The Gun Counter

blackeagle603 wrote: ↑Wed May 26, 2021 5:24 am Have started looking at lower mileage F250s 7.3 of similar vintage. They can be had but come at premium. I need to account for the added cost of upgrading to get back to where I had the Excursion. .

Forget buying a decent used vehicle right now if you can, the ongoing chip shortage has driven the value up on decent used cars and light trucks a ridiculous amount. If you can wait till at least q4 2022, or better yet early 2023 for the prices to start coming down to normal.

HTRN wrote: ↑Wed Jul 28, 2021 7:05 am

blackeagle603 wrote: ↑Wed May 26, 2021 5:24 am Have started looking at lower mileage F250s 7.3 of similar vintage. They can be had but come at premium. I need to account for the added cost of upgrading to get back to where I had the Excursion. .

Forget buying a decent used vehicle right now if you can, the ongoing chip shortage has driven the value up on decent used cars and light trucks a ridiculous amount. If you can wait till at least q4 2022, or better yet early 2023 for the prices to start coming down to normal.

This. Even the new cars aren't being helped by this market. New cars are unavailable, so used car prices have skyrocketed. New cars are unavailable, so their prices have skyrocketed as well. SO glad I snatched the one I did right as this chip shortage nonsense worked its way through the supply chain. Wife's car will be paid off shortly, and we're eventually upgrading from the Flex to an Expedition so we have 2 options for trailer pulling... and it sure as hell ain't gonna happen soon. Will definitely have to look into the fly-and-drive option for finding something used or something somewhere else in the country. With flight pricing still in the 'not stupid' range, some decent opportunity there. Let us know how the drive goes!

Road trip! Time to get some pork rinds and jerky and roll south on the 5. Wire transfers complete and should be off on a shakedown cruise soon as I reconnect with the truck seller this morning..

I-5 back to San Dog, a well worn route for me. I can anticipate just about every mile marker. A bit of a melancholy drive at times now, remembering points along the way on so many family trips. Now the kids all grown and gone.

While not diesel...

Toyota is apparently discontinuing the excellent 5.7 V8 in the Tundra & Sequoia and going the turbo V6 path in the redesign.
So you've got all the people who want a V8, ask the chip shortage nonsense, the economy.
Suddenly people are paying sticker for new Toyota trucks and driving them to markets like Colorado that have demand and are getting sticker + $10k.
Used one or two year old trucks are selling for original sticker.
It's crazy.

evan price wrote: ↑Thu Jul 29, 2021 12:34 am While not diesel...

Toyota is apparently discontinuing the excellent 5.7 V8 in the Tundra & Sequoia and going the turbo V6 path in the redesign. .

You can blame US emissions standards for that. Personally, I wouldn't want a turbo gasoline car for a daily driver.

One of my coworkers has a 2 year old F150 eco boost. So far he's happy but he only got it a couple months ago (his previous car was in enough demand that he got a fair deal). It runs well and his one 'heavy' load (a bunch of paver bricks and garden stuff for a neighbor) was not an issue.

I want V8 engines to my core, but the previous Jeep and the current Flex were both V6 normally aspirated, and I can't really complain. But we only ever towed the smallest closed U-Haul trailer, not overloaded (no issues) and I don't have illusions about them being able to do much more.

Made it back to San Dog last night after picking up "new" rig in Portland area. I'm liking it so far. Longer wheelbase than the Excursion and it smoothes things out some.

Boy is it dry. Shasta is the lowest I've ever seen the lake.
Boy is the 5 busy. I've driven that route a lot over the past almost 40 years. Heavy as I've seen it.
Every stop along the way busier than I've ever seen.

Is this Necro?

I have a handle on the AC. Seems to be fixed without chunking the dash. Of course now that I posted that... well, you know.
The ugly is slowly getting less ugly. Not willing to pay for pretty. Its a TRUCK and I expect it to work.
The 95 gallon aux fuel tank / tool box is awesome and was super easy to install. Thanks RDS.

Now looking to put a cap on the back (used) Any ideas other than craigslist and FB marketplace that don't involve driving to Sanford FL. CAn't seem to find a short bed one locally. And I need the sliding window type so I can still add fuel to the aux tank. Although I may drive there and visit the folks and such. Or have dad buy one (same truck) and store it till I can get it. Actually going there this weekend for a tradeshow. But flying and no time.

Also looking to "chip" it. mainly looking for better fuel economy and I know that won't pay off for years, but ... there are other benefits...
considering Smarty Touch and one of the Edge CS2 or similar. Anyone have any experience with them, especially in an 05 diesel Dodge?

What I found when I bought my truck 4 years ago, is the days of being able to drive up to the canopy store and pick out a cap are pretty much gone. They all seem to be made to order these days. I am mostly happy with the Leer that I bought (my brother bought an ARE for his truck). The first one arrived with some fisheyes in the paint which were taken care of under warranty. The dealer had planned to have it repainted by a local body shop but that turned out to be so expensive (I think in part due to the metallic red color) that they ended up having Leer send a replacement unit up. Not sure how that was any cheaper but I assume they sold my less than year old canopy "as-is" to somebody else so it may have been the cheapest option for them overall.

I was able to take it in for that any time during the warranty period so at least I had the use of the first unit during the winter, and didn't have to deal with snow in the bed of my truck while all that was going on.

If you go the new route you may have trouble with new paint on a new canopy matching your 20 year old faded paint job on the truck. Unless you go with something like black and don't care if it matches.

Look into Ranch camper shells if there’s a dealer in your area. Bought a used one for a song, hit it with rattlecan bedliner to match the black truck (cap was blue), modified a used 2020 4-runner roof rack to fit, and replaced the solid fold-down front window with a sliding fold-down unit, and still have less than $500 in the whole shooting match. Quality is at least as good as a Leer I had on a previous truck, so bang-for-the-buck factor is through the roof. Would definitely go with one if I had to buy new, since everything else is wildly overpriced.