General Dentside Chit-Chat

[bucks77ford]

I've put quite a few miles on my truck so far. Soon, the truck will sit again while I fix a few things. I still need to replace my pinion seals and fix my rear main seal. I also want to get it set up to pull my 27ft Jayco Camper I recently bought. I pull it right now with my 99 expedition, but would love to pull it locally with my truck. Since I put that rear fuel tank in, mounting a hitch will be tricky. I will probably have to get a custom one made. My step bumper is rated at 8000lbs and 800 TW, but the bumper mounts are only rated at 5000 lbs. My camper is only 4500 lbs dry, but that's still pushing the limits on those bumper hitches and my bumper is way to high to hook up the camper.

 

[dakonthemountain]

I've been driving Burt up and down the mountain for the last 3 weeks. Didn't get to pull the travel trailer (22') but I've been using him to move furniture for friends, and went to the beach for a day. I've put around 1,000 miles on him in the last month. Still got to get the wiring fixed on the trailer so I can pull it with him!! buck, my trailer weighs about the same as yours dry and I too would not use the bumper to pull it. My hitch is bolted/welded to the frame and is rated for 12,500lbs, though I wouldn't do that to Burt!
Dak

 

[LEB Ben]

I pooped a litte...

As some of you may have read, I have had minimal luck with vehicles lately, and I thought for a few seconds my luck was going to be even worse yesterday. So I'm leaving work, on my way home...crusing about 55mph. I came up on this semi, gave a Red a little more gas cuz I hate being in semi's blind spots. As I'm giving it more gas I'm right at the rear set of tires on the trailer. I hear an absolutely horrid noise and nothing but white smoke. I figure great, blew this thing up too. A quick check on my gauges shows everything checking fine...so I let off the gas enough see one of the tires locked up on the trailer and now the trailer is a little squirrely. Now I was afraid the trailer was gonna tip (I was being an alarmist) and figured with my recent luck I'd be involved in whatever were to ensue. Luckily though, some how the tire freed up, the driver regained complete control of his rig again and I sped on by.


So all in all...no real problems for me, just one, or two, rather, of those instances where your heart drops and you think to yourself...WTF else can go wrong.

 

[dakonthemountain]

Don't ever ask what else can go wrong!!! Cause something will! It always seems to come in groups too.

Glad you didn't have an incident with Red.

I took today off work to fix the trailer wiring... so here I go!
Dak

 

[fatherdoug]

So the trailer wasn't the only thing that left skid marks? That's scarry.

 

[LEB Ben]

Don't ever ask what else can go wrong!!! Cause something will! It always seems to come in groups too.

Glad you didn't have an incident with Red.

I took today off work to fix the trailer wiring... so here I go!
Dak

Thanks Dak...it was only a matter of a couple seconds, but it was just one of those instances where everything stops and you're like 'what just happened'. I'm glad there wasn't an incident with Red either, while I enjoy driving her...the more she's on the road, the more paranoid I get. Goos luck with the wiring.

So the trailer wasn't the only thing that left skid marks? That's scarry.

HAHA...no kidding. Like I said, it was only over the course of a few seconds, so quick as a matter of fact, I didn't even smell the burning rubber until the truck fully recovered...but it freaks you out none the less.

 

[LEB Ben]

Woot woot...my cam kit got shipped out of Summit's Georgia distribution center today. SHould be here in the next 2-4 business days.

 

[LEB Ben]

Went to a truck pull this weekend. Ford's dominated, didn't win every bracket, but there were alot of them. Dentside specific, there was a 77 100, with 4" of lift and a 400, that took second in the light-street use bracket. He came in second (30 truck class) to his brother (a high school budyd of mine) driving a K10. There were alot of other dentsides scattered throughout that class.


Then in the heavy-street class, a 79 250 SC on 4" of lift with a 400 came in second to a 200? 250 with a 6.8. This was about a 20 truck class.


Then here was a 95 350 CC that straight dominated the Unlimited class. The guy's name is Eric, and was the same guy that offered to tow my Brother's boat in the parade...a really nice guy. Anyway, he does TGW events, and he had this 350 on 36" drag slicks at all 4 corners. Not only that, but his 1200hp 557 could smoke all 4. It was really impressive. There wasn't a truck that could compete with him. His championship run was against a big Dodge on 46" Claws, Eric's second run, he opened the door, stood up and dragged the Dodge the length of the track...hahaha.



