[V8] V8 Digest, Vol 73, Issue 4

[Roger Woodbury]

Message: 6
Date: Mon, 2 Nov 2009 22:06:33 -0800
From: "toml99 at todomundo.com" <toml99 at todomundo.com>
Subject: [V8]  Toerag and GMC& Phaeton
To: v8audi <v8 at audifans.com>
Message-ID: <9AFFB53F-7E6A-4FC5-97C7-B31F87676251 at todomundo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed

Hey Rodger, I'm fuzzy on the GMC part about your post....does that  
mean you got the big block gas truck?.......Best mileage I've posted  
was driving back from WY with a tailwind, and I posted 23.4 MPG  
unloaