The plan [Archive] - 3WHeeLeR WoRLD

fabiodriven

02-17-2017, 08:27 PM

Subject to alterations but too late to deviate.

Assuming a lot who will read this have seen my blog, you'll know that my recent trip to Thailand was life altering. Prior to my arrival in Thailand, I had been working myself sick and perpetually tired as a Greater Boston truck driver. I had become a robot and a slave to all of my belongings which I had very little time to use. While away in Thailand on vacation, I got a very focused view of myself back home. It's no secret that I have had some issues from my deployment in Iraq, then just when I thought I was figuring out who I am I get hit with Lyme disease. I am doing extremely well as far as feeling sick from the Lyme disease and I am eternally grateful to my holistic doctor to whom I literally owe everything, however the disease has certainly left it's mark on me in ways I feel will always be with me. So kind of a double whammy between PTSD and Lyme disease, also most likely Gulf War Syndrome now as well.

Upon my return from Thailand, I immediately quit my job. That was not something I had in mind when I went away, however when that plane touched down in Boston I was extremely sad. I watched my fellow drivers through the window of the bus sitting in the same traffic that I was about to immerse myself in again and I pitied them as I was still not working. I wouldn't be working the next day either, but I knew I would "have to" again soon. The thought of it sucked all the light out of me I had just found while I was away. I got an energy back while I was in Thailand that I was concerned would never return, and there was no way I could give that up now because life without that inside of me is not living. Being known best as an integral part of a truck and not much more is not how I will live my life. These people are insane on the roads here, myself included, however I am a trained professional and an extremely good driver. These people are neither of those. I barely had time to do laundry or dishes or sleep, never mind try to go riding on a trike or something. That's also assuming the machine I want to take is operational at that time because I have no time to fix anything either. To put things bluntly, I thought about hanging myself a lot during the day and went to bed with that thought most nights. I am using that term literally. Life was not worth living.

But that was then. You can never expect change without making changes, and changes were due. Major changes. The week before I left for Thailand, I had a passenger in the work truck with me to show him what I do so he could cover me while I was gone. I will never forget his words when he said to me "You won't change anything. You'll come back here and get right back in that seat." Those words echoed in my head after he said them and I immediately responded to him that he really doesn't know me. I had no idea at that moment that my future would head the way it is currently, but if I know me, I knew whatever changes were coming would be big. I just didn't know they would be this big, haha. I figured I would still be driving truck but at a lesser capacity. If I had continued on doing what I was doing, I could have easily ended up dead. That could have been intentional or by accident. I also started to have growing concern for those around me. I was a truck driver in Iraq and we would push other vehicles off the road there, that's what we did. They would flip through the air sometimes and stuff like that, so that is my reality. That is part of what I have experienced first hand in life. Obviously I do know the difference between right and wrong, however most times the first thing that goes through my head is not how you treat other drivers. If you've ever heard someone who knows more than one language describe how they translate, many people still think in their original or "best known" language then translate to themselves in their head. That's kind of what I get. The first thought that crosses my mind instinctually is something that I have to consciously dismiss. The fact that it's a thought in my mind at any capacity is not right. Obviously it's wrong to push other vehicles off the road and for the last 13 years of driving since I returned from war I have never done that, but I do have to consciously suppress that consideration. I do bully other vehicles though which seems perfectly normal to me, however I've been learning more about how extreme my driving is. It appears reckless to onlookers, however I always exhibit extreme control of everything I'm doing in the vehicle at all times. Regardless, just because it seems OK to me does not mean it's acceptable to society, even though I am usually on the right side of the law. Basically I have to accept what I am and deal with the hand I've been dealt. The VA asked a lot of questions in '04 '05 after I got home about me continuing to drive truck. I would never let them touch that aspect of my life and told them to frig off. I'm a gear jammin rig jockey and that's what I know and that's what I do. I did it successfully for a very long time with very few incidents, however it's time to stop. PTSD + Lyme + Boston = no go. There is no good outcome in this situation, so time to change.

I decided my own health, happiness, and well being must be paramount and come before money and how society might view me. I've given up (for the most part) on the opposite sex. I don't plan on getting married or having kids anymore and I'm not going to concern myself. I'm 37 years old and for the first time in my adult life I feel completely happy with the direction my future is heading and content by myself (with one cat). Being truly happy on my own I feel is part of the healthiest I can be mentally. For me, when things are not going well mentally, they are not going well at all. Everyone has bad days, but when I have a bad day things get really bad really fast. I had my boss write in his words what he felt of me in a letter to the VA that I had to supply to them, and I told him by all means do not hold back. I expected a lot of what I saw, but there were some things in there I was completely blind to because these things just seem normal to me. Don't get me wrong by the way, I hold nothing against my boss for writing what he did about me. He's a fantastic person in every sense of that word and wrote what he had to write which will actually be to my benefit. It also showed me more about myself that I needed to learn.

So to set the theme; This is not a hardship. There is no sympathy needed here, haha. I seem to have found my path. To lay it all out there right now, I am selling everything and I am going to live in a truck camper pulling an 18' enclosed trailer. I have been selling everything and my trailer is being made to my order as I type this, ordered two weeks ago brand new. I have sold my Mustang which was with me for 17 years. I sold my DR and I have 35 auctions on Ebay as I type this. I have almost as many ads on Craigslist. Almost every day I'm in the post office sending stuff out, just was today. I will profit from the sale of my home which will leave me with a decent chunk of change in my pocket. The last thing to go will be the toy hauler. Thing's a turd, worst purchase of my life. I'll take a huge hit on that but I'll buy it out once the house is sold then trade it in for a truck camper. My pickup is going to go through an extensive transformation. There will be a ton of fabricating, upgrades, and maintenance as soon as the weather breaks. The truck will be equipped to run waste oil as well as diesel with separate tanks for both. The trailer will have all my tools (two roll aways with tops), two generators, a welder, oxy/acetaline, 220v, 110v, 12v, compressed air, etc... It's all built in my head already. I have parts arriving now and I'd be wrenching instead of typing right now if it weren't winter.

As I said, I'll have some dough from the sale of the house. A respectable amount, but I'll also be living off my disability. It's difficult to admit that for me sometimes. I feel like someday I'm going to run into someone who's going to have a problem with that. I haven't yet though. Only a handful of people know about this at the moment but nobody has had anything but well wishes for me. This will be a dream come true for me, to live perpetually traveling. I will be everywhere. East coast, west coast, and everywhere in between. I will go to national parks (where veterans can stay for free), landmarks, and monuments. Daytona, Sturgis, etc... And then there are trike events. There are so many trike events now across the country and I will be at a huge amount of those. I will have my SX, the 480R, and the Buell for sure. Zinger possibly as well as the XR650L. The XR is the next one on the chopping block if I have to sell something else, but I'd like to keep it. Room in the trailer is another concern as well. They will all have safe, permanent mounting positions inside of the trailer. Everything in the trailer will be bolted down tight and ready to take some bumps and hard braking.

So life could potentially become a dream, which is great. I'd like to say I'm fortunate to have this opportunity to take but that's a double edged statement. On the one hand yes, I am grateful to have the means to do this. On the other hand, having a disability or seven is not exactly how I would have chosen to live my life had I foreseen all of this. Based on my experience there probably aren't a whole lot of people looking at me and thinking I'm some sort of scum bag sucking off the system, however I do expect I might hear that at some point. I will be living off my disability in a lifestyle that may seem excessive for someone with means only provided by the government, and I think that could easily ruffle a feather or two here and there. For those who see me that way, if anyone does, I will say this; I would have traded it all, everything I have, for what many of you have. I have had some absolutely fantastic women in my life, none of which I have now. When you look at your lovely wife and beautiful kids, this is my alternative to your life. This is my second choice. This will be the best possible choice I can make for me as well as everyone around me right now. Just remember what you have, because I wanted that more than anything. You have nothing to be jealous of, trust me. Sounds like a dream traveling around living the life or Riley right? Every moment of me smiling from this point forward has been paid for, trust me. I have no problems at all taking from the government.

So adventure lies ahead. First question I always get; "Where will you go?" Everywhere. I will go everywhere. I don't know when the house will sell but ideally I'd like to be locked, cocked, and ready to rock before Trikefest. I know I'll be spending time at Mik6's house and my sister's in Arkansas, I'll be seeing Weezy, HoosierLogger, and god knows who else or where else. Anywhere really. To end this on the correct note, this may sound like kind of a downer or whatever so I'd like to reiterate; This is not a hardship. I have been very happy lately enjoying my home, which is in really good shape now that I'm ready to sell it. If I get bored or down all I have to remember is that I'm not behind the wheel of a rig right now. And to clarify, I do love driving. It's a passion of mine. To segue from truck driving to driving a truck all the time most likely doesn't seem like a big jump. I can assure you it is apples and oranges. Take away the stress of "having to" be anywhere in a certain amount of time, getting up at 4am and going to bed at 10pm after giving every fiber of my being for someone else's profit, and dealing with Massholes day in and day out will keep this temperamental being even keeled.

Every time I travel, I'm so happy. Every time I come back to Massachusetts, I ask myself why the frig I just did that? If I find someplace I like, I could potentially buy. I will have enough money to possibly buy something outright if I wanted to, but keep in mind I only need modest living. A lot of the places that catch my eye are off the grid and very affordable. But I'm OK with not owning anything for the foreseeable future. So if some of you start seeing me a lot more and wonder how I can be at everything, this is how, lol. I will be smiling and enjoying myself because I must. The alternative is not an option. I hope to see a lot of you soon. :D

bkm

02-17-2017, 08:53 PM

When you joined the Army you wrote a check payable to the United States of America in the amount of "up to and including your life."

For that reason and nothing more, I am glad to see my tax dollars being used to make your life comfortable and hopefully putting you towards happiness.

I have no higher respect than for people who choose to serve this country. It's not perfect, but I still think it's the best, and to see it giving back to someone who would have given their life for it, gives me hope.

The Ozark region of Missouri is absolutely gorgeous and cost of living is nill. The Arcadia Valley is one of my favorite places in the state and is a hidden gem. There is atv riding close by at St. Joe State Park, beautiful state camping parks, and it's surrounded by the Mark Twain National Forest.

Liberty, Life, and the Pursuit of Happiness. We're only here for a short time, congrats on grabbing life by the horns and making it yours.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Ghostv2

02-17-2017, 08:59 PM

Obviously a decision like this isn't taken lightly, so I'm sure you've thought about it all 10x more than anyone else will who's so quick to judge. Takes a lot of stones to do what you're doing. But if you have the opportunity, that's great. And you do. I worked with a Vietnam veteran a few years back that when I quit he was going that summer to buy his motor home and sell everything. He just retired and was working this job just for extra cash like me. I had two jobs at the time. He had plans to park in the "off seasons" with hookups on his sons farm. This keeps becoming more and more popular so it's not something crazy to me. Go and live life man, enjoy it while you can. If you can't be happy what's the point? Slaving for the "man" only gets you so far in life. It's not all about money and a nice house. I'm glad you're not one of those guys who are selling off their collection and giving up on their passion. As we speak I'm working in Virginia (been here for over a month now) working 7 days a week sun up to sun down and haven't had a day off since I came down here. Won't have off for a couple of months until I'm back home. Then I'm back to working 6 days a week. It's killing my body. I have a bad back, I have my whole upper spine fused with metal rods and screws. I'm forced to live off narcotics just to deal with the pain. But your body gets use to those after time and they don't work. What do I do? I build roller coasters. Seems fun right? Hardest work I've had to do in my short lived life. But the pay is awesome. But I miss sleeping next to my girl and my cats. Is it worth it? I use to think so. But now, id quit if she came and picked me up lol.

Point is, do what makes YOU happy. If you can still put food in your mouth and gas in the tank and be happy living a simpler life, then do it.
(Today we got told if we post pictures on social media before the park opens we were going to get sued, I wonder if they like 3 wheelers???)
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170218/ed9915327caeb35e7ec9f448bab5e295.jpg

Hope to see you at some of the events in the near future, if I manage to get a day off this year...

plastikosmd

02-17-2017, 09:08 PM

Wow

Takes guts Fabio, my hat is off to you. U are living the dream

atc007

02-17-2017, 09:33 PM

Good for you man. Bryan put it perfectly. Sure there will be some a holes who snicker at a pension. Why would that bother you for one second? It is their problem ,not yours.You know you earned it ten fold. End of that story. Following your heart is something very few get to do. Good for you. Maybe you can find your way to PA sometime ;) You're always welcome here. You know that.

fabiodriven

02-17-2017, 09:37 PM

Thanks so much boys! I mean it!

Wow

Takes guts Fabio, my hat is off to you. U are living the dream

Coming from this guy! Lol! I have to go get caught up on your thread now, lol.

tripledog

02-17-2017, 10:01 PM

If your travels find you in CNY, I have a spot where you can camp for a few weeks (gratis). It is really nice here in the summer...

atc007

02-17-2017, 10:14 PM

Fergie power! Baling beats mowing :)

RoscoW

02-17-2017, 10:15 PM

Make sure to add The Sandpuppy Memorial ride the first weekend in Aug as a stop in your healthier lifestyle. Lots of the great three wheeler people hanging out in mid Michigan enjoying some of the best trails out there. Like Bill said, not many people get the courage up to leave the expectations of society behind and follow your heart.....Best of Luck Fabio.

Ross..

90nut

02-17-2017, 10:23 PM

I'm 29, started at a company when I was 15. Worked there until late 2016. More like it worked me, I felt the same way, just my balls all day to make another guy piles of cash, while at the same time I was ruining myself both physically and mentally. I was making "good" money but I was up at 5am and got home at 6-7pm. I had zero time to enjoy anything I use to like. I forgot what it's like to enjoy things. I hated life. One day last November I was running a job and something happened, I looked up from what I was doing and decided I was over it. Walked to my work truck, went to the shop and turned in my phone, credit cards, keys, and walked. Didn't know what I was going to do with my life, and I still dont, but I don't care.
Took a job running an excavator for a guy worked there a week and he wanted to mAke me the foreman. Stopped at my buddies on the way home that night and ended up taking a plane to Washington to work on a freezer building that his company had engineered. Got back home after a month of being out there and quit my job again. And I've never been happier. Got another job offer all ready from a site development company, don't know if I'm going to take it or not.
Ive learned a great deal about myself over the last 3 months. I'm done slaving away for a stupid paycheck. All that money I've made hasn't made me happy, it's made me bitter and angry about many things and I can only blame myself.

If your ever in the northern Indiana area and need a spot to park and stay a while get a hold of me. I've got an open spot for ya to plug into brother. I haven't been to TF in many years but that will change this year, even if I'm only on my adventure bike. I want to be a rambling man. Good luck on your adventure sir!

plastikosmd

02-17-2017, 10:30 PM

No, seriously many people including myself would love to do what you have just done But don't have the intestinal fortitude. I'm not saying it's going to be easy or there won't be any stress but for those of us that are just running on a hamster wheel, you are an idol

x-rider

02-17-2017, 10:39 PM

Life is a rollercoaster. Enjoy it.

fabiodriven

02-17-2017, 11:08 PM

Thank you all so much for the great offers, I'm incredibly flattered.

The hardest part is the first step, but as 90nut can tell you, opportunity cannot present itself if you never give it the opportunity. For a few days when it became obvious to me that I could no longer maintain my career path, I did fret. All I could think about was how many "things" are counting on me. I have all of this crap which is all supposed to enhance life, and for some it does, however it had become very much a burden for me. I am finding the less crap I own, the better I feel, and the more money I have. I am prepared (waiting on weather) to focus all of my money and energy into a relatively small package, thereby having one awesome rig (collectively, truck, trailer, deployables) rather than being a slave to living in a place I don't like for more money than the rest of the country. Although I fretted initially for a couple of days, the realities of my potential future showed themselves and I knew I had made the right decision by stopping what I was doing immediately, even though I didn't know what lay ahead. That's the hard part. Stopping before you know what you're going to do from that point forward. It's very easy to get caught in a cycle and just put your head down and push. I'm sure I would have continued on that path if I were capable. For me that way is simply just not an option.

It's funny how clearly I could see my life from the other side of the planet. I don't know how I knew where to find me, but for whatever reason I was there (you follow?). That was my first plan actually, to move to Thailand. The current plan was my father's idea. He said something about traveling the US before I leave and at first I said naah... Then all of a sudden I was consumed by the idea. That's when eBay and Craigslist became my full time job. I've pulled more shite out of the basement, shed, and garage, good stuff too! Crap that I paid a lot of money for and then just tossed in a corner and forgot I had, shite that friends had left here just to get rid of. Things worth money though! I always bought, I'd almost always pay high to get what it was I wanted, and I never sold anything. The crap just sat around collecting dust. I'd give things away before I'd sell things, but once I started selling everything was getting listed. I've got some things I'll put into storage and I've got more to list for sale as well, but criminy, this materialist lifestyle we have in this country is a trap. I was snared big time. Now as I see this stuff going out I see dollar signs. Why do I need three welders that all work halfway?

So if this is a jump some can afford to take some time, I say go for it. I don't know how things are going to go for me, it's a bit soon to be celebrating, but I have all the means necessary to do this and I have the will. It's doubtful I will get any more healthy than I am currently as I age and I'm not going sit around a nursing home talking about how much I worked. My buddy that just popped in to the Invasion last week is on a walkabout right now. Quit his job, rented out his house, and he hit the road. He's still ironing out details in order to have the means to continue his journey, but he's well past the first step. I hope this works out well and I fail to see any reason why it wouldn't.

Scootertrash

02-18-2017, 08:42 AM

I'm happy for you Fabio! I hope your plans work out for the best, I wish you well.

I have 6 years left before I plan to retire, my pension is slated to pay me about the same I earn a week right now at my job. I love my job for the most part, but every job has bad days. 40 hour weeks with a smidgen of OT, perfect as far as I'm concerned.

My wife and I have never lived the "materialistic" lifestyle. Our home is average and on approx 7 acres, our vehicles were all bought used (2000 Monte Carlo, 2003 Impala, 99 Silverado 2500) our toys were all bought used (76 Harley FLH, 98 Harley Road King, the only one that was bought new was my 85 Harley Low Rider), same with our ATVs (2-Polaris Scramblers, 1 Polaris 350L, My 85 200S, as well as a couple 3 wheeled projects in the works.) All were bought because they were what we wanted, not to impress or compete with others, because as you and I both know that is a lame way to go thru life. We don't have to have every new improved gadget, widget or object.

I will probably always "work" in some capacity, just not for someone else. I love to fix things, especially things that people say aren't fixable. Amongst my friends and in my neighborhood I'm know as the fix-it guy. One of my friends says "You could fix anything from the crack of dawn to a broken heart" lol. On a side note, I did date a girl named Dawn in my younger days, so I was *ahem* Up at the crack of Dawn *cough* back then, but that's a hole.. ..I mean whole different story. :naughty::naughty::lol:

The wife and I do plan to travel when we retire, but probably not "pack everything up and sell the house" type of travel, but as you said, one never really knows how things will work out. That may change once my parents pass, hers have already passed on. Donna and I want to make sure we are close enough to care for them when the time comes, I owe them that for raising me. All we can do is devise a plan and work it the best we can. Your plan seems sound and well thought out and you'll have tools and supplies with you to deal with most unexpected "Murphy" incidents.

Travel safe and keep us updated! Good luck!

coolpool

02-18-2017, 01:02 PM

Good on you Fabio! From the short time we conversed at TF 15 I could tell you weren't a BS'er and could be taken at face value. It's apparent that you've planned this everyway to Sunday and are ready to tackle each challenge head on. As was stated earlier; you paid your dues, now it's time for you to enjoy your life as you see fit. And as a fellow 20 yr vet from a different nation who's also collecting a pension, the judgers can simply FO. I don't think the perceived suburbia model (house, 2 kids, white picket fence.....) that we grew up hearing about is the recipe for happiness. I think that shedding ourselves of materialistic BS is THE true path to hapiness. It's ironic that you were working this plan through when I contacted you last weekend to come do some ice riding up this way; who knew it could come true! And the offer still stands if you ever do a cross Canada adventure.

Dirtcrasher

02-18-2017, 02:56 PM

I couldn't be happier for you John. Being a sheep herder versus being a sheep is where people should always be headed for; Never be happy with just a paycheck. Sure, I took home 1400$ a week being in the union, BUT, I was still told what to do and when to do it and had 1 day to get ready for another week of "sheeping".

I worked 6 days a week for 15 CRITICAL years of my life. Sure, it got me THINGS, but once time is gone it's gone and that's it!!

I'd like to bury the hatchet with you before you leave and offer you any assistance; I know your choosy on who to let it your life and I had a shitty track record for a year or 2 with you; However, the first few years were great. I definitely had some problems and didn't want to admit them but I have them licked now and have for quite sometime. I just got sick of being stupid and forgetting so many things but it is what it WAS. I do think about you from time to time and/or wish you the very best of luck; I'm certain you will succeed regardless of what you do. And staying in the situation your in now is just that; Employment with other companies is just the same of what you have already decided not to pursue any longer.

If you choose to stop by and or need any help with fabrication etc etc, I'm here. But, if not, I completely understand.

I still wish you the very best of luck I can. I have seen the youtubers that do things very similar to this and they seem quite happy and content. You could not do this if you weren't mechanically inclined but also need the required street smarts. You have both of those traits.

Regardless, whatever you decide to do, I am certain you will be successful and I hope you keep your BLOG updated......

atc007

02-18-2017, 03:13 PM

Just a thought,,IF you could pull this off and rent your home to a GOOD tenant... that would be the ultimate safety net. But that is not easy I know.

plastikosmd

02-18-2017, 05:54 PM

^ not a bad thought, DC probably has some good advice on screening tenants

bkm

02-18-2017, 06:27 PM

Sure there will be some a holes who snicker at a pension.

F'em! You paid your dues, now enjoy retirement. No one bats an eye at some scumbag one term politician who sets himself up nicely with life long pensions and benefits.

Enjoy, you more than earned it as far as I'm concerned.

RIDE-RED 250r

02-18-2017, 08:28 PM

John, I wish you all the best in your new venture! May you find the peace and contentment in life that you seek. Do visit Monument Valley, it is some of the most beautiful country this truck driver ever laid eyes on, I only wish I could have spent time there when I went through, but I was in the rig and had to keep a rollin'. Travel safe my friend, maybe we will cross paths at Mikes place once again. :)

Newrider

02-18-2017, 09:02 PM

I'm glad I read this , it had quite a bit of inspiration ! The pursuit of happiness :) Fabio I wish you the best and also thank you for your service to our country . I commend you on this life changing decision!!

fabiodriven

02-18-2017, 10:25 PM

Once again, thanks to you all for such kind words and offers!

Steve, all you're offering is greatly appreciated. Without getting too caught up in semantics, I'm sure we'll be seeing each other out there. Everyone knows your will is always good, however I've heard what you're saying many times before. I truly do hope everything is going well with you, but while we still hung out you were still unaware of what you can become at times. I've yet to see you truly acknowledge what that is and part of you likely refuses to acknowledge. There is no way you can fix something you won't acknowledge. I'm not asking you to change anything or do anything differently in your life other than whatever it is you choose to be, but there are certain things I cannot be around anymore. I will see you out there.

I very briefly considered renting out my home but that's just not what I'm going to do. It would be difficult to find anyone to pay my mortgage for such a small living space with a manually run heating system. The money in my real estate is the lot, not my house, and renters don't need a nice lot. Also I have no interest in concerning myself with the maintenance and upkeep of a home I won't even be living in. I've had two separate friends live with me here, and as good of people as they are, it's very obvious that people just don't have the care for something they don't own like I would expect them to. Another consideration, it's a good time to be a seller. There's no guarantee it will always be that way. With my beliefs, it wouldn't surprise me one bit to see real estate take a dive not long from now. I love my house itself, however I dislike Massachusetts and especially living near Boston. The city constantly spreads and grows and eventually it will be here as well. I have no desire to be tethered to this place. I have no desire to be tethered at all. The more I sell the better I feel.

I'm doing my best to get my buddy in here, possibly even if I have to take a little hit on the price. We've only really been hanging out for the last two years or so, but in that time he has spent a lot of time here working on my house with me usually without even asking him to. I have no idea how many cords of wood the two of us have processed, splitting most of it manually. He loves this place and deserves to have it for himself, his wife, and their daughter. They say if someone has something you want, if someone leads a lifestyle you might like to live yourself, spend as much time as you can with that person. If you want to be a millionaire, spend time with millionaires. If you want to be a machinist, you hang out with machinists. Albie is always fascinated by my lifestyle and lives a bit less traveled life. This is how the law of attraction works. Albie is becoming that which he has spent the most of his time with and attracting what he wants. I really hope to see him get it. If not, there are three other prospects to be considered before I'd even have to list the house. If I do have to list it obviously I will, but if I don't have to that would be great.

So not being tied to Massachusetts is definitely a part of this idea, haha.

hoosierlogger

02-19-2017, 06:02 AM

Ive told ya before there will be a spot in our drive way for you to set up for a few as long as you want. Good to see someone finally getting to do what they want instead of what the man wants.

Dirtcrasher

02-19-2017, 12:11 PM

coolpool

02-19-2017, 03:35 PM

And FYI as an addition to the cross Canada option I mentioned earlier, it's Canada's 150th birthday this year so all National Park admissions are free. I've got a spare pass I can mail down for you.

Dirtcrasher

02-20-2017, 11:09 PM

IDK what your mortgage is but 3 guys in there or/with gals is 800$ EDIT - EACH month.

If you leave it as the wood stove, the hot air furnace or hot water tank are simple enough, All you need is one good friend your always in touch with and won't screw you over. Mow the lawn, pay the bilsl....Absolutely worth renting and having it paying for itself IMHO. Your managing a company from a afar.....

That is a 2 -5 residance.

Jd110

02-21-2017, 04:58 PM

I'm happy for you. Sounds like it's an exciting time. Get the heck out of the city and out on the open road, yah! Some of my fondest memories are traveling. Going through Banff and Jasper, then up to Ak was one of the best for me. If you plan on going to Yellowstone, the bear tooth highway is spectacular. There's sand dunes just west in Idaho. Hoping you have a great time. Good luck with your house.
Edit: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=10&ved=0ahUKEwi2poqWgaLSAhVMxoMKHQ6DDsQQFggxMAk&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbeartoothhighway.com%2Fbeartooth-highway-maps%2F&usg=AFQjCNGjVIrXEeD74srptoQhQAUWQSmjCg

El Camexican

02-21-2017, 07:19 PM

We’ve talked and you know I think this is awesome. If anything I figure historically it’s more “normal” to roam around than the currently accepted norm of getting into debt to buy a box and raise 1.3 kids while working as a paid slave.

I’m reminded of men that signed their name with an X to get on a ship to cross the sea into the unknown, or saddled up and road into the sunset of the old West on a horse. That kind of thing is in our DNA and we’ve been moving around the globe by whatever means was available since the day we sprouted legs. Some of us even go into space now, have you seen the list of people that have signed up for a one way trip to Mars?

We were born to travel, not to settle, but it’s hard to tax a man on the move and have him go to work for the King each day, so settle we did for some reason.:wondering

That you can do this and still have enjoy many of the amenities of the new millennia makes it even better. Enjoy your journey and be sure to write about it often. If you find yourself headed into South Texas give me a shout and maybe we can do a ride, or something.