Wish the OL wouldn't have forgotten the camera, because there were some gorgeous dents. I didn't realize there were so many good looking trucks that were pullers. But this was a statewide event for 4x4Cross. Anyway, it was a balst and even cooler seeing the old steel.

 

[LEB Ben]

Great...

...more good news. The last couple of days, I've smelled a faint smell of gas coming from Red, which isn't uncommon after a fill up, and I can usually smell it for a day or two after. Well it's been 3 days since the last fill up. So today I hop back in Red and smell a decent amount of gas. I smell around the gas tank, thought maybe since it was getting real hot the tank was venting. No such luck. Pop the hood, and I see witness marks of fuel coming out of the side of the carb down on to the intake. I guess it's time for a rebuild. Even though I'm disappointed, I'm really impressed with how this carb has held up. I put it on there 8 years ago, and haven't touched it since, because I didn't know chit in high school, and it sat so much and ran so little it was never really a priority to maintain the carb. It's almost enough of an excuse for me to go ahead and pick up one of those anodized aluminum Street Avenger carbs from Holley, that I've been wanting. I'll admit, the engine bay has been neglected in Red since I've had it, doesn't look bad, but it certainly doesn't look like the rest of the truck...so if I get the carb, that might be another great excuse to bling out the engine bay.



Edit...damn, it really is a sickness. I go from needing a $2 seal or gasket to blinging out the engine bay...hahahaha.

 

[taxreliever]

Went to a car show this past weekend with my honey. My wife came along also. Anyways, while driving, I noticed the engine temp and water temp in the radiator was running a little hotter than normal; about 20 degrees hotter, so when we got home, the first thing I checked was the problem; it was my Flex-a-lite dual fans. The fuse and fuse cover just melted. I called Flex-a-lite and they said they've been shipping out at no charge replacement fuses because those ones didn't have the right set up to handle the amperage. They shipped one out today. They said the original recall was in 2004!

So, even though she runs fine without the use of those fans, I'll keep her in the bay until I replace that this weekend or first part of the week. I'm guessing a breaker increasing from 20 amps to 30 amps and running two separate lines to the battery, one for each fan, instead of both running on a single line.

I also still have the regular fan hooked up, which does ok as I said earlier, but I like the fan there because the Chrome pulley is freakin huge and the silver blades fill that huge open space between it and the radiator and still looks cool.

 

[TexasRho83]

Damn Ken, thank God that crap didn't turn into a 5 alarm fire ...

 

[dakonthemountain]

wow! scary! A recall 6 years old? How long have they been in your truck? Thank God it was only the fuse box..
Dak

 

[LEB Ben]

Hey Charles...why did we see your truck on the CL?

 

[TexasRho83]

Hey Charles...why did we see your truck on the CL?

It's still there. I'm pretty low on the $$$ and bills are kicking my a$$ right now. You're probably wondering why it's so high on the $$ but that's because I don't really wanna sell it lol

 

[LEB Ben]

It's still there. I'm pretty low on the $$$ and bills are kicking my a$$ right now. You're probably wondering why it's so high on the $$ but that's because I don't really wanna sell it lol

Well damn...sucks to hear that. When somebody posted the link, I actually said it was priced that way because you didn't want it gone...haha.

 

[TexasRho83]

Good call, Ben lol I won't sell it... I had a guy who had $6k come by and he wanted it, but the tranny had just gone out and he didn't have a way to get it home. God must've intervened lol

 

[76f350spercamprspeal]

Good call, Ben lol I won't sell it... I had a guy who had $6k come by and he wanted it, but the tranny had just gone out and he didn't have a way to get it home. God must've intervened lol

Yeah...God don't want you to sell your dent...

 

[TexasRho83]

Then God needs to pay my bills haha

 

[76f350spercamprspeal]

He'll help ya find a way to do so...

 

[LEB Ben]

He'll help ya find a way to do so...

And a potential way would have been selling is truck. So maybe God did want him to sell his truck.