The "No problem, everything is fine" thread.
 

I have been thinking that , usually when somebody posts here, it is because of a problem or breakdown with the truck. This may make it seem to watchers that there are a lot of problems and can seem a little negative. So here's your chance to tell everyone just how good your rig is treating you. Mine has been a real dream for the past several years, once I got the brakes sorted out. I have made the nearly 1000 mile round trip to Mexico about twenty times in the last few years and the old girl gets me there and back again every time. Tell us your good story and let's inject some more positivity into the forum...Mark

Just took a cross state trip to East central AK and back. On the approx 600 mile round trip I averaged 20mpg doing 65 most of the time. No hint of any kind of problem. Just wished my cruise control worked.

All of our 1st gens are over 20 years old so there is bound to be problems especially considering many were neglected before we got them. Mine has been awesome, it's done everything I wanted it to do except give me cold a/c for the last month. [laugh]

But having said that it didn't work when I got it and the compressor was locked up. I believe it was like that for a long time too as the guy I bought it from hardly ever used it. I should have replaced the condenser when I fixed the a/c the first time so it's really my fault I'm having issues with it now and replacing the compressor again.

Hopefully that will all be fixed by this weekend and all will be right with the world again. :cheers:

I picked up my 91.5 2.5 years ago for $1900 out of a field and I have put about 80k miles on it since without it being down 1 single day for repairs. I put brakes and tires on it and changed the fluids and knocked all the wasp nests off of it. AC blows cold, Cruise, PW, PL and power mirrors all work too. It wont win any beauty contests but its rust free and now that I have my 93 on the road me and my 14 y/o son are going to give the 91.5 a makeover so shes ready when he turns 16. Best money I've ever spent on a vehicle.

That is what this thread is all about, the good times that these old pieces of machinery gives us, that far outweigh the not so good times. Any vehicle is going to need tires, batteries, brakes and windshield wipers, but not many vehicles can be so useful, relatively economical and a joy to drive. They can go as fast as you care to make them go, they can haul about as much as a normal human being wants and you can work on them yourself. There are not too many other vehicles that can say the same...Mark

TRUTH. Plus I've become kind of fond of the rattles and wind noise [laugh]. I drive mine 80 miles round trip per day plus pull the boat around on weekends. Now that the Ext cab Duallie is on the road its like driving a limo.

I must say i dont particularly like the rough ride and wind noise BUT when i go on a long road trip there is nothing that beats the old tractor with windows down (no AC).

Yeah but you live up north, where I live the heat index is 110 today. [laugh]

Oh Yeah!!! We don't need no index to reach 110 [duhhh][duhhh]. I have been in Mexico for the past month or so and the day I got here it was 53 degrees C., That's 127.4 F. ouch We both know that it really doesn't matter after 110 or so [coffee]...Mark

I racked up 1100 miles on my pile last week, and it did very well. The drive train is plain worn out, no A/C or radio, but it didn't leave me stranded. You can't beat the reliability of these things, and good fuel mileage too. Having a Kelderman rear air ride and some decent front springs makes the ride real nice too.

Oh ya!?! well our heat index today is about 68F [laugh].

Granted we are having a much cooler/wet spring than usual.

I bought my POS a few years back, and I've put literally...over...$20k + into it, including the purchase price. Now this isn't upgrades alone, as most of it went to making the truck reliable.

Why ? Because I can't buy a new truck that looks like this, rides like this, and performs like this now a days. Where else would I get a new truck that shakes my wife's kidneys to death, makes her cranky as he!! in any ride over an hour long, and still enjoy hearing the roar of that 5.9 over her complaining. Nothing better than that.[laugh]

I get into the beast every day...

It starts.

It smells like a bus running in a school parking lot

The sound annoys the JO neighbor I cannot stand the sight of.

It doesn't have a great turning radius (it's actually wider than my Fuso Box truck)

It HATES potholes.

It makes people look crosseyed at me when I'm traveling down the highway, come across a bridge seam, and my head bounces all over the place like a chihuahua on a rice burner's dash.

It looks cool.

