Another friend of ours (Jay from Chicago) volunteered to drive so we all
rendezvoused in KC Friday night, drove all night in Jay's nice, new
Suburban and picked the truck up in GA Saturday afternoon. Turns out
this truck had been refitted rather recently with a fresh turbo-diesel.
872 miles on it! Man does she run good. Punch the starter button and
she purrrrrrs. Cruises great up to about 53 mph, then a rather strong
vibration sets in, back-end hops back and forth. Hmmm... We decide to
check the air pressure in the tires. Fronts were 40. Rears vary from
zero to 20. After topping all of them up to the recommended 50 she's a
little better, but the hop still comes back a certain speeds. Whats
causing this vibration? And what else didn't this guy check? We spend
the night in Atlanta after a very long day.
Day two, Doris gets her oats. We head out of Atlanta on I-75 for
Chatanooga.
Jay is following in the Suburban. He comes up beside us and flags us
over.
We just dumped a S**t load of oil all over the freeway. His windshield
is a mess. He says. "You should have seen the car directly behind you."
Inspection reveals the rear oil pan drain plug has fallen out and the
front is loose. Jay and I run off to find anything that will plug the
hole and a case of oil. We return with an assortment varying from a
brass plug (that fit) to an expandable rubber plug for a boat. 12
quarts brings it right up (only lost half) and we're back on the road.
Soon we are in the hills and the truck is pulling them no problem. I
think twice Steve had to downshift to forth. Things are looking good
until we notice the back hopping and one tire looks to be hopping more
than the others. We pull Steve over. He has a rear flat. We take it
easy to the next exit that looks like it will have a truck shop. The
guy is an absolute idiot, but the only one it town. He takes the tire
off and apart. Hmmmm... what's this? A spare rim protector? Yup.
Neatly folded and stuck in the tire was a brand new rim protector. If
you've never seen one, its a strip of rubber maybe 10 inches wide and
thick. Real thick! , maybe 1/4 inch. must weigh at least 5 pounds.
Bozo patches the tube, doesn't test it and puts it all back together.
Still leaks. F*** it, put the spare on. Lets get the hell out of here.
No more hop. No more vibration. Either new tires come with new rim
protectors and this was an over-sight, or its some kind of Marine
practicle joke.
So far, so good. What could go wrong next? Nothing. Well, we did find
a burned out turn signal bulb and it needs wiper blades, but we rolled
on into Kansas City 10:30 Monday night. The turbodiesel must get better
gas milage that the multi-fuel. We got about 6.7 to 7 mpg and diesel is
cheap right now
(82.9 in GA, 93.9 in Missouri). Steve's having a blast. We call him
turbo-boy now and have threatened to put an "Ask me about my blower"
sticker on the back. I guess he took it to his local Mil-Veh club
meeting last night. You'd think he'd be sick of it.
jorge
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