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Utah to Southern Arizona

67Cougar

New member
37
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Location
S. Arizona
I Finally have my baby here with me! ! !

I moved to Arizona in July of 2007 and had to leave my deuce behind in Utah. My first place here in Arizona was a small trailer in a "Trailer Field", (a trailer park would have been a step up). There was no place to park my baby so it had to stay at home. My neighbor was nice enough to let me park it at his farm.

6 months ago I bought a place with 4 acres and a nice 30x40 shop. I started the process of bringing down all my toys. I wanted the deuce but my storage unit in Utah has Loading Bay Doors that are 4+ feet off the ground. I had to drive my projects into the deuce and the drive around the corner to the unloading ramp. So until I emptied all the cars the deuce had to stay. Well I finally got them all out.

Before I moved I went through and packed all the wheel bearing, installed new seals, and changed all the gear oil in the truck. I converted it to single wheels, and installed front hubs. It was all working good when I moved to Arizona.

In preparing for this trip I bought a set of Jatonka's oil and fuel filter adapters. Best money spent on the deuce so far. I also bought and installed the Curt hitch that many here have installed. Also a pyrometer and mechanical temp guage.

I planned for 3 days to prep and load the truck, 2 days for the drive, and 3 extras in case all Hell breaks loose. I spent 3 1/2 days trying to get stuff done. When you go back home everyone wants to stop and say "hi" so it takes forever to get anything done. Finally I gave up and just left around 5pm on Saturday night.

The Deuce was loaded pretty heavy. The load was . . . .
LDS-465 core engine
2 Ford 302's
1- 390
1 - 300 I-6
1 - 2.3 turbo
7 or 8 transmissions
2 engine stands
1 engine hoist
4 spares for the deuce

And then, I had my 76 Ford in tow. It was loaded with an extra set of tires, 2 fuel tanks from my old Peterbilt, and a headache rack. I pulled across a set of Cat scales at the first truck stop. 26,500 for the lot.

27 hours 15 minutes later I was home in Arizona. I drove through the night through some of the prettiest country. I stayed off the interstates for the most part. Maybe 65 miles total out of the 837 miles.

Minimal problems. First it would never get warm, so I cut a piece of cardboard and covered part of the radiator. Then in flagstaff I stopped for breakfast and heard my air leak (see photo), patched it with some rubber and a hose clamp. Some time further down the road the brakes started to feel a little weird. Had to pull the brake pedal up with my foot after using them each time. Stopped fine, just had to pull up the pedal.

Then I started to notice that my EGT's were starting to get a little hotter than what it had been running. I was thinking that I was going to have to change my fuel filter but was really tired from driving all night and was only about 150 miles from home. So I kept going and kept an eye on the EGT's. About 70 miles from home the truck started to miss really bad, so I pulled over and decide to change my primary filter. When I was underneath I noticed the IP was covered in fuel. So I primed the fuel system and fired it back up. I could see fuel seeping from the IP lines so I started to pull back the little rubber boots and the #5 line came right off in my hand and I got a face full of diesel. My Favorite Cologne! I was tired and it was dark. So I pushed the line and boot back in place so that the fuel would just drip down the Injector Pump and took off.

The fuel filter made a difference. I could feel that it was running better than before, even though I was only running on 5 cylinders instead of 6. I pulled into my driveway at 8:15 pm sunday night. The entire deuce smelled like diesel and the front of my F250 was coated in diesel. But I was home and everything was ok.

For the entire trip the Duece hummed, . . I mean ROARED along just fine at 50 mph on the flats. Most of the 6% grades I took at 20 mph both uphill and down. I was really careful to make sure that at all times I could stop my load if needed. I averaged 7.4 mpg and didn't even use a full quart of oil. Not bad for and old dog that has for the most part been parked for the last 17 months. Plus before this trip I never had my truck more than about 30 miles from the house. So needless to say I was pretty happy!
 

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