Bucket List Trip about to start

[hdman90]

A 1/4" hole at speed will freeze your butt off. Find em, plug em with silicone or black tar snake window seals from Napa. For your doors, seal around the hinge bars and duct tape over the old speaker openings. Makes a huge difference and doesn't take long to effect.

Couldn't agree more. If you end up coming through Erie, I can hook you up with some headliner trim and a headliner to make the rest of your trip that much warmer!

[Jim Bathgate]

On lunch break on the Ohio turnpike. Haven't yet calculated gas mileage. Might get to that tonight.

I did bring a roll of duct tape so might try taping up the speaker holes later.

Google maps suggests going up route 90 through Erie to get to Watertown, Mass. The weather may adjust my plans. Here's what I woke up to in La Porte this morning.

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A winter wonderland in mid November.

[hdman90]

On lunch break on the Ohio turnpike. Haven't yet calculated gas mileage. Might get to that tonight.

I did bring a roll of duct tape so might try taping up the speaker holes later.

Google maps suggests going up route 90 through Erie to get to Watertown, Mass. The weather may adjust my plans. Here's what I woke up to in La Porte this morning.
IMG_0166.jpg

A winter wonderland in mid November.

Jim,

If you are coming through Erie, and think an added headliner will make your trip a little warmer, you are more than welcome to the trim, and I can make a makeshift headliner from some sort of fiberboard or thin wood board.
Just let me know.

BJ Bane

P.S. Welcome to the awesome winters of the North East. Where it comes to early and stays too long!

[Jim Bathgate]

Handyman, I am just outside of Erie (Fairview PA at the Quality Inn) for the night. I have the old headliner at home along with the chrome trim to hold it in place. One of the reasons I did not reinstall it was that a few years ago, I had parked the truck outside while using it for a reroofing project. It had rained and there was a leak somewhere in the cab. I did some plugging of cracks and it passed the car wash test, but I never had a real rainstorm test. And on this trip I have been lucky that it has not rained. So until It passes the rain test, I think I'll hold off on putting anything up there so I can see where the leak is, if there is still one. Thanks a bunch for the offer.

I did the calculation for mpg and got 10.75 mpg on yesterday's run. I 'll check it again when I fill up first thing in the morning. The two tanks hold 43 gallons and I'm using about 35 gallons a day. I am thrilled at the gas prices outside of California. We pay between $3.50 and $4.00 a gallon in San Jose. I just filled up this morning in La Porte, IN at $2.39 a gallon. Maybe after I unload the ton of stuff in Mass, I should buy a 500 gallon tank to put in the back and fill it up before I cross the California border again.

[Jim Bathgate]

The Illinois State Police . . . Yesterday as I was driving along route 80 in Illinois, I noticed that at almost every median strip crossover there was an Illinois State Police car parked. Some were marked, some unmarked. I must have driven by 20 or 30 of them over a 15 mile stretch. Finally one of them pulls out and starts following me. He drives behind me for a while, then pulls up beside me to eyeball me. Finally, he drops behind me and turns on his flashing lights, so I slow down and pull off the side of the road.

Now I'm thinking that maybe he thinks I'm a drug runner, or a human trafficker, and wants to check out what's in the back of the truck. After all, the wooden box I built inside the stakebed does kind of look suspicious, especially with the three huge padlocks at the back.

He asks me to get out of the truck and come back to his police vehicle whereupon he tells me that I was meandering over the centerline of the lane dividers, but that he was just going to give me a warning. Now I know that his charge was just an excuse to start questioning me. Driving in the slow lane all day with a steady stream of big rigs zipping by in the fast lane, I became quite good at shading to the right hand side of the slow lane to give the big rigs more room. The left hand side of my truck is a good five feet away from the bots dots. Because of that shading to the right hand side of the lane, I will occasionally touch the rumble strip, particularly when they put the rumble strip right up against the white line marking the right hand edge of the lane. But I do NOT meander over the lane divider.

So anyway, he asks where I'm going. He wants the actual address. He wants to know the address where the trip started. Why am I making the trip. He wants to know where else I am visiting on the trip. How long have I owned the truck. Then he starts asking the questions over again but in a different order. He evidently thinks I made up the story and that he'll catch me contradicting myself. He checks on his computer my license, registration, insurance, and sees they are all clean. Finally after about 15 minutes of this, he gives up and starts walking me back to my truck. He stops me halfway there and says "do you have anything illegal in the back of the truck?" It's at this point that I run out of patience.

