So my truck has had a relatively significant Christmas break and I wanted to share the updates with you all. Comments, advice, concerns and questions are welcome and appreciated.
A couple days before the 25th, we installed the new rear bumper finally, a carbon steel 2" ball, and did a few other things in preparation for our road trip to Florida. We were giving our Audi 4000S to my brother to use while he's in college until he graduates, so the W150 would be towing it on a car hauler trailer for over 900 miles. It was definitely not an easy task for the old truck, but if it got the job done (well), then it would receive a new paint job and more "fun" upgrades.
The car was loaded with gifts and tools, the truck bed was loaded with pet supplies, clothes, extra gas, more tools, paint, and much more that I'm forgetting, and in the cab were me, my wife, a good friend of ours, food and our cat. Quite the crew!
On the 24th, we arrived near Daytona Beach. Rough trip stats are as follows:
-about 12 MPG average driving at 70 MPH for most of the trip
-chugged along at about 45 MPH up the mountains
-a normally 12 hour trip was done in about 15 hours with this payload
-burned about 1 qt of oil (mostly staying in gear going down the mountains is my guess)
-transmission got a little warm but never acted up
-truck brakes were good, but trailer brakes were funky towards the end
While at my folks, my dad (professional painter) helped figure out the Monstaliner paint I got for the truck and we did some of it down there. The rest was finished when we got back home. Truck also got some amber rear side markers and license plate lights as well as fun tow hooks.
So anyway, I'm sure there are a few details I left out, but that's ok. The bottom line is that the truck has proved itself to me and now it looks much better than it did and is more capable. Weight down with tires and wheels in the back, it more than handled the 3 inches of snow we got this week and I'm excited to get more snow to have fun in. On to the pics (links)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-K0pEm3zFVuckxKY2FweUZSekU/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-K0pEm3zFVuZER6OUtscXhrQWc
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-K0pEm3zFVudUhqVHJhV0NQVGs
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-K0pEm3zFVuZ3FNaGJPbnVjeVE
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-K0pEm3zFVuS0M4bG9pZk56cU0
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-K0pEm3zFVuNDZkdGw3aElZVjQ
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-K0pEm3zFVudThLeGd0R29uamM
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-K0pEm3zFVuck9RcWZvN0ZmMWs
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-K0pEm3zFVua3pFeWhBUUVHcG8
Thanks for checking it out!
-Ben
i'm still working on my homemade grill.
edit: forgot to mention that