For those of you wondering why we bought a different truck rather than fixing the F250 its because I had a very limited window of time to make the trip from AR to KY. I'm currently working on a temporary assignment in Pasadena CA and getting time away from there is not easy. Also everyone I talked to hinted that it would be several days or more before the truck could be repaired with no hint as to cost other than since it was an Automatic transmission it would be expensive. So.....we opted for a replacement.
And now "The rest of the story".......(Jim we can blame that line on you
)
For the most part the rest of the trip to KY was uneventful with the exception of the squealing that was constantly with me once I hooked up the Airstream and headed off. The squealing wasn't there when I did the test drive with the truck alone but with the trailer hooked up the squealing would come and go. I stopped several times to try and find the source and the closest I could figure was the rear dually tires were the wrong size and they were rubbing where the tires meet the road. The good news is I made it to our new home late Thursday night with no further problems. I arrived about 24 hours later than originally planned, not to bad considering all that happened.
I got to spend one day at our new home and then had to return to AR. I used that day to buy new rear tires. The previous owner had installed the wrong sized tires and once I replaced them the squealing went away. The other thing I found that I corrected on the spot was the moisture sensor on the fuel filter was disconnected at the filter so I reconnected it.
The friend that volunteered to pickup our F250 near Nashville also had a 24' enclosed trailer that I borrowed to assist in our move. The plan was for me to take the 24' enclosed trailer back to AR and fill it up for a return trip at Thanksgiving or Christmas.
So I headed out around 5:30 am Saturday morning. The trip started out just fine however as I made the turn from KY 461 on to KY 80 and started to accelerate up the hill all of a sudden the truck lost a lot of power and I noticed the moisture in fuel light was on
. (Turns out Susan noticed the light come on a couple of times Friday night when we were driving around in the truck. She mentioned it but I totally forgot about it by the time we got back to the house.) I continued on for a short distance to the next gas station which fortunately was at the bottom of a long hill.
When I was transferring everything from the F250 to the F350 one of the things I grabbed was the spare fuel filter which just happened to be the same one as used on the F350. It took me about 25 minutes to get the old filter off and the new filter back on. I didn't have any diesel to put into the new filter before installation so I had to crank for a while to get the engine to restart, but it did YEAH! So back on the road I go.
By this time the wind is starting to pick up and I'm now driving into a fairly decent head wind. One of the running jokes between Susan and myself is no matter which way we're headed we always seem to be driving into a head wind
. The good news the new truck is running well and I'm cruising at a comfortable 55 mph.
Everything was going great until I was about 40 miles east of Memphis. There I was cruising along in the right land and I look in my rear view mirror and see a line of about six unmarked patrol cars start to pass me slowly in the left lane. As the last one started to pass me he got up even with the cab of the truck and then all of a sudden started slowing back down. He paced me for a while and I could see he was looking for my license plate (which I didn't have since it was a new truck). He then slows down even farther and pulls in behind me. Things stay that way for a couple of miles and then his lights come one. DRATS, just what I needed, a session with the state patrol.
So we all pull over (all six of the unmarked cars pull over, some in front of me and some behind). The trooper walks up to the truck and asks me if I knew I didn't have a license plate. I said yes and asked him if he had time for a long story.......
.
What it amounted to was I had just gotten stopped by the Violent Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force. Oh joy, here I am in a new to me truck, a borrowed trailer with Florida plates and only a copy of the title from the previous owners and a copy of our insurance forms faxed to us by the insurance agent. Keep in mind my drivers license is from Arkansas, the address we put on the title is in Kentucky and the trailer is from Florida. Let the fun begin
.
He asked me what I had in the trailer and I said "nuthin" at which time he had this sort of surprised look on his face. He then asked for consent to search the truck and trailer. I agreed and signed the appropriate search waver. At this time I started praying that the previous owners had lead a clean life and didn't leave any drug paraphernalia in the truck and that my friend with the trailer never hauled any drugs in it! They did an extremely thorough job of inspecting both the truck and trailer and surprise surprise, didn't find anything
. During the search process at least three of the officers individually stopped by and asked me all sorts of "inncocent" questions. There was a definte pattern to their questions and I'm sure they each compared stories to see if my story changed.
I must have passed that test because after about 45 minutes they finally said I was free to go. They did warn me that it was possible I could be stopped again by another patrolman down the road because of not having a license plate.
Fortunately the only negative thing that happened the rest of the trip is the head wind kept getting stronger and I could sit and watch the needle on the fuel gauge move toward empty. I could definitely tell the difference in towing the Airstream trailer compared to the 24' square enclosed trailer. Even empty the 24' square trailer was harder to pull.
I'm hoping my return trip(s) during the Thansgiving holiday are a lot less eventful.
Hope I didn't bore you with all this
.
Brad
.
. Oddly enough after sitting there for a few minutes with the engine idling I tried moving forward again and it did. So I eased it a little farther off the shoulder and away from all those trucks flying by.
. So he called in a second wrecker to tow our trailer AND his tow truck.
Great ending to the story. Wish I had that kinda luck!
So, what happened to the old truck... did you sell it for a good price? How'd the MH move go.. or is that for later too.
AIR #8416
What an adventure
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