"Look instead of wasting both our time and writing out a warning ticket for something that you and I both know is not true, just as a ruse to investigate a suspicious looking vehicle, why didn't you just ask me in the first place if you could look in the back of the truck. I would be happy to open it up for you to take a look, but the way you've gone about it is all wrong."

At that point he declined my invitation and we went our separate ways. I guess they are trying to do some drug interdiction or whatever they call it, but it seems like they could be more efficient about it.

Maybe this officer just watched that new Clint Eastwood movie where he is an old guy running drugs. Maybe I look like Clint Eastwood. At least I'd like to think so.

[Ohiotinkerer]

Glad you made it thru Ohio without running into any of our wonderful highway patrol..........my new name for them is Sheriff of Nottingham because it you get pulled over i guarantee you'll be paying a fine.......no warnings anymore........

[popeyes71]

Love how you keep us up to date on the trip! Glad you have been doing well despite the Illinois State Police. Totally understand your frustration and I probably would have done and said the same thing. It will be a great story you will be able to share with your son and remind him how much he really owes you for bringing his stuff out to him. Drive safe!

[hdman90]

No problem! I hope you enjoyed waking up to the snow that turned into ice this morning. Drive safe and please keep us posted! And don't forget to take more pictures!

[Jim Bathgate]

A good bit of snow to deal with today. Did 292 miles from Fairview, PA to Utica, NY.

Here's one of the rest stops along route 90 in New York.

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Only 250 miles to go to get to son #3 house in Watertown. Then the truck will lose about 1500 lb of "stuff" out of the back, making the rest of the drive back easier. I was thinking about letting a little air out of the tires to make the ride softer with the lighter load. I've been running 64 PSI up front and 68PSI in back. These are Kumho Crugen HT 51 all season tires size 235/85 R16. Pressure rating up to 80 PSI. Any opinions on dropping the pressure after dropping the load?

By the way, I did a calculation on the gas mileage for the last 1104 miles and it was 11.3 MPG which isn't bad for a 50 year old one ton truck with 360 engine and a full ton load on the back.

[Ranchero50]

I run mine right at 80 psi. Rock solid road feel and it rides fine.

[Jim Bathgate]

We (the truck and I) made it! Today drove the last 250 miles from Utica, NY to Watertown, Mass, beating the snowstorm by a few hours. Here's the truck parked in son #3's driveway. Unloaded most of the stuff today and will finish tomorrow.

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Now all we have to do is get down to Maryland then back across to San Jose. I am hoping that route 40/66 will be warmer driving than route 80/90 was. This part of the trip reminds me why I moved to California back in 1978. I can't stand cold weather!

[popeyes71]

Glad you made it safely! Looking forward to your trip back!

[Jim Bathgate]

Had a great visit with son #3 and hit the road again today. Made it 400 miles from Watertown, MA to Towson, MD where I'll be staying till after Thanksgiving. Here's the truck at the end of a hard day (especially going through New York City).

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Had a problem along the way that has been recurring for some time now. The 1968 F350 was the first year Ford offered front disk brakes and this truck has that option on it. The recurring problem is the left front brake caliper gets stuck, so the truck wants to turn to the left, requiring steering adjustment, and the caliper and entire wheel heat up. Today I caught the problem early and pulled off the road for about 10 minutes. By that time the caliper had released and I was good for the rest of the day, although I was careful not to stomp too hard on the brakes, thinking it might trigger another episode. I have rebuilt both the metering valve and the proportioning valve (or whatever the correct term is), and the left front caliper has been replaced twice now. I've read where others have had similar problems and am thinking I might need to replace the front brake lines. Perhaps there's some internal damage to the existing lines that I can't see.

[Ranchero50]

I'd order one from a local Autozone and have it on hand for the rest of your trip. They are pretty easy to replace but not something you want to do "on the road". If you want I could help you swap it out. Hagerstown is on the way home.

[DuckRyder]

Didn’t member Ron Hall have a similar issue? Forgot what he did to fix it...