New truck

[TC Chris]

Put money down for a new truck today. Toyota Tacoma; red; 2 door; longer bed. Yay! Auto transmission, boo! In VT, where my sister in law found it, so I'll get a trip east to ransom it. The only other new vehicle I've ever owned, the '80 Datsun, also required a trip out of state. It's the price of having a red vehicle, it seems.

Chris Campbell

[William]

Congrats, Chris. Really, no local or any place in Michigan had a Red Tacoma? And no dealer locally was willing to do a dealer trade? Crazy, but as long you got what you wanted that is what is important. Photos please after you get it home.

Bill

[electra225]

I've been looking for red, single cab trucks out here. Nothing. Glad you got what you wanted.....

[TC Chris]

Greg noted that I got what I wanted, a good distinction. A purple truck would provide adequate transportation, but since my daily drivers since '72 have been red, it seemed wise to honor the tradition. I wanted red. Bill expressed surprise at no dealers seeking exchanges. I tried to urge that. But Toyota dealers seem to guard their "allocation" like a mother duck guarding her ducklings.

I made the decision to pull the trigger on this one after remembering my Dad's story. In about 1935, when he would have been 17, his father sent him, together with his brother who was 12, on the train from Manistee, MI to South Bend, IN, where they picked up a new Studebaker at the factory. Dad drove it home. Highway travel was a lot more disorganized and much less trouble-free back then. Imagine sending a teen and a pre-teen to get the new car.... So I figured that if Dad could go get a new car in 1935, I ought to be able to handle a trip in 2025.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

I started driving a vehicle on the highway when I was big enough to reach the pedals. I remember having to hug the steering wheel in grandpa's old International truck so I could mash in on the clutch, which took both feet! He put a "sissy stick" on the gear shift so I could reach the gears while mashing in on the clutch pedal. That old truck had to be double-clutched when you were downshifting. I drove his Buick to town all the time when I was about ten. The sheriff would follow me home to make sure I got home okay. Dad taught me to shift "three-on-the-tree" on his old "Shevallays" out in the pasture behind the barn. He even let me do doughnuts if the grass was wet! If parents today allowed their kids to do HALF of what my parents let me do, and, in fact INSISTED that I do, they would be up on child abuse charges. The stuff I got by with was legendary. I had a GREAT childhood.....

Howard Cherry and I decided it would be a good idea to take his dad's Ford flatbed truck and use it to pull over outhouses. That worked really good until we pulled one over with Bob Hale still in it!

Howard and I also used a hay fork to hoist an old milk cow up into the hayloft one day. She went up there pretty easily, but she almost kicked the waddin' out of old Doc Gray when he tried to sedate her so we could get her down. That was the closest I ever came to getting a whipping when I was a kid. Should I choose my friends better? Howard served six terms as sheriff of the county when he got older. His dad had been a deputy forever, so it came natural. He was a good kid, a good guy, my best friend. He would try anything once. And I do mean anything......

Chris, it's good that you got what you wanted, not settle for what you could get. I drove Buicks and Packards when I was a kid. All the other guys drove hot Chevys and Fords with loud mufflers and like to burn rubber. I wanted a quiet car, with a good ride and something that was NOT a Ford or a Chevy. I didn't have anything against them, but I thought I "deserved" a Buick or a Packard. I was considered a "square" kid, a "yuk" boy, not the first one the girls would choose. But I had an air-conditioned Buick. I took a lot of ribbing for driving a "grandpa" car. I was taught to buy what I like, buy the best I could afford, take care of it, use it for its intended purpose and invite the detractors to pound sand.....

[danrclem]

Chris, I'm glad that you got what you wanted............well with the exception of the transmission. Time to smell that new car smell.

Greg, I've got a feeling that you and Howard Cherry did a lot more mischief than you're admitting to. I bet Bob Hale wasn't very happy at the mess you put him in. I've also done a few things that seemed like a good idea at the time but actually weren't very good ideas at all.

[electra225]

We were digging around in the grainery one day and found a bushel basket with these round things that looked like big hot dogs. We were playing cowboy. We were "camping" so we had built a campfire. Howard decided it might be a good idea to see if those tubes we found would burn in our campfire. So he tossed a couple of them onto the campfire. They burned all kinds of pretty colors. Orange, purple, blue, green, yellow and made pretty orange smoke. They kind of sizzled when they burned.

A couple of weeks later, Uncle Fort decided he'd dynamite stumps off a "patch" he had cut the timber off of. He was telling grandpa that he had looked all over creation for that bushel basket with his dynamite in it, but couldn't find it anywhere. He was sure he had left it in the grainery, but kept the fuses in his truck. Why would anybody want with dynamite that wouldn't blow up without the fuses........

[William]

You were lucky, Greg, that you didn't blow yourselves up. Did they ever figure out it was you and Howard that took the dynamite?

Boys will be boys, and I am not innocent either when it comes to doing a few things I am not proud of. They seemed like a good idea at the time, fun really, but the consequences were parents that were not proud of me for quite some time. Memories!

Bill

[electra225]

Nobody ever spilled the beans as far as I know....

As to Chris' comment that he has driven red vehicles forever and wasn't about to change the tradition. We always had a black car. The '56 Century was the first car I ever remember that wasn't all black. Had no black on it at all on the exterior. The '60 Electra 225 was two-toned with black. Traditions/habits like that are hard to break. I own two black cars and one so dark gray it's almost black.

