New From New York

[Skyhawktrainer]

Well, How do I begin: My travels to this site is a long story:
To Start - I have been waiting more then 35 years to be able to but a boat, I have put it off so many times over the last 10 for a varied number of reasons, We had to buy a House, my wife HAD to have a new car, etc - each time the $$ in my boat fund went somewhere else more important. Well, that being said, a couple of years ago I had to have a triple bypass, after that I decided I wasn't going to wait any longer. When my wife had to have a new car I told her that we would get a vehicle that could tow a boat: She agreed, much to my surprise. We went to the local dealer and she fell in love with a 2002 tracker, I asked the salesman if it could pull about 3000lb, we would have gone to the next model up if we had to but, he must have thought that he would lose the sale so he just said let me check on that then came back and said SURE it will.
Move fwd a few years as my fund grew back and I go searching for my long awaited boat. I find a couple and they look good. I am on my way to put the $$ down on the one I wanted and decide (thank god) to stop at the local trans place to arrange for the hitch, I am informed that this vehicle couldn't pull itself let alone a 3000 lb boat and trailer. I go to the dealer to vent and guess what - the salesman had been fired over 2 years ago for the same type of honest dealing, nothing in writing - out of luck!
All this history brings to the reason I am here: Since I know so much about trucks, yea right, I begin to ask various local experts what I should get to Pull my new boat, also (big surprise) my wife decides to trade in the tracker on another new car, at least this one gets good milage. I get all kinds of advice , you have to get at least a 1/2 ton truck, a 3/4 ton truck, whatever you do don't buy a Ford Exploder, yep that what they called them at the local tranni
shop. Chev Blazer - too small. So long story short, yea I know - too late for that, I bought a 1988 Chev K3500 Silverado with 73k for milege, it had been sitting for almost 5 years in a garage. It seemed to run fine and according to the spec's should pull my boat x2. I took the truck to the dealer and they went over it, new tuneup, oil change, the whole 9 yards. 2 days later the check engine light came on and has been on since, I asked the dealer and they said it would take awhile to reset and since I only use the truck to tow the boat that could be some time.The day after I bought it the pass side window wouldn't open so I had the local glass shop replace it and as it turned out the drivers side also, it was ready to fall it was so rusted. I knew the A/C did not work and replaced the compressor, works great. Every thing is as it should be with the universe.
I go and pick up my boat and away we go, for appox 5 weeks we just went local, no highway yet, and the truck pulled the boat like it didn't know it was there steep hills, bad boat launches - I'm a happy camper.
Appox a month ago I decide to take the boat on a trip that requires the highway. I'm in cruise control going appox 65 mph, I get about 20 miles to the 1st long hill and the speed begins to drop as it goes up the hill, when it drops in gear the whole motor sound like someone put a grenade under the hood. The motor is backfiring, the truck is bucking and I actually thought it was going to blow the motor. I get off the highway and drive on a local road to a station - the truck is running great even up a steep hill. They look it over and found nothing wrong. I got back on the highway and soon the same thing happened. I got back off and as soon as I was off the hwy going appox 45 -55 no problems. At this point I was at the site I was heading. The Trip back was just as bad, at one point there was a loud bang and then I was running on open pipes. I took the truck to the local exhaust shop and it had blown the whole ass end of the cat right off. I was going to need a whole new exhaust system. So ok, maybe that's why it was running so bad, but only on the hwy? New exhaust and a week later I make another trip, Same Thing!!
I can't imagine why it runs so well on local roads even at 55 mph up steep hills but can't get out of it's own way on the hwy. I went to a trans place and described the problem, they said that if the tranny was causing this problem it would happen at any speed on any hill. I have the truck at a shop
that has been around for years and has all the computer equip. In the mean time I rented a Ford Explorer that had a tow pkg and even with a 6 cyl it pulled the boat, motor and trailer with a full tank of gas, 40 gal and the explorer had a full tank - and it did it with no problem.
I ask again - why would a truck work so well local and die on the hwy. And thanks to whomever is still reading this at this point of the story.