Best of luck with The Plan Man!:beer

fabiodriven

02-21-2017, 09:19 PM

I would like to have this rig completed before I sell the house so I can leave here and just hit the road, however money will be the deciding factor in that decision. If I run out of money before the rig is done I will sell the house and haul my toy hauler over to my buddy's where I can continue working with replenished funds until the rig is completed. Once completed, I will then trade the toy hauler for a slide in camper and off I'll go. For the time being I have plenty of work ahead of me, which I am looking forward to.

Today was a really big day. I was able to cram everything into today that I wanted to and then some. I started by going over to a local fabricating shop with some excess stock they were selling. They also happened to have some gas bottles for sale which I needed. I was really glad I asked! I loaded up my discount steel and bottles and took the bottles over to get filled. Oxy/acet as well as argon. I am delighted to announce that I now have gas. ;) This is the first time in my life I have ever had gas. I just sold my 220v Lincoln arc welder as well as my crappy little 110v mig which I always used gasless. I've finally upgraded to a 220v mig with gas which is long overdue. It's Italian which makes me really nervous, but it was very cheap. I couldn't say no. I had to undick the inert gas supply line which they had dickered up as well as change the plug on my 220v extension cord, but in the end it came to life and seems to work really well.

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I have four major projects I'd like to tackle first. As I said, these things are all built in my head. I've been hibernating the last couple months and lying awake in bed every night building this. The blue prints are there, it's just I'm the only one who can see them, haha. It's difficult to get up the next morning unable to unleash hands eager to build, very frustrating. Today that changed. I was able to break ground on my rear fenders today. After the fenders will be a 2" body lift for the cab, swapping out the Super Doody mirrors for west coast mirrors, and I will also fabricate a front bumper.

It felt great to be out there working today. The fenders were needed because my body didn't "overhang" the wheels, rather the outside beam of the body would come down in the middle of the outside drive tire. It only allowed for about 2" of suspension travel, nowhere near where it would normally contact the bump stops. This will cure that issue as well as look really good. I cut the body here today and tomorrow morning I'll go over to my buddy's shop where he can bend me up some diamond plate in the brake. I'll then take it home and weld them in place.

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Here's my steel stock I grabbed today for a really good price. This will turn into a bumper as well as other items.

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Here's some stuff for down the road...

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plastikosmd

02-21-2017, 10:26 PM

Nice work. Isn't the hardest part of a project just starting? Love that pipe on the air foiler

Ghostv2

02-21-2017, 10:34 PM

Nice work. Isn't the hardest part of a project just starting? Love that pipe on the air foiler

It looks great, but damn does that thing crack the ear drums. He had my vote for loudest trike at TF last year. Idk man, it has that 2 stroke drag bike crack to it but tuned to the perfect frequency to piss off my ears if you're in the pit with it. One bike that stuck in my mind over the years.

thestud25

02-21-2017, 10:49 PM

You know I am only a few hours from your sis, and a few hours from weezy. I have a huge place and a ton of space for your rig.

86T3

02-22-2017, 01:36 AM

I'm not sitting on your truck, I know how much you love it, but why don't you start fresh with a southern truck that hasn't seen salt it's whole life? I know you go all in and make things to last, I'd hate to see it rot out in a couple years after you go through all this work. You know I'm looking to upgrade right now, not sure if I ever told you the reason but it's because my frame is getting soft. Just some food for thought.

fabiodriven

02-22-2017, 02:10 AM

Because my truck isn't rotted yet. I'd never do all this to a truck with cancer. I sold the bed with a smashed fender three years ago for good money because it had zero rot, and the bed is the first thing to go. Mine is the only Super Duty I know of in it's age bracket up here that still has the side steps. I could possibly use a driver's door soon. Also, I don't feel like dropping 15k on a truck and adding another tremendous step to this process.

sledcrazyinCT

02-22-2017, 10:24 PM

More power to you for packing up and leaving Taxachusetts....I lived in Waltham for three years and don't miss driving Route 20 every day.....

Great news you are going to travel and see America! Glad you were convinced not to skip town just yet, and see some other parts of this country you helped by serving in Iraq. Maybe you will find another part of the country a little less crazy then Boston.

Wife shared this link today and I immediately thought I should post it up for the travelling man. Good luck and be safe on your journey!

http://shareably.net/perfect-road-trip-map-v1

http://www.3wheelerworld.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239990&stc=1

Ghostv2

02-23-2017, 07:58 AM

Come to my place and hit up coal country. Slap some paddles on the air fooler and hit the coal hills. Show up all those banshees. Look up worlds longest hillclimb. [emoji6]

Coal hill in trevorton is right down the road from my house. People come from all over to ride up there. Anthracite Outdoor Adventure Area ATV park (trike friendly, ask MRSOUND) is like 3 miles behind my house. About 7,000 acres open to riding so far. Slowly expanding. Lots of good riding out here. Personally I don't pay, I just ride for dayssss and never hit the same trail twice. All old abandoned coal mining land that's not enforced or patrolled. Been trying to get a TRUPA group ride down here.

fabiodriven

02-23-2017, 07:33 PM

Again, thank you all for such gracious offers and well wishes! I'll be seeing a lot of you I'm sure!

I am very happy with the progress at this point. Yesterday I was able to get over to my buddy Josh Clancy's shop where he bent me up some fenders. This kid does unbelievable work. You can find him on the Bookface, Clancy Welding & Fabrication. What he bent up for me is child's play for him. He does a lot of high end work on Peterbilt's and stuff, where they look like swan boats with the fenders all smooth and sweeping a quarter inch from the ground as well as the tires. I'm more of a steel nose Mack/Autocar guy, so I went with a generously spaced steel diamond plate fender. Huge thanks to Mr Clancy for helping me out on this for very short money.

To touch on my Guinea welding machine, it did the job. I'm fairly certain it heard my disappointment the other day when I found the "made in Italy" decal on it, so it probably wanted to take a swipe back. I mean it's common knowledge that Italy produces some of the most dependable and well engineered stuff out there, especially their electric and electronic items. Just ask anyone who has ever owned a fine Italian automobile. Hell, all of Europe produces great electrical stuff!

I'm joking. Italian engineering is crap and anything European will have a terrible electrical system. Obviously this entire welding machine is electric so... The welder gave me a kick in the nuts today right out of the gate. I had to swap out the wire spool and tip from .020 to .035, which is no big deal. Well the pizza eating welder decided that after I ran the new wire up to the handle that it would jam right at the very end. Yes, I had the tip removed. I didn't want to dilly dick around with it, and this machine also came with a brand new handle in the package, so I ripped the old one right off. Took about twenty minutes to swap it out, and I was pleasantly surprised to find two stripped screws which secure the base of the lines just where they enter the machine itself. Surely not due to poor engineering, I can assure you. I got the brand new handle mounted and ready to go and I began feeding the new wire through again. Once again it jammed up in the handle, this time creating a frig-show inside the machine which backed up the wire and turned it into spaghetti. Yes, my Guinea welder just made it's own spaghetti. I cut the spaghetti out, sent the wire back in, and once again it stopped. I took another piece of the handle off, the brass piece that the tip threads into, and inside the brand new handle the liner was dicked but good. I had to lop the friggin thing off with some cutters and the wire then came poking out. I'm not positive what will happen the next time I have to feed the wire through but I'm hoping this thing behaves. I guess you get what you pay for.

Other than that, the machine seemed to work OK. It has six heat settings and I did most of my work on #5. At one point I had to back it down to #4 and there was a bit of a gap between the two settings. #5 was melting my work and #4 piled up a bit more than I liked. I'm sure I can get used to it over time and make the gap a non issue. Infinite heat settings are nice though.

So I did end up getting the fenders on today and pretty much done. I do have to paint them still as well as wire the new lights in and drill some holes for some more marker lights on the outside edge of the fenders. The brake lights I added will do the typical brake/running light job, however the far outside two will actually do brake/running/reverse. They look exactly the same as the regular brake/running lights, but change from red to white while in reverse. It was gorgeous outside all day today and I was ecstatic to be outside doing what I was doing. It really was great. 6 or 7 of us will be going to conquer some mountains on ATC's in NH Sunday, so nothing more major will be done to this most likely until after that. Tomorrow I plan to do some wiring on the new lights as well as attempt to drill for and mount the new side marker lights. I'll add some half length mud flaps to the front of the fenders as well. Next step is either going to be west coast mirrors or body lift. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Thanks for looking!

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Scootertrash

02-23-2017, 07:44 PM

Looks great!

I award you 5 Interwebz for using the term "dilly dick".

Dirtcrasher

02-24-2017, 01:06 AM

Damn, those came out awesome!!

Holy massive brake/bender Batman! Must be a good size shop...

tripledog

02-24-2017, 06:17 AM

That brake press gives a whole new meaning to the term "fender bender". Nice work, Fabrio!

fabiodriven

02-24-2017, 10:11 AM

That brake does appear massive, yes, but like everything else it's all relative. I went with him about two years ago to pick that brake up with the lowbed. Coincidentally, the guy that sold him the brake is also the guy who posted the ad on Craigslist for the steel stock I've been buying. I realized it as I arrived last week to pick up my stock. It's a shop right in Middleboro center Steve. They were lifting the brake with a huge forklift that was struggling to get the brake up in the air high enough for me to back under it. In the end it took three fork lifts to get the brake up in the air. It was hairy, but we got it.

Mr Clancy had a bumper he was finishing at his shop there that made me second guess making my own. I was super impressed. It was bent up really nice, all one piece, and it must have been at least 1/4". It was extremely thick. He had to bring it somewhere else to use a bigger brake for that one. I'm sure my bumper will come out fine, but wow that one he made was extremely impressive!

atctim

02-24-2017, 11:30 AM

Fabio, I am happy for you. From everything I read here it seems you have this process well thought out which is par for the course for you. I wish you the best of luck and safe travels where ever your truck may take you. I really enjoy seeing the progress you are making. The truck is looking M E A N with those fenders and LEDs. Very nice indeed. As other's have mentioned, if you are coming across I-80 in PA ever, please do not hesitate to stop by. I have electric and water hook ups just waiting for you. I do not have a ton of land, but my lonely 1 acre is enough space to stretch your legs by a campfire or lounge in my newly renovated "Tionesta Trikes" Bar and Lounge. Hit me up if you are in the area, as you are always welcome any time of the day or night.

As far as the "leaching off the system" thought process goes - I agree with everyone else here. You signed your life away to protect this once great nation, and for that you deserve the benefits that are offered to you. I just wish the military would pay the price that all active duty and vets are worth. It's a shame that this world does not reward actual work and sacrifice with the what it is worth. It reminds me of some song lyrics that I will leave you with:

"It takes smart choices and dumb luck
That's why there's billionaire dumbfucks (https://genius.com/Spose-nobody-lyrics#note-7417685)
Geniuses driving dump trucks (https://genius.com/Spose-nobody-lyrics#note-7417732)
Suckers with Lexuses (https://genius.com/Spose-nobody-lyrics#note-7328695), experts who won't make one buck
I've seen dreams die fast and wither slow
I've also seen 'em blooming where they're not supposed to grow
And I've seen the ones I've planned and watched 'em blossom in the snow (https://genius.com/Spose-nobody-lyrics#note-7723092)"

keister

02-24-2017, 01:09 PM

Sir, that was very eerie ^^^^^^
I almost posted those same exact lyrics in his blog thread.
Or maybe I even did? I can't remember now, but there are 3 reasons it is very fitting:

1. That is one of my very most favorite songs right now
2. Every time I hear about 'geniuses driving dump trucks' I think of Fabio
3. That verse is performed and presumably written by George Watsky who matriculated at Emerson College located in the heart of .......

..... wait for it....

Boston, Mass. And Watsky got out too.

atctim

02-24-2017, 01:17 PM

The small little connections in this world are crazy. The canniness of what just happens blows my mind. ^^^^^^^^

Helopilots

02-24-2017, 01:32 PM

It goes without saying, but for the audience's sake, I'll say it here. You are one of the most resilient people I know. You continue to bounce back from things that would leave most battered and surrendered. As a matter of fact, I've met a lot who have given up. And, it always ends the same.

I can't wait to roll the red carpet out for ya. Head this way when you can, Lil' Brother.

Dirtcrasher

02-24-2017, 03:05 PM

fabiodriven

02-24-2017, 07:37 PM

I'm honored to have you all as friends, truly humbling the words you all are gracing my thread with! Thank you all so much for your support!

Great song Keisters! I will be adding that to my music collection and you bet your silly arses I'll be by to see yous guys! Thanks so much for the offer!

Spent a good chunk of the day on errands, and what daylight I was able to make use of was spent almost entirely on the wiring harness for all of the added lights. Adding a total of 8 lights in this round, and making a harness from scratch is very tedious and time consuming work. Also the sun is still setting really early here, so I have to cut things off fairly early in the evening. Left side fender is fully lit and I'll do the right side tomorrow. Nothing really exciting.

fabiodriven

02-26-2017, 10:14 PM

If anyone happens to come across a dual alternator kit for a 7.3, or "ambulance package", please let me know. Thanks!

big specht

02-27-2017, 08:27 AM

Check at bus junk yards they might have some

Ghostv2

02-27-2017, 08:34 AM

If anyone happens to come across a dual alternator kit for a 7.3, or "ambulance package", please let me know. Thanks!

Have you tried the Facebook page "O.B.S Ford Trucks 1980-1997"? I see guys from time to time parting out old 7.3 ambulances. I mean really all you would need is the belt, part of the harness, and the dual very expensive alternators. I just put an alternator in my thunderbird last night, $80. Correct me if I'm wrong but those 215 amp alternators are like $600 or something crazy like that. I haven't looked it up though.

I'm not sure how you feel about Facebook but search some pages, you find a lot of good deals and harder to find stuff.

fabiodriven

02-27-2017, 09:49 AM

I'm off the book right now, but thank you.

These alternators are not super expensive as you're suggesting. First of all, I already have one. I priced the lower alternator and it is actually fairly cheap for a standard output alternator. I don't need high output alternators, the one I have now does the job. What I do need is the redundancy of having two alternators if one calls in sick. The added amperage output would be a bonus.

fabiodriven

03-01-2017, 06:17 PM

I've had some progress over the last two days. It's still not warm enough to paint the new fenders, so those have a nice coat of surface rust on them. I've been working to button up a small oil leak when ironically another unrelated oil leak sprang up. The oil pan gasket has decided to go full blown Valdez, it's bad. I've penciled myself in for me to fix it next Monday, according to the weather forecast anyways. We'll see how it looks as the time draws closer.

I spent yesterday and today getting my west coast mirrors on. The factory 99 Super Duty mirrors are garbage even when new and you can't see dick-all in them. The spot mirrors are too small and not adjustable and the regular rear view glass doesn't provide much of a good view at all. The subsequent year Super Duties had drastically improved mirrors which are a bolt on upgrade for any year Super Duty, however those mirrors will cost you $500-$1000 for a good set. You can get knock offs with plastic fun house mirrors in them for less money, but they're really crappy. My personal preference is for west coast mirrors over any grade or generation of Super Duty mirror, so that's what I went with.

The mirrors themselves with all the mounts were almost $140 for the pair to start with, then with a Super Duty you need the "blanks" to fill in where the factory Super Duty mirrors mount. These are available new from Ford for the F-650, which shares the same cab as the Super Duty series. The blanks were roughly $120 for the pair.

I had to cut down 4 of the mounting arms that came in the mirror kit for the lower arms that hold the mirrors and then weld them back together. The mirrors would have been way too far out to the sides otherwise. The hardware that came with the mirrors was garbage so I spent another $25 on all stainless hardware from the store. In the end I'm extremely happy with how they look although I've not yet driven the truck with them on there. West coast mirrors are what I'm used to peering into all day so I don't doubt they'll be great.

On the immediate schedule are the oil leak, body lift, bumper, and parking brake, all subject to weather at the moment unfortunately.

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tripledog

03-01-2017, 08:07 PM

I love that truck! It looks like a bulldog on steroids.

fabiodriven

03-02-2017, 12:54 PM

Thank you trip-D!

I was doing some research on oil pan gasket replacement on this truck and as it turns out it's actually referred to as "the dreaded" oil pan gasket replacement. I read last night another possible location where oil could be leaking from that's much easier to repair, however upon removal of my starter this morning it appears I will be conducting the dreaded oil pan gasket replacement.

In order to get the oil pan off enough to work on, the cab and engine must be jacked up. Timing for this is good because I was planning on doing a body lift and replacing the cab mounts anyways. There is no actual gasket there, but rather a two part adhesive that makes the oil pan very difficult to remove and then clean. The Ford/IH adhesive is the best option for this application and I'll have to get my hands on some of that.

I'm not looking forward to doing this but the timing is absolutely optimum. My engine has it's fair share of baked on diesel oil and crud from 265,000 miles of use and I was thinking I'd like to get it all cleaned up and sealed tightly anyways so it didn't look so motley under the hood. Once I have a nice span of a few days where I can use the Buell as my wheels I'll rip into this truck for some fairly major surgery and it will emerge tight and clean.

big specht

03-02-2017, 01:12 PM

It's just easier to pull the engine and lay it on its top and clean it up good cause it's not a job you want to do twice even tho it's not all that hard. Ford pan did at one time come with the navistar sealant( JB weld in a tube). But I don't think they do any more check with IH to see if there pans come with the good IH sealer

tripledog

03-02-2017, 01:14 PM

fabiodriven

03-02-2017, 01:17 PM

I just ordered the right stuff Specht and you are correct, it's no longer two part.

As far as removing the engine, from what I've read removing the engine is the most popular and "correct" way to go about this, however I don't have a hoist or a stand and this engine is extremely heavy. I just did some more reading and there are plenty of people who have done this with the engine in the truck. I'm completely confident I will be capable of doing this job with the engine in the truck. Some guys are even able to get the pan out of the truck with the engine still in there, in which case if I am capable of doing that I see no reason why I won't be able to pull this off.

fabiodriven

03-02-2017, 01:35 PM

At least the oil pan gasket is merely "dreaded". I am still paying on a truck that runs perfect, but needs the "FRIGGIN" cam chain and tensioners replaced to make the CEL go bye bye so it will pass inspection. About $300 in parts, and over $1,500 in labor. At least you are ambitious and knowledgeable enough to fix nearly anything you own.

My father did that job last year on his Exploder Sport Track (give him a break, he lives in Hawaii). He said it was an absolutely awful job to tackle.

big specht

03-02-2017, 04:14 PM

The only problem with doing it in the truck is getting the pickup tube on and not getting gasket sealer all over your arms in the process. I've done one in the truck and many out of the truck but I understand not having the tools to pull the engine.

fabiodriven

03-02-2017, 04:40 PM

I keep reading about getting the dipstick tube in simultaneously as well Specht. I wonder if I can get someone to guide the dipstick tube while I put the pan up.

big specht

03-02-2017, 04:58 PM

You should be able to put the dip stick tube in after the pans on. And make sure you index the dip stick tube adapter as same as the old one and use a little silicone around the adapter to make sure it seals

tripledog

03-02-2017, 05:41 PM

My father did that job last year on his Exploder Sport Track (give him a break, he lives in Hawaii). He said it was an absolutely awful job to tackle.

Exploder, Ha Ha! One of the best Ford references since the Pinto was labeled the "Chariot of Fire".

fabiodriven

03-02-2017, 08:55 PM

I got an email today telling me my cargo trailer is ready in Georgia. Of course it is! Now that I need to down the truck for a week! There's no way I can fix the truck right in time for me to drive to Georgia next week, so I'm going to habba-dabba the leak for the trip using...
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170303/7ed42e8b26f4ef65f30abff8d9154ae9.jpg

^^^that crap^^^

I've never used it personally, however my buddy the d0zer used it on the gas tank of a very leaky Ford E-series van and not only did it work, it sealed the gas tank for two years until it started leaking again in a different spot. And to top that, when he applied the putty the tank was soaked with gasoline and currently leaking.

When I take my starter out the leak is very accessible, so I'll just remove the starter, clean all the surfaces really well, then glob this shite on the oil pan seam. Should get me to Georgia and back anyways...

tripledog

03-02-2017, 09:11 PM

Mechanic in a tube. Use as directed.

big specht

03-02-2017, 09:22 PM

I've seen windshield urethan used before. Don't poke around in there to much cause I've put holes in ones before scraping off the scabs.

Billy Golightly

03-02-2017, 09:38 PM

fabiodriven

03-02-2017, 09:41 PM

I'll be headed to Nashville William.

86T3

03-03-2017, 01:13 AM

A guy down the road from me cut the cross member out with a torch to do the oil pan gasket, no lie.

bkm

03-03-2017, 02:57 AM

A guy down the road from me cut the cross member out with a torch to do the oil pan gasket, no lie.
I had a buddy do the same thing. This was on a 2wd. I don't know if that makes a difference though?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

fabiodriven

03-03-2017, 04:31 AM

It makes a huge difference. Mine is 2wd. I was under there taking that into consideration yesterday and both I-beams are mounted to the same massive crossmember. I would never cut that much out of the truck and try to weld it back in place.

86T3

03-03-2017, 10:28 AM

It was also a 2wd. The guy cutting it out then lost interest in the project, a friend of mine ended up getting it for next to nothing. He fixed the pan, welded the cross member back in and put the pig to work

sledcrazyinCT

03-03-2017, 07:41 PM

Georgia is the trailer manufacturing capital. I bought a SGAC trailer and it cost $1540 to get it to Will William's trailer in Maine. Definitely saving a few bucks taking a ride to tow back yourself

coolpool

03-04-2017, 01:21 AM

Fabio I can relate to your oil pan woes as you know prior to TF 15; albeit on a 5.9 Cummins that rotted through. There's not enough room to get it out with just jacking the engine? What if you could remove some top components to give you a bit more clearence to the cowling? Lifting the cab sounds like a huge PITA.

fabiodriven

03-04-2017, 08:49 AM

Yes it is a pain Pete and I must reiterate, I just need to repair the gasket. As far as I can tell right now, the pan itself is OK. I'll find out for certain when I down the truck, but it looks like the pan is OK. Funny thing is, I was driving the truck yesterday and the leak seems to have nearly diminished. I don't know what's up with that but I'll find out I'm sure. Removing some of the top components is necessary, yes. I'll have to drain the antifreeze and disconnect the coolant lines as well as remove the intercooler piping. Disconnect engine mounts, disconnect cab mounts, and up they'll go.

sledcrazyinCT

03-04-2017, 10:41 AM

Owning a four wheel drive version of your truck yanking the motor is the only option with 4wd. Good luck with replacing that gasket. I am not local to you, couple hours away, but could provide access to my shop if you find out yanking the motor makes it easier. I myself would enjoy the learning experience of wrenching on this motor.

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fabiodriven

03-04-2017, 11:37 AM

If it were 4wd I'd probably cut the crossmember. With the way the suspension mounts to this crossmember I'd be very nervous about cutting it out.

fabiodriven

03-04-2017, 12:59 PM

By the way, if anyone needs anything moved up or down the East Coast next week drop me a line.

captainweezy

03-04-2017, 02:41 PM

Yo faaaaaabio, they had B and J's on sale at the grocery stoo. I grabbed you a couple milk and cookies to keep on hand. Better hurry though uncle weezy like Bj's too.

El Camexican

03-04-2017, 05:37 PM

Funny thing is, I was driving the truck yesterday and the leak seems to have nearly diminished.

I had a gas tank like that once. Leak like a son of a gun, but would always stop right about the same time as I ran out of fuel.

fabiodriven

03-04-2017, 05:44 PM

The long term plan-

https://youtu.be/8B6xR3T37gI

El Camexican

03-04-2017, 11:05 PM

That's pretty cool! I believe it was Bugs Bunny that first said "There ain't no place like a hole in the ground!"

ironchop

03-05-2017, 12:47 AM

Thanks for that video.

I've actually got that very book somewhere in the spare bedroom. I've had it for a long time. Nice to see the guy who wrote it and the houses in color instead of black and white

Sent from my Z958 using Tapatalk

Jd110

03-06-2017, 12:04 PM

If you find yourself with some spare time, here is a good story. http://www.si.com/vault/1966/10/03/610646/the-last-of-the-mountain-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K75sQ37hibg&sns=emhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K75sQ37hibg&sns=em

http://www.si.com/vault/1966/10/03/610646/the-last-of-the-mountain-men

hublake

03-06-2017, 10:07 PM

I like your plan. Sounds great. I will offer one suggestion. Don't ever become an absent landlord. It just doesn't work. My sister who lives in Idaho and owns a home in Michigan had it rented out. Well the renters left unpaid rent, didn't tell anybody, water was not drained and the power went out for about three days a couple of winters ago. When the power came back on so did the flow of water through broken pipes. End result damages amounted to $68,000. They did have insurance thank goodness.

fabiodriven

03-06-2017, 11:42 PM

fabiodriven

03-19-2017, 02:16 PM

A about a week ago I was planning to head out to Georgia to pick up my new trailer. Before I even got to the highway I had an issue with the valve stem on my left front tire. This issue had been ongoing but had been behaving itself up to the time I went to leave for Georgia. Ten minutes from the house I stopped to get some food for the road and I could hear the stem leaking. I turned around to go back to the house and change the wheel there and I encountered another surprise.

Two weeks prior to this trip I had jacked the truck up to check and grease the whole front end. I did have an inclination something was wrong because I was having some wandering issues as well as bump steer. Everything tested fine which was surprising to me, as well as confusing because now I didn't know why my truck was driving the way it was. :wondering I used to perform federal and state vehicle inspections for over five years, so I know what I'm looking for.

So back at the house I jacked up the front end to swap my spare on, and wouldn't you know I had a tie rod end that was smoked. I have a feeling the grease "loosened up" whatever was allowing my tie rod end to act as if it were up to snuff. I was confident the spare wheel would do the trip to Georgia and back no problem, however the tie rod end was absolutely not going to make it. It was not an option for me to fix the truck Sunday so the soonest I could leave was Monday. I had a doctor's appointment Wednesday that I didn't want to miss so I figured I'd delay the trip. It's very nice having an open schedule. Everything happens for a reason and I find it best to follow the path suggested to me rather than cutting my own sometimes. There was a time when I would have been bent out of shape by these circumstances presenting themselves, the tire, then the tie rod end, the doctor... I have learned that all events such as these which impact what I may have otherwise been "planning" are in no way able to be predicted, therefor cannot be treated as any sort of anomaly or a reason to be upset. Just because they were not part of my plan does not make these occurrences unfortunate. They dictate the schedule at times, not me, so these is no reason to fret about them. There is no way I could live my life with this train of thought if I had to be back to Massachusetts to work. It is the lack of a schedule which has turned me from a ticking time bomb into the best version of a functioning adult that I can possibly be. I feel very strongly that we as a culture are worked far too hard with not nearly enough gratification or time to enjoy being a human being. I've said it before and I'll say it again; catch Michael Moore's "Where to Invade Next". That was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. That summed things up in my life at a moment when I had a head full of questions and next to no answers.

So Wednesday arrived and Dave Little from the boards here arrived at my home to come along for the trip to Georgia. He's a commercial fisherman so he's on for a few weeks and then off for a few. Dave's a wanderer as well. It felt right this time. When I had left my home the time prior, I could tell something just didn't feel right. Now I knew we were going to have a good trip. I asked Dave if he'd ever had Waffle House or Chic-fil-A to which he answered "Like twelve years ago" and "No". I drove for about 15 hours the first day I think it was, then we slept at a rest area for probably two hours in South Carolina. We continued on from there with me driving for a good part of day two and Dave doing his best impression of driving for a bit as well. To Dave's credit, the steering was off from the tie rod replacement and no alignment. We got off the highway for about four hours in Georgia to see some sights instead of just the sides of the highway. We found no 87 250R's, but it was cool to see the pecan farms and tree farms. We stopped in a podunk town to wash the salt spray off the truck which was extremely heavy and unsightly.

The appointment to pick up the trailer was for Friday morning and we arrived Thursday evening, so we figured we'd pop over to the trailer place before we hit the hotel and have a gander. The workers were just leaving but we were able to poke around the yard for a few.

Now for anyone who is interested in these "discount" trailers from Georgia, this will be some useful information. To sum it up in one sentence, these are the Harbor Freight of trailers. Now that doesn't mean I'm disappointed in any way, that just means you have to know what to expect. An equivalent sized and equipped trailer from a more reputable builder would be twice as much money if not more, and just like anything else you get what you pay for. The fit and finish on these trailers is obviously not a concern, nor is attention to detail. They do appear a bit wavy in places and appearance is not exactly paramount I would say, haha. They do things such as bending the trim around the outside edges rather than notching it. Hack, yes, but cheap trailer. One of the stick on reflectors blew off on the way home. Hack, yes, but cheap trailer. They might miss a little something here and there with the caulking gun. Hack, yes, but cheap trailer. I've already seen seams underneath that I'm going to continue welding with my welder and I might even add gussets based on my experience with my last enclose trailer, the tongue of which we had to straighten and then strengthen. I was well informed about how these places work ahead of time by Eric Barton who also bought a custom made trailer from Georgia. We had a very long phone conversation ahead of time which really helped me out because I was planning on buying the cheapest plane-Jane trailer I could find and outfitting it myself. After talking to Eric I realized these kinds of trailer places exist for the customer just like me. They can literally build it whatever size or shape you can imagine with a huge menu of options available to the buyer. It would be very easy to turn a $4000 trailer into a $10,000 trailer. I ordered mine 18' x 8.5'. For optional upgrades I ordered 3/4" plywood on the walls (instead of 3/8), upgraded axles and springs from 3,500 lb to 5,200 each, insulated walls and ceiling, extra ceiling vent for a total of two, six place electrical panel inside with removable exterior cord, one exterior outlet and two interior, side cross flow vents, interior 110v fluorescent lighting, and a set of small stabilizer jacks in the rear. The extra thick plywood walls are key for me, as I will be mounting a ton of things to the walls inside of this trailer.

Friday morning we arrived and the place was bustling. There was a tractor trailer being loaded with multiple trailers heading out to wherever. They pulled my trailer out and the guy Matt from the trailer place was looking over my ordered options list and checking it out. They had forgotten to put the cross flow vents in, and he said give them five minutes. I figured it would take a lot longer than that but it really didn't. Maybe 15 minutes. Dave and I used that time to align the steering on my truck a little better. The workers blew holes right through the trailer and slammed the vents on there like nothing. After that they brought it back out for my final inspection. Every customer has to inspect every trailer and sign off that they're happy with it after their inspection. When it was ready for me to look at, the first thing I did was find a seam to see the thickness of the walls. They were not 3/4, they were 3/8. At this point I would highly recommend to anyone who might buy one of these trailers they consider this option. The 3/8 looked very chintzy and wavy. I informed the representative of the mistake to which they checked their paperwork and confirmed that yes, they did mess up. I waited by my trailer as the guy who fixes stuff came over and checked it out. "How can we make this right for you?" he asked me. What that translates to is "How much can we knock off the price to let this go?" I told him "You can pull all that out and make it 3/4. This trailer is useless to me as it sits, that's why I ordered it the way I did." We all knew that pulling all of that plywood out was going to make for a very long day, and they were aware how far I had come and that I wasn't paying for another night in the hotel. Also, it was Friday. This had to be fixed now.

Little Dave suggested to me maybe they'll clap the 3/4 over the 3/8 which sounded like a great idea to me. Not two minutes later the trailer guy had come to the same conclusion and asked if I'd be happy with that. I said sure, sounds great! So the trailer company gave us $30 in cash to go get some lunch. I texted William Golightly just on the chance he was available. I hadn't made plans ahead of time because we were planning on turning and burning once we got to Georgia. As it turned out, William was available so we bee-bopped down to Live Oak, FL to have lunch with William. Worked out great!

When we got back to the trailer place, my peach was all set and ready to go so we got hooked up and ready to drag north. Not long after we left the trailer place, it was quite obvious that the brakes on the trailer were not working. I wasn't extremely concerned and was just glad to be on the road home. I brought my entire electrical toolbox with me and I knew there wasn't anything on that trailer I couldn't fix. At our first fuel stop we opened the battery box of the trailer to find all the harness connections. Inside that box were four connections all done with Scotch locks. Scotch locks have no place on any vehicle of mine, so without testing I cut the four of those right out and replaced them with butt splices. There will be many more cut out and replaced as I go. We then moved back to the axles where we discovered that nobody had terminated the connections between the axles and the brake wiring on the frame. They just never hooked up the brake wiring to the axle. Minor detail... :rolleyes: That obviously didn't take much time or effort to fix and we were on our way, now with trailer brakes.

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Now once again I should say, if I'd not found this new relaxed version of myself, or if I had a schedule that I "had to" adhere to, I'd have lost my mind multiple times by this point in the trip. I would have been flipping my shite at the trailer place because of how they operate rather than just laughing and taking it in stride like I did. I really did have a great time dealing with them, they are great people, and I'm really glad to have the ability to enjoy so many aspects of life that I couldn't before. This whole trip was a total hoot and has me truly looking forward to this type of experience being my every day life. Dave's a fantastic travel companion as well, just make sure his window rolls down. He has a minor gas leak. Friggin guy brought his own tools and items he thought might come in handy, which incidentally were almost all the same things I loaded up, haha. He did bring a torch which is one thing I did not, and that came in handy for heat shrinking.

Friggin west coast mirrors are absolutely fantastic as well, just great. I added a couple of spot mirrors to the bottom which you might be able to see in the pics here. I am extremely happy with the mirrors. They are loud as frig with the windows down, the wind howls through them, but it's a very worthy compromise. You must take care to take your time and peer around them when pulling out of intersections as well, as they create a huge blind spot while pulling out of roads. That's nothing I'm not used to though.

We stopped off in South Cackalacky on the way up to grab some 19.5" Alcoa's for Dave that he'd found on Craigslist, so that worked out really well.

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As Dave and I traveled up Rt 85 in Virginia, Dave got his first taste of Chic-fil-A. Friggin guy is nuts about Chic-fil-A now, as I suggested he might be after trying it. Not long after Dave's first Chic-fil-A experience, we were traveling along Rt 85 again when the tread on the left front tire of the truck decided to part ways with the carcass of the tire at about 75 MPH. That was my spare wheel that I had put on the truck before I left. It appeared fine prior to grenading. Good tread, no vibration or anything. When it let go it was violent and it was loud. It took out the front of my step and destroyed the lower rear part of my fender. It let go and the truck lunged to the left a bit, but I wrastled it back over into our lane and onto the shoulder. The spare was the tire with the leaky valve stem, but my truck has on board air and I brought an air hose, tire plugs, etc... So did Dave, haha.

Dave leapt from the truck and went right to action. We got it jacked up and while he removed the old wheel I began filling the other one with air. We got it swapped out in no time flat and got on the road to the nearest tire shop, which happened to be in Podunk, VA. We pulled in to a local tire shop unannounced that Dave had found on his phone while I was driving, purposefully looking for a "run down" tire shop away from the highway a bit. This is how we travel and find new and interesting things and also find good deals and real people rather then taking a number at the local conglomerate tire mega warehouse. These were real people in a real shop and they took really good care of us. Guy had it fixed ten minutes after we pulled up and wanted $5. I gave him $20. Where I live it would have taken a lot longer and cost a lot more so it was greatly appreciated.

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After the tire debacle we didn't have any more mechanical issues. We gawked at some wimmin in traffic and exchanged some smiles and waves, as well as scaring a car full of college girls with the air horn. I took it really easy on the go pedal this trip, a new venture for me this is. I wanted to see how we did on fuel economy, and I'll figure that out later. Empty we felt like we were getting huge mileage, but you could feel the trailer back there once we got it. We hit very little traffic overall, and I flew low through NYC. That was the one place our fuel mileage will have suffered. I got on the go pedal hard from the top of the New Jersey Turnpike, clear over the GW Bridge, and right out the other side. It was congested, but the left lane was going fast. About the time we got to Baltimore and into Jersey the driving changed. That's when we got into New England style driving again, and I hadn't missed it. Friggin people up here drive like a bunch of tit heads. ESPECIALLY those with NY license plates, you people are the worst. Up and down the east coast, even outside of your state, you take your awful driving habits and subject the rest of us to it. Boston people are bad, don't get me wrong, but your style is just rude and stupid. You guys have a thing about not using turn signals and lane hopping across four lanes, absolutely asinine. When we got up near NYC I wanted to blast right through if I could, and I did. It's kind of like a rough whoop section. You keep on the throttle, front end high, point and shoot. It's bumpy as frig, narrow, it was raining a little, and we hammered the left lane hard with inches to spare. My truck is wide but the trailer is even wider. It was fun shooting through the city and not sitting in traffic though.

So all in all, great trip and so much to look forward to. Daviel-San was more than a passenger, he was an asset as well. I've really got a lot of work ahead of me on the truck as well as the trailer and I'm looking forward to jumping in head first. Oil leak fared really well on this trip, I didn't see anything on the ground any of the times I checked, but that whole issue still has to be dealt with as well as many, many more. Not really worth listing at this moment. I'm ecstatic about one simple mod that I should have done when I first got my truck. Where my truck is a 99, it had a regular gasoline filler neck from the factory, which means you cannot fill up at a high flow diesel pump, only a small car diesel pump. This situation was exaggerated and made far worse with the installation of my flatbed on the truck and subsequent tucking of the filler neck up under the body wherever it would hang. It made out of state fill ups nightmarishly long time wise because a lot of out of state pumps are different than the pumps we have here in Mass and create more foam or just don't pump as slow, thereby triggering the safety shutoff on the handle every ten seconds. It took me a half hour once in Arkansas to get almost a half tank in the truck and my arms were sore from holding the pump in an odd position and trying to carefully eek fuel out in a trickle that wouldn't stop the pump. With the replacement of my filler neck I can now fill up with any pump at a very respectable rate. I have no idea why I waited seven frickin years to fix that, but the buildup has led to me getting excited to pump fuel now, haha. Simple minds...

Thanks again for reading and I know Dave took some good pictures as well as videos. I'm guessing he'll post his version of the story as well!

fabiodriven

03-19-2017, 04:18 PM

I didn't update before the trip, but I did end up sealing my oil leak prior to our departure with that Seal-all stuff. The majority of the leak was from the dipstick tube base. I cleaned it really well and applied the Seal-all to the area that seemed to be leaking most and since the truck has stopped marking it's territory. I'll still be fixing it the right way but this stuff certainly saved the day.

I wish I had taken down the mileage we drove empty so I could have seen what we got for fuel mileage on the way down, however I didn't do that. Round trip was 2,765 miles which required 223 gallons of fuel. That's 12.4 mpg. Honestly I was expecting better but I'm sure the end of the trip where I started going hammer down didn't help.

Dave Little

03-19-2017, 09:58 PM

Thanks for having me along for the ride John. It was a nice little getaway from the hard-packed snowcover of northern NH and a chance to check off a couple states off of the 'been to' list.
It was nice to meet William as well, good to finally put faces to names.

Here's a few pics of the adventure:

http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww200/QuantumDave/Rides/IMG_5545.jpg (http://s719.photobucket.com/user/QuantumDave/media/Rides/IMG_5545.jpg.html)

http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww200/QuantumDave/Rides/IMG_5548.jpg (http://s719.photobucket.com/user/QuantumDave/media/Rides/IMG_5548.jpg.html)

http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww200/QuantumDave/Rides/IMG_5549.jpg (http://s719.photobucket.com/user/QuantumDave/media/Rides/IMG_5549.jpg.html)
The tread separated so suddenly and violently it was as if we were driving through the south side of Chicago for a second there, lol. But really it was on I-85 going through Warfield, VA go figure. Thanks to the boys at All Tire in McKenny, VA just up the road a spell, and that hot black chick we should have boned in the back of the trailerDammit
http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww200/QuantumDave/Rides/IMG_5543.jpg (http://s719.photobucket.com/user/QuantumDave/media/Rides/IMG_5543.jpg.html)
The only tire that was not a Firestone Transforce HT but she held the air, could have easily been very bad.
http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww200/QuantumDave/Rides/IMG_5547.jpg (http://s719.photobucket.com/user/QuantumDave/media/Rides/IMG_5547.jpg.html)

http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww200/QuantumDave/Rides/IMG_5540.jpg (http://s719.photobucket.com/user/QuantumDave/media/Rides/IMG_5540.jpg.html)

And finally a little auto body work so the door would open:
https://youtu.be/pKrZwF3J6IY

fabiodriven

03-21-2017, 08:27 PM

Today I decided it was time to down the truck for some major surgery. I wanted to begin with the cab lift and the replacement of the factory cab mounts. There are 8 of them. I will be replacing the mounts with urethane bushings and the lift will be accomplished with hockey pucks. The cab bolts are special of course, and will need to be modified to work. I was planning on sprucing up the mating surfaces of the cab and coating them with POR 15. Not long after I began work it became apparent that the amount of rust that was developing under my truck had grown at a faster rate recently than I had expected, however it's still plenty strong to work with. I just have to do more of a "rustoration" than I was anticipating. This is not a huge deal for me as I have performed this procedure on multiple trucks over the years. I will get the cab jacked up and suspended in the air and then clean all the mounting surfaces as well as the entire underneath of the cab and the frame rails from stem to stern. I actually just de-scaled the entire frame three years ago and painted it with Rustoleum, which did nothing, lol. Rustoleum is a waste of time under a truck. I'll get under there with the needle scaler and get all of the rust and scale out and I'll be using the wire wheel as well. The inside floor needs to be cleaned up as well, but it won't be difficult. No serious rot on the sheet metal. Once everything is coated with POR 15 it will be impervious to rust and I don't anticipate nearly as much winter driving in the years to come.

All the seats are out and the rear will stay out. The rear of the cab will be re-purposed into something more useful. I'm not sure what will go there just yet, but could be clothes or anything else really. Once I decide what I want it to be I can build some shelving or whatever kind of storage situation I need back there really.

I removed the front bumper, radiator, and intercooler for multiple reasons and while I'm in there I'm going to clean up the engine as best as possible and hunt down any leaks and issues. I'll likely change the injector harnesses as well. Oil leak has stopped since I sealed the dipstick tube base so that's obviously going to need attention as well. I have to examine and diagnose the entire oil pan and mating surfaces to determine what kind of attention that's going to need. With the cab lifted I'll be able to move the engine up higher to facilitate removal of the oil pan if I am going to do that. I also have to upgrade the 3/8" fuel line to 1/2" while I'm in here. The rear brakes are smoked and the parking brake needs to be repaired as well.

For the time being I'll be on two wheels until the truck can drive again.

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fabiodriven

03-21-2017, 09:07 PM

These are courtesy of Dave-

https://youtu.be/EAUo2ifboHc

https://youtu.be/Lg37Cbx-kak

jb2wheels

03-21-2017, 11:12 PM

Nice looking trailer. Is it extra tall? Good call on the axles - way too easy to overload a pair of 3500lb axles with a big trailer. Eric is "smarter than your average bear."

Your tire pictures reminded me of my last road trip. I shredded a tire on the LF of may van last month on the way back from Imperial Invasion. Tore up my inner fender, too. Not nearly as bad as yours.
The LR floor is dented from a similar flat on the rear a couple of years ago.

Glad you're safe and happy. I enjoy this thread.

Dave Little

03-22-2017, 07:38 AM

If money were no object....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSP1vH7-t7s

and...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBfEaXx_fco

fabiodriven

03-22-2017, 10:02 AM

Nice looking trailer. Is it extra tall?.

Hey thanks pal! No it's not extra tall. That was an option that I wanted however that option was not a cheap one. I had to draw the line somewhere, it's very easy to get carried away with the options available!

fabiodriven

03-26-2017, 03:50 PM

Progress lately had been slow due to the weather not being optimum for a number of days. I didn't do anything exciting really. A lot of needle scaling and degreasing after I got the cab lifted up off the chassis. I have to sort out some issues with the shifter which no longer works with the cab lifted 2". Other mod for the cab lift is cutting or relocating the fan shroud, but both of those can be dealt with at a later date.

What I was concerned about over the last few days is the oil pan. The "Seal-all" had sealed the leak at the dipstick tube base and was holding strong, so is it worth it to remove the oil pan (which is an undertaking) and potentially risk creating more leaks (it's a tricky pan to seal) over something that's not leaking? I came to the conclusion it was better off to know what I have rather than leave question marks. Not only that but the dipstick tube desperately needed to be replaced anyways... I decided last night I'd take the pan out regardless of what that required.

We did end up removing the pan from the truck, but only after jacking the cab and engine sky high. If my friend Albie hadn't decided to pop in today I'd have never gotten this done alone. It was a battle to say the least, but after an hour or two of rolling around in all kinds of automotive fluids and fifteen fotty scuzz, she eventually gave birth to a very healthy oil pan. The pan itself is fine, but the dipstick tube base as well as the tube will be replaced and resealed.

Once I ripped into this thing it very quickly turned into "well while I'm here", which I always expect. A benefit to jacking the cab so high is now I have all the access I need to clean and paint the entire frame as well as replace the power steering lines and the front main crankshaft seal. I'm not sure it's leaking but it's caked in fifteen fotty scuzz so it's getting cleaned, removed, and replaced.

I also bought a set of injector harnesses which are actually for the glow plugs as well as all of the injectors. Over time these rot out, they're inside the valve covers soaked in oil. I've never replaced mine and I don't know if anyone else has in this truck before.

I have a mountain of parts and work here, just waiting on the weather still but I'm very pleased with what we were able to eek out of a half day today with the cold weather and rain scooting in just as we wrapped up. Special thanks to friends, Albie for his help with the pan and Jon Quinlan for pretty much insisting I use his plow truck to get around while my truck is laid up.

Thanks for reading.

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El Camexican

03-26-2017, 04:13 PM

Be careful under that thing buddy. That jack and 2 x 4 combo is bringing back memories of a car that fell on my dad many years ago and almost took his leg above the knee.

You might want to tuck that block heater cord behind the bumper before you get down to Texas, or you will end up answering a lot of stupid questions if the locals catch sight it :)

plastikosmd

03-26-2017, 06:14 PM

Impressive work

fabiodriven

04-09-2017, 03:45 PM

And so the light at the end appears...

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coolpool

04-09-2017, 08:42 PM

So that's a screw together from both sides of the pan type of dipsick holder? Is there an o-ring that fails prematurely or something? Get'n shiite done buddy!

fabiodriven

04-09-2017, 09:46 PM

Yes sir Pete. Comes through from the inside where there is an O-ring. If I had merely tightened the existing base it would have stopped leaking. The existing O-ring was severely swollen, but it wouldn't have mattered as long as it hadn't left it's little groove, which it hadn't. The engine was simply too greasy, gooky, cruddy to know anything for certain. These pans are a known weak point so there was no question in my mind, it had to come out. Now there are no questions.

fabiodriven

04-18-2017, 06:47 PM

Most of the time lately has been spent removing rust and scale with the needle scaler and then applying POR-15. Hours, and hours, and hours of rust removal and painting by hand with a brush. There wasn't much exciting to see there, haha. I can't count how many times I ran out of hot water in the shower before I got all of the grime and scale off my body, and I walked around for days with POR-15 on various parts of my body. The best part is, I'm not even done yet! The frame and under body painting is past the halfway point for sure, so it's getting there.

Six of the eight cab mounts are completely replaced and the body lift is in place. Only one stubborn factory body mount has yet to relieve it's grip enough for me to remove it from the truck. It's been soaking for two days now. I must say, the age of this truck really crept up on me. This is the truck for this journey, this is the truck for me for certain, and I wouldn't want the modern equivalent. I'm lucky I got under this thing when I did because the New England winters have had their way with it. The body mounts were absolutely smoked and I had no idea, and I had no idea things were getting so crusty under there. No matter though, it's all getting addressed.

I initially intended on doing a 2" body lift, however the benefits of the lift have revealed themselves in such a way that it made sense to go even higher. I'm going 3" now. The initial reason for the lift was mostly just cosmetics, however what I have come to find with this lift is far more accessibility in nearly every aspect of the mechanical functions of this truck. I can get between the cab and the frame now, I have plenty of room for a bigger down pipe, and I can work on the entire engine far easier than I could before. Not only that, but it looks good with 2" of lift, and it looks even better with 3".

I've located a factory dual alternator kit with all brackets and both alternators included. The owner has dual alternators in his truck and he has the second one on a toggle switch so he can turn it on and off as he sees fit. He's actually been in the exact scenario of having an alternator die, he flips the switch, and then he continues to drive and fixes it whenever he sees fit. He uses it for his snow plow, because as many of you know an electric plow can kill your batteries even with the truck running. I have to go help him topple some trees and clean the mess up for a day and the alternator kit is mine.

I went to assemble my oxy/acetylene torches about three weeks ago from parts I got here and there so I could begin fabricating my front bumper. As it turned out I had the wrong acetylene regulator, so I ordered another one. It's been sitting here for weeks now and today was a good day to get started on the bumper. I assembled my torches for the first time completely, and wouldn't you know the oxygen regulator is no good. So now I have that regulator on order...

Today I was able to get the harmonic balancer off and then remove the low pressure oil pump in order to replace the front crankshaft seal as well as the oil pump O-ring. I painted the balancer and pump housing for good measure. I also removed the driver's side valve cover, painted it, and replaced the injector/glow plug harness which resides under the valve cover. I still have to do the passenger's side harness. This truck is going to be tickled pink with the amount of massaging I'm doing to it, which it deserves after the 7-ish years it's given me nearly trouble free. Every good house is built on a solid foundation.

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coolpool

04-18-2017, 07:05 PM

fabiodriven

04-18-2017, 07:35 PM

That old girl is getting the luvin it deserves. I'm sure it'll serve you for many, more years. A couple of inquireis on the body lift which I suspect you've thought of already; have you considered the amount of slide you have on the steering coloum to go three inches? How about shifter linkage, extending brakelines, all the command and control functions, wiring etc.

I'm glad you asked that Pete. The Super Duty has been extremely accommodating to the body lift. When I had the front of the cab jacked six inches to remove the oil pan, the steering shaft was still engaged. Albeit barely at that point, but it was still engaged.

The brake lines and clutch line are both flexible plastic lines and therefore there are zero concerns there. All wiring is perfectly fine.

The original position of the engine fan only covered about the top three quarters of the radiator, with the shroud reaching down to cover about the bottom quarter. I've not yet gotten to the point of dealing with that, but the fan will now cover the bottom of the radiator as opposed to the top. In a perfect world flipping the fan shroud upside-down *could* potentially be the perfect solution for this, however time will tell if that's going to be a viable option or not.

Where my truck is manual shift, modifying the shifter is something you wouldn't image being a very big concern. It is more of a concern than I would have anticipated. There are two shifter boots, one of which looks pretty in the truck and the other which sits underneath and seals noise and heat from coming through the floor. They must both be mounted in respect to their original positions, which means the external boot must stay down close to the transmission (which the cab has just been moved away from 3"), and the shifter itself must be extended in order for the internal boot to function properly as well. So what I have to do is build a box which extends down from the external floor of the cab towards the transmission to mount the external boot where it needs to sit. "Choking up" the internal boot on the shifter without lengthening the shifter itself is not an option, so it must be lengthened. I anticipate getting this shifter situated as being the biggest obstacle to overcome regarding the body lift. As I said, I don't know how the fan shroud is going to be but I bet it won't be a big deal.

sledcrazyinCT

04-18-2017, 08:57 PM

fabiodriven

04-18-2017, 09:16 PM

You mentioned one cab mount still holding on....you managed to get all the others off without a gas axe? Holy mackerel that is a trailprotrailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro pulling the cab mounts apart, going through that on my 96 7.3 right now

If yours are the same as mine there's a trick. I couldn't cut mine apart because the replacement body bushings I got do not include the metal hardware used in the mounts, and those are absolutely required. You must reuse the hardware from your existing mounts. The first two I fought with a pry bar, a hammer, and a lot of cursing and writhing around on my back. I'm doing this on the ground. When I got to my third one, it simply wouldn't budge. I was stumped but kept my cool. Normally I'd just start cutting things apart and replacing the victims with new parts, but this time I'm taking a big bite. I've spent thousands of dollars in parts and supplies and I'm trying to make the most of my money right now. I believe these body mounts are fairly pricey to replace complete, metal hardware included, and I'm not springing for that right now.

I walked over to the other side of the truck to examine the mounts I had already removed to try and find a better way, and I did just that. As it turns out, there are directional fingers that hold the lower mount into the upper. These "tangs" must be released in order separate the mount, which means the mount must be compressed to push down the tangs before it will release to separate. As soon as I saw that I grabbed my three pound sledge and with one hard whack upward the mount fell apart. I'd been fighting it for a half hour and one whack, removed. Went to the next one, one whack. The one after that took a few more but gave up very easily. Second to last one was particularly bad and fought for a while, with the only one left having been beaten to the tits for a very long time without budging, but it too will fall.

coolpool

04-19-2017, 09:05 AM

Glad all the systems are getting worked out fairly easy. I forgot your truck was a manual and wouldn't have given the shifter a second thought on an older truck; but it's ironic that it might be the one thing needing extra engineering, interesting!

Dirtcrasher

04-21-2017, 04:10 PM

How many times in our lives do we tear and pull and grind and smash things apart only to learn that the 1 step you forgot screwed you :lol:

fabiodriven

04-24-2017, 05:18 PM

As of late I've only been able to work in dribs and drabs. The house went on the market about a week ago and the viewings have been constant, just about every day. If there's one in the morning and one in the evening (sometimes there are 4 or 5 viewings in a day) then I have a very short window to get anything done. It makes "heavy" projects tough to schedule. Combine that with doctor appointments, VA appointments, dentist appointments, and even a follow-up orthodontic appointment (tomorrow), and it's tough to fit the heavy lifting in.

Yesterday I went and picked up one brand new body mount, as the final stubborn mount ended up facing the sawzall. It refused to separate. The mount was a very affordable $60, I should have bought all 8! (Kidding!) The mount pictured is actually one of the two very front nose mounts which are smaller than the other six this cab requires. This is technically the wrong mount for the position I am using it in, but all I needed was the hardware, not the bushings (which are not right for the position this mount is going). I have all the correct poly bushings so it is now correct. I removed the rubber bushings to get my hardware, then installed the mount with the poly bushings in place. So I essentially paid $60 for these two small pieces of hardware. Evil? Yes, but necessary.