[danrclem]

They dynamite story reminded me of one of things we did as kids. The neighbor had some dynamite and caps to blast rock away for a well that he was digging. I don't know why he was doing it that way instead of hiring somebody to drill a well. Well anyway he moved before it got done. My brother and two cousins were up there snooping around in an old shed behind the house and came across the caps. We took one of the caps back home with us and figured we could use a battery to detonate it. We climbed into the back of an old panel truck, ran the wires inside, closed the doors and proceeded to try and make it go bang. It went bang alright. Everybody came running out of the house to see what had happened. Needless to say, we sure got into a lot of trouble. I'm going to blame this whole thing on my brother and two cousins because they were older than I was.

[electra225]

What engine do you get in your new Toyota truck, Chris?

[TC Chris]

4-cyl., a turbo I think. I'm happy with my current naturally-aspirated 4 cyl.,so that will probably be a step up (but also a potential point of failure).

I just got an email from the dealer--deliv. delay for "QC hold on 6/13--under study." I replied that if they had pulled it from the line for QC to see if it met specs, yay. If it means it fell off the truck while loading, boo.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

I was shocked when I drove the first turbocharged 4-cylinder engine. It is simply amazing how much power they wring from a 122 cid engine. You will probably be amazed as well. Turbochargers were standard equipment in diesel road engines for probably 60 years. One has to wonder what would have happened an auto manufacturer had turbocharged a big V-8, like a Hemi. The largest domestic V-8 I am aware of that was turbocharged was late 1970's Pontiac 301. The 3.8 Litre V-6 that Buick used in the Grand National series of cars was turbocharged and would outperform the then-current version of the Corvette.

I hope it all works out well for you, Chris.....

[Dr. Radio]

Congrats. I think you will be happy.

"American" brand trucks are, unfortunately, still a crapshoot.

Ask anyone who recently (within the last few years) bought a 6.2l Chevy gasoline powered truck.....

And, I'm the Chevy guy...

[electra225]

It's too bad they ruined the 5.3. Those were worthy successors to the old 350. The older ones would run for 300,000 miles easy.

[TC Chris]

I remember when they first started putting turbochargers on small engines, there were reliability problems related to lubrication. As I recall, it was related to exhaust heat cooking the oil at shut-off. I haven't read about that problem in years so they must have solved it.

Sometimes there are engineering issues when transferring established commercial-grade devices to the consumer market. Anybody remember the Oldsmobile diesel?

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

When you drove a turbocharged diesel engine, it was good practice to idle the engine for five minutes to allow the turbo to cool and for the oil temp to stabilize in the turbo. Gas engine cars don't follow that practice. My Mini has a small pump that runs after you shut the car engine off that pumps oil thru the turbo. I don't know whether all turbocharged gas engines follow this practice, but they have to have some provision to cool the turbo or it won't last long. My only gripe with turbocharged gas engines is that you can't hear the turbo screaming. I have no idea why.

[Motorola minion]

Good choice Chris.
My Tacoma extended cab has never been in a garage, has 140K and was new 20 years ago. The 4.0 L V6 is tops IMO, reminds me how V8 power usta be, but Toyota engine choices have changed. I hope you get 18-20 mpg like I still do.

About 10 years ago, it got a recall to install a new frame. I looked under Tacoma's also waiting for the shipment of frames from Mexico. Mine had a rusty hole expanding around some punched-out holes meant for forming the member under the drivers feet, BUT mine was far less than it was on other trucks that looked cleaner as if they HAD been in a garage. Some looked like wet book pages, delaminating rust. My truck was at the dealer for 6 months and T paid for a rental at Enterprise, a black 2015 Camaro nobody wanted to drive in winter but I did. Taking my 8 YO to basketball, proud to the only kid not hopping out of a minivan or SUV.

Nice when you can have a heated garage or live in the south just keep it out of the sun!!! But going out in bad weather with a clean car is great, as my parents did - always garaged their cars BUT it just makes it rust worse than leaving it in the cold. The MoPar wagons got rusty holes within 6 years, getting the '75 fixed twice. It was a low-priced Fury 318 from Hamtrmmk plant, worth the body work! The VW bug lasted exactly 5 years after coming to PA from TX, then flash-rusted out and pass no more inspections

Rolling in there without dislodging the salt-bergs made one "deleted" of a mess when they melted. Magnesium chloride has replaced Calcium Chloride, now its more important to clean off than ever. The 69 GP can take the rain but its inside all winter!

[TC Chris]

I have not even looked at gas mileage data for the new Toyotas. The choices in small trucks these days are so limited. I'm just happy to find 2 doors and longer bed. The old Ranger averages 26 mpg overall. It's such a nice truck. This weekend I got the new headlight assembly aimed so it looks forward, not down at the road under the bumper.

My brother in VT had the rust/inspection problem in VT on his old 4Runner and only replaced it when he could not find a welder to do it again.

I've never had or wanted a heated garage--they are death to rust-belt vehicles. The Mustang occupies the only available stall--the other is filled with "stuff," including boats and consoles. Hey, I'm a real American--my junk stays indoors and the vehicle sits outside.

Chris Campbell

[TC Chris]

In VT; picked up the new red truck yesterday--steep learning curve with all the gadgets & gizmos they incorporate now. Haven't had ne-car smell since 1980!

Chris Campbell