Ranching and A Reliable Truck (Sometimes)

A truck and owning property kind of go together. It is essential to do most of the basic tasks from hauling equipment, getting feed, bedding or just simply to maneuver tough terrain if you live in the outskirts of town. The intent of writing this is to share some of the funniest and craziest things that have occurred with my truck on this property. To show how, yes there has been some frustrating times with the vehicle, but in the end it has been worth it. Considering when I moved here I had a Honda Elantra (if you know me even on a basic level this is kind of comical since when I moved here the plan was to grow the property into a small ranch over time). The thing is I lived a much different life before moving here and the Elantra was practical as I was driving across states at times.

That being said, when I moved here I did quickly look into trading the car in and trying to get a truck. I was able to do this after some searching and successfully was able to do it for an even swap. The truck was a 2009 F150 in no way perfect but after buying property being able to avoid a loan or handing over cash was perfect. Also, most of my life I have been fixing my vehicles. My father did the same and passed along most of the knowledge along the way from his vehicle issues or basic maintenance. Not only has it helped saved a lot of money it has allowed us not to be dependent on others completely. Something that this world could use a lot more of. There is no reason to be relying on other people and waiting for a handout. I understand sometimes a hand up is needed, everyone hits tough times and do not get me wrong I have had some wonderful people help me along the way. The help I can say honestly comes after I have given my every effort to get the job or task done myself.

Before I go on ranting about the failures of society and the softness of a generation, I intend to share 2 main stories of my truck giving me issues above and beyond what I consider normal maintenance since buying the ranch. They will come after a description of a few smaller scenarios that deserve a bit of sharing.

Now each of the scenarios and stories are from my best recollection with a little comic relief throughout. Each one of them were what most people would consider a bad day but looking back each are moments of perseverance, hard work and overcoming a bad situation. They have made owning the truck a sense of pride and the fact that it is still road worthy is something my wife and I are quite thankful for.

I have had a variety of issues happen on this truck, more then I could sit and share in a blog that would be worth reading so trying to keep them short is the main issue. The first is the the falling exhaust pipe. There are many comical movies where there is someone who has reached a tough spot in their life and as comic relief they show them driving off and their exhaust pipe fall, hitting the asphalt and kicking up sparks as they drive off. This very thing happened to me as I was pulling into work. At the time I worked at a Boarding School for troubled boys (a story for another time). As I was driving into my shift sure enough in the last few minutes my exhaust pipe fell while driving and startled the heck out of me. Looking back and seeing sparks fly is not a way you want to start your day. I can say that there is no comic relief when that happens. The only funny thing was pulling into work in front of the boys who were watching humorously as I picked up the exhaust pipe which I had no idea how it was still hanging on and throwing it into the bed of my pick up truck. When I had time to look at it I realized the rust had eaten perfectly at the exhaust manifold and it had finally had a enough and the weight of the exhaust pipe was no match for the little brackets and screws. The solution was to weld the pipe back on which was done and there has been no issues with that area of the truck since.

The other quick mention was again when I was driving to work at the Boarding School, on my way the rpm's went off the chart and the truck felt like it was revving but no power. I coasted into a parking lot and after checking everything came to find that there was next to no transmission fluid. I checked and rechecked this because I was unsure how the truck would be driving as it was completely fine and then all of a sudden go haywire with this little amount of transmission fluid. I got it home by essentially driving as slow as I could and coasting as much I could. When I looked at the transmission pan I realized that there was leaks coming from the edges so my guess was that there was an issue with the seal or the pan itself. I had never done anything like this before but I set off to do the work. I researched the symptoms and everything led me to the seal was corroded and needed to be changed. This would result in emptying the fluid, dropping the transmission pan, removing the old seal and replacing it with the new one, then of course putting it all back together. It took the better half of a day but going slow, double checking myself as I went, I got it all back together without it being too much of a major project. The best part was it solved the issue.

Now these are short stories that symbolize how the truck did have some issues but with some work and dedication it was cheaper and more cost effective to fix it myself. Also I am the type of person that if I do it myself once I will always know how to do it. The two stories that come next will be a bit more of a story telling and you will notice that both of them along with the previous two occur either while heading to work at the boarding school or heading home from it. Some people may laugh and say that the place of work was the reason for the truck having issues. Even though the place had more problems then I could ever care to share, the truck being a pain and breaking down is not one of them. Simply just bad timing. As in all things there is never a good time for a vehicle to breakdown. It never does it at a convenient time. Actually, I have yet to hear someone exclaim, I am so glad my truck just broke down today, it was a perfect day for it! If I ever do I will correct myself. We can all agree that a vehicle breaking down is frustrating and can leave you in a predicament. My two stories are no different.

The first is the story of the truck that had no tires. It was a beautiful warm day and it was the Friday before Memorial Day. I had the weekend off and my parents were driving in for a visit. Something I looked forward to because this was before I married my beautiful wife and besides work I spent most of the days alone on the property. I do enjoy my time alone but eventually having the company of others (mainly family or close friends) is something I have come to cherish. To make things even better I had a half-day of work so I got to leave early. I was in a great mood heading to work and was looking forward to a few days off. After being at work and completing what needed to be done I came outside, carrying my work things to my truck when I realized the that one of my rear tires was low. Not the end of the world to have a low tire but the issue was that I did not have an air compressor to add air into the tire in order to get me home. Instead, I had to change the tire and put the spare on. Something I am rather good at nowadays as I have had quite a few in my time. So I get the spare on and start calling the local tire shops to see if I can order another tire. I am told that the soonest one can be ordered into the shop is a week from the day. Not a major thing because the spare can manage for a few days and I did not have anything pressing for the upcoming week.

After getting the spare tire on I decided to head home, drive slowly and just enjoy the early weekend best I could. Upon driving out of work and getting down the road not more then a mile, I feel the truck pulling into oncoming traffic and the dreaded wop wop wop sound. Instinctively I tried to pull off knowing that my tire was done. Sure enough it was my spare tire, with a massive hole in it. Not a chance it could be saved. So now I am stuck in the middle of the country, no service to make a call, a flat tire already sitting in the bed of my truck and now the spare tire decided it was the best time to give up. With my parents driving into town I am scrambling to figure out how to do this...get my truck somewhere I can park it, get to a point of service and somehow figure out a ride to pick up tires if I can. Thankfully I was not too far from a friends house and decided it was better to drive on the flat then to be stranded on the side of some country road. I limped my way to the house and pulled in.

Of course having no service I could not call ahead which I was not thrilled about. Thankfully, he let me park the truck and get the second tire off. The only issue was now I had to call my parents and let them know I was stuck with no vehicle and frantically calling around as it was a holiday weekend to see if I could find tires. I exhausted almost all of my options until I found a shop that was over an hour and a half drive that had tires for my vehicle. There was four of them. At this point I was so nervous about the tires on the truck I decided to buy four new ones and just start fresh. I told the shop I would pick them up today but still had no clue how I was going to get there as no one could drive me (not that I had many people to ask). I finally got ahold of my parents and told them what was going on and that I had found tires but no ride. My parents offered to drive me but they were still several hours out from their drive. So now I was stuck and waiting. My time was filled with pulling the tires off and putting the truck up on jack stands. Got to love having your truck up on blocks, twirling your thumbs until a ride comes so you can get tires. Eventually the ride did come and my poor parents after driving 8 hours had to turn around and drive me to get tires. I am not sure who was more tired at this point.

The thing is some days are like that. They are not great but you do what you have to do until it is done. We drove and picked up the tires and after handing over a $1,000 for four tires... my pocket book hurt but also the fact that my relaxing weekend was not starting out too well. We got back late to where my wonderful truck was waiting for me, looking all bent and out of shape. My parents being exhausted and me having animals on my property that were needing care they decided to leave to take care of the chores while I put the truck back together. I did and thankfully there was no major issues besides being dog tired, hungry as can be and the sun starting to set. Not how I planned for the day to go but again no one wakes up and says hey it would be wonderful if I get two flat tires today, that would just be fun. The day ended and the truck was road worthy once again until the next time...

The second and last story I chose is a mixture of bad timing, bad parts and just an all out nightmare of a day. This is one that stands out because it about pushed me to my limits, in anger, patience and perseverance. It was a very warm summer day, projected to climb into the 100s. That said I had gotten an early start to beat the heat as best I could. Driving into town to get gas and essentials for the weekend as it was a Friday once again... it seems my truck likes to go down on Fridays in an attempt to spoil the weekend. As I was pulling out of the gas station I heard a thunk and a grinding sound like I have not heard before, my truck's front wheels were locked and would not turn. I was able to get the truck grinding and lurching into the parking lot of an auto store which I figured was fitting but convenient.

I began to jack up the truck, get the front tire off and inspect what was going on. At this point it was nearing 100 degrees already and there was absolutely no shade. I was able to get the tire off and upon looking at the rotors and caliper there seemed there was no visual issues. My next plan was to take the caliper off and take off the brake pads. After removing the screws the caliper would not budge, it was on so tight I could not even budge it. It did not matter if I pulled, pushed, kicked or threw about all my weight on the thing it did not budge. Now I was frustrated as I just did all this work to redo the breaks and the caliper was seized up. My next attempt to get the caliper off was a hammer and a pry bar. I know most mechanics would be squirming watching me do this but remember it is 100 degrees outside, I am stuck in a parking lot with a truck that cannot be driven. If I could of seen myself at this point I am sure I was quite angry and I am not surprised that not many people were stopping to check if I was okay... "Look at this lunatic beating and prying at his truck in the parking lot..." The one person within driving distance that I could call was hours away and could not help so I was on my own or walking a very long way to my house or calling a tow truck. Something I do not like doing as it is expensive.

I finally got the caliper off and went into the auto store and asked if they had any. They responded no and that they would have to order them and could take a week. Well for someone stranded with no ride and no other vehicle this was not exactly ideal. There was another auto store down the road, and I was not too thrilled with the prospect of having to bring the calipers down the road, buy new ones and pads with rotors because they were destroyed from the caliper ceasing up and getting the caliper off. Thankfully someone did stop and offer to drive me up the road to get what was needed and then bring me back. This was a huge win as things were not looking the best right now. Upon walking into the store I was greeted with "problems with your F150?" I normally get asked that when I walk in or what is the problem this time? I just love being known by the auto store as the guy who has the broken down F150, they do not know my name but they know my truck. Regardless they are good people and I was able to get all the needed parts and get back to set in on putting the truck back together.

It was now closing in on 110 degrees outside and the very asphalt felt like it was melting the bottom of my shoes. Not to mention the metal getting to a point where it was barely capable of being touched it was so hot. I began trying to hide my tools or equipment in the shade. I finally got the drivers side back together and was moving to work on the passenger side. To see how bad it was locked up. It was every bit as bad and took about all my strength to pry it off. At this point I had been out here almost all day, had not eaten anything, I had some water but that was getting expelled about as fast as I could drink it. As I was getting ready to put the passenger side back together I noticed that a storm was approaching. At this point now I felt I was even more under the gun. I was rushing through getting this side put back together so I was not sitting out in a torrential rain as it was sure to be. I fought and finally won the battle getting it together.

Back on the road I had not gotten more then a mile down the road and the sky opened up dumping rain to the point I could barely see driving. I laughed to myself at the timing, thankful I had gotten it done before the rain. My evening was one that was left with no energy besides a little bit to get the animals taken care of. I wish I could say that this was the end of the adventure but fast forward two days and my brakes were squealing and grinding... now I was extremely baffled. I thankfully was at home and took a look at my work and noticed the caliper would not release again. For the life of me I was confused, I checked the brake fluid and the lines which all seemed fine. I took the caliper off and was able to take it into the auto store only to have them tell me that the caliper was faulty. Thankfully they did replace both they had sold me and also the pads along with the rotors just in case. Annoyed but happy things were made right I did set off on the inconvenience and put the new parts back on to happily find no issues from that area of the truck.

Now I could go on about more stories of my truck and the weird issues that I have had happened. It amazes me that it is even road worthy. At the end of the day it is a great truck and something anyone that has property should have. A reliable truck is essential, it is something that is a must have, you cannot really own property and not at least have a truck. It allows for hauling equipment, feed, livestock, tools and so forth. I have used mine to help log certain areas of my property, deliver firewood and countless more things. It has been worth every penny and all the effort put into the vehicle fixing it. I am also still saving money fixing it instead of buying new and having a car payment. I mean seriously, who can honestly afford a truck now a days? 5 years ago they sold anywhere between 30k-45k. Now for fun when I am looking I have seen them as high as 90k which is highway robbery. That is over an 80% increase in price in 5 years. All I know is my paycheck is not going up that much. It is flat out not sustainable and for that reason too I am more willing to fix the truck I have and keep it on the road. Is it perfect? No, it is not, but it is mine and I can be proud of the fact that the work I have done to it keeps it on the road. Something that the younger generation needs to learn about. Hard work does give a sense of accomplishment. Sitting around on your ass waiting for a handout gets no one anywhere. In fact it leads to the issues that we see in society. Hard work is not a bad thing, should not be avoided and instead more people should learn to take it head on. You will be amazed at what you can accomplish and you will be better off for it. Even learning a thing or two along the way that can save you not only money but the hassle of waiting around on someone else to do what you could do yourself.

I wonder how many of you clicked on the blog because of the truck, a beautiful '67 Chevy? I wish I could say it was mine but sadly it is not. Even if it was there is no way it would ever be used as a ranch truck. That thing would be protected at all cost. Until then it is something to just look at and admire...