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After installing the new mount, I moved on to the "doghouse" I needed to build for the shifter. If you'd like to experience how this process went, ask someone to kick you in the nuts. That's how it went. My first rendition yesterday was a failure. It was a ball buster working under the dashboard and between the top of the transmission and the bottom of the floor. I had to rig a drill bit into a right angle wizzer just to get the holes drilled in the floor. After I got the timber in place, it was too tight under there to screw the boot to the wood, so fail. I was frustrated and had a house viewing coming up so I had to shut it down and sleep on it. The solution came to me in my sleep while I was dreaming I was at work with Dan Redsox. I had to make this "box" outside of the truck in two pieces with plywood on the bottom as a mounting surface so I could send the hardware through from the top down. It took me a while, wood working is my bane, but that's a big obstacle overcome.

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plastikosmd

04-24-2017, 07:02 PM

I have never done this job. Would it be wrong to put on a shift boot upside down and rivet or fasten it to underside of floor or do you need the solid stop that the wood provides?

fabiodriven

04-24-2017, 08:01 PM

See the problem is, that boot is very thick rubber in order to isolate from the heat and noise you would get in the truck. Because the rubber is so thick, it doesn't have a lot of side to side give. It's designed to pivot on the axis of the base of the shifter, not slide back and forth. Upon moving that boot 3" up the shifter shaft, the transmission would barely go into low or reverse. I can guarantee if the truck were running it would have popped out of gear.

Similarly, the interior boot is very thick rubber as well. Although it doesn't have the same exact problem, it too is an issue. Because it's now 3" higher, it bunches up and also causes shifting problems. The solution should be to extend the shifter, but as many of us know when it comes to engineering, fixing one problem can have a butterfly effect on three other things. So the next step is going to be an extension for the shifter with my fingers crossed that will be the end of it. If you're familiar with geometry, you can imagine that extending the shifter will absolutely put it right back at the height it was, however the throw will be increased. That means that every gear selection, the shifter is now moving further in whichever direction you're sending it. Ideally it will not collide with anything but stay tuned!

To answer your question plasticos, there's more than one way to skin a cat! There's no instruction manual for this!

Scootertrash

04-24-2017, 09:29 PM

Something like this:

242341

fabiodriven

04-24-2017, 10:08 PM

Something like this:

242341

Precisely!

Scootertrash

04-25-2017, 07:46 AM

Couldn't find one of a truck........:(

coolpool

04-27-2017, 07:38 PM

Looking good fabio! It'll be just like the old 6x6 army trucks where you had to keep your hand open when going in 5th because the shifter would hit the dash at times.

fabiodriven

05-01-2017, 09:03 PM

Music is such an important part of everything. It's been discussed in great detail on the forums lately, and it means so much to so many of us. I guide my life in response to signs I get from the universe which others might take as fleeting thoughts, coincidences, or just odd circumstances. Music has a heavy hand on the direction I choose in life which is something I've learned to follow more as the years pass, however one way music has always had an impact in my life is the ties music has to memories. Every big event in my life, every chapter, every place I've been can be tied to a song. Every time I hear those songs I am instantly transported back to those places and times with emotion so evoking it has at time brought me to tears. I'd like to thank the Keister brothers who even though we only see each other for a few hours a year, seem to know me so well.

It reminds me of some song lyrics that I will leave you with:

"It takes smart choices and dumb luck
That's why there's billionaire dumbfucks (https://genius.com/Spose-nobody-lyrics#note-7417685)
Geniuses driving dump trucks (https://genius.com/Spose-nobody-lyrics#note-7417732)
Suckers with Lexuses (https://genius.com/Spose-nobody-lyrics#note-7328695), experts who won't make one buck
I've seen dreams die fast and wither slow
I've also seen 'em blooming where they're not supposed to grow
And I've seen the ones I've planned and watched 'em blossom in the snow (https://genius.com/Spose-nobody-lyrics#note-7723092)"

Sir, that was very eerie ^^^^^^
I almost posted those same exact lyrics in his blog thread.
Or maybe I even did? I can't remember now, but there are 3 reasons it is very fitting:

1. That is one of my very most favorite songs right now
2. Every time I hear about 'geniuses driving dump trucks' I think of Fabio
3. That verse is performed and presumably written by George Watsky who matriculated at Emerson College located in the heart of .......

..... wait for it....

Boston, Mass. And Watsky got out too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHqiATVuxnA

This song is the theme for this chapter. Not this build, not the truck, but rather this chapter of my life. As these boys said, it fits this situation to a "T". It's as if it were written for me, haha. Boys, thank you for your guidance and help and I look forward to our next reunion.

Looking good fabio! It'll be just like the old 6x6 army trucks where you had to keep your hand open when going in 5th because the shifter would hit the dash at times.

If only more people knew that pain Pete! Haha, great reference!

It took me a few days of work, welding, cutting, heating and beating, and grinding to make an extension for the shifter. I had to install it, see where the shifter was in the truck, then remove and heat and beat to where I needed the shifter to go. I had to install and remove the shifter and extension at least ten times, very time consuming. The factory interior shifter boot is simply not going to work, so I'll have to come up with something for that. I've got bigger fish to fry at the moment.

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When I went to install the lower radiator hoses and transmission lines, I quickly found out that the body lift had moved the outlets on the radiator directly in front of the sway bar for the front suspension. Very briefly I contemplated lifting the radiator somehow, but then realized it would be far easier to lower the sway bar, so that's what I did. I brought it down 3" which put it right where I needed it.

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Over the last few weeks I've been through so many parts of this truck, too many to remember, that I was nervous to start the engine today. Injector/glow plug harnesses, valve covers were off, oil pump removed, front crank seal replaced, all kinds of transmission and steering lines.... All of these surfaces must all be checked to ensure they are sealed properly. That's a lot of potential leaks to check for, many mating surfaces. Today I got everything all hooked up, radiator hoses, tranny lines, etc. Got everything topped up and filled, and put the driver's seat in the truck. I put the batteries in and the anxiety was killing me. I really didn't want to start the truck because I was nervous to find out how well everything had sealed. I got my courage up, got in the truck, and put the key in the ignition. Everything came to life on the dashboard, chime was chiming the way it always did. I turned the key to "on" and the glow plugs began to cycle. It looked like all systems go, but when I turned the key nothing happened. That's because I had forgotten to install the starter.

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Upon installation of the starter, I tried to start the truck again. It came right to life. I was happy about that, but I didn't want to get out of the truck and look underneath. Obviously I did get out and look, and everything looked A-OK initially. I drove it back and forth up and down the driveway steering lock to lock to bleed the air from the hydroboost pump. Everything seemed fine. I left the truck running for a while to warm it up and see what happened. Well what happened is it started hemorrhaging oil from the seal between the pan and the block. I know exactly what happened. The first time I installed the pan it went up just fine. I got it in and was very happy with the silicone application and everything. I had four or five pan bolts started but hadn't tightened any of them yet, and it was at that point I realized that I had forgotten to install the dipstick tube base which needs to be installed from the inside out. I immediately removed the pan and installed the base without re-doing the silicone for the pan. I'm fairly confident it was this critical mistake which caused the issue I now have. It does suck, yes, however everything happens for a reason. I'm confident that I'll be able to jack the engine back up, now with room to work with because of the cab lift, separate the pan from the block, clean the old sealer off, and get it sealed back up. I was confident I could have done this in the first place, however there was far too much grime and too many question marks to not completely remove the pan. This time with everything clean and painted, I should be able to weasel my way in there without removing the pan and get it sealed up correctly.

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https://youtu.be/43tKhTKszCM

El Camexican

05-01-2017, 10:34 PM

LOL! I'm laughing with you, not at you, I swear!

A year or so back I put an engine together, fired it, let it get hot and shut it off. Started cleaning the shop and found a wrist pin clip on the bench. Stuff happens, live goes on.

coolpool

05-02-2017, 11:54 PM

El Cam nailed it, sometimes we get in the groove and stuff happens. At least it was in a controlled environment and not on the road. Forgetting the starter, well.............:wondering

fabiodriven

05-13-2017, 09:31 PM

I've been a busy, busy man, haha. It's been really great working as hard for myself as I used to work for someone else and very rewarding watching this truck come together. The weather has been cooperating more lately, but this spring has been rather chilly and wet. It's cold and rainy as I type this. As long as it's not raining, I bundle up and get my arse outside all day every day and work on this truck.

One thing that I should be used to is the rate at which the salt causes corrosion on vehicles where I live. I know over the last few years the towns have been experimenting with different liquid solutions to spray on the roads to prevent or melt ice, one of those solutions being calcium chloride I believe. Whatever the frig it is they're using, it should be outlawed in my opinion. There was a time not very long ago where during the winters here we'd have hard-pack snow on the roads consistently and that was very acceptable. Now they spray and salt the crap out of the roads even if there's the inclination there might be a snowflake. It's ridiculous. My front brakes are a year old and I had to fight hard to get just one bleeder out and the other one is not coming out. The wiring I just did three months ago on the rear fenders is corroded to shite, it's disgusting. After all I'm doing to this truck now, it's unlikely it will see snowy roads again. God forbid anyone have enough brains and skill to drive on anything worse than just damp pavement. Before I get on a rant about that, I digress...

So the second attempt at sealing the oil pan was a failure. I jacked the cab and engine (not as high as the first time) and weaseled myself in there. I wasn't able to completely remove the pan from the truck this time, nor did I need to. With everything cleaned and painted removal of the pan was unnecessary. I just needed a few inches to drop it on the crossmember, clean everything, re-goop, and install. Well that's what I did, but it still didn't seal. This is why you're supposed to remove the engine to do this job. I didn't let this setback get to me and instead moved on to other aspects of the truck that need attention just as much. The oil pan is sealing enough to drive for the time being, so time to give it a rest and come back to it later. I did purchase a Moroso oil pan gasket this time. The truck doesn't call for a gasket, just goop, but I'm going to use a gasket this time.

My rear brakes were smoked, metal on metal. Not only that, but just last week a line blew just moving the truck around the yard here. I deadlined this truck at the absolute perfect time I'd say, haha. So two calipers, two rotors, and some pads. I was pumped to have a working parking brake again, as the front cable broke about two years ago. Yet another unexpected result of lifting the cab 3" was the need to relocate the mounting point for the front parking brake cable. The old mounting point goes underneath the frame bracket that the cab mount sits on. Now with the cab lifted, the cable no longer reached its mounting hole. I ended up welding a little bracket in place allowing me to relocate the cable to where it could now reach. It still needs a little fine-tuning yet, but it's getting there.

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One part of this build I'd been chomping at the bit to begin work on is was the front bumper. My old bumper was rotted through and anyone who will be traveling like I will be needs to have a suitable bumper. This is going to be my home and it's going to contain a good portion of my belongings. I'd prefer to avoid having it downed or even totaled by an animal in the road or a careless driver who decides they'd like to cut me off, not to mention I don't like protesters who block roads regardless of their beliefs, and zombies can frig right off as well. All these reasons and more made me decide this would not be a real truck unless it had a real bumper. For $1000-$2000 you can buy the same sheet metal bumper that Bubba and Bubba's friend Bubba have, then you too can look like everyone else. That's not what I wanted to do. I didn't want to spend that money on something that I could build in a far better quality for far less money myself. This is my signature. This is sleepless nights during a Massachusetts winter when I was unable to build with my hands, so I built with my brain. This was all engineered months ago with plans only I could see, so it was a huge release for me to crack open my oxy/acetylene bottles for the first time and fire up my Guinea welder. It was my escape from the oil pan failure (again) and truly there wasn't anything else I'd have rather been doing once the cutting and welding got underway. It has been a huge form of therapy and self-expression for me.

It began with the cutting of the first brackets, of which there are four. It has four brackets on either side, so a total of eight. Four made from the 10" C-channel, two made from the existing tow hooks, and two made from 3" C-channel. Eight bolts hold each side to the frame of the truck for a total of sixteen. The two bolts on the 3" C-channel reach past the crumple zones on the front of the frame and help to tie in as much of the truck's frame as possible. I couldn't be more pleased with the outcome of this fabrication project and as good as I think it looks from the outside, it's just as beautiful underneath when you see the "inner workings" of this bumper and how well engineered it is. I was flattered when a friend assumed I built this with my other buddy at his fabrication shop, which is not the case. This bumper was built by me, and me only, with very little assistance from anyone else. Dave Little stopped by one night for a few hours to assist a bit and Crazy Jason Brooks helped me with some final fitment grunt work, but this was built by me using an oxy/acetylene torch, a Guinea mig welder, a little plastic angle finder, a drill, and a small angle grinder. I don't even have a bench vise mounted currently. It took me roughly five days to do, with dribs and drabs here and there with finishing touches and such. It's painted with POR-15 on the beams and pieces of metal that were pre-rusted and Rustoleum on the diamond plate which wasn't rusty yet. I used the other half of the sheet of diamond plate I had from the rear fender build. The bumper and rear fenders will be coated with Raptor liner (bed liner) at my nearest convenience.

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I don't yet know what the bumper weighs, but it's probably 250-300 lbs and it would smash a sheet metal aftermarket Cletus bumper. This much the manufacturer guarantees. Prior to the creating of this bumper, I was very happy with the stance my truck had. "Perfectly" level. The bumper brought down my front end about an inch, which if I were towing you would never see because the back of the truck would be brought down. I want this truck to ride where I want it to ride loaded or empty and it already has airbags in the rear, so I decided to add airbags to the front as well. That way regardless of what I have for a load on it (or don't), I can have the truck ride at exactly the height I want it to. I installed the front airbags and I am extremely pleased with them so far. The truck drives great with this weight up front. Any one ton truck (aside from a GM with its torsion bar car front end that collapses if a butterfly lands on the hood) rides rough, and mine was no exception. I love the Twin-I-Beam front end and that's been a staple of Ford trucks for probably half a century now, but harsh bumps empty were, well, harsh. Now the front is very supple and it tracks great, even with the alignment off. It's going for an alignment Tuesday by the way. Then after that it's off to NY with the toy hauler in tow on Wednesday. I'm really looking forward to driving my "new" truck with a load on it, it's really come a long way.

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Just a few more odds and ends to do on the truck and I can move on to the cargo trailer. Thanks so much for reading!

knappyfeet

05-13-2017, 09:49 PM

Bravo on the bumper...........very nice and good quality work.

I'd like on of those on my Titan but I think it could handle the weight.

El Camexican

05-13-2017, 11:27 PM

Mad Max approves that bumper!

Dirtcrasher

05-13-2017, 11:38 PM

I hope someday I see a video of some protesters blocking the highway with this truck headed towards them :lol:

That is the strongest bumper I've ever seen!!

tripledog

05-13-2017, 11:41 PM

Bumper? I don't even know her...

atctim

05-15-2017, 01:59 PM

Dang dude, sweet work on that front bumper! Looks super heavy duty. No deer damage to that guy I suspect.

big specht

05-15-2017, 04:18 PM

Looking good�� Has for your oil pan just pull the motor and lay it on its back with the frt back alittle bit to keep what ever oil drips from inside the motor from running out and clean the trailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro out of the gasket surfaces on both the pan and the block and use the navistar silicone to reseal it that trailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro is like JB weld. Make sure you get enough around the frt cover and rear cover areas. Being your truck is a 6speed you will have to pull the clutch off to get the motor out cause there isn't enough room between the cab and the crossmember to get the engine out with out getting medieval on it and possibly braking more parts.

plastikosmd

05-15-2017, 05:47 PM

Wow nice work

fabiodriven

05-15-2017, 08:29 PM

Thanks guys! Specht I'm not going to remove this engine and I will get it sealed. It has been done and I will do it as well.

fieldy

05-15-2017, 08:45 PM

One of the nicest things about a bumper like that is it will be like having a table or step ladder right on the front of your truck! You could bolt anything you want to that if you need to. I understand the amount of work it took to build that and you did a great job. Awesomeness!

IKE-Z

05-15-2017, 08:55 PM

I agree. That bumper is sweet!

coolpool

05-19-2017, 11:48 AM

Now who's referencing old school Military applications? that bumper looks like it's off an old deuce and a half; and I LOVE it! I'm changing the word "fabrication" to fabio-cation. Bravo my friend!

Dirtcrasher

05-21-2017, 11:05 PM

He owned a Deuce; I thought it was great!! :lol:

I'm sure it's archived here somewhere....

fabiodriven

05-27-2017, 04:29 PM

I've got a few electrical issues I'm going to start tackling on this truck. The first is a draw. The following link is to a thread on a Ford truck forum I started looking for answers about this draw. The circumstances are certainly odd and not like any electrical problem I've tackled before, but then again most electrical problems are. If some of the minds here wouldn't mind taking a peek I'd be very grateful.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1492243-1999-f-350-super-duty-gem-issue.html#post17220420

atc007

05-27-2017, 07:54 PM

Sounds to me like a new GEM and 2 good batteries and you'll be good to go.

plastikosmd

05-27-2017, 08:13 PM

I am more and more convinced that electricity is black magic

fabiodriven

05-28-2017, 08:17 PM

My next step will be to check the radio which is also on the same circuit. That's actually what my next intended step was until I got distracted by the GEM box. It's entirely feasible that the radio deck could be the problem.

Dirtcrasher

05-28-2017, 11:04 PM

Sounds like a relay or contactor not having enough OR getting too low of a voltage to complete the connection.

The only thing almost every vehicle has in common with the batteries out would be a small battery in the radio or clock.

The GEM seems to have a timer of sorts. How even a capacitor could store energy that long seems unfeasible. But, if it did have any voltage left it would be low and I can envision a contactor/relay trying to close via an underpowered coil in terms of voltage.

fabiodriven

06-05-2017, 07:20 PM

I ended up forking over $400 for a new GEM module. The only other option was a used, untested module with no guarantees whatsoever. In my eyes, it just didn't make any sense to buy a used module that could have the very same problem mine does, or best case scenario would have already lived most of it's useful life. The module arrived today and I've yet to install it, I still need to find out if it needs to be programmed by the dealer before I put it in. The new module also has a lifetime warranty.

Just about every aspect of this truck will be upgraded or brought back to factory operational status by the time I'm done. Last week I wanted to address the HVAC blower which worked on certain speeds when it wanted to sometimes, but other days it wouldn't work at all. I figured I'd replace the blower motor resistor and work from there. What I found was yet another reminder of the age of this truck. The old resistor was rusted to shite. The plastic plug was melted and weathered/welded to the resistor itself. I had to break the resistor apart and cut the plug right off of the truck's wiring harness. A trip to the local scrap yard learned me that this was far from an isolated incident, as every Super Duty in the yard had the very same affliction.

To the parts store I went where I bought a brand new resistor as well as some nice female blade connectors to rebuild my harness. After all that, still no blower. As it turned out, the blower motor was no good either. Now all is nicey new and functional.

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Today I ventured out to the garage to do some turbo upgrades. I ordered a Riffraff Diesel compressor wheel, a Banks Power Elbow, and an Airaid cold air intake. What I've quickly learned working on this truck is the differences between an early 99 Super duty and a 99.5-03 Super Duty. My truck is an early 99, so there are very few options for a cold air intake. I had to return my Airaid unit because it simply wouldn't work. My best option now is to make my own cold air intake, of which I will do very soon. I did get the compressor wheel and Power Elbow installed however.

The Banks Power Elbow is installed in place of the factory Ford EBPV, which is an exhaust flap used to warm up the truck faster. The EBPV is very restrictive however, as well as the factory 3" down pipe. The Banks Power Elbow eliminates the EBPV and replaces the factory 3" down pipe with a 4" unit which should help significantly in the reduction of EGT's.

The compressor wheel isn't as much of an upgrade as one might imagine. I replaced mine more because the factory compressor wheel had a lot of wear on the leading edge of the fins and just wasn't looking so great. It was due.

Downfalls of the early 99 in this episode-

Turbo must be removed for compressor wheel installation.

Downpipe is a tiny 3" as opposed to the slightly better 3.5" of later years.

No aftermarket support for cold air intake.

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captainweezy

06-05-2017, 11:30 PM

Wow that is a very large Peter pump!

86T3

06-06-2017, 08:38 AM

I've always felt that a k&n filter in the stock air box was a nice compromise between performance and clean air. I think people get a lot of dirt in their engine with cold air intakes.

fabiodriven

06-06-2017, 10:18 AM

I've always felt that a k&n filter in the stock air box was a nice compromise between performance and clean air. I think people get a lot of dirt in their engine with cold air intakes.

I completely agree Joe. Under these circumstances it's best I do something to modify my intake because the early 99's intake system didn't last very long. I've heard Ford changed it for good reason, basically because it sucks.

What you're saying is true, and putting an air filter under your hood while simultaneously cutting off the fresh air from outside the vehicle it was already breathing most likely makes for higher intake air temperatures and dirtier air going into the engine. Some people consider that an improvement, however I do not. See example of the wrong way to do this below-

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170606/0882ce6845d9873086326f58172fff0b.png

^^That^^ is the recommended approach to putting a cold air intake on your early 99 Super Duty. It should be called a hot air intake. I will not be doing that to my truck, however I will be finding a way to supply it with more fresh air with or without the factory airbox.

Bren_downe

06-06-2017, 04:09 PM

Mike Finnegan just did a show on this very subject.

https://youtu.be/pE7mw3ZZN0g

fabiodriven

06-06-2017, 04:18 PM

Mike Finnegan just did a show on this very subject.

https://youtu.be/pE7mw3ZZN0g

I literally just watched that last night! That one video is a very big reason I've decided to scrap the cold air intake altogether. After really looking over the factory intake today and comparing what I would be able to do with the K&N pod I bought, the K&N is getting returned. I couldn't engineer anything better than what the factory already has, so the factory airbox is staying.

I installed my remanufactured GEM module today and didn't see any difference in the draw my truck has. Upon review of the play, my truck actually has an acceptable amount of draw so I no longer think a draw is my problem. I was mis-reading my meter. Still a good move to replace it however, as the remanufactured unit has a lifetime warranty. I already knew I needed new batteries, so I'm hoping that fixes my problem.

fabiodriven

08-10-2017, 08:29 PM

I've had a lot of people asking me lately, so here's an update on what I'm up to. Basically the house hasn't sold so I can't leave here yet. It's too close to winter to leave now, so I'll be sticking it out in Massachusetts through the winter and ideally the house will sell in the spring. So I'm kinda on hold.

fabiodriven

11-22-2017, 08:04 PM

The house is still off the market and I've been spending my time getting it in better shape to sell. Scraping and painting, ceilings and walls... I love the house but I'm looking forward to leaving this place. To babble a bit, it's a fine line for me to walk as far as keeping things "within operating temperature". Obviously I deal with PTSD, but I do still have Lyme disease, always will. Depending on the day, I might need to rest, but on the other hand, idle hands are the devil's workshop. There is a lane I try to straddle somewheres in the middle there. I'm far from useless, I slay trees and do almost all of my splitting by hand with the maul. I've recently been able to get back into working out and exerting myself which is great obviously.

Lyme has changed me in a bunch of ways and on some very deep levels. I feel like a piece of litmus paper kind of. Unless I'm doing something that I'm truly enthusiastic about, I feel like shite. It's difficult to explain, I'm not sure I can really portray this. I don't dislike my home but I do dislike Massachusetts, and I don't have to leave here ever if I don't want to, however the more comfortable I get here, the more depressed I get. The thought of leaving here enthralls me and immediately my heart starts pumping and my mood turns right around. I'm incapable of bullshitting myself and the rewards of following my own train of thought are not something I can afford to pass up, if that makes any sense.

The brand new cargo trailer has been sitting out in the yard patiently awaiting it's turn for attention. A few days ago I found myself unable to sleep as my mind went into engineering mode and started making blueprints only I can see. Yesterday I hooked up the trailer and moved it into position to get some love and today I worked inside of it for the first time ever. I also plugged it in and used the electricity for the first time. Now I'm no carpenter so you nail bangers can frig off. As I was working inside the trailer today with the heavy rain coming down overhead, I felt like a million bucks. For a second I was wondering why I wasn't miserable, and I realized it was because I'm working on my future and this is unequivocally the right path. The signs are clear as day.

My work bench beginnings are now there. I'll be topping the bench with a chunk of steel. I picked up some storage bins from Havoc Fraught, $40 for the pair. 120v electric built-in wall heating unit is en route. I'm going to be doing a lot of building, wiring, plumbing, and all those great things from this point forward. Every square inch will have to be taken advantage of with hanging cabinets, shelves, and toolboxes. I'm going to have to condense my garage down to only the essentials and my best tools, parts, and bikes. On that note, the XR650L conversion is not going to make the cut. That's getting sold and at the moment it's not yet listed anywhere. I'm torn about tools. It would behoove me to shed as many lbs as I possibly can inside this trailer. Over the last year, I've learned to part ways with things I'd have never considered before, including trikes. I sold my DR and I will be selling my XR, but I'm having a tough time thinking about condensing my tools. I have a problem letting tools go. I even told myself I can keep some of them in storage, I don't have to let them go, but I'm not positive I'll be able to leave many of them behind. The thing is, I have so many repeat tools that I truly do not need to have them all with me. I probably have twenty 3/8th's ratchets. I couldn't imagine the situation I'd need twenty 3/8th's ratchets, but I have trouble imagining life without them. I don't know, something to think about I guess.

So that's where things are now. I'm glad I have the time to work on this stuff at my own pace. I used to lay sleepless thinking about women, but now it's this undertaking instead. It's an odd feeling having priorities like that shuffled for you, and that's not the only one. I guess I'm just getting used to being me still at 38 years of age.

I will update as things progress.

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plastikosmd

11-22-2017, 09:47 PM

I have been told that giving has a way of cheering u up when u are down. I will happily take a ratchet or 2 if u ever need a pick-me-up! (Nice collection, puts mine to shame, I like the big star wheel one)
Happy thanksgiving Fabio

El Camexican

11-22-2017, 11:28 PM

Great post Fabs! Good to see you focused on a labor of love.

Regarding the tools, a couple years back I made the hard choice, gathered everything up and laid everything out in plain view and started matching duplicates up. Then I put together some travel kits for the bike, and the truck as well as some for the house.

When that was done I asked myself in what situation would I ever need two of X. If I couldn’t think of one, the lesser quality of the spare tools went into an old Beach tool box I’d picked up well used when I was 18 and was gifted to my buddy Jorge as he is the one guy I know down here who actually wants to learn how to fix his bikes and not just drink beer and critique my free labor services.

After all this time the only thing I regret giving him was a 5/16” that i’ve Now lost the twin to.

So my long drawn out story is simply to comment that you might want to consider giving them to somebody you know rather than selling them unless you think you could get fair market value for them. At least that way you know where they are and that somebody you know is taking care of them and putting them to good use.

fabiodriven

11-23-2017, 12:00 AM

Thanks a lot for the replies guys! Yeah I'll think about the tools. No need to worry about that right this moment. It's not just 3/8th's stuff I have a lot of. I have a lot of 1/2, tons of Channel Locks, linesmen, dykes, pliers, probably ten torque wrenches and 20 pair of tin snips. Like it's difficult to shut the drawers sometimes. I'm low on vise grips and screwdrivers though. It's so difficult to find good screwdrivers.

