Milage

It's been a long time since AOL stopped carrying newsgroups but here's the address he used to post with:

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com

It's possible that since AOL didn't allow munging of address's that he may have blocked all mail to that account or white-listed it.

I think that's his email, I'll give it a shot. Thanks man.

LOL, I doubt that with the new Cummins and even there, after it breaks in and you baby it. Also with the price of Diesel at $4.00 and going higher along with the higher price for the diesel to begin with it will be a long, long, long time before you ever recoup that money.

But you are forgetting a key issue as well and that is time. Sure, the Cummins can run for a long time before it needs any real work but how about the rest of the truck? My truck is now 11 years old and still only has

118,000 miles on it and for a while, I was driving it 80 miles a day just to get to work. Now if it gets 10,000 a year, that is a lot. To get it to 250,000 would probably take me another 15 years and Cummins or not, what shape do you really think that truck will be in at 26 years old?

according to how you treat it... when we buy a truck the first thing we do is put seat covers on it. there have been times where finding seat covers to fit a new body style has been a challenge but we manage. the drivers side seat cover starts to wear on the left side from entering and exiting the truck. when the wear starts to show we switch the passenger and drivers seat covers from side to side. when the seat covers eventually wear beyond repair we replace them.

second thing we do is put those huge rubber floor mats in the floor boards. then we tint the windows to keep the u.v. from beating up on the interior as bad. when a truck is going to be parked for an extended time we put a sun block hickeymadoo in the front windshield. i have one truck that is 15 years old in which the interior looks almost as good as new. the interior on my 97 still looks good.

we keep up with regular maintenance using quality materials. when we have to swap a part we use moco original parts. the trucks get washed occasionally and they seem to stay looking good. my 93 dak has a paint issue and we will be painting it before long and it will look as good as new again.

here is how the life of a truck works around here. i buy a new truck and give it to the wife for making deliveries, pick ups and general transportation. after about 5 to 7 years i buy her a new truck and that truck passes to me for a daily driver and work truck. i drive it for another 5 to 7 years and we repeat the process. the 10 to 14 year old truck then gets passed down to one of the workers here at the shop. it sees service 1 to 3 days per week until it gets rolled down the line when my wife and i do another rotation.

so as the truck gets older it sees less frequent driving but still sees regular use and service. we keep them in the fleet until they are about 22 to 25 years old. then they get rolled off to farm duty hauling fertilizer, firewood and taking real abusive treatment until they die a natural death. of course the the 84 mitsubishi built dodge is sitting in the woods behind the barn and i bet with a set of jumper cables to get it started, it would get you where you needed to go and back. of course this truck looks pretty rough after living in a pine thicket for the past 8 or 10 years. if it was a diesel i bet it would look just as bad. michael

Can you say more about the Viper rockers and the Hypertech E-Con? Did you do them separately or at the same time?

I did them seperatly. I used the older Hypertech, not the new e-con version. The Hypertech made a huge differance in performance. It drove better and shifted better. It also allowed me to use a lower temp thermostat, which prevents detonation while towing on hot days. Transmission shifted better, but nothing radical. Just a slightly tighter shift, and no more searching around when driving in the mountains; definatly a better feel. Mileage went up about

2mpg. It was one of those things that the minute I did it, I sad, "Dang! Why didn't I do this sooner?"

The rocker arms I did last year. Again, not a huge improvement but certainly a noticable one. Mileage went up about 1mg or so. But there's definatly a tad more power on the Butt-O-Meter. You can really feel it while towing. For less than $100, it was well worth it.

-------- .boB

2006 FXDI hot rod 2008 Mustang Coupe 2001 Dodge Dakota QC 5.9/4x4/3.92 1966 Mustang Coupe - Daily Driver 1965 FFR Cobra - 427W EFI, Damn Fast.