it was right about this time of year …

My niece by marriage – 15yo at the time – came over to visit us in W’burg Virginia one summer. She’s from Turkey.
Now VA was a place I worked, not a place I called home – that was Idaho. So … it’s road-trip time – off To See America.

I like pickups. For one thing – a major thing – I can sit in one without having to squeeze in and not feel cramped once I get there. My aught-2 F250 had been over the river, through the woods, to Grandma’s house, up the hill, over the top, and down the hill … and tens of thousands of miles on Interstates. Close to 250,000 miles – having bought the truck new in ’02 and this being 2015.

There was that time coming down the Engineer Pass road to US550 …
Now, if you’ve not come down from Engineer Pass … aka “Ouray County Road 18” … it’s a fine road to test your suspension – and nerves.
No problems for me; I’d been up and down this road many times since the 80s.

It’s not well-maintained …

These are the good sections. Too busy trying to stay on the road in the bad sections to take pictures.

I’m not convinced any maintenance had been done since the 80s.

To tell the truth, the “road” in places was more like crawling along a rocky creek bed than a county road. Going up the road is much easier on a vehicle than coming down. Perhaps the road has been “improved” since I last travelled it – but it’s advertised as a jeep road so maybe not.

So I’m coming over the pass from Silverton and start downhill heading to Ouray. The road is getting rough – but there’s no turning around with a full-size, crew cab PU until I get much further downhill.

Someplace on a steep section, the front end of the truck dropped off a rock a little too hard for goodness.
But it didn’t seem to affect anything … at the time … so I drove on.

It was all 2W highway driving returning from Colorado to Virginia. No problems …

So I’m back in Virginia. Citified Virginia. Very little need for 4WD in that region – but for some no-longer-remembered reason, I went to put the truck in 4WD … and the front-end went all squirrely. Unsafe squirrely. Fine in 2WD though.

I don’t have the tools or the facilities to do any serious repair work, so off to a reputable mechanic. So I thought.

Pickups are not common ’round those parts; pickups with Idaho plates almost unheard of.
Maybe that’s why the mechanics covered up their “repair”; truck seemed fine when I pulled out of the shop.
Or maybe they didn’t know what they were doing … Or maybe they did.

But I didn’t know that at the time.

10-days off work. Load up the truck and get ready to boogie. Let’s go See The USA. Even if not in a Chevrolet.

We leave coastal Virginia and drive I-64. I’m OK driving long periods of time at night; we’re going straight through.

No traffic to speak of, not even semis. 2:30AM. Southern Illinois. Middle of nowhere (for back east). Probably doing 75-80mph.

BANG!!!

Looking behind me in the rearview mirror, I see sparks flying out from under the truck, leaving a starry orange trail in the dark.
And the truck no longer responds to the throttle. The engine’s still running – luckily – it does respond to the brakes.

I’m not sure where I am except it’s been 20 miles or more since I passed near a town and at least 10 more before I pass the next one – which happened to be Mt Vernon where I-64 and I-57 cross.

Now, there’s probably any number of good mechanics in town … if I were a local and knew who they were. I call 911 and ask for a wrecker. Who else am I going to call? And I’m hoping they’re not the type to tell me to get off the emergency line. They were bored though – we chatted a bit and they sent someone out. At 2:30AM. It took a while but I wasn’t going anywhere.

Mrs DT and niece were cool about it. What were they going to do about it anyway?

Gave me time to look under the truck. Gave me time to wander back along the road picking up pieces.

Didn’t really see a viable choice but to have the wrecker take me to the Ford dealer. Expensive option but at least I’d have some recourse if things went south. Wrecker pulled me into the dealer’s back lot and was kind enough to take the girls to a local hotel – let them get some sleep; I’ll stay and babysit the (loaded with stuff) truck.

Shop opens at 7:30AM

Oh, dear …

It was worse in the light of day when the truck was up on the rack.

The transfer case had literally exploded. Tore up the housing of the transmission as well.
Can you say $$$$?

They’re about $6 grand into repair work when it appeared there was damage to the front wheel linkage as well.

I have a 13yo truck with just shy of 250,000 miles on it (would have hit that milestone before we got back to Ol’ Virginny).

It’s time to consider alternatives. Expensive ones. And I’m at a dealer.

There were three pickups on the lot.

Papa Bear: One was a super-dooper, loaded down with all the options.
Cost more than a Corvette – something near $80k. For a pickup???

Mama Bear: One was a bottom feeder. Nothing but the bare basics … and 2WD with normal cab. Can’t see three of us travelling a few thousand miles on a bench seat. And 4WD was mandatory. And I owed the dealer $6k as it stood with no working vehicle.

Baby Bear: The last one was Just Right! Sort of.
4WD F250. Check.
Crew Cab. Check.
A few bells and whistles I didn’t care one way or another about. I wouldn’t have ordered them. Like heated side mirrors. Or white.
(of course, the advantage to a white Ford pickup is witness identification of a crime: “It was a white pickup, officer“. But I’m not young enough for that to be an issue anymore)

Given my situation, I think the dealer treated me fairly. They waved the repair cost, I signed over the title to the ’02 truck, and paid MSRP for the 2015 version. The old truck had the V10 engine: 362 horsepower and 460 lb-ft of torque. I suspect the engine alone was worth the dealer cost of repairs (certainly not the $6k it would have cost me).

We walked around the lot – the guy flat out told me we could “negotiate” but whatever deal we made, my total cost wasn’t going to change.

I signed the paperwork and went to the hotel to pickup the girls. They weren’t aware of what was going on at the dealer’s. Niece was very surprised to have left a red pickup the night before to continue our journey the next day in a white pickup.

Hit 1000.0 miles at Cheyenne


Someplace out in back-country Utah, niece got her first driving lesson. 20 miles or so on gravel roads. Brand new truck.

I took over when we got back to an Interstate …

Still the truck I use. Getting a bit long in the tooth these days. Given both the cost and surveillance features of the new ones, I’ll keep this one going as long as I can.