El Camexican

11-23-2017, 01:27 AM

I don’t know what’s going on with screwdrivers. My dad still has craftsman screwdriver’s that are over 30 years old and in decent shape, I bought a set a of Crapsman drivers couple months ago and managed to internally strip two of the slotted ones trying to take out a quarter inch stove bolt the next day.

Went back for warranty and they told me that they didn’t have those sizes in stock. So I go back a couple weeks later and sure enough they still don’t have those sizes in stock. In fact I don’t think they ever have those sizes in stock, kind of like Snap-on 1/4” drivers, so I took two similar sizes waited for a young girl to go up to the till, Looked her straight in the eye and said I need these replaced, I went and picked out the right ones on my own, I hope you don’t mind. She never said a word just took the bad ones and told me to have a nice day.

If you do come across a nice high-end brand please let me know, I am sick of disfiguring screwdriver‘s on tiny little screws.

fabiodriven

11-23-2017, 02:14 AM

Scootertrash

11-23-2017, 10:25 AM

fabiodriven

11-23-2017, 12:12 PM

You keep lesbians in your garage? ;)

In the basement Scooter.

ironchop

11-23-2017, 01:22 PM

Do you have a 3/8 entension I can borrow?

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El Camexican

11-23-2017, 01:34 PM

Do you have a 3/8 entension I can borrow?

I was wondering how many he'd borrowed when I first saw that photo :lol:

On the topic of tools does anyone know who makes the larger sizes of JIS screwdrivers? I'll I can seem to find are the smaller ones you would use on a computer, or electrical board. I'd like some that fit case screws.

ironchop

11-23-2017, 01:41 PM

I was wondering how many he'd borrowed when I first saw that photo [emoji38]

On the topic of tools does anyone know who makes the larger sizes of JIS screwdrivers? I'll I can seem to find are the smaller ones you would use on a computer, or electrical board. I'd like some that fit case screws.I just bought a cheapo 3-way JIS T handle from Motion Pro. Comes with the three sizes of JIS bits that I needed on my R motor and the screws on my handlebar controls and brake rezzys. Pretty handy for cheap. Its magnetic. Just the right sizes for Jap trike stuff. The bits can be removed and used with a socket and torque wrench.

It had the big bit for those large JIS screws like bearing retainer plates and stator base screws

I'll get a better set later but I needed one quick and cheap

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F16 2076681225

Sent from my Z958 using Tapatalk

Scootertrash

11-23-2017, 02:09 PM

On the topic of tools does anyone know who makes the larger sizes of JIS screwdrivers? I'll I can seem to find are the smaller ones you would use on a computer, or electrical board. I'd like some that fit case screws.

I bought this set a few months ago, not sure how large you want to go. What's the biggest they make?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Hozan-JIS-4-JIS-Screwdriver-Set-NEW-3rd-Gen-New/311263643964?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

fabiodriven

11-23-2017, 03:55 PM

I just had to search Google to figure out what a JIS screwdriver is. Learn something every day.

El Camexican

11-23-2017, 05:18 PM

I just had to search Google to figure out what a JIS screwdriver is. Learn something every day.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Learned that from Dirt Crasher. Only ruined the heads on about 1,0000 case screws prior to that.

Bought that set Doug posted, let’s see what comes.

Hey John: coporolite :lol:

DAM shop

11-23-2017, 07:39 PM

One of my favourite quotes carry it with you and enjoy life..
" Every once in awhile when the world sits just right, a gentle breath of heaven fills my soul with delight"

Dirtcrasher

11-26-2017, 02:51 PM

I will absolutely let you know Nico. Craftsman hasn't made a good screwdriver since probably the 80's. Their old screwdrivers are much better quality and their more recent Philips offerings aren't bad, but their slotted screwdrivers are pure garbage. I avoid flathead hardware like the plague anyways, but you're always going to come across them from time to time.

I'm just going to end up biting the bullet and buying something brand new and name brand. There isn't much on the intranets as far as good used tools. I've gotten ridiculous deals on all the rest of my tools, two separate bulk buyouts for really short money, so it's fair that I'll have to spring on screwdrivers.

Well, were probably gonna get screwed when Sears finally dies off. No more free Craftsmans replacements, heck some guys sell broken ones at flea markets :lol: Even our shovels and rakes; I better snap them in half now....

I'm curios to see what you grab because I really need a set of basic metric tools and JIS screwdrivers in my Toy Hauler.

keister

11-27-2017, 02:27 PM

Do you have a 3/8 entension I can borrow?

No! His ultimate plan is to be able to work on the trikes in his trailer without having to leave the comfort of his truck cab.

roostin atc

11-27-2017, 08:52 PM

fabiodriven

11-27-2017, 09:03 PM

Honestly I had Klein in the back of my mind and planned on checking them out. I'll be certain to look at those before anything else. Thanks Craighead!

roostin atc

11-27-2017, 09:23 PM

Hit Rory up. Electricians usually have the best screwdrivers. I'm sure he would point you in the right direction.

Jd110

11-27-2017, 11:08 PM

You need to find yourself a set of Klein screwdrivers John. They are the best I've seen over the years. They never let me down. They are oil and electric resistant. I use them every day. Only screwdriver I trust to test a 10000 volt ignition transformer.

Klein USE to be good screwdrivers. Tips are junk, now.
Switched to Wiha. See what your electrician friend thinks.
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These tips are holding up great after a year. I'd be lucky to get a year out of a Klein.

sledcrazyinCT

11-27-2017, 11:16 PM

Switched to Wiha. See what your electrician friend thinks. These tips are holding up great after a year.

Five piece set is $35 Amazon prime

ironchop

11-28-2017, 10:46 PM

fabiodriven

11-29-2017, 12:12 AM

You can tell which Craftsman screwdrivers are the good ones by the way their handle smells. If it smell like somebody puked in the toolbox, that's the era of manufacture you want. It's the only brand I've ever seen that smelled like that.

Dude... Insane that you would know that. I was using one the other day and I was wondering what the hell the thing had gotten into. It had been in the toolbox of my truck for a long time and there was nothing in there that could have spilled on it or anything. It was the screwdriver itself!

El Camexican

11-29-2017, 01:06 AM

What the heck are you guys doing with your screwdrivers??!! :wondering

Scootertrash

11-29-2017, 08:40 AM

I thought it was called wreNching, not wretching.....how screwy is that?

I'll be looking into the Wiha brand.

fabiodriven

11-29-2017, 09:00 PM

Today has been tricky. I realized today what a tool enthusiast I am. Not just the band, but actual tools themselves. I've always been fond of tools obviously, most of us are, but I always forget how much I have. Today I started going through my tools in order to decide which tools will come with me when I leave here for good and which tools will go to storage. It's like trying to pick a favorite child and having to ship another one away. I have been holding and really looking at each one to decide which to put aside, and I have started to realize just how much I love tools. When I first began, I got to the fourth drawer before I had to start over again. All four of those drawers I decided "I can keep all these." In reality, I cannot, so I had to go back and force myself to thin out those drawers. I'm not posting these to try and show off, I could have done that years ago if I'd have wanted to, but rather to share to those who might be enthusiasts and can appreciate what is here. It may be some time before all of these tools are together again so I figured I'd take some pictures. The first to get plucked out are those from China or Taiwan, followed by Japanese, the American tools. A really good portion of everything is American made and very high quality.

These three drawers hold my pliers, channel locks, linesmen, etc... They were difficult to open and close before thinning.

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This was my 1/2" drawer before making cuts.

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Weird plier drawer.

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3/4" and 1" drive drawer. A lot of this is Snap-on.

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Seven different styles of 3/8" Craftsman ratchets with doubles of most of these.

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I have this ratchet in 1/4" and 1/2", both like new. I've never used them. They're really interesting and super light weight.

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Six torque wrenches.

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I love this torque wrench. It's made in Attleboro, MA, under an hour from me. It's cool as frig.

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Plenty of compression gauges.

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This one is my favorite.

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I thought this was cool. The whole time I've had it I thought it was just another "push in" style compression gauge with the rubber grommet that seals the spark plug hole. That is not what it is. It's an RPM gauge that has a little wheel on the back side. I was thinking though, wouldn't the RPM of whatever it is you're measuring change depending on diameter? :wondering

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171130/e0a73e068bde9af24be3cb63050ae046.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171130/87c479fa2bd7d40c14538c8c272f4c76.jpg

Brake tools, tire spoons, swedges, before thinning. This drawer will lose a lot of weight. A huge number of the tools in this drawer are drum brake and spring tools. I would never need this many drum brake tools.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171130/a3bec66dd5e36eb255a269199af55081.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171130/9bf76d941c1307684e62d8367789edbd.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171130/4dfbe7a3fd016f57bc739711d5890e12.jpg

I was able to combine the 3/8" and 1/4" drawers into just one drawer, so that made a lot of space. First is the before picture of just the 3/8" stuff-

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171130/bb230431f3c58c28bb705dfe97ccb3b6.jpg

This is after removing a bunch of 3/8" stuff and adding the 1/4"-

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171130/8f48891d650c68e24c7b28a2ac938fc8.jpg

I ended up shedding at least 150 lbs of tools from this box today. I'm not done with it yet and I didn't take pictures of everything I did today, this is just some. All of these will be going into storage.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171130/3fbce51f769f2fc859f0eaac680d6e68.jpg

Thanks for looking!

sledcrazyinCT

11-29-2017, 09:54 PM

Quite the accumulation of tools! Where are all the 1/4 and 3/8 sockets hanging out

fabiodriven

11-29-2017, 10:12 PM

I haven't gotten to sockets yet. Judging by the amount of ratchets and extensions I have you would think I'd have a lot more sockets than I do. I bought some really nice racks for sockets which then made me realize how few metric sockets I have. Honestly most of these ratchets rarely get used because I've had the same plastic case Craftsman four drawer set since high school that I use for just about everything. It has 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" in both metric and standard and can handle just about every job.

86T3

11-30-2017, 07:23 AM

My brother has that exact rpm gauge, he uses it on his welders. Rpm will be the same no matter the diameter, if you want to visualize it, the next time youre changing a tire draw a line from the center of your hub to the outside of the wheel and spin it. The line very outside and inside of the line will complete a revolution at the same time

Dirtcrasher

11-30-2017, 08:48 PM

I knew you got the best toolbox!! That dude and his tools, :crazy:

All those brake tools! Is that a 4" exhaust spreader?? :lol:

Great scores. It's no 250R in a crate but I was happy.....

El Camexican

11-30-2017, 09:18 PM

Holy carp Dude, you've got quite the collection there!!! Amazing what the investment to be able to work on trucks and cars is in comparison to bikes and trikes. Your ratchets and extensions alone probably weigh more than all my tools combined and I don't want for much when working on bikes.

fabiodriven

12-01-2017, 12:51 AM

I knew you got the best toolbox!! That dude and his tools, :crazy:

All those brake tools! Is that a 4" exhaust spreader?? :lol:

Great scores. It's no 250R in a crate but I was happy.....

That tool sale was a once in lifetime thing. These days that would have been plastered all over Facebook and we wouldn't have been able to get in there. There was no way I could pass up that box (loaded to the gills, top and bottom).

About two years ago I acquired a second loaded rollaway for chump change, just a bottom. Probably 1/3rd the tools that came in the first loaded top and bottom, so the collection grew significantly then. I added a top to the second rollaway so now I have two full rollers. The second roller just happened to be the twin to the first one too, lol!

fabiodriven

02-10-2018, 05:42 AM

It is this evening I reach you from the state of Hawaii where I arrived almost three days ago for my first trip here ever. My father lives here and he's been trying to get me to visit for years. Almost a month ago my father called me and offered to fly me out, an offer that was difficult to refuse even though for some reason I had the feeling I should have. I was in very good health (for me) when he asked me to come, but I was hesitant to say yes for reasons I wasn't even sure of at the time. I agreed to go and I booked my trip, more for my father than for myself.

A few days before I departed Boston I began to get sick. Due to my past with Lyme disease, a mere headache or case of the sniffles is enough to make me nervous about what I may be in for. Knowing I had this trip coming made me extremely concerned when I began to feel under the weather.

Not long before the flight I had pinpointed who it was I had gotten sick from and where he was a couple of days ahead of me with his sniffles I inquired as to how he was feeling. He was on the mend and it was no big deal. Sounded good to me and that did put my mind at ease somewhat, however the worry in the back of my mind was not going to just roll over and die. I went through with the flight and boarded the airplane in the wee hours of Wednesday morning after a sleepless night Tuesday. I was fortunate enough to procure my own row of seats on the plane and was able to stretch out for some plane rest, which isn't sleep. On the second flight I wasn't able to sleep a wink.

Upon my arrival to paradise I was obviously very tired, but not terribly hungry. Loss of appetite started days before I departed Boston and is bad news for a toothpick like me. No biggie I thought though, it's likely just jet lag. I had some terrible jet lag upon my arrival to Thailand last year that left me sick for three days and seriously considering whether or not it had been a good idea for me to undertake such a endeavor, however at some point I finally collapsed for an entire day to appease the jet lag and repay the hardest debt you will ever have to pay, and that's sleep debt. I mean a day, like close to 24 hours in bed. After that rest I was right as rain and that's when I was finally able to get up and out and celebrate the health I had at that time, and what a magical experience that ended up being in the end.

As I write this now, it is Friday night here. I've yet to truly sleep since Monday. Very few people can say they know how it feels to go that long without sleep, and anyone who cannot relate should consider themselves to have at least something going for them. I've laid here with my eyes closed and dozed off into a somewhat subconscious state that would appear to look like sleep as viewed from the outside looking in, however my eyes will pop open in the middle of the night and it's as if I'd not gotten a second of rest. Then the cycle begins all over again.

Years of operating with a failing top end has taught me that I must listen to the universe and follow the paths suggested me. I'm not able to bulldoze through life and do what others do. I'm not able to exist as others do and push through work every day and then party all weekend. Work would kill me and I'm unable to socialize and unhealthy enough that drinking a lot is a big risk for me, or at the very least a heavy price to pay for the next two days.

I arrived in Hawaii to weather that my father described as "incredibly uncommon". Our final approach on the plane was from the opposite direction as what's normal in Hawaii because the trade winds were blowing the opposite direction as they usually do when I arrived. I tried to ignore that fact.

The following day we decided to go to the other side of Maui because that side is always sunny, always. My father lives on the rainy side of the island but it's a short trip to the other side for sun and beaches. Everyone here knows that, that's how Maui works. My father was once again taking note of how strangely uncommon this weather pattern was, and I was doing my best not to take note. Kind of tough to overlook though. Eventually we did find the sun, but it was only at the very tip of the island, far further away than it ever is usually. Even then we were still getting sprinkles. If you're not yet catching on, I brought all this trailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro with me, this is all because of me.

My appetite was still null and void but I know enough to force feed myself. You want to talk about miserable, try cramming food down your throat when you don't feel like eating at all. It gets worse when there's an audience around, as that adds to the anxiety. Then you get people asking why you're not eating, passing their food over to you trying to help, it's not fun. Americans have zero concept of what it's like to have no appetite, you portly folks you.

After lunch I had a brief moment of relief when the clouds lifted for some reason (figurative clouds, not literal), and I felt I was going to be OK. That was fleeting.

This morning we drove up to the top of the volcano on the most amazing mountain road you could ever imagine, beyond beautiful. Some of the most amazing stuff you could ever hope to see. Unfortunately my eyes could see where I was but my mind wasn't able to appreciate it. I couldn't even tell you the name of the volcano, as awesome of a journey as that was. I felt awful all day and couldn't even enter the visitor's center due to my inability to be around people. My head hurt and I was tired even though I can't sleep, I'm like a zombie. I go through the motions and act the part, many wouldn't even know there's something wrong with me. I know what I used to take joy from in life and I do those things, however the feeling of joy has eluded my heart for three and a half years, which actually began before I ever contracted Lyme. The Lyme only served to cement those awful feelings into a rather permanent state of mind for me, so basically if you've seen me happy you've seen me attempting to fake it 'til I make it. Unfortunately (a word we'll be using quite frequently in this particular post), I'm tired of faking it. I don't think I can do it much longer. I don't expect I'll feel true joy again. My heart is without love, something which unfortunately seems to be some kind of requirement for this being, as someone took it from me a long time ago and I'm not quite sure what that person did with it. I do know they didn't return it. I fear that follie may follow them through this life and into the next, but I really shouldn't be concerned for how they're going to answer for that one, not my problem. This is my problem however, this is something that has to be dealt with by me. I'm running low on solutions though and I am not getting any younger.

Silly me thought maybe I'd run into an interesting person of the opposite sex here, and I actually had very high hopes about that prior to my departure for the island if you can believe that. I've been working out quite steadily for at least three months, so I started two months before I even knew I was coming here. I figured I had a shot. Well what I hadn't taken into account was the amount of jacked surfers with flowing Swatland locks this island is capable of supporting. It's like a whole island of Swatlands, and here I am skinny, balding, and with a big goofy nose. They're the friggin Fabios, not me. So we can scratch women off the list for this trip. I can be so silly, I don't know what I was thinking.

It's 11:05 pm here as I type this, and this morning I left my bed before 8. My "sleep" was not sleep, and as such I was miserable and yawning all day long. I couldn't wait to get home and sleep. I immediately retired to my bedroom at 4:30 in the afternoon and laid there with my eyes closed for hours without a wink of sleep, even though I was so tired that I was dizzy all day. Once again, sleep eluded me. I decided to take up position and meditate for a while. It's OK if you guys want to laugh at this, but I am a "lightworker". It seems odd, yes, and nothing I did on purpose nor studied for. If you're curious what that means check it out. I've been told by two separate people who are completely unaware of each other that I am what I am. I like the fact that's a part of me very much, I need that guidance, but another unfortunate circumstance of my sickness is that it cuts my lifeline. My tether to the universe gets severed by this illness leaving me unable to see my path and manifest the circumstances which I would prefer to see come to fruition. I feel like I've been dropped on an uninhabited planet or something, it's quite awful, and therein lies my struggle. I need the guidance of the universe in order operate in this realm, and my heart will not function while empty. I cannot see my path without guidance, therefore love cannot find me and my light remains out, which causes me to feel ill, which leaves my heart empty, which clouds the path, which leaves me without love... I'm sure you can see where this is going.

If you think I've gotten really weird now then I'm glad, I like it when people think like that. I love so many of you for who you are but I have no desire to be anyone but me, and so I am. If you think I'm full of beans check this out- Today it did not rain, it was rather sunny. As I said, I went to bed at 4:30. My father tried to get me to come out for dinner around 7, which I was unable to do. I stayed in bed in the hopes I could enter REM. The only dreaming I ended up doing was when I thought I might get some sleep, yet another silly idea. Around 10:30 pm, right before I started this post, I decided to go outside for a cigarette. As I stepped outside, it began to rain. I sheltered under the eaves of the house and had my smoke. As I finished up smoking and headed back into the house, the rain stopped. That was the only ten minutes it rained today. You can't make stuff like this up and I would never joke about something that to me is so serious, like dyer.

The reason I've posted this in this particular thread is my friggin plan is crumbling before my eyes as I deal with this. All of a sudden I foresee myself rotting away alone in the miserable Commonwealth with a roof over my head at least I guess, and cabinets full to the brim of misery. Hooray. Nothing is set in stone however, but my hopes and aspirations are below low at this particular juncture. A lot of people know I deal with a bad top end every day, I don't hide it, but almost none understand why my thoughts go to the places they do. I'm trapped like a rat, struggling to climb out. I'm tired of struggling. I'm tired of feeling empty and alone, tired of plastering a smile on my face, and just plain tired. I've done my part I feel, but I wish I could do more. I feel I offer little to the benefit of others anymore and I refuse to be anyone's burden, ever. I'll take care of me as best I can and just continue to keep to myself as I have. Honestly I find it amusing to become a stereotype, it's so ironic to me because it's so unexpected. I always felt like being aware of things was a strong defense against undesirable traits, however what I wasn't able to account for was my perception being a bit askew and my inability to see many situations for what they really are. Unfortunately my poor vision has already had it's affects and my current reality is a product of my actions due to my inability to see at times. I have since learned many things I see much more clearly with my eyes closed. I think that says a lot.

Thank you all for reading and I promise if I can turn this around I will. I could potentially be retracting this entire post tomorrow should the universe see fit. Unfortunately I think that's out of my hands at this particular moment, but I'll see what I can do. If you're concerned about me please don't be. This ride isn't over yet. It doesn't matter when it ends regardless because we all live forever anyways.

Thanks very much for reading guys.

Scootertrash

02-10-2018, 08:26 AM

Well Fabs, All I can say is that I hope at some point you can find everything you are searching for that will enable you to reach some level of happiness and/or balance in your life.

Mickey Dunlap

02-10-2018, 11:55 AM

There is a answer to your problems, He's the answer to every ones problem, and wise men still seek Him. Chances are you don't want to hear it, I get that, but I still have to put it out there.

Jd110

02-10-2018, 12:06 PM

Hang in there, Fabio. And if you ever get that trailer on the road and venture this way, you're always welcome here.

El Camexican

02-10-2018, 12:24 PM

John, I gave this to someone I know to read and they asked if you’d ever tried QHHT?

Shep1970

02-10-2018, 12:44 PM

I cant believe your in hawaii... i’ve always wanted to go back/ my dad was in the service he was stationed there when i was 3-4 yrs old. Dont remember much but a couple areas when i see photographs. Its the flight there thats always held me back from re-visiting... maybe someday
You need to go sit your azz on the beach with a couple soothing umbrella drinks and watch the scenery.... you’ll be back in mass before u know it (same crap here just different days)
On the whole woman topic: i dated a girl out of highschool for 6yrs, it ended BAD, i’ll just say she got to know a couple of my good friends really well....then i kinda gave up figuring that id never find another. Well i dated a few that didnt make the cut.

A few yrs later i went to a birthday party for a friend of a friends cousin that i didnt really want to go, well i met my wife there. I was the azzhole this time though, she was engaged to be married to some other guy. Ended up that he treated her like dirt so i didnt feel too bad about it. He was also going to school to become a priest or similiar so ya i’ll probably go to hell..... ha
You never know where you’ll meet someone- dont give up- it happens fast when you dont expect it....

Ok i’ve written way too much.
Ps. If it rains again while your outside go jump in some puddles, enjoy the “warm” rain!!!!
Shep

DAM shop

02-10-2018, 01:03 PM

Dam dawg, well I won't pretend to know what you are going through fabs but I do appreciate you putting it all out there for sure.. I had a counselor tell me once that it's the strong person that reckonizes he has a problem and is willing to fix it.. it sounds like to me you are struggling with what type of changes you need to make and are trying to justify those changes by expressing your unhappiness. I say do something opposed to do nothing, to many people are stuck in unhappiness because A they don't reckonize anything is wrong or B they don't think there is anything better out there.. I say find what makes ya happy brother. You may even want to talk with someone outside your circle as they could help put thing into perspective for ya..
Hawaii dosent sound like a bad place to kick it for a while a simpler life and all..
Take care brother find some beauty in your life, stay away from the booze, make a change.

Shep1970

02-10-2018, 01:32 PM

By the way Shep ..........you`re lookin mighty cute in dem jeans ..........Shep

Ooooo, just wait till’ the jean shorts come out!!! Nico suave “brand”
Shouldn’t you be taking the wife out to brunch or something.......:beer

Shep

fabiodriven

02-10-2018, 01:58 PM

There is a answer to your problems, He's the answer to every ones problem, and wise men still seek Him. Chances are you don't want to hear it, I get that, but I still have to put it out there.

I'm uncertain about why you would assume he's not already with me. I don't like mankind's take on religion and don't agree with your views in particular, but you are no closer to him than I am.

fabiodriven

02-10-2018, 02:00 PM

John, I gave this to someone I know to read and they asked if you’d ever tried QHHT?

I don't know what that is Nico.

DAM shop

02-10-2018, 02:27 PM

Fabs,
I believe that QHHT IS Quantum Healing Hypnosis Therapy.. something I am not familiar with

El Camexican

02-10-2018, 02:58 PM

Fabs,
I believe that QHHT IS Quantum Healing Hypnosis Therapy.. something I am not familiar with

Yes Sir, that’s the one. I’m trying not to analyze the thoughts, needs and feelings of others, but I will say that the person that suggested it also made a comment that if someone feels that they have the ability to bring rain and darkness along with them in their travels then they also have the ability to make the sun shine brightly.

Unfortunately they had no insight on how to duplicate Swatland’s flowing locks.

bkm

02-10-2018, 03:32 PM

That Swatland is so dreamy though.

fabiodriven

02-10-2018, 03:33 PM

Fantastic Nico, and I do also have the ability to bring the sun. That's why we never discuss the weather before a certain gathering hosted by this site. On many occasions I have attended events that were supposed to be rained out that I was convinced I had something to do with. Crazy, slightly yes, however our respective points of view in regards to our experience in this realm is indeed our own personal universe, and if I'm running this universe it is I'm experiencing, then obviously I'd like to steer it as I see fit. That makes each and every one of you players in a universe that belongs to me. Now before you fault me for labeling others mere actors in my universe, I am equally an actor in each one of yours. We all have our own experience.

Upon my departure from Boston to Thailand the entire ten day forecast showed rain. I was able to get that down to one day of actual rain upon my arrival.

Mickey Dunlap

02-10-2018, 05:32 PM

I'm uncertain about why you would assume he's not already with me. I don't like mankind's take on religion and don't agree with your views in particular, but you are no closer to him than I am.

All I have to do is point the way, it's up to Him to bring you along.

fabiodriven

02-10-2018, 05:38 PM

Thank you Mickey. I do appreciate your posting.

I'm up and about in the sun right now and doing better than I was yesterday so...

fabiodriven

02-10-2018, 05:45 PM

Stupid sexy Swatland!

https://youtu.be/WaeRM7X_yS4

Dirtcrasher

02-10-2018, 06:31 PM

I'd love to see Hawaii but afraid to fly, lol...

Your a good guy John with allot of interesting beliefs. I often have thoughts of some things that you have said in the past or present, which at that time, I could or couldn't see.

The end result being, you were right!! :lol::lol:

Anyhow, I have allot of goals I still want to reach and a short time to get there, but all I can do is take them on 1 at a time. But the desire has not fizzled out!

Be well bud...

plastikosmd

02-10-2018, 09:16 PM

Don’t look at moving in from the old “plan” as a failure, just evolution. Keep pushing forward, good luck

fabiodriven

02-10-2018, 10:19 PM

I hope I'm not jumping the gun here, but I feel 100x better now than I did when I posted last night or when I got up this morning. My father's girlfriend is a nurse, and she's well versed in nutrition type health. She sees a holistic doctor as well. This morning she broke out a book on autoimmune disorders and natural remedies. Long story short, I drank some green stuff, kept eating fruit (which is almost all I've been able to stomach), and it wasn't long after that I felt the hankering for a sangwich. So that was a huge improvement in what seemed like an absurdly short amount of time. We just got back from the beach which was absolutely friggin awesome. A giant sea turtle swam right into my leg as I was walking in shin deep water, scared the crap out of me. There's nothing to be afraid of with them, I just wasn't expecting it. It was big enough that I could have caught a ride if he was OK with it. That was cool.

