my batteries weren't as good as I assumed they were. No start.
I "upgraded" the starter this fall but didn't notice a huge difference. I was a bit disappointed.
I just threw 2 new 850 CCA batteries in there (1,000 CCA not in stock :-() and holy crap! It seemed like the starter could flip the truck over! lol

I had that exact same experience with mu truck. That is aside from the batteries which I'm still waiting on. Today, at 34*, it sounded great.

 

[ttman4]

Today what did I do with my truck........?????
Well lets see....,,,,, Ho-Hummmm.
I had trouble cranking my truck cause BOTH my thumbs are flat wore out from twiddlin both of them for the last 2+ weeks. Watching all this nasty weather & I can't get outside & do anything!! Finally 40* but 8" snow still on ground today tho.

I finally decided to go out there & crank Bessie even with my sore wore out thumbs, drive her down to the mailbox & back.........Got down there to mailbox & it was all bent & mis-shapen!!!! (I guess snowplow got it)
Anyway it was stuffed full of JUNK MAIL!!!! (Junk mail makes good fire starter!!)

Then after I twiddeled both thumbs some more I turned round & drove Bessie back up here to the house.

Me & Bessie......That's what we did!!!!

 

[Brian VT]

We'd have folks (usually recent transplants "from away") complain publicly about the town's snow plowing.
They soon usually had no mailbox. ;-)
I'm not including you in that group. It just reminded me of that. lol

 

[klook]

I can't believe you moved North from VT. I spent most all of 52 years in Maine and when I moved I jumped all of New England and landed in Tenn.....and damned if the weather didn't find me after 11 years. You can have it back anytime. I have burned my last stick of wood ever. Well, I like a firepit in the backyard and camping....lol.

 

[Brian VT]

This winter has been disappointing to me. The ice on the lake wasn't safe to fish or skate on until this past week.
And it's still not safe to ride our snowmobiles on.
I may need to move further north.

 

[DrCharles]

I heat my house with wood (and propane as backup). The wood blocks come from a sawmill 7 miles away for $35 a ton. They used to fill my IDI or even my F-350 flatbed for $50 (sort of still counts as a "pickup load") until they figured out they could make more money scaling it. So my cost for 2.5 tons (in the F-350) doubled... still much cheaper than propane.
During the Arctic air cold wave all last week, though, I made many trips to the basement feeding the furnace in single-digit temps. Got some exercise, anyway...

 

[DrCharles]

Today I tried to take the trash out (drop location is 1/4 mile from my driveway)... Sunday night and Monday morning we had freezing rain. Temp above freezing since Mon. afternoon, and up to 40F now, so I put the trash in the bed and headed out. The driveway was perfectly clear, just wet.
But the dirt road is a sheet of ice with water on top. Only way I could move straight ahead was to straddle the crown of the road... no place to turn around so I kept going. Then I was unable to back up! Parked it half in the ditch and walked home with the dog. HE has 4WD and studs for traction
Just tried again... it's melting, but no dice yet.

 

[Brian VT]

That would have been fun to watch. Slow motion chaos. lol