I get big "thumbs up" from just about every Ford Guy with an OBS ford out there.

I get bigger "thumbs up" from any other old dodge truck guy... well except for the one guy who pulled up and said the best thing he ever did with his dodge truck was sell it.. (he was a real wanker)

I enjoy the fact that I can fix just about anything on it.

Long rides on nice smooth highways give me a big boner (don't tell my wife as she'll run from me as usual)

Did I mention it starts EVERY DAY ????


Yeah, it can be a pain from time to time, but it's like your smelly old dog that you love so much. You won't ever get rid of her, and if you and the wife divorced, you'd give her all of it just to keep the old dog...

[redface]

BINGO![laugh]

So T, are you saying no problem, everything is fine? [coffee]...Mark

I haven't been on the boards much in the last 3 years. So yup, all is good. Hey she has a few things I would upgrade or tweak, but the old dog has been there everyday for me for the last 12 years.

Only 53 degrees Celsius? Man, I would have loved to have had that kind of weather when I was barbequing for the Soldiers assigned to us in Iraq. We were doing anywhere from 70 to 120 steaks at a time, not counting brats, ribs, and anything else we could cook on the grill.


Back on topic .... my '08 has been a fantastic truck for me so far. I don't have a lot of miles on it (24,173 when I looked at it today) but it's made a trip to Vegas last year, a trip to Idaho Falls in '09, and lots of shorter local trips (Cascade/McCall, Twin Falls/Shoshone Falls, Weiser, etc.) making day trips all over here.

I'll post some pics up of the last air filter change I did on it, and it was MUCH needed.



-Kris

The 91.5 and I spent a lot of quality miles and years together. I can't complain about the $ vs miles I spent on that truck. It was cheap to maintain and operate compared to a gas version of basically the same truck. It would still be going strong if someone had not murdered it.

My '93 is my weekend truck, so whenever I use it, it means I'm going to ride dirt bikes, a track day on my gsxr, or otherwise having fun (except when wife wants 5 yards of bark) so I always associate it with good times. I love that I have to yell "CLEAR" out the window when I start it up when people are standing near the 4" mosquito fogger nozzle (tail pipe). I also love when young women in a hurry have to jam their brakes on while I freewheel during the process of rowing through the 17 inches of travel between 2nd and 3rd gear. 1st Gen's are not "great trucks" by contemporary standards, but these trucks have heaps of heart and soul that you'll never find in anything new.

I bought an 89 D350 dually w/5 speed when they first came out and loved that truck but had to sell it as a standard cab wasn't practical when the family came along. Since then I've had a 92 CC Dakota, a 96 3500 Ram ext cab dually V10, an '06 Ram 2500 quad 4x4, 48RE, an 08 GMC 3500 Duramax crew dually, an 09 Chevy ext cab 2500 Duramax and now my 92 CC 1st gen. Even though the GMs were pretty nice trucks I'm glad they are gone. PITA to work on and they just don't have that diesel vibe like a 12V has. [laugh] And the fuel mileage was terrible, not much better than the V10.

Plus I've always been a Mopar guy at heart.

Well, I'm heading home tomorrow and I fully expect the old girl to get me home as always. I think I'll fill up down here, because I think the pendulum has swung back and diesel is again cheaper down here, I'll report how good she does when I get home...Mark

Well, I assume you know that answer, now don't you buddy ?


I love the pig. It starts EVERY DAY. Just because it decided to pee itself all over the garden state parkway, doesn't mean I don't still care about it. My wife still loves me, and I pee myself all the time... Just part of getting old, I guess...

[redface]

I just have 1 word for that: Pampers. Besides, you wouldn't sell a baby that peed on the Parkway, would you?...Mark

Well she got me home like always, I guess I'm not surprised...Mark

I have a/c again! All is right with the world now. [laugh]

In fact it is working so well it even cycled the compressor sitting still. That is something it has never done since I've owned it.

