Forty Years with My Truck

[rpatowers]

Thanks, folks! It's funny how our trucks mean so much to us and seem to take on a spirit and a life of their own. I grew up in my truck. If only it could talk ... or maybe I should be happy that it can't!

I have a folder containing receipts from just about everything I've done to my truck. I was looking through it yesterday and I found receipts for the Armstrong Tru Trac tires. I bought three sets in about five years - they just didn't last very long on my truck. I used to put a lot of miles on it when I was a kid.

I can't remember exactly what brand of roll bar I had. I think it was a "Hobart," but I may be completely off on this. I also had a home-made grill bar on my truck for many years. It saved me one time - a car in front of me lost a muffler and it appeared to be coming right at my face. But it came down and hit the grill guard and got sucked underneath the truck. Thank you grill guard!

I also had a set of re-cap tires on it for a short time. One of them (front right) exploded while I was driving down Highway 99 (in California). I was stuck between a semi truck and the rail of the bridge I was on, almost completely out of control. I was heading for the rail and just missed it and drove into a field (thank you God!). There was some costetic damage to the body but otherwise things turned out well. Pretty scary while it was happening.

I cut and sold firewood with my truck for about four years. I would say my truck has hauled over 100 loads of wood. That's hard on a 1/2 ton pickup.

My truck has many off-road miles. It was my primary hunting vehicle until I bought my ATV about 13 years ago. Now I don't have to take up into the hills and beat it up any more.

My truck is now retired, like I am. No more hard work. But this gives me the opportunity to fix it up a bit and keep it nice. So I will be doing a bit of work to it next year: new break system, new steering system, and new cab interior. I need to make it more confortable to dirve. Comfort didn't matter a lot when I was 17.

Well, I'm rambling again. Thanks for your kind messages!