It goes without saying what kind of beaches there are here, so it was great. This was a small beach, probably no more than 20 people spread out there. It was funny, there were 3 male/female couples, and all the rest were women. Two or three pairs of two women, all the rest were women by themselves. I couldn't believe it. There wasn't a Swatland in site the entire time I was there. I was the only man there aside from the ones who were already occupied. I soaked up the sun and swam in the ocean, it was great. Talk about a complete 180, my word.

I'm curious how I'll sleep tonight, but I bet I'll sleep well. I would really like to thank all of you who have posted and shown concern for me, I didn't aim to raise any alarms. I was extremely concerned about things last night when I posted, I was in very bad shape, really bad. I wasn't sure why I was posting, but perhaps that was the outlet I needed or a life line to the energy that you all have sent me, which you all have whether you realize it or not. It is very well received and there is no way I can thank you guys enough, truly. I'm not bowshitting when I attribute much of my feeling better at this moment to the support of the members of this site, so thank you all very much. It might seem silly to some, but this was a pretty serious situation for me. I have no idea how I'd fly home if I had a full blown relapse. Ideally I'll really be able to enjoy myself from this point on.

ezmoney1979

02-10-2018, 10:25 PM

Glad to hear you are feeling better. Go hit up Makena Beach....... Grab some tacos from Jaws Tacos (in the parking lot) and stay till sunset.

fabiodriven

02-10-2018, 10:32 PM

I'd love to see Hawaii but afraid to fly, lol...

Steve if you have the hankering to travel I think you should do it. You have the means and you only live once. I'd suggest Thailand before Hawaii, but that's just me. Thailand is really cheap to go to and what a great time. Hawaii is certainly awesome, but you're gonna spend a lot of money to come here. I'm staying with my dad so no need for a hotel or rental car. I think you should do it though.

fabiodriven

02-10-2018, 11:03 PM

Glad to hear you are feeling better. Go hit up Makena Beach....... Grab some tacos from Jaws Tacos (in the parking lot) and stay till sunset.

Thanks brah! We drove by Makena Thursday but it was raining. I'll be sure to swing in there though since you recommended it. Jaws itself is ten minutes up the road, you could potentially walk there from here.

Another thing is, I do have the option of living here if I'd like to. On Maui, you're allowed on your lot a main house, a cottage 1000 square feet or under, a "barn" (which many times ends up being living space), and as many "sheds" (tiny homes) 200 square feet and under as you'd like. They have two acres where my father lives. My father's girlfriend's daughter lives in the main house with her family and my father and his girlfriend live in the cottage, however they have no barn (like 3WW) and no sheds. I was planning on my next dwelling being a tiny house anyways so... That's a lot to think about though, but it's a great option to have.

hoosierlogger

02-11-2018, 07:30 AM

Another thing is, I do have the option of living here if I'd like to.

That would be awesome, But it would be a long drive to trikefest lol

86T3

02-11-2018, 09:06 PM

You guys really crack me up. Fabs, I'm sure this won't surprise you because of your beliefs on the universe, but I've been thinking about you all day. I was actually going to call you, i didn't realize you were off the mainland. I'm going to shoot you a text, i assume your phone works normally there. Glad you're feeling better, keep it up!

knappyfeet

02-12-2018, 03:47 PM

I always enjoy reading your blogs and perspective on things.

Being in the bay area for a wedding and as I type this from my hotel room in Santa Rosa......Friday night I had 2 hours of sleep.....Saturday night 3. I was miserable, cranky, depressed.....no food tasted good and just wanted to curl up in a corner and be left along. Then last night 12 hours of nonstop sleep and I'm going to enjoy the rest of the week in San Francisco.....totally different perspective......everything is bright and colorful and happy and in focus.

I suffer from bouts of sleep loss and your words ring a bell with me

I'm glad your doing better.

Dirtcrasher

02-13-2018, 03:17 AM

Glad to hear your feeling better. Put your toes in the sand and smell that ocean air; it's gotta be amazing.

I'd love to see Hawaii, but this whole Bitcoin thing has me thinking 3 car garage or pole barn this smer :D

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

fabiodriven

02-13-2018, 04:00 AM

Thanks for posting Knappy and yup, you get it. Sleep deprivation can have some really scary effects on people who are otherwise perfectly healthy, which unfortunately for me, I'm not. Turns into a shite storm for me real quick. I'm curious if it's going to happen to me again flying back but I'm optimistic I'll be OK.

Steve, sounds like you may have fallen into some good fortune! That's great! You could definitely use a garage, that's for sure!

fabiodriven

03-05-2018, 01:59 AM

Here I am, just over a year after announcing that I'd like to up and leave my home to travel and ultimately settle somewhere else. What I find on my mind lately surprises me. I still have the yearn to travel and to live someplace other than Massachusetts, but there has been one nagging tether holding me back. I pride myself on my lack of tethers, however there is one in my life that I cannot escape, not that I'd like to either. This one detail of the plan that has literally kept me up at night and I told myself I'd handle, is my cat. I'm sure that may sound silly to many, I don't know that everyone gets attached to animals like some people do. I know some understand. I've been telling myself that she's coming with me because it's not a thought in my mind to ever get rid of her. She's been with me since she was a kitten and she always chose me over my ex for whatever reason, she's always loved me. She's been with me for 14 years and she has a very comfortable life here and she loves this house. It would be a shame to take it away from her, and I couldn't take myself out of her life either, not that I'd ever want to. It seems silly but she's with me a huge amount of the time. She's a shoulder cat and will perch herself up there and ride around while I cook, do dishes, do laundry, whatever really. She has to be in the bathroom when I shower, she sleeps with me, and who doesn't like claws to the eyeball at 3:43 in the morning? I wasn't trying to sleep anyways!

So the cat has a lot of personality, and I don't think I have it in me to turn her life upside down when she's had it as good as she has for as long as she has. It might seem silly, but that's what has kept me up at night. Whenever I go away she doesn't like it. She can tell when I'm packing to go somewhere and she pouts. She also gets jealous if I have women over. When we were younger and I went away for a few days, she didn't mind that much. These days I can tell she misses me immensely when I leave. I couldn't imagine if we lived on the road and she were cooped up all the time, which is bad enough, but what if I want to venture away from my camper for a day or two, or a week? Or go to another country for a few weeks or a month? This is what I think about. She's always been very independent and prefers to be the only animal, but she doesn't need strict solitude. She'll put up with other animals if she absolutely has to but would just as soon be the only one, so an animal companion isn't going to help her, and that's assuming there wasn't already the issue with space and being cooped up.

Also as I've indicated, my trip to Hawaii was definitely interesting and fun, but it was kind of tough on me. For whatever reason I ended up really sick upon my arrival, and although I got better during my stay, I never felt completely healthy. Because of that, I found it hard to enjoy myself to my potential there. I dealt with a lot of depression while there as well. These circumstances had an unforeseen effect on me, in that I was looking forward to coming home to my house in Massachusetts. When I leave Indiana for Massachusetts, I don't want to go home. When I leave Arkansas for Massachusetts, I don't want to go home. When I leave Thailand, or Germany, or Mik's place in NY, I don't want to go home to Massachusetts. That's how it's always been. This hasn't always felt like "home" to me, as long as I've been here, but for whatever reason when it was time to leave Hawaii for Massachusetts, I was ready. That feeling was perplexing to me, it took me a while to wrap my head around it, but I walked off that plane in Boston feeling better than I had in two and a half weeks, and I was really glad to be going back to my little home. It's one of the first times my house has felt "homey" to me.

In preparations for selling of my home, I began working on it inside and out. I had to fix an improperly installed bathroom ceiling (I didn't do it), which is something I have no idea how to do, but I did it and it came out really well. I have countless hours on the exterior of the house scraping and painting, replacing trim, boxing eaves, and adding and replacing gutters. The outcome of all that is, the house looks a lot better than it did, lol. Imagine that! I'd have never started doing it for myself though, but I couldn't imagine selling it to someone else without doing it. I sold a ton of stuff on Ebay and Craigslist, and I'd like to continue that trend, so it's made it less cluttery around here and I can focus more time on less things.

I think at this point, I have to just face the truth that as silly as it seems, I'm not going to be able to live with myself if I turn my cat's life upside down. It's not a cancellation of what I want to do, but it's certainly going to postpone things. For the time being, I'm doing everything I can to get rid of my huge toy hauler and get back into a truck camper. I don't know how that works because I still have a huge note on the trailer, but whatever. I still have a lot of time to travel for the time being and I'd still like to do that, then someday when the time is right I will sell and travel as I'm planning. It looks like it just may not happen as soon as I was anticipating. I've had a lot of people asking lately, so this is what's going on. Thanks for reading.

ezmoney1979

03-05-2018, 04:13 AM

Here I am, just over a year after announcing that I'd like to up and leave my home to travel and ultimately settle somewhere else. What I find on my mind lately surprises me. I still have the yearn to travel and to live someplace other than Massachusetts, but there has been one nagging tether holding me back. I pride myself on my lack of tethers, however there is one in my life that I cannot escape, not that I'd like to either. There is one detail of this plan that has literally kept me up at night and I told myself I'd handle, and that is my cat. I'm sure that may sound silly to many, I don't know that everyone gets attached to animals like some people do. I know some understand. I've been telling myself that she's coming with me because it's not a thought in my mind to ever get rid of her. She's been with me since she was a kitten and she always chose me over my ex for whatever reason, she's always loved me. She's been with me for 14 years and she has a very comfortable life here and she loves this house. It would be a shame to take it away from her, and I couldn't take myself out of her life either, not that I'd ever want to. It seems silly but she's with me a huge amount of the time. She's a shoulder cat and will perch herself up there and ride around while I cook, do dishes, do laundry, whatever really. She has to be in the bathroom when I shower, she sleeps with me, and who doesn't like claws to the eyeball at 3:43 in the morning? I wasn't trying to sleep anyways!

So the cat has a lot of personality, and I don't think I have it in me to turn her life upside down when she's had it as good as she has for as long as she has. It might seem silly, but that's what has kept me up at night. Whenever I go away she doesn't like it. She can tell when I'm packing to go somewhere and she pouts. She also gets jealous if I have women over. When we were younger and I went away for a few days, she didn't mind that much. These days I can tell she misses me immensely when I leave. I couldn't imagine if we lived on the road and she were cooped up all the time, which is bad enough, but what if I want to venture away from my camper for a day or two, or a week? Or go to another country for a few weeks or a month? This is what I think about. She's always been very independent and prefers to be the only animal, but she doesn't need strict solitude. She'll put up with other animals if she absolutely has to but would just as soon be the only one, so an animal companion isn't going to help her, and that's assuming there wasn't already the issue with space and being cooped up.

Also as I've indicated, my trip to Hawaii was definitely interesting and fun, but it was kind of tough on me. For whatever reason I ended up really sick upon my arrival, and although I got better during my stay, I never felt completely healthy. Because of that, I found it hard to enjoy myself to my potential there. I dealt with a lot of depression while there as well. These circumstances had an unforeseen effect on me, in that I was looking forward to coming home to my house in Massachusetts. When I leave Indiana for Massachusetts, I don't want to go home. When I leave Arkansas for Massachusetts, I don't want to go home. When I leave Thailand, or Germany, or Mik's place in NY, I don't want to go home to Massachusetts. That's how it's always been. This hasn't always felt like "home" to me, as long as I've been here, but for whatever reason when it was time to leave Hawaii for Massachusetts, I was ready. That feeling was perplexing to me, it took me a while to wrap my head around it, but I walked off that plane in Boston feeling better than I had in two and a half weeks, and I was really glad to be going back to my little home. It's one of the first times my house has felt "homey" to me.

In preparations for selling of my home, I began working on it inside and out. I had to fix an improperly installed bathroom ceiling (I didn't do it), which is something I have no idea how to do, but I did it and it came out really well. I have countless hours on the exterior of the house scraping and painting, replacing trim, boxing eaves, and adding and replacing gutters. The outcome of all that is, the house looks a lot better than it did, lol. Imagine that! I'd have never started doing it for myself though, but I couldn't imagine selling it to someone else without doing it. I sold a ton of stuff on Ebay and Craigslist, and I'd like to continue that trend, so it's made it less cluttery around here and I can focus more time on less things.

I think at this point, I have to just face the truth that as silly as it seems, I'm not going to be able to live with myself if I turn my cat's life upside down. It's not a cancellation of what I want to do, but it's certainly going to postpone things. For the time being, I'm doing everything I can to get rid of my huge toy hauler and get back into a truck camper. I don't know how that works because I still have a huge note on the trailer, but whatever. I still have a lot of time to travel for the time being and I'd still like to do that, then someday when the time is right I will sell and travel as I'm planning. It looks like it just may not happen as soon as I was anticipating. I've had a lot of people asking lately, so this is what's going on. Thanks for reading.

Our cats have the exact same personality. Meet Pickles! He will ride on my excavator with me, we go to the store and he sits on the dash or on the back seats. He can jump from the ground to my shoulder (I'm 6'2") he will hang out around the garage with all my friends like he is one of the "guys", loud noise, dirt bikes, mowers nothing phases him. My wife and I don't have kids so our two cats are our "kids". I completely understand the attachment to your faithful pet.

fabiodriven

03-26-2018, 12:46 AM

I definitely do have a speed bump. Although many days I am a very healthy individual, I can be outside with a 28" chainsaw sweating, slaying trees, and occasionally even getting comments on my physique, I get reminded from time to time how important health is. You guys already know I was a bit sick in Hawaii, Lyme seems to creep in if you give it an opening. Last time seemed like a cold plus jet lag equaled more than my body was up for.

This might seem odd, but this time I think I may have triggered it with Kroil. I had been soaking the header on the XR all day in the trailer with Kroil and went out there in the evening to work on removing it. It was cold out so I had the heat going and no ventilation. I worked in there for at least an hour and a half and emerged with a headache. That was three days ago. I've been unhealthy since. Stupid me, I can't even stay in the house after I clean the bathroom because I get overtaken by fumes so easily. It's been a problem of mine which started in Iraq, we were swimming in fuel and fumes. Back then I was a gearhead kid and didn't mind fuel or fumes at all, but by the end of the deployment I'd have migraines at the end of every mission from the diesel fumes and contact. That carried over with me when we redeployed back home, and it's been with me since. So I've been useless for three days now. I have no idea if tomorrow will be better. I have machines as well as a home to work on, and also a body and mind. None of those things can happen if my body and mind aren't up to those tasks. Twiddling your thumbs for days on end gets old as you all know, but I am thankful for my home and my situation could be far worse.

What I must do now is continue to monitor my health and do what I can, as well as rest often. Far more often than I'd prefer, but I suppose I should still be glad for as much as I can do. I can still go out and ride multiple days in a row when my body does allow it, I can still exert myself when I am able. There are improvements I can make and more things to learn, perhaps I can become stronger with time. This is a good place to rest and find out exactly what I'm still capable of and worst case scenario I can fall into bed for a couple of days if I have to. I will leave here someday though. This is not where I will stay for good. Worst case scenario I will move instead of traveling, but I'd prefer to travel first. After all, how else would I know where to move to?

Scootertrash

03-26-2018, 07:39 AM

Any day above ground is a good day. Far better than the alternative. ;) :beer

ironchop

03-26-2018, 11:20 AM

Kentucky is pretty awesome, I can tell you that. It's not what it's portrayed as outside of here either.

No matter what crowd you like living by whether it's rednecks, high-falootin' elites, Left, Right, Black, White and everything in between then we got it. Same with the geography. Mountains to rolling hills to flatlands and TONS of water.

I'm an ex-Hoosier and I jumped the fence and swam the river and never looked back. Best relocation ever.

Come camp in my yard sometime if you want a taste. Lots of 3WW members there too and Haspin is almost 4hrs from my house going the long way.

Sent from my Z958 using Tapatalk

Cow Pie

04-09-2018, 11:48 AM

Wow... just happened across this thread while searching for information on how to remove a stuck front axle from my 200s. I believe I was meant to find it. I'm still new here and learning the ropes so please forgive me if I violate some unspoken codes but Fabio, thank you for your sacrifices. It seems so trite, to me, to thank a veteran for his service. It was a service but I feel it is so much more than that. I feel it's turned into an easy way to thank you veterans without actually meaning it. You folks have transformed your life from that decision made in your youth. My heart goes with you as well as my prayers. Take care friend. Thanks for touching an old crusty soul like myself.

Caminofeld

04-09-2018, 02:08 PM

Hey buddy, I don't know if I've ever mentioned it but I drank GRAVIOLA TEA twice a day for 2 weeks and it knocked my chronic lyme symptoms down about 50%. I herxed like a trailprotrailprotrailprotrailprotrailprotrailprotr ailprotrailprotrailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro the first day or 2, but got better after that (drank a ton of water as well). Took probiotic during those 2 weeks to save my gut flora. Now I do the same whenever I have a flare and it really seems to help. Just don't drink it every day because it has a loose association with Parkinsons in daily users.

fabiodriven

04-10-2018, 12:54 AM

Hey thanks a lot for the kind words guys and I'll definitely be looking into that tea, so thank you for that as well Caminofeld.

Honestly I thought I would be fine when I joined the service. I always had a way of eeking through situations in my life unscathed, and I thought that's what had happened to me again upon my return from war. I came back alive and with all my limbs, which is more than many can and are able to say. For that I am grateful. I do not regret my decision to join the armed forces and I'm proud to stand up for our constitution to this day, even though my service seems to have had a fair stake in costing me a "normal" lifestyle. On the same token, it has brought me so much. It's a very conflicting equation. Either way, service members are a requirement and I felt I was one of the people who should serve, even if it killed me.

My service has cost me a lot yet provided as well. Things could be better but they could be worse. I do still look forward to traveling and moving when the time is right. For the time being I'm making myself as comfortable as can be expected.

fabiodriven

05-18-2018, 01:26 AM

I felt a little like a failure when my plan became less feasible due to my health, and I kind of gave up and decided to make myself comfortable for the time being. I thought it would be best for me to not attempt to travel without a home base as I was planning, so I threw the whole plan out the window. I didn't really consider just moving instead of traveling, until recently. I like seclusion, remoteness, and acreage, and if I can be on a mountain I'd like to be. I had a big boner for warmer climates for a while there, and don't get me wrong, I love the heat, but all of a sudden I've grown a fondness for the seasons. I had fun this winter, probably because I wasn't forced to work in the snow. I'm grateful to have the means to try and appreciate life, and I think I've turned into a New Englander who wants to have four distinct seasons in their life.

I could cut my mortgage in half, which would be like giving myself a raise because I have a fixed income, and I could increase my acreage by ten or twenty times, possibly more, and live in an area more suitable to my lifestyle. It's certainly something to look into. I'm eyeballing New Hampshire at the moment.

Just thinking out loud at this point. Every day I have to explain to someone why I've not left here yet and it's unfortunate, but the situation has changed so the plan must evolve with it.

Scootertrash

05-18-2018, 07:35 AM

This is the perfect place for that quote about "The best laid plans of mice and men men often go awry"

Our lives are constantly evolving. That's a GOOD thing. ;):beer:D

ironchop

05-18-2018, 09:24 AM

George, can I keep the rabbit?

You know John, they still have four seasons and mountains down where the weather is warmer. Snow too! [emoji23]

As for seasons and mountains, Eastern Tennessee/Western North Carolina would be nice plus alot less long winter's, good motorcycle riding, fantastic scenery, and your accent wouldn't stick out much at all. I once wanted to live near Cherokee National Forest out that way. Maybe Asheville at one time but it's like the Austin TX of the Appalachians now, if you know what I mean....an "eclectic bunch" of people (wierdos)

Eastern Kentucky/ West Virginia you would definitely sound foreign and would stick out like a black bear in a snow drift but they're good people on the whole contrary to the stereotypes. Economically challenged sometimes and kind of clannish, but good ppl nevertheless

Don't let Appalachia or the South fool ya though. They let those stereotypes go unchallenged in the hopes that Yanks won't move there and turn it into the Eastern seaboard version of the mountains. It's not teeming with Trump voting racist Confederate rebels looking for black folks to harass like you've been told by MSNBC. Anymore it's getting harder to find regional dialects/accents in alot of places thanks to all the influx from other areas.

Out "west", Bowling Green is alot like Nashville but with 10% of the crime. Very diverse crowd and most people are migrants from other states and other countries so "accents" are rare and largely fake when they do exist (thank pop country stars for that). The exceptions would be the recent foreign immigrants. For some reason, the last 10 yrs alot of New Yorkers have moved here.

I hate being cold at all and had enough snow and ice growing up in South Central Indiana so I'm debating moving to southern Alabama close to the Gulf soon or by the time I retire. Bowling Green is getting too big and crowded anyway.

To each, his own though

Sent from my Z958 using Tapatalk

83ATC185

05-18-2018, 01:20 PM

Alabama's decent...Down highway 5, south of hwy 80, there is absolutely nothing but wide open space, cattle and catfish farms. God's country. I wouldn't mind living down there and starting a catfish farm. That's dream #2 after Ringgenberg, Switzerland :lol: Aim for the Swiss Alps and if we miss we'll land in Wilcox County :lol: .

I think we all have dreams of something bigger, and "more meaningful", somewhere we can be content. I know a lot of times i have days where I've felt like i could just up and leave and go hop trains for the rest of my life i so you're definitely not alone fabio.

I went to bowling green once. Nice place. Did the vette museum and ate at a diner that had jake and elwood statues in it.

Do they have gravy biscuits in New Hampshire?

fabiodriven

05-18-2018, 02:29 PM

I'm so easily swayed, lol. Thanks Doug. It is REALLY cheap in the areas you're talking about. Although they do get what you people consider snow, that's not what I consider snow, lol. It's hard to explain, maybe it's the adversity of it? I like getting outside during heavy snow and seeing the landscape transformed, the stillness, how quiet it is yet how far sound will travel. There's something to be said for fighting the battle that is a heavy winter, especially fighting it using wood you processed yourself.

That being said, there is a lot of appeal to being able to own a 150 acre farm for $150k. Also, I don't mind areas that might be a bit depressed. Massachusetts seems to flourish no matter what. During recessions you will see effects here, especially in western parts of the commonwealth, but not much at all where I live. I can appreciate areas which are not like this, where things might be a bit more "simple", and I don't need to be around a class of people who makes at least $XXX,XXX a year. I'm sure I've said in this thread before, I would actually prefer to live in an area that might be somewhat depressed financially. I don't enjoy seeing the adverse effects of lower income areas and I'm not talking about the Detroit suburbs obviously, I'm talking about country areas. If I can live more than comfortably in an area that otherwise doesn't have that much money, I can see how that might benefit me.

I'll be looking at the areas you're talking about Doug. I do like having winters all of a sudden as I've said, but I'm sure I'll be OK without them.

fabiodriven

06-03-2018, 07:31 PM

As soon as tomorrow, but definitely some day this week, I'll be getting word from a private buyer whether or not he's been pre-approved for enough money to purchase my home. Over the last couple weeks, I was looking at places in NH and then Kentucky as Doug had suggested. I liked what I saw in NH, but the prices in Kentucky are even better, so I was concentrating on Kentucky for a little while there. My friend Jeff (jeffatc250r) is in the process of leaving Western Massachusetts right now, as he just bought in NH. His new place is ten minutes up the road from our good friend Craigory's place (roostinATC) in NH, and that made me think. Kentucky looks beautiful and it is cheap, I like those things, but I would be pretty alone there. I do like solitude, however I would have nobody to call if I needed help with something. That would certainly change over time, but that could be difficult at first. Also living in NH I'll still be fairly close to existing friends and family. I'll be able to get a nice place up there for far less money than I'm paying now.

If my buddy tells me tomorrow that he's pre-approved for enough to buy this place, I'll have to think about whether or not I'll make it to Trikefest. If I have the option to begin house shopping that very well may take precedence. I'll be excited to be able to do that and I'd be thinking about it the whole time at Trikefest I'm certain. I'm ready to go and I hope to get the green light in the next couple days!

Dirtcrasher

06-03-2018, 11:27 PM

My cats give me more happiness than I can even express. They are like my kids because I don't have kids. I lost Charlie this winter and he was 22 years old. It was and still is hard 6 months later.

OZZY is human to me. The things he does, the noises he makes when he's happy or sad, all human like. When I lose him, it will take years to recover, that I am sure of.

I COMPLETELY understand and I will always have cats, so easy to take care of...

You probably can also relate that when I get to Trikefest, I can't think about my boy and girls or I get a bit sad. But, on the way home, I couldn't be anymore excited to see them...

fabiodriven

01-07-2019, 02:43 PM

As of now it looks like the cat is going to be deciding where I go, which is just how it is. There doesn't seem to be any way around it. She loves her daddy and that's pretty much it.

When this all began, I was all hot and bothered to do something right at that moment. I just wanted to get out there in the world with no waiting. The reality ended up being that the house just needed way too much work, and so did I. It seemed like such a hurdle to get past to get this place straightened out, but it is now ready, and so am I.

Every time I try to do something now, I have to concern myself about if my health is going to be up for whatever task or activity I have in mind. This is why it's taken me as long as it has to get to this point. When I started this thread, I still wasn't aware of how much I would or would not be capable of due to my illness. Now two years later, I have a far better grasp of what I can and cannot do, and how I have to operate in order to be productive, healthy, and happy. Lately, my health has been excellent (for me) and I feel like I could take on the world right now. Now I can move.

So the big cross country trip to travel before I bought a new home for myself seems like it may not be feasible, only because of my beloved cat. Ridiculous to some I'm sure, but she's depended on me for 15 years this year. I'm not tossing something aside I've put the last 15 years into. Once I do move out of this area and into a new area for me, then I will be able to travel more. I can't afford to travel nearly as much as I'd like to living here in Massachusetts, but that will change once my mortgage is drastically reduced.

So where shall I go? Welp, jeffatc250r, roostinATC, and Super350 on the boards here are all good friends of mine who live in Southern NH. I definitely like it there and could buy there. My other option is near Oswego (town, not County) NY. That's where my good friend Mik6 lives and I love that area as well. Right now I'm leaning more towards NY but it could go either way.

The house doesn't need to be listed again, I currently have two private buyers. One buyer is a bit unreliable and has balked on this house sale multiple times already. This time is different though, as there is a second private buyer right behind him hoping he doesn't come through, so the house will absolutely sell. The best part of selling to my friends is there is no rush to get everything out of here once the sale takes place, I can take my time with everything and anything I don't want I can just leave behind. I can always come back here in the future as well.

It's likely when the weather breaks I'll haul my rig down to Mik's and spend a few weeks or a month in the area and see how I feel about it and obviously look at a ton of real estate.

Thanks for looking.

Arky-X

01-07-2019, 03:02 PM

Lately, my health has been excellent (for me) and I feel like I could take on the world right now.

Good to hear....hope it stays that way.

Continued good luck on your plan!

Dirtcrasher

01-07-2019, 04:47 PM

Not ridiculous in the least...

I wish I had met the right chick and made a kid, but I didn't. And I am quite content in my current situation.

Others have kids in their 20's, that's just how the ball bounces...

My life revolves around my cats, regardless of how pathetic that may sound, that's my life and I enjoy it.

I've been looking for another orange kitten as of late, my 17 y.o Fwoopah died a few weeks ago, it sucks.

I lost 2 cats in less than a year, it really trailprotrailprotrailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro sucks...

I've got 2 left about 8 and 17 years old, I need to plan ahead or it's just too painful.

Scootertrash

01-07-2019, 10:40 PM

fabiodriven

01-08-2019, 12:02 AM

Scooter, obviously holistic health is a big part of my life. I've learned multiple different facets of it over the years. I'm no doctor by any means whatsoever nor am I trying to give you medical advice, but I have seen a lot of people turn right around with alternative care. Two guys I served with who I am in contact with regularly have both been having a lot of health problems since our return from war, a lot more than me. Both were on meds, one on a ton of meds. I used to try to convince him the meds were as much his problem as anything else (in my opinion). For years he took drugs and was generally unhealthy, then one day he stopped.

Both of these guys' wives began using essential oils and one goes to a holistic doctor. Both have never been healthier in years, one of them so much so that his doctor asked him how on earth he'd improved as much as he had and how he did it. My friend explained it was the treatment his wife gives him at home using essential oils, natural supplements, and guidance from a $13 book on the subject. Two of my friends have had such drastic results that they cannot be ignored, and neither takes any more drugs. These two have a lot more physical issues than I do, but they're both bat chit crazy like me from war, so that's a huge part of it as well as actually healing physically.

Our bodies can heal themselves, but they're a friggin mess from everything we're subjected to on a daily basis, from our food, to the air, to microwaves, heavy metal ingestion, and so on... These things are not at all taken into account by traditional medicine and therefore can only be masked at best, and the cause might never actually be found.

I must digress... I cannot tell you that I can heal your wife or if anyone can, however what I have learned is that sometimes our health can be like a pile of mixed up bungee cords. There is absolutely no way to straighten it out if you do not separate them one at a time and deal with each issue along the way. My Lyme treatment has largely treated every symptom respectively rather than an overall blanket treatment. It's not what I was expecting, but I now have the weapons to fight back.

Look into the chaga mushroom. I just started using that. I have no idea if it would have any effect on MS but I've heard nothing but great things about Chaga.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190108/fa6295b01cfe8a85717f2904c759a906.jpg

Scootertrash

01-09-2019, 08:21 PM

Our bodies can heal themselves, but they're a friggin mess from everything we're subjected to on a daily basis, from our food, to the air, to microwaves, heavy metal ingestion, and so on... These things are not at all taken into account by traditional medicine and therefore can only be masked at best, and the cause might never actually be found.

I must digress... I cannot tell you that I can heal your wife or if anyone can, however what I have learned is that sometimes our health can be like a pile of mixed up bungee cords. There is absolutely no way to straighten it out if you do not separate them one at a time and deal with each issue along the way. My Lyme treatment has largely treated every symptom respectively rather than an overall blanket treatment. It's not what I was expecting, but I now have the weapons to fight back.

Look into the chaga mushroom. I just started using that. I have no idea if it would have any effect on MS but I've heard nothing but great things about Chaga.

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She/We have started "cleaning up" our habits. Better eating habits, more natural foods (we started that about 1 1/2 years ago)

The Trigeminal Neuralgia finally got her to throw the friggin ciggys away since according to others who suffer from it cigs can cause "triggers" as they call them. She and her doctors (due to pressure from her from me) have eliminated many of the meds she was on for the MS and the additional problems related to the MS. She is now down to one treatment per 6 months where before she had to give herself a shot every other day. Say what you will about doctors, but the UofM has a stellar reputation and the treatment is working. We both would like to get her off of the treatment, but the problem is if her MS flares up the damage to the brain or spine, called a lesion, never goes away and permanently affects the ability of the neurological system to transmit messages to other parts of the body. It's one f'ed up disease and if I could take the symptoms and damage and bear the burden so she didn't have to I would do it in a second. It's possible that if she is still flare free in about one more year she can stop the treatments. She prays, I just keep a positive attitude to help her stay positive ;)

I will have her throw Chaga on the list of things to research and try.

Thanks for the suggestion!

fabiodriven

01-11-2019, 04:16 AM

Today one of my private buyers walked into the bank, and walked out pre-approved. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, I am free to begin the home sale process. We're not jumping right into it, this guy was supposed to be the backup, so while the snow flies we're keeping 'er in neutral just for now. This is a big deal though.

Tri-Z 250

01-11-2019, 11:15 AM

I'm in land and home Title, and recommend if you had a Title Co. insure you last transfer. Go back to them, as a private seller. They have all your info, it will increase the buyers ability to secure his loan as well. The re-issue rate and filing fees will be absorb in the purchase. Most lenders require home owners insurance and clear Title insurance anyway. Might be $700 but a great ease to doing it yourself. Best of Happy transfer!

fabiodriven

11-21-2019, 01:46 AM

I got a bit leery about sharing my thoughts online for a while there, still a bit hesitant at the moment, but I guess I'll go ahead and update.

As I type this I'm in a little town called Lodi in NY. I stopped in here to spend a couple days with my new friend before I head south for the winter. Lodi is on the shores of Seneca Lake, which is one of the Finger Lakes. It's a very scenic and ritzy area full of vineyards, hippies, and snobs. This was the most difficult place I've had to back my trailer into since leaving home, and a snob woman actually let her dogs out to get in the way of my 39 foot trailer as I was attempting to back it into a tiny dirt road. People amaze me sometimes. She said she wasn't going to be happy if I damaged her trees, then made the task more difficult. OK...

Lodi, NY. On the right is where I had to back in, then about 1/4 mile in reverse from there to my spot.

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End rant though. For the most part the people I've been meeting since leaving Massachusetts have been great. So far, the Coshocton Ohio people seem to be the nicest as a whole. I'm in Ocala Florida now (I know, that changed quick) and I've been surprised at the people of this state. They're not overly friendly for the most part. There seems to be a bit more concern for who you can trust around here in my opinion, but I wouldn't hesitate to live here. Where I'm parked right now is kind of “in town”. I'm all the way at the back of a big quiet neighborhood so it's nice, but any way out of here is through some heavily traveled roads. I still like it though, and it gets a lot quieter not far up the road. The weather is great for late November, it was about 70 today and I was riding my street bike.

Anyhow, my house in Massachusetts sold after one day on the market and I was out June 5th. I spent about five days parked at my old neighbor's place in Massachusetts before I hit the road. I couldn't get my Buell to run right, so I began scouring Craigslist for another street bike. I was astonished to find my dream bike from the time I was 15, an 85 Honda VF1000R. It was cheap enough and I knew it was for me, so I got it. Long story short, there was a series of unfortunate oversights by both myself and the previous owner, and the same day I registered it and had it inspected, it lost a rod bearing. Now, these are not engines for most to attempt to open up and work on. I only know one person who knows how to work on them, and that's my older brother. We talked about it, and he said even if we had all the time in the world it would take months and we'd have to source unobtaineum parts, and he doesn't have near the time nor did I. He told me my best hope was to find a take out engine, and he wished me luck with that endeavor as we both knew the odds of finding a VF1000R engine was very unlikely.

I would guess the previous owner would have taken the bike back, but it was still worth what I paid even with the engine popped, so I kept it. Then I remembered he was talking about a parts bike his buddy had a few years earlier, so I called him back and asked if the parts bike was still around. He said he'd make a call and get right back to me. He called me right back with the good news that yes, the bike was still available, and the great news that it was cheap and also located in the very same town I lived in. Not only that, but the bike only has 3,400 miles on the clock. I went to pick it up expecting to find a heap, maybe an engine and a frame. I was surprised to find a complete bike with a clean, open title. I was thrilled and loaded it up to take home. This was great, but I didn't have time for an engine swap at that moment. I now had a total of three non-running motorcycles to put into storage.

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Another thing I needed to address before I hit the road was the awful over-built ramp that was on the back of my toy hauler. The previous owner did burnouts on the original ramp with his full dress Harley and blew holes right in the ramp. His solution instead of replacing the ramp and not doing burnouts on it, was to build an 800 lb structural steel and heavy plywood ramp. It was so heavy that it required a winch to pull it up, which required a battery, which required a tender. It was ridiculous and heavy, and it bent my rear most axle (trailer has three axles) twice on potholes. I decided to commission a pair of long time friends who run a metal fab shop to build me a new door from aluminum to shed some weight. Well through a lack of communication, not on my end, it ended up getting built maybe 50-75 lbs lighter than the steel door for a paltry $2,300. I was like yeah.... nope. I wanted hundreds of lbs lighter. I tried to nicely explain to them that this was not what I asked them to build, and furthermore it was sheeted upside down so the rain would sheet right into the door and begin to rot the completely unnecessary 3/4” plywood that was on the exterior side of the door under the metal sheeting. It was built wrong! I was told there was “nothing they could do” to fix it. Oh really? With an entire metal fabrication shop at your disposal, two men with probably about 40 years total metal fab experience, torches, brakes, welders.... but you “can't”?

Funny because I was able to completely disassemble and rebuild the entire door on the ground, in the dirt, with hand tools, no ability to weld aluminum, and some help from Dave Little and another friend who popped in for a bit as well. I was able to invert the door, sheet it correctly, and make it light enough to get rid of the cumbersome winch setup. But they “couldn't”. It's a shame because if they had built me what I asked for, it would have been even lighter than I was able to make it, and it wouldn't have cost nearly as much. Instead I was built what the boss thought I should have, not what I asked for. I paid them what I deemed appropriate, and I was more than generous. Those two friendships ended after that, and they were not two I ever expected to lose, but the behavior was unacceptable to me. They handled the situation terribly. There's 3 sides to every story though...

Door sheeted upside-down-

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Disassembly-

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Completely unnecessary materials-

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My 15 year old cat is with me. She was my #1 biggest concern about this whole thing, I was so worried about how she would transition to road life. Well the big story here is, there is no story. She's fine, she doesn't mind it at all. She rides in the trailer as we go up the road and knows I'm in the truck driving, she knows I'm close by. She really makes things a lot nicer. It's home wherever I go.

I spent almost a week parked at my old neighbor's in Massachusetts getting everything ship shape for the road, getting my storage in MA squared away, then I left Massachusetts for the first time with no plan on coming back any time soon. My first stop from there was Mik6's place in Oswego NY which is not a new trip to me. Along my way to his place, I was thinking to myself "There's no way I'm going to be able to afford to keep doing this." Long story short, I was wrong about that, but that's what I was thinking at that time.

After Mik6's I rolled into Coshocton, Ohio to see our good friend Kiser. My first thought was that I wouldn't really like Ohio, but I ended up loving Coshocton. Kiser and I obviously already knew one another, but not extremely well. Not long after I got there we became really good friends really fast. That was my first taste of real country, and I loved it. We spent a lot of time with Big Specht and Schlepp, and I also enjoy hanging out with Kiser's dad. I almost bought two separate houses there, but I had to restrain myself after people suggested I not settle down so fast. The way of life in Coshocton is awesome and the people are exceptionally nice there, and I'm not just saying that. It's a beautiful area with great people, and one of the houses I almost bought for $150k would have sold for $750k in Massachusetts.

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So from Coshocton it was off to Trikefest in Laurel, Indiana for a week. Then back to Coshocton after Trikefest, back to Mik6's in NY, then up to Maine to meet the family for the 4th of July. I was planning on being with the family for about five days, but I left after only one because they p!ssed me off. From there I went to Fryeberg, Maine and parked at Dave Little's place for about a week. He's like three miles from the Saco river which is a stellar place to swim in the hot summers. I really enjoyed myself there. It was way better than being with the family. At that point I didn't have a motorcycle with me still, and I spent 4 th of July by myself listening to the fireworks and partying from nearby North Conway, NH. I am very familiar with North Conway, and as much fun as it sounded like I knew better than to try and navigate my dually over there during that. A bike would have been perfect right then, and it was then I realized I had to find another street bike. Bike stuff aside, Fryeburg was great, one of the best places I've parked yet. Dave is the man as well.

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From Dave's in Fryeburg I popped in to jeffatc250r's place in Fitzwilliam, NH for a couple of short days. I couldn't stay there too long because I had to go buy another street bike, so back to my neighbor's in Massachusetts from there I went with only a few short days to find and register a motorcycle. I ended up buying a 99 Honda Superhawk VTR1000 that needed a little here and there but ultimately ran well. So at least I had a bike. Then back to Oswego NY from there, then back to Coshocton where I got the bike squared away. The forks were puking all over the front brakes, rear brake was smoked, the engine coughed and died a lot, the clutch actuation was wrong, one valve cover leaked, chain and sprockets were roached... Etc... I fixed it all in Kiser's bike barn and it's a decent buggy now, but it's not the best bike. I kind of bought a beater on purpose so it can get banged up and stuff, but I wish I had a dual sport. I've been looking into dual sports for sale, but there's not a ton available where I am in Florida. Not only that, but I'd sell the Superhawk if I got another bike, and people aren't buying a ton here. I'd either have to sell really low or not at all. At least it gets me out there though.

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From Kiser's I wheeled over to Brazil, IN to visit old HoosierLogger Greg for a bit. I spent about five or six weeks there, it was fun. I did some exploring around there, I'd highly recommend the towns of Bridgeton and Mansfield for gawking. Lots of pretty country out that way. This whole country has tons of pretty places. I was pal-ing around with a nice young lady out there for a little while too, she was good company. Not the first of the summer and not the last though.

I don't recall the exact name of this place, but it was nice.

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This was another place-

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From Indiana I went back to Kiser's in Coshocton on my way back to Mik6's in NY for his fall ride. The ride went well and I hung out there for another five or six weeks. I like to park for at least a month at a time. I've really gotten used to traveling, and I love it. After Mik6's, I went to Lodi, NY. That's where I started this whole post. I got every last moment I could in NY, it was snowing when I left. As I was going southbound down the highway, they were salting the northbound lanes. As anyone from the rust belt knows, it's not the snow that gets you, it's the salt. I kept it rolling steady heading out of NY as fast as I could hoping to beat the southbound salt trucks, which I did. Now that's cutting it close.

I took my time getting to Ocala, where I am now. Everywhere I've been, I look at real estate. I get excited and have really enjoyed everywhere I've been, but let's not forget where I came from. NY is nice, but the politics really turn me off, as well as the taxes and tolls. NY is greedy and needs to separate from the city. There is so much country in NY, but the city seems to be the bane of the rest of the state, assuming they're the cause of the politics, taxes, and tolls. They say people are leaving NY in droves, and I will say that the area I spent the most time in has the highest amount of abandoned real estate (commercial and residential) I've seen out of all the places I've traveled. As I said, Coshocton has the best people. They also have affordable taxes and real estate, and a lot of beautiful women. The land is also beautiful, with plenty of hills, woods, and country. Oswego, NY has beautiful women too, but a lot of them are younger due to the big college in town. I've not been overly impressed with the women in Ocala, but I haven't been looking as hard lately.

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My buddy who lives here in Ocala is another Massachusetts transplant. He bought here about three months ago and is thrilled to have company from up north. He's in the process of opening a car repair business here, and I've been keeping busy helping him set up. It's been pretty fun really. I just got my drive shaft back from the shop today, as the shaft in my truck was too long (I can relate) and dented. The long and short of it is that it vibrated a lot even after having been in the shop not long ago. I'm thrilled with how it looks now for $250 from the local shop here in Ocala. I'll install it tomorrow and see how it feels! After that I need to get my tires rotated and balanced on the truck. If it ain't smooth then... by golly!

Shortened and repaired shaft-

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It was definitely too long-

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The one and only place I actually paid to park since I left Massachusetts was Trikefest, and for that I have great friends to thank. Dave Little, Kiser, Mik6, Greg HoosierLogger, and jeffatc250r have all hosted me, and I try to do things for them while I'm there parked at their places to contribute something. I truly appreciate all of these guys, as well as the others who have offered me to park at but I haven't gotten there yet. This is a great lifestyle for me and I've been truly enjoying it. It was the right decision. I have really liked a lot of the different places I've been, but I have to remember not to stop unless I go absolutely bananas about a place or find an absurd deal. Most of the places I've been looking at are about 10 acres, and that's barely enough for me. I'll probably just keep going for a while and see what's out there. So far so good! I feel very alive. It kind of puts things into perspective for me. I feel like things wouldn't have ended well had I kept on the path I was when I was working. I didn't really understand how incredibly high strung I was for so many years, I couldn't even tell, and it was really dangerous. It was not something I realized the seriousness of, even when others tried to tell me. Everything does happen for a reason. I still live within certain parameters, but I've learned how to relax and actually live life, not just exist. I'm grateful for how things have turned out, and I appreciate the ability to do this. I'm glad I have made the decisions I did in life which have led me to this point, and I look forward to the future. That's a pretty stark contrast coming from where I was.

Shep1970

11-21-2019, 09:03 AM

John while your in Ocala, take an hour trip south east to Apopka Florida. Stop at the Walmart 5mins from the park in Apopka and grab a cheap inflatable pool tube. You gotta go, there’s a natural lazy river (water is chilly) but we started going there every other year (my kids choose this place over Disney) since they were 5. Yes there’s alligators at the very end of the river I’ve seen but there’s a rickidy old fence/barrier..... the water is to cold for them upstream. The snack shack has good burgers/ fries. There’s woman there too:naughty: it gets busy on weekends, have to be early, they shut the gates when parking is full.
We’ll be at Kelly park in March, it’s not coming fast enough. Oh if u decide to float down river about 200 feet down on the right bank it’s gravely soil and my kids have found dozens of “old” shark teeth just scooping up the bottom gravel, if that interests you. 260791
Anyway best of luck down there,

Shep

fabiodriven

11-22-2019, 11:58 AM

Awesome Shep! Thanks very much for the post and the suggestion! I'll definitely get over there!

Mosh

11-22-2019, 12:59 PM

After Mik6's I rolled into Coshocton, Ohio to see our good friend Kiser. My first thought was that I wouldn't really like Ohio, but I ended up loving Coshocton. Kiser and I obviously already knew one another, but not extremely well. Not long after I got there we became really good friends really fast. That was my first taste of real country, and I loved it. We spent a lot of time with Big Specht and Schlepp, and I also enjoy hanging out with Kiser's dad. I almost bought two separate houses there, but I had to restrain myself after people suggested I not settle down so fast. The way of life in Coshocton is awesome and the people are exceptionally nice there, and I'm not just saying that. It's a beautiful area with great people, and one of the houses I almost bought for $150k would have sold for $750k in Massachusetts.

So f
ar, the Coshocton Ohio people seem to be the nicest as a whole.

Its is no secret that Ohio people have taken some less than desirable outlooks from trikers in other states. In some form, some of us Ohioans have been a little proud and boastful, but now you see why. It was not that we were individually proud, we were proud of the community around us, And now you can see why some of the coolest things for trikes have originated close to these areas. And Kiser is about the nicest guy you will ever meet.. The comradery in this area is very strong. Most of all the modern day trike racing originated within 1 hour drive from Coshocton. Tim Sr lives close, we live close, most of the OTC lives all within 1 hour from each other the list goes on. Glad you enjoyed the area.

ironchop

11-22-2019, 07:56 PM

Fantastic update John

I'm jealous!

In my fairly limited experience traveling 21 or so states, i can say that each one has alot of great little communities filled with ppl who give a f**k about their neighbors. It's nice.

I grew up on a farm in Indiana about eleven miles from any town at all so I was pretty blessed in that respect (peace and quiet, good quality friendly neighbors)

Sent from my Z958 using Tapatalk

fabiodriven

11-23-2019, 09:57 PM

Thanks for posting guys!

I understand what you're saying Rob. Like I said, I'm not just saying it! Haha! Pretty much everyone Kiser introduced me to, which was a lot of people, were some seriously good people. Even the people I met on my own were the same way. It's good to see a place like that with such a high number of happy people, and that certainly did have an impact on my opinion of the area as a whole.

Yes Doug, there are certainly some nice, simple places out there. Many of them can be had for fairly cheap as well.

plastikosmd

11-24-2019, 06:10 PM

Amazing pics and story fabio
U are a lucky man

fabiodriven

11-26-2019, 01:00 AM

Thank you my friend, but this wouldn't be possible if it weren't for this forum and it's members. I have some absolutely exemplary friends such as yourself, and these people are a huge part of why I'm able to do what I do. So thank you to you all.

Honestly I've only taken a handful of pictures since leaving Massachusetts, not many at all. I've kind of been living it instead of recording it. I took a couple steps back not long ago, I narrowed my focus on things. I stopped communicating with a number of people and simplified a bit. That's what's best for me and what I prefer. This is a pretty iconic time in the story of me and I'm enjoying every moment for myself and those in my immediate vicinity. I feel this makes for a very pure experience with my mind in the moment and not wondering what tit-head just said to arse-frig on the bookface or what kind of shameless posts people I used to think highly of just made. I used to do it too, a long time ago. Now if I try to scroll my news feed it makes me disgusted immediately. I'm in a very small group though I'd say, as it seems like the rest of the country is head over heels for that fake shite.

I correlate that lifestyle with mindless zoids who are constantly taking pictures and sharing, and especially those who take a lot of selfies. There is a particular strain of this species, you'll see them in videos on YouTube all encircling the object of the video, phones in hand, all looking programmed as if they share a mind. They're all recording the same exact thing or event, and none of them are able to live the moment. They make it tough for me to look at anything other than them, friggin freaks. Unfortunately the Herk 'n Jerk has been reduced to a phone brandishing competition over the last couple years as well.

But I digress... In my long and drawn out way, what I'm saying is that people have turned me off to taking so many pictures and videos and also have reduced my interest in sharing these things. I do love this forum though and I'm sure there are people who have been wondering what I've been up to.

DAM shop

11-26-2019, 07:59 AM

Good point Fabs, most people do not enjoy the moment. It always amazes me how much they miss with phone in hand thinking they must catch every leaf on every tree. The mind is the best camera.
A recent trip to Montana was a perfect example of this mindless wondering. We drive through Glacier national park and hated it. The crowds were terrible but what made it terrible was all of the people taking pics of nothing. Thinking they had to stop at every waterfall and snap a pic.
We ended up leaving the crowds for much more less traveled roads. In fact much more scenic and less traveled than the park was. I had actually commented to my wife on several roads we were on about the lack of people. It amazed me they would rather be stuck in traffic enjoying the backside of a rv than some of the roads we were on.
We never explore with a gps only paper maps because of this reason. Enjoy plenty to experience in this country.

schlepp29

11-26-2019, 10:10 AM

Always a good time hanging out with you fab!!

fabiodriven

12-04-2019, 11:34 PM

I had mentioned how I was able to do the work on the Superhawk it needed at Kiser's place, and I figured I'd elaborate a bit.

I got this bike from an inexperienced kid who had dropped it at low speed and then got spooked. He didn't tell me that but I figured it out. He had only put about 2,000 miles on the bike while he owned it, and I quickly saw a couple scrapes and dings, but nothing major. It was freshly painted and had brand new tires, but there were a lot of other things that needed addressing. I had snaked my way into buying the bike out from someone else by offering an extra $100, so I was committed to it at that price.

Immediately I ran my finger over the forks seals and there was oil, and as I already said they puked on the front brakes. He had cleaned up the mess but I knew it was going to soak the brake the first time I rode it. The bike liked to cough through the intake, but literally every V-twin I've owned does that as well. Sometimes just a cough, sometimes a cough and die. This bike coughed and died a lot, too much. I could also see the chain and sprockets were wiped and the rear brake was smoked as well. The clutch was soft and the fluid was black in the crusty yellow reservoir, so obviously it needed new fluid. The master cylinder reservoir for the front brake was crusty as well. The foam crankcase vents had already crumbled to dust, and the low gas light didn't work. The previous owner somehow forgot to tell me that. I ran out of gas in Plymouth Massachusetts and had to have a friend come bring me some.

I get a boner for OEM parts, so I ordered everything OEM! Down to hardware and clamps. Fork seals, brake pads, but the chain and sprockets were discontinued OEM. I got aftermarket for that. Kiser's bike shed was wicked pissa for working on the bike and I found out first hand this bike is pretty easy to work on, so far. Thanks to Kiser for that! The front pads were saturated and the rears were a CH from being metal to metal. When I got the bike, the clutch barely worked and would start grabbing far too early as you released the lever, then after it was fixed with new fluid and a new reservoir it releases way too far out. After jumping on the Superhawk forum I found out that's "just how they are", and there is no fix. I decided I was going to fix it, but then I just got used to it. The slave cylinder loses some fluid but not all the time. The cough and die that was killing the engine was a disconnected vacuum line, so I blocked that off. Problem solved. The rear valve cover was leaking a ton of oil but the gasket was fine. It just needed to be removed, cleaned, and resealed with OEM Hondabond. I found a bad connection to the low gas sensor and thought for sure that would fix the problem. I didn't think it did at the time, so I ordered a new sensor and replaced it. What I found out later is I probably didn't wait long enough for the light to come on when testing the old sender. It has a delay so it doesn't flicker on and off in the tank as you slosh the gas around. Either way it works now. The front brake is still squishy but I have new braided stainless lines to put on at some point. I also suspect that a caliper rebuild might be part of the solution. The steering stem was a little loose as well so I squared that away.

So now it runs and rides well, and it does the job. I'm not nuts about it but I'm happy to have something to ride. Most people in my position would have gone and bought a brand new bike. I go and buy three sh!tty bikes!

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This front caliper bolt was stripped and I had to drill.

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Another thing we did at Kiser's was build a fire breathing ALT185 race trike for the SAS class at Ashtabula for the 50th. I bought the bike and planned to race it, but I ended up having to stay back in Coshocton during the race as I had put an offer in on a house. After all the work so many people had done, I sent the bike with Kiser and he piloted it. It takes a very strong and experienced rider to tame Suzuki's biggest three wheeler, not someone like Joe Swatland. After I heard about the size of the crowd that was at that race, I was halfway glad I wasn't able to go. I'm not crazy about crowds.

So it's common knowledge that Suzuki's ALT185 was their biggest three wheeler offering because there simply was no need for any more power than that. They were worried it might actually spin the earth the wrong way if they made a trike with any more power, which I applaud them for. It's quite considerate I think. The Honda trikes are the vast majority of the SAS class due to their low cost and ability to be had for next to nothing, some people pay to get rid of them. It's a great beginner bike I feel to get into the hobby, then you can step up to the Suzuki if you have the cojones.

Suzuki made it extra narrow, like a bullet, to get you up the straights at lightning speed. I had to source a titanium front number plate to withstand the amazing heat from the wind going over it at such high speeds. They decided against front suspension and a front brake in favor of more high end options, like a choke that requires two different knobs and instructions to operate, and a fuel pump and primer because biceps. They gave it a three up seat so there's plenty of room for both of your girlfriends on the back at the same time. It also comes standard with testosterone. That's not even optional on the Honda.

