Quick trip report
Stop in and check it out. Tell him I (Cody) sent you and I'm sure he'd (Tony) take you for a ride so you can REALLY appreciate our 2500 mile trip.
I call the truck "The Dumpster". Push a dumpster to the top of a steep hill, climb in with another dude, and ride it to the bottom. That's about what it felt like. The lowest point of the belly is about 2.5" from the ground. There's like 0.5-1" of uptravel.
Day 1 we picked up the truck in Wolcott, CT. Immediately said WTF have we done. Went to a parts store and rigged up a cigarette lighter. To Home Depot to build a bed floor to carry our tools/luggage, then headed to Downtown NY to try and see the tourist stuff. At Yonkers we got off the busy highway to inspect the truck and our teeth. Found the frame crack on the passenger front. The area was suspect to start with because it didn't get a gusset. The crack was substantial and it was Saturday of Memorial weekend so we thought we were screwed. Stopped at a muffler shop but it was closed. I spotted a lifted TJ on the road and the 2 guys were eyeing the Dumpster so I flagged them over. After some negotiations they agreed to let us use their welder. We followed them (Romeo and Tim) through Yonkers to their shop, which ended up being awesome and filled with everything we needed. Romeo and Tim were as cool as they get. They had better sh!t to do with their holiday weekend and their help far exceeded the cash we pooled from our wallets.
After a few fab hours we hit the road again set on seeing the Statue of Liberty. About 6 miles from the ferry we hit traffic and the truck started overheating (it doesn't have a fan). So we pulled over, and started hiking. After a little site seeing we headed out of NY.
The remaining days were filled with 100-130 mile driving stretches. At about the 80 mile mark it started to get painful and by 100 miles I was ready to choke my brother. Numerous stops to Wal-Marts were made to try and find the perfect pillow(s) to sit on. We also added a quick hand throttle. We are both about 6'3" so we had to kind of sit cross legged which made it difficult to run the pedals.
We ended up doing just the opposite of what we thought and stayed on the interstates as much as possible. On smooth roads the truck would do fine at 75. We took 80 to 90 and stayed there until Sturgis.
Rain. No windshield wipers, side windows, and the doors don't fit well or seal at all. Gallons came through the bottoms of the doors. Rain sucked.
Conclusion – I’m happy I did it. It became a challenge instead of a vacation, but now that my a$$ has healed I’m happier.
Pics are of the hotel parking lot oil change, cruise control, and frame repair.