I felt a change in the force yesterday, that must have been it. What all did you do to it?...Mark

Compressor, condenser, evaporator, drier, h-valve, heater control valve and flushed the hoses. Pretty much everything. I had done it all before but didn't replace the condenser and there must have been trash left in it from the old compressor. It took out my new compressor so this time I replaced the condenser and flushed everything again. It's working great now. Soon to get a blower relay mod and couple of small pusher fans on the condenser for those stop and go traffic times.

The new condensers are a better design for r134a than the old ones, I highly recommend a new one.

Where did you get it? When I have to open it up again I'll replace it...Mark

Rock Auto, $104 plus the ride.

Gotcha' Thanks ...Mark :thanks:

I love that I can sit in the engine bay and reach just about everything but the oil drain plug. I love that it has the fastest power windows in the universe; like a guillotine with rocket boosters. I love that my father-in-law's golf balls, son's thrown rocks and every other manner of debris shot from underneath my lawn mower have yet to leave so much as a scuff. I love that I can do just about every maintenance procedure with the same 10 hand wrenches. I love that I can beat the brakes off of a brand new Powerstroke with a tenth of the budget, 2 fewer cylinders and 30-year-old technology. I love that I've had more than one $10k-plus offer to buy it from random strangers and I can turn them down without a moment's hesitation. I love that I can look down and see 160,400 miles on the odometer and be thankful I have a low-mileage truck. I love that blow-by isn't a death sentence. I love that my VE pump fires the engine by simply bumping the key, even when it's freezing outside. I love the sound that rain makes when it bounces off of that old, Dodge sheet metal. I love that my entire front clip comes off in under an hour by removing less than 30 bolts. I love it even more that the body lines always end up perfect when I slap it back together. I love (and hate) that I'm the guy with the first gen that gets called to pull everyone else out of ditches/mud/fields/up hills/etc. I love how I never worry whether or not my 4x4 is going to engage this time or not. I love that my fuel gauge sits at a quarter tank for what seems like hundreds of miles. I love the looks on people's faces when they ask me what the block heater plug is for and I tell them it's a hybrid.

Most of all, I love that not everybody has one.

Wow, I am going to change that a little and send it to my girlfriend [coffee], nothing like waxing poetic on a Friday, good job...Mark

It's all yours, bud.

Block heater wire is because it is a Hybrid…haha that is a good one...

I gotta say that this truck has been trouble free since I replaced the master cylinder and turned off the RWAL lights. I didn't even know that the starter was dragging when I had the original rebuilt and replaced it, so I have to say, No problems everything is fine [coffee][coffee]...Mark

The beast has taken a bit of resources and time to get in shape. Was pretty fine body and rust wise when I bought it, but had been neglected and mistreated by dumb wrench benders.

Last month I stabbed it under the fiver and hit the road. Put 5300 miles on it in 2 weeks. Burned all of 8 ounces of oil in that time. Had a few maintenance issues on the road, but none of them were on the truck. It just ran like it was made to.

Was 2nd owner of my 91 in 94 and it was most reliable rig id had (with my anal maint), and still going strong @ 300+k. Bought 93 precisely because of that, and, after fixing po's vise grip monkey wrenching, it's been the same.

It sometimes seems as if these truck are falling all over themselves because we focus on the problems posted. But all of them are at least 23 years old and, even though they have their foibles, the vast majority of them never end up in a %^*?ing truck thread. I have a few choices of what to drive. If I want to go to the store, I take the bug. If I want to go to the store in New York or Mexico. I take the Cummins. It is never a decision that I have to make at the time, it is already made. The best purchase I have ever made...Mark


As a side note, my tdi is about 13 months old and it has just over 7 k miles on it. It is going to be a smokln' deal for someone when I croak in about 50 years. P.S. My 60th is soon...

I bought my truck for $3000 14 months ago. I have put about that much into it in that time. Hasn't let me down yet. A/C, trans, seats, and radio all work as they should. I did have a small problem with injectors or the pump but after replacing the injector and putting on another 2000 miles, it seems to be fine.

Tomorrow I start a 1300 mile round trip to Tulsa OK for Dyno for Dex.

okay so bought my first gen just about nine years ago now for one dollar. no third gear body and interior where pretty rough . :cool:now though and getting better everday

[laugh]:thumbsup: