Just curious. Kinda a bonehead tread, as you all with decent 1stGens are like into just revamping your heap, making the best of what you have, such as me. The reason I ask is, the other day I drove by this kids place that I know. He's in his twenties, and has a single cab W250. Upon close look, I saw that it needed a lot of TLC, and $$ put into it. Same $$ that you and I have all spent, but I think he just didn't know about the wonderful DTR resource we have. Tried telling him about it, but I saw where those suggestions were going. C'mon, I say, you need to fix your steering...he says, can't wait to get these new tires and rims...kids I tell ya
Anyway, drive by his place, and I don't see his ragged W250 anymore, but a clean extra cab W250! Tried calling him to find out where/when he got the new rig, but no answer. It was at that point I realized, in my neck of the woods, if you tried hard enough, clean rigs can be had. I personally know of a firefighter trying to off his 1991, and that thing is sharp.
So, with that said, if you were ever looking to upgrade, collect, or refurbish a 1stGen, how far would you go to get one? Provided the $$ were in budget, and it was promised to you and no one else. Just curious

 

The longest trip I have blown is a 6,200 mile, 12 day long road trip, driving my 240,xxx mile '95 Reg cab 12V 4x4 2500.
Sleeping in the capper of the truck with the old dog and rattling my trailer across the country for a 1st gen I had to have in AZ.
I have problems though with old Dodges.

 

I've got 4 1st gens and the cummins bus. The bus i got 10 miles from the house, the D250 i just purchased was 25 miles from the house a few blocks away from the other D250 donor truck. The crew cab was the longest distance, 130 miles and the D350 i bought from my ol man with 62k on the clock. That being said i believe if i had the cash to buy a restored one or a fixer upper with the cash to restore i would go quite a ways. I've bought, fixed up, collected, scraped all kinds of cars trucks and tractors over the years and the trip to pick up and pulling it out of the weeds is part of the thrill for me. Nothing like pulling an ol Farmall or classic truck out of the bushes and weeds seeing it for the first time in full light sitting on a trailer.

 

Probably about as far as my back yard. I've had everything from the 1993 grail cclb 4x4 W250 getrag 55K cream puff to custom 72 w200 crew cab power wagon. I'm done with the quest for first gens.

But joking aside I'd go no further east than nevada. And anywhere up and down the west coast is fair game.

Case in point, I drove round trip from Sacramento to Seattle (~1500+ miles) for a 700 dollar 1989 W250 sans engine. Non-stop team driving with a friend.

 

If it was something that I really wanted, probably about 500-700 miles max.

I would also do a little investigating and check its background make sure it is not salvage or from a dealer.

I have been ripped off almost every time I bought from recycler and C-List, maybe it is just the people here on the west coast.

Years ago I bought a supposedly running 1300cc VW engine I needed for a core, upon dissembly I found it was full of snails (disgusting).

Jim

 

You can buy them pretty much anywhere on the West Coast because pretty much anything back East is going to be Garbage The Only reason I say Garbage is Rust .I would rather use it for Part's then try to rebuild a Rusty truck .And any Farther then a few hundred miles and I'de just call the Shipping broker I use and have it shipped . Have had fair luck with buying truck's from Pictures .the Worst 1 was from Wyo . guy claimed it had 4000 on a Fresh Engine it turned out it had 85,000 on a Junk Engine .so Buyer Beware .

 

1st time I met you, Pape, was over at Rebals place in YC. I remember telling you about a rig I knew that was for sale and you said you weren't in the market. You were content with that '89 you had... At that time. Years go by, and my garshk! You've got, or been thru all kinds of 1st Gens! I did follow the thread you posted on that sweet W250 with the low miles. Do you still have that one?

 

Vader, I believe you are starting to become like Papecat. Before long, you will have all of these in your backyard...in running operation! Hmmm...which one should I take to the grocery today?

 

I drove from north central Indiana to Laramie, WY to pickup a new cab for my truck. That was a 1150 mile trip each way. I would have went farther if needed.

When I was thinking about getting another truck. I was looking anywhere west of the Mississippi river. I just found sellers that didn't want to put any effort into selling. They thought a couple of bad cell phone pic's was all they needed to send. When asked for quality pic's. No further contact. That's when I decided to rebuild mine.

 

My black dually hands down Augie. I love that darn truck

 

Well, mine is still in process, but I have travelled about 150 miles each way for my 85 crew cab roller, then add to that another 20 miles for a 2nd crew that had a solid roof to donate, then travelled another 200 miles for the 93 d250 drive line donor that was t-boned, about 30 miles for a high pinion 60 front (all of those in my 85 gasser W350 that gets 10mpg), another 80 miles for the divorced 205 to run aforementioned axle.... So far, I have driven 960 miles for parts.

 

1200 miles roundtrip to buy mine

 

With good reason...that is bad a$$ looking and sure enough not too many out there with that look

Sounds like the general consensus is "whatever it takes" I guess. Here in my area, I have a neighbor whose dad keeps his first gen single cab W250 at his place. He tells me his dad is probably going to sell it. From 50 yards away it looks mint. Still sitting under a tree and that's been 5 years since he told me that. I'm staring at that thing every so often. In town 8 miles away there is another cat who has a very well kept 1993 extra cab W250. I always see him and his wife at the bel air parking lot. I keep telling him when he's ready to sell to look me up. Last I looked under his hood, he just did the hydroboost thing. I'd like to pick one up for my son

 

Well, I think it depends quite a bit on where you live.

Oliver probably has me beat, but back in February of 2012, I decided that the blue truck I had been running was going to lose the fight with Berkshire Massachusetts road salt. Mark Nixon convinced me to look at some of the trucks for sale on Craigslist in Phoenix Arizona. Found a nice guy willing to take a lot of pictures selling a truck almost identical to the truck I was running. Bought a one way plane ticket from Albany, NY, to Las Vegas, NV. Took a shuttle bus to Bull Head City, gave the new girl a quick inspection and test drive, laid down 40 franklins, and drove home via the Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, Tucumcari, Memphis, & Nashville. The Arizona truck sat in the garage for three years, and probably rusted more there than it had in the past 20 . . .

I finally gave up on getting the blue truck inspected this spring, and sold it this summer, before moving south. Used the Arizona truck for many trips to move -- I figure I have probably gotten my time and money out of it already, and still aspire to restoring/modding it up as I had originally planned.

If you want a first gen in the rust belt, you are probably going to have to travel for it -- so why not go all the way to the southwest where the sheet metal is in the best shape?

 

Went 1366 miles by train and FIL cab to get my first one. Would go further to get another good one.

Took 4 days to drive it and the fiver I bought with it home. Made several stops at relaticks and friends places to make repairs on both the truck and the trailer.