Andydieselpower
Member
- 377
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- 18
- Location
- Owatonna, MN
It’s a long drive from Minnesota to Eastern North Carolina in a Dodge 3500 diesel with a straight pipe! I brought about 1,000lbs worth of tools, oil, antifreeze, filters, Dot 5, adjustable tow bar, 50ft slave cables, chains, etc, etc. I picked up the trucks first thing on Monday morning 4-9 at Camp Lejeune. All of the trucks started right up without assistance. Good oil pressure, no air leaks, firm brake pedals. I drove one truck at a time back to the hotel and then had a taxi take me back to the base for the next truck pickup. Luckily I have customers in this state that I call on so Mon-Thursday evening I was traveling through the state anxious for the drive home over the coming weekend. Friday I took a day off work and went through every truck checking oils,fluids, greasing every zerk, inflating all tires, etc, etc. Trucks all run really strong and seem to be in like new condition. Mine is the soft top and is a 1988, My uncle purchased the other two- the one with the bows in the bed is a 1989 and the other is a 1988. All ex-air force trucks from South Carolina. We started the trip on Saturday around 11:00 due to the fact that my uncle & cousins couldn’t fly down due to bad weather in OH and had to drive to NC. We hammered down the highway and got into Coschocton, Oh about 1:00 AM which is a total of around 600 miles. Trucks ran flawlessly the whole trip and averaged about 9mpg with the mountains factored in. I was really surprised but the trucks never got below 40mph on even the longest grades. These trucks are night and day from the 1970 M35 Naturally aspirated multi I had in high school from a power standpoint. Even on the long grades these trucks hardly smoked. My N/A multi would have made the road behind me look like Mexico City on some of the grades we were on (which isn’t a bad thing!). We opened the toolbox’s on Sunday to find brand new glad-hand air kits, wrenches, screwdrivers, safety triangles, bottle jacks, etc. My uncles 1989 had a brand new 20ft slave cable which was a nice surprise! All trucks have the maint. Folders and check in sheets that were in the glove box. The picture shows my uncles other M35 with winch that he purchased from Chambersburg, PA. After owning 800 series 5 tons with the Cummins I forgot how sweet the M35 is from a ride standpoint. I love not having power steering as it gives the truck that much more character. And the raspy multifuel exhaust note is hard to beat for a diesel nut like myself. I’m just going to leave my truck at my uncles until my SF97 clears (in 2010?) then I’ll drive back to MN. Our prayers were answered for a safe trip. Enjoy the pictures.
Andy
Andy
also those are some clean looking trucks good job.![[thumbzup]](https://www.steelsoldiers.com/images/smilies/icon_smile_thumzup.gif "Thumbs Up [thumbzup]"){kind=icon}