At any rate, we needed to widen this bike, put some 20" mower tires on the rear, and re-gear the final drive. Nobody makes anything but the stock count rear sprocket for the ALT, but the countershaft shares the same splines as a certain size Suzuki DR dirt bike (I don't recall which). I went up one tooth in the front and we needed a 35 for the rear. Well it just so happens that Kiser knows someone who can make custom sprockets, and the guy made us a sprocket for nothing! Thank you Kiser and other guy! It wasn't something that could just bolt in though, as the sprocket hub for the Suzuki has rubber cushions to deal with the tremendous amount of torque the power plant makes. We had to come up with some way to machine the sprocket to fit the hub with the rubber eliminated. If you just bolted it flush to the hub, the sprocket wouldn't line up with the one on the engine.

Enter Big Specht! Specht and his father fired up the machine shop and made the sprocket perfect! Then welded it just how we needed it. I don't have pictures of that unfortunately. Then we bolted it on the bike and it was perfect. Thank you Spechts!

Suzuki used a very odd hub spline, and they also used an odd lug pattern on the wheels, so we were initially a little concerned about how we were going to be able to widen the machine and put different wheels on it. Kiser said hold on a second... He reached up into his attic and pulled down a set of wheels with 20" mower tires mounted. Well as crazy odd as this lug pattern on the bike is, wouldn't you know those wheels just happen to fit! Ol Captain Weezy had given them to Kiser at Trikefest two years prior, and they sat in the attic until that day. We were amazed!

We needed to widen it then, but I had no faith in finding wheel spacers locally in that odd size, and we were running short on time. Well Kiser had a first gen ATC250R sitting outside the shed he'd just gotten from The Stud at Trikefest the week before, and the cack sucker had the exact size wheel spacers we needed for the big bore Suzuki! Well smack my ass and call me Sally!

So the bike came out great and Kiser raced it. He didn't win, the Honda guys made him run a restrictor plate. I was just determined to get a Suzuki out there for the 50th Ashtabula and I cannot say I succeeded, but I can say WE succeeded. It took a lot of help from a lot of people but the bike was there. Thanks to everyone involved!

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ps2fixer

12-05-2019, 02:27 PM

In the first post I saw a mention of a blog, got the link handy or is there no new posts there any more? Not to make a focus on money or anything, but in theory you could post your story, disable comments and have a couple ads on the site. Likely won't make much, but for some people, you're living their dream, so reading your stories is letting them live their dream through your words.

Either case, I subbed to the thread, neat reading about the different locations with a mix of some builds/repairs etc.

I kind of had a similar life changing event for myself, same thing, mindless working for big businesses, high stress, tight due dates on projects, etc. I didn't have much for funds since I've only worked in the workforce for around 6 years, just paid off my first home $30k and back to debt free and quit my job and went self employed. I'm making less money, but life is 100x better. I liked traveling some, but I didn't have a huge passion for it, but I do enjoy reading the stories and seeing the photos. Effectively I'm still a slave worker, but atleast I don't have a boss breathing down my neck, my boss is now my customers and if I don't like any of them, I can just get fired (aka have them not pay for services).

Looks like the Suzuki was winning the race in those photos, guess those Honda's passed you last second huh? Also, wow is that axle narrow. No front suspension is also a great longevity thing, never have to fix front forks if they are solid tubing.

My family reunion was located about 30 miles from the Indiana/Kentucky boarder and I've noticed that people in both states seemed overly kind there too. My uncle lived in Kentucky for 5 or so years. First thing he was told by his neighbor was watch out for the people down the hill, they will steal etc from you. So first thing he did was take some home made wine down there and went drinking with them. He never invited them to his place, but he made sure to be kind to them. His neighbor was pretty crazy, he had a horse and buggy and they went off roading with it. I never saw it but that must have been a pretty crazy adventure with all the hills and such around the area, it was a challenge even for atvs.

If you ever get in the Michigan area, I'd suggest going North as much as possible to get away from the Cities. There's nice people in both spots, but there's a lot more snobs and such around the cities. If it wasn't for keeping around family, I'd probably move to southern India/Ohio to Kentucky area. I get along with my direct family really well.

Anyway, good luck on your travels.

fabiodriven

12-06-2019, 01:02 AM

Thanks so much for posting my friend!

In regards to the blog, I changed it to private a while back. Sometimes when time passes I don't always feel satisfied with some things I've shared in the past. I was very high strung for a very long time and not really aware, then illness was added to the equation. I'm not saying my views have changed drastically, although I'm sure at least some have, but sometimes I don't like my old posts. I used to want a lot of people to see my thoughts and I shared them on the book and in the blog, then I changed how I felt about broadcasting things on those platforms. What makes this any better? The forum is different. It's public but not everyone will see it. I don't associate the shameless vanity other platforms are built on with this forum.

That being said, I have to pay my annual WordPress fee. It's funny that would come up at the same time someone asks about the blog. I haven't read the blog in years, I'll go through it all and see if it's worth sharing again.

About the race, it wasn't me racing. That was Kiser, and yes, you can clearly see the competition far, far behind Suzuki's big bore beast. I heard they didn't have to wet the track because the Honda guys' tears were more than enough to keep the track wet, and that Kawasaki back there is actually green with envy. It started the race blue, no bee ess.

ps2fixer

12-06-2019, 01:50 AM

Yea I get that, that's kind of the thing with the internet, once it's out there, it's out there forever, even if you delete it... unless no one ever saw it ever and the server it was on deleted all logs, secure erased the files etc. If I had the url, I could probably load up the internet archive and see all the old posts.

Also, how is wordpress paid for? It's a free software the last time I used it, heck my http://atvmanual.com site that I've more or less abandoned is running wordpress. Maybe you have a blog on wordpress's website or a paid plugin?

Anyway, I think the best way to describe what you're doing is early retirement, living life how you want to. Most people don't get to do that till 65+ and generally health and such gets in the way for them to do what they really want. I've seen plenty of elderly people just sit around and watch tv basically waiting to die including both my grandpas. Maybe I'm too young to understand, but I'd go completely crazy if I couldn't do *something*. TV would get old very fast, big time with how the news is anymore.

If you like woods land and long riding, there's a ton of trails up north, I've heard there's state land trails from around my area all the way to the bridge that connects the LP to the UP. That would be a monster long ride/trip on an atv but probably a blast. You'd need the road permit + trail permit, not sure if the trails all connect up or not, should be like $50 or less total for the permits which are good for a year.

https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-350-79119_79148---,00.html

Here's a map if the link works.

http://midnr.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=1710727ba3ec4c64928110fdb4f7799d

atc007

12-07-2019, 05:39 PM

LMK when you're venturing toward Pa bud. Looking great!

fabiodriven

12-11-2019, 11:51 PM

Thank you for the information ps2fixer! And thanks very much for the invite Bill! I'll let you know when I'm around!

This week I removed the exhaust manifolds from the old 7.3 to install gaskets and some upgraded up pipes. The 7.3 didn't have exhaust manifold gaskets from the factory, it was just metal on metal. I had a couple ports starting to weep a little, and the factory up pipes are a joke. They're supposed to seal with donut gaskets, which absolutely does not work. The 6.0 had the same setup. The cure is to order a set of "bellowed" up pipes which replace the leaky donuts with flat flanges and gaskets. Ford should have built it that way in the first place, even if International didn't. I don't have an engineering degree, but it was obvious to me the factory setup would always be susceptible to the issues created by thermal expansion and the contraction of cooling.

If you've ever worked on exhaust manifolds, you know it's a difficult job. Mine were not in bad enough shape to be really difficult, just mildly difficult. While everything was apart I painted the manifolds, turbine housing, and Banks turbo outlet with Eastwood exhaust paint, and I also wrapped the new up pipes with exhaust wrap.

One thing that made this job much easier was the 3" of body lift my truck has. I couldn't imagine doing this job without the body lift.

This truck is an early 99, so the very first rendition of the Super Duty. I still remember when they first came out. It has some idiosyncrasies which make it an odd ball, it was only produced like this for six months. 99.5-2003 Super Duties have quite a few differences from my truck. That makes parts more expensive and some parts unavailable. It's 20 years old now and will tick it's mechanical (not digital) odometer over 300,000 miles in less than 500 miles from now. I see so many Super Duties every day, and the older mine gets the cooler it is, haha. It's been here since the beginning of an era.

Today I drove it after two and a half days worth of work addressing the manifolds and upgrades, and it sounds fantastic now and makes far better power than it used to, bottom to top. It seems like at least every few years I end up with a set of manifolds to work on. At this point they're like mile markers on the road of life to me. They're tough but it's very satisfying when they're done.

Thanks for reading. :-)

ps2fixer

12-12-2019, 02:16 AM

Interesting read, didn't know the up pipes were prone to leaking. My dad has a 1996 Power stroke with the 7.3L, about 100k miles and had trans shifting problems. I'm not sure if the 99's had the same trans or not, but you experience any of the "common" transmission issues? I guess glow plugs and controllers are another weak point, his 96 had bad glow plugs, while a friend's 99 had a bad controller. Besides a couple alternator and battery set replacements on the 99 they seem quite reliable. My dad and I have like a saying, if you need a small truck, get Toyota, if you need to haul a big load, get a Ford. Preference is diesel of course and I've heard to stay away from the next gen 6.0L diesels but can't remember the details why. The 6.9L (lower power with no turbo) and the 7.3L were the most reliable that I'm aware of. Don't know about anything after the 6.0L though.

My dad had an 85 with the 6.9L with 500k miles, it had a rusty body and was a bit hard starting in winter, but it did pretty well. Just 2wd single tire rear axle too light duty for my dad's needs so he tried for a 1 ton and ended up with the 96 4x4. Sadly the 96 has been sitting for atleast 10 years now because of the transmission issue, I think my dad got discussed with it having issues fairly quickly after buying it and he ended up paying like $14k. Kind of funny he's a mechanic though. The common transmission connector isn't bad, so we are thinking solenoid packs are bad. I've learned electrical "okish" since then, but never had a chance to hit it with a multimeter to test it. It had issues before searching google was a common thing lol.

I guess this is all null and void if your truck is a stick. He asked a transmission builder friend which transmission is better to buy and he said automatic, if he would have bought a stick, it probably wouldn't have had any transmission problems.

I should probably mention the actual issue lol. One of the few times I got to drive the truck I drove it out in 2wd in some sand and it did some wheel hopping and I just kept it steady rpm and went through just fine, unloaded whatever it was and drove it back. Since then the overdrive light flashes and the trans only shifts in 1st and 2nd, no 3rd or overdrive. After taking it off the road we had a bulldozer to move in the yard to scrap so my dad drove it and did some jerking with it (two chains and a tire does some amazing work, he ripped almost two tires in half though lol). I made a joking comment that he should take it around the block and check the trans problem, watch it will shift just fine (the over drive light wasn't flashing). He did and shifted just normal. He ran it like 5 miles or so really trying to get it to mess up, no problems at all. Got new plate and such, put the bulldozer on the back of it and half way to the scrap yard it lost all gears and my uncle's the Oldsmobile 350 rocket powered F150 had to tow the F250 + the dozer load plus his load which was a S-10 Blazer that's stuffed with junk metal + misc stuff in the back of the truck. Side note, the F150's transmission lines (350 turbo) got so hot the rubber coating burnt off! My dad gave him a trans for the help and helped swap it out.

After sitting for a while again, every time you turn the key on one of the fuses blew, diag'ed to glow plugs or something related (it's been a while for my memory) and to this day it refuses to shift any gear. Trans never slipped, fluid smells great, it's been changed like 3 times since it first started having issues, new filter etc when changed. The only issue seems to be related to shift solenoids or the trans isn't getting signal which gear to be in from the ECU. Just remembered before my trip with it and it messing up it did die once going around a corner and one of the fuses blew, I think it was the same fuse when the glow plug related thing failed. I haven't searched too deep to try to find a good wire diagram for the whole truck, but for American made stuff that seems to be kind of hard to find. I don't get why tech and service data isn't public for free for anyone to use provided by the people that designed the machines.

Anyway, wasn't trying to get side tracked from your topic, figured it wouldn't hurt to see what people know about the situation =). My guess is the shift solenoids need to be replaced or repaired with a new solenoid or two.

tapper190

02-03-2020, 06:38 AM

Hope all is well with you..

fabiodriven

02-07-2020, 01:08 AM

Thank you Tapper! I'm updating the trailer and bike at the same time, very busy right now. Old trailer is an 06 Dutchmen Winner's Circle and I'm moving into a 16 Jayco Seismic 355W. My 99 Honda Superhawk is for sale and I'm buying a street legal 02 Honda XR650R (not 650L). I saw the bike for sale in the neighborhood here the same day I signed on the trailer, and walked away from the bike. I couldn't sleep that night thinking about the bike and I called the owner first thing in the morning to go see it again. He said OK, then he called me back a little while later and said the carburetor had a headache and he was going to rebuild it. He's almost done with it now but I gotta handle the trailer stuff first then take care of the bike. I've put just as many miles on gravel as I have asphalt with the Superhawk. It's just not the right bike for what I'm doing. Plus I can run the Dakar now if I want.

I'm going to write out a longer post when things slow down a bit.

Thanks for posting!

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tapper190

02-07-2020, 06:41 AM

Good to hear, I saw that you were upgrading your trailer, please post up pictures when life slows down a bit. I enjoyed reading your blog when you were writing about your life experiences.

fabiodriven

02-25-2020, 01:35 AM

I've been in Ocala FL since the beginning of November and it's worked out really well. My buddy whose place I'm parked at opened an automotive repair shop right after I got here so I've kept busy helping him out at the shop, and I also take care of his yard and pool at the house. I watch the puppy as well. They don't want me to leave, haha. Everyone's animals fall in love with me. Poor Daisy in Indiana still goes looking for my trailer when they let her out. This little guy here in Ocala has known me since he was little little. We have spent a lot of time together. He's spent countless hours in the yard with me while I work with the pool, it's been a good balance. I only have so many good hours per day, but I also have to be active whenever I can. Hanging out at the shop, being a gopher, working on the pool... It gives meaning to the day and gives you something to hang your hat on at night. I can go out of my way most times to help random people as well because the chances are pretty good I have time to spare. I have no shortage of time.

OK so busy busy busy, haha. The move into the new trailer has been a lot of work (for me). I just do things in dribs and drabs here and there until it's done. I have time so, it works. I'm in the process now of trying to get all my tools and garage items sorted. Living space is sorted halfway decent for now, but there's more to do. All my tools (which is a lot) need new homes because I had to ditch the tool boxes I bought for my truck when I was leaving Massachusetts. The other trailer contacted them once already, but that trailer was pretty banged up so no biggie. The new trailer may have actually had more clearance between the toolboxes and the body of the trailer, but the length of the hitch would have severely limited my turning radius as it would have contacted the insides of the boxes as opposed to the tops of the boxes, if that makes any sense. I didn't want any worries in any direction, so I decided the boxes had to go. I paid yuuuge money for them because they are a very uncommon height, and probably not a commonly ordered box size. They are only 12" tall. They're for sale now for a lot less than I paid, but here in Ocala nobody has any money. I hope I don't have to haul them with me when I leave here.

The new trailer is luscious though. I didn't realize how out of date the old one was getting. This one is much more up to date and comfortable. I was going to spend like 20-25k, but I about doubled that after I started looking. If there ever were a time to have a nice trailer, that would be now. The transaction and the move have been a bit of a headache, but not unbearable. I'm super glad I did it so far.

The XR650R is still being worked on, I just talked to the owner today. He hit some sort of hiccup working on the carb and he had to take the bike somewhere. I wish he'd have let my buddy and myself work on it, but that's OK. I'll be seeing it soon I'm sure. I've got a guy coming to look at the Superhawk tomorrow. -Update on that, the guy liked the bike and wants to buy it. Unfortunately I discovered that Massachusetts never sent me the new title for that bike and I had never realized it until one hour before I was going to meet the buyer. The new title is on the way and should be here in two weeks. The buyer is willing to wait.

So Florida is crazy, in case anyone wasn't aware. That "Florida man" stuff? That's no joke. These people are out of their minds here. Appointments mean nothing. If someone says they'll be there on a certain day, it's likely they won't make it that day and you'll be lucky if they let you know they're not going to make it. If they give you a time they'll be there, it's going to be a couple hours later usually. William is excluded from this by the way, as he made every appointment we had right on time, lol. They just don't seem to care though, I guess because everyone does it to everybody already or something? They might all be used to it.

Another funny thing, we've seen some absolutely atrocious mechanical "repairs" come in the shop here. Ocala is huge, it's a big place, but from what I can see it's really tough to find a good mechanic here. I wish I had taken notes. It's late right now or else I'd ask my buddy to remind me. One car I remember. It was a 2013 Ford Taurus or something, came in on the hook after it sat at another shop for months. Oh that's a thing too. In Florida, it's somehow normal to have your car in the shop for months. That's just something they do here, I don't understand. They've really made it easy for my buddy to make a name for himself really fast! So the car comes in with a fuel issue. It had been to two separate shops and out of commission for months. "Nobody could fix it", one of those cars. Everyone was baffled. They replaced the pump (in tank) and the module (under rear seat). Car comes in, we put it on the lift to look at a fuel leak. Looked like it was leaking from the top of the tank at one time, but wasn't leaking currently. We put the car down on the ground and my buddy gets his power probe. No power to the module, so you already know there's no power to the pump. So we move forward to the fuse panel. Fuse looks good. My buddy looks at the fuse diagram, pulls the fuse out of the wrong location, puts it back in where it's supposed to be, and the car is running 15 minutes after it got to the shop. Amazing. Then we saw the fuel leak, and they hadn't seated one of the lines correctly on the sending unit. That's all it was. Car was down for months.

So then they come to get their car and it was about $200 or something. The woman counts out some money and hands it over and it's like $140. My buddy says oh I think you forgot some money. She's like oh I'm sorry, and then gives him $40 more. He's says it's $200. Oops again right! It was ridiculous, lol. Then my buddy notices his $300 sunglasses are missing from his desk. He didn't want to go off and just start pointing fingers, he wasn't positive they weren't in his truck or something. He did think he had left them on the desk though. So he goes out to the customer's car before they left and opens the center console, and imagine what he found, lol! They were trying to boost his sunglasses! These people were probably in their mid 60's.

There's a truck we took in three weeks ago for an engine/tranny swap. The guy who brought it in said it's not his truck, but he's taking care of everything. Said there would be a brand new OEM engine/tranny delivered the next day. Well long story short it wasn't there, and it's three weeks later and it's still not there. I'm not going to go into too much detail with this guy, because it would be way too much to type out right now, lol. This is a big story. So we got the inclination a couple days in this guy was full of beans. He had a lot of tall tales, and a lot of stuff wasn't adding up. So we google him. He did a stint for conning people for "between 20 and 50 thousand dollars" or something. He's a conman. So we start checking more stuff out, he gave us a fake address and the owner of the truck he dropped off is a felon as well. It's likely they served time together. So every single day it's a different excuse and a different story. I won't go down the whole list, but one was him getting divorced out of the blue, he got cancer, he got chemo, his mom died, then there's the funeral... Bear in mind we've known this guy for three weeks. That's a big three weeks. You know he cares though because he called 4 times the day his mom passed. I mean, who wouldn't call their mechanic who has a vehicle that doesn't even belong to you four times the day your mom passed? Makes perfect sense to me... -Update on this as well. My buddy is out of town right now and he called me and asked me to swing by the shop, as this guy had supposedly dropped off a trailer with the new drive train in it finally. I was going to the shop anyways, but imagine my surprise when I got to the shop and there was no trailer left there! Hahaha!! It's always entertaining! I have a theory on this guy. As I said, he's a con artist by trade. I think he just needed someplace to park that pickup, and I think he is truly driven to lie. To spin stories and have people listen to him talk, to make him feel like he's doing something? Or in charge of something? I don't know. I think if I ever see him again, I'd have to feel it out, but I think I might call him out. I don't want him leaving without me letting him know that I know he's a complete shite bag. I won't name call him like that, but I'd just like to let him know that we were laughing at him the entire time, but with a heavy twist of pity.

Lol, they rented my buddy a big double bay garage with double offices and literally 90% of the lighting in the place did not work. That is not an exaggeration. Office lights, hallways, bathrooms, the garage itself, exterior lights... Almost none of them worked, and the property manager fought us over replacing them! It was a shite ton of bulbs and ballasts! So they send the guy out to fix it, and what a character this guy was. Not a bad guy, just odd. He drove a fairly new Toyota 4-Runner or whatever those things are, and he never shut his hood all the way. We went to shut it for him and he said to leave it. More on that later. He also would leave it running the entire time he was at the shop. He came in multiple days, and he'd leave his truck outside running for six hours.

So then he tows in an electric man lift trailer to fix the lights in the garage. Well the batteries are shot on the trailer, so he has to nose his four runner up to it and he runs the lift with jumper cables going to his truck. That's why he doesn't latch his hood, lol. This is all just everyday stuff here in Ocala, lol. This is the most stark contrast from Massachusetts that I've seen I think.

They have some very noticeable driving habits here that you just cannot miss. Now, the following situations are not one-offs. These are things that I see every single day multiple times daily. I must say, I thought Massachusetts had the worst drivers, and they are terrible but in an overly-defensive way, which is just as dangerous as an aggressive driver in my opinion. New York has some awful drivers as well, but Florida drivers are super consistent.

The right turn lane- So there are a lot of big roads here, usually two lanes of travel in each direction, which turns into 3 or 4 lanes each direction at intersections. Two straight lanes, and either one or two left turn lanes. Sometimes there will be a right turn only lane, but not often. Usually right turns are made from a lane which is for right turns as well as going straight through the intersection. Even though it's perfectly legal to go straight in that lane, the locals here do not use that lane to go straight. They will go out of their way to all pile into the left straight lane, even if there are 10 cars in that lane and none in the right straight lane. They get mad if you go straight in the right lane, which I do every day everywhere I go. I have no idea why they do that, but they do. I saw a guy towing a mini excavator on a trailer swing that whole thing over 15 cars back from the intersection to get out of the right straight lane. I don't understand, lol.

The green light snooze- This happens at almost every red light I'm at. Almost always it's the first car in the line for that lane, but if the first cars don't do it you're almost guaranteed to see one of the next three behind them do it. Light turns green, nobody goes. Nobody honks, everyone sits there looking at their phones. Honestly I don't understand how people go through the daily driving experience without an air horn here, or anywhere for that matter really. These people will sit through entire lights, I've seen it when they were in the turning lane next to me and I was going straight. They weren't holding me up so I didn't honk, and I've sat there and watched them never even realize the light was green.

The bob and weave- When they fast and furious through traffic in their little ricers, squeezing in too close for comfort and cutting people off, only to end up right next to you at the next set of lights. I make sure they realize the mistake they've made when they do that to me. In those cases I let the horn rest, then put my 500 lb steel bumper 6 inches from their spoiler. It's a circumstance where they have no choice but to realize a brake job is not an option for them, then they try to get away.

School zones- They take school zones super serious here. Everyone does 20 and not a tick over. It's not like that in Massachusetts. Funny story, I was on the Superhawk going through a school zone when I saw a woman in a jeep come hauling up behind me fast, and she got too close. Just as I was about to swing around to face her, she switched lanes really fast. I think that's when she realized she was in a school zone, so she slowed down and was going the same speed as me. We crept towards the "end school zone" sign and as soon as we reached it she dropped the hammer. So I eased over close to her, her window was down, and I clutched the bike and picked it up right next to her, lol. I carried a really good wheelie, then I noticed a motorcycle on it's kick stand in the middle of the road about a quarter mile up, and a rider sitting on it. I thought to myself, self, that looks like it just may be a flatfoot. Well flatfoot it was, and I figured that was it for me. Well as I got closer he just made a big "no" sign shaking his head and waving his arms back and forth. I nodded and rode right by, haha.

They don't use turn signals here, period. Ever. Self explanatory.

Most trailers have no lights on them, no cops care.

Probably more than 95% of the lifted trucks here have roller skate wheels and the Carolina squat. Now, for those who don't know what the Carolina squat is, it's when your truck is lifted higher in the front than it is in the rear. It's the worst looking trend I have ever seen. A flat brim hat and white shoes are required to drive these trucks. They paint their undercarriages and add underglow lighting. It looks like when a dog has an itchy arse and it drags it's bum around on the carpet, and as awful as these things look, they are everywhere. I can count on one hand how many regular lifted trucks I've seen with swampers and regular wheels.

A while back William and I spent some time together and he showed me some properties. I saw a couple I really liked, but one was just out of reach and the other ended up not panning out the way we'd hoped it would. Still it was really cool to see the areas of Florida William showed me, and I'd surely buy a small piece down here. It wouldn't be my main spot, but I wouldn't mind having a retreat from the winter. A couple weeks ago I went and met the Swatlands over at the Ocala dirt track, and William was able to head down as well. It was much more of a jaunt for him, so I was glad he did it. It's always fun getting together with people from the forum.

I know ol Shep wanted to hear about the wimminfolk, lol. 2019 was a record breaker for me. I had a lot of good interactions with a lot of women and their desire for more is always good ammunition for my self confidence. The last girl I spent time with in NY went ahead and flew down here to Florida in December to spend a couple days here, and it went well. After she left though, I was relieved, lol. And that's in no way a jab at her, she's a real peach. I used to fight the thought of getting used to being alone. I liked being co-dependent in some way for some reason. Now that I am no longer that way, I am much happier overall and co-dependence is an unhealthy behavior. After she left that day, I was happy just spending some time by myself, haha. This is the first time in my life that I have ever felt the urge to take a breather from females, which is a huge milestone for me. I didn't think I would ever get to a point where I'd had enough.

But it didn't last long. I still approach women and toss lines out here and there, but I've not been putting in a huge effort. I stay in touch with the NY girl, and as a matter of fact she's flying out again this coming weekend for another four days. She's been keeping me “appeased” I guess we could say. Not enough to stop me if someone irresistible crosses my path, but there haven't been a ton of those here in Ocala, far less than I would have imagined. I was just about to start ramping up my efforts in the female department, then all of a sudden she decided she'd like to fly down again, haha. It was a spur of the moment thing.

She's cool though, and we talked about dating a couple times, but neither of us is really looking to commit to anyone at this moment. I tend to think that if I were interested in a commitment with her she'd certainly go along, but I don't know that for certain. Most of my adult life has been a battle, and I never felt successful in the dating department. My long term relationships went well, but I felt like kind of a failure outside of those. That has changed, and I would like to take advantage of my edge, especially after being on the wrong side of that edge for so long. Nothing would make me happier than to find a special one who can slow my roll, but she hasn't come along yet. This NY girl, there's a lot to be said for her. She's close.. But I still feel the urge for others so.. Onward I go.

She understands though, and in fact, I feel like they've all understood. Every one of them I was up front with and told them my lifestyle ahead of time, which was a draw to them. They want to hear about it. Part of that lifestyle is the level of freedom I have, and each of them figured out on their own it wouldn't be right to try and slow my roll. I fought this path tooth and nail, this was my nightmare, so I looked it in the face and got a collar on it. It works for me now I guess. My heart's been broken enough, time to break some others, haha.

So for 2020, new trailer, new bike, and I'm fairly confident there will be new women. I know posts with no pics can be a bit of a bore, so I apologize for that. I haven't taken a ton of pictures lately. I'm figuring on rolling on outta here about midway through March. Thanks to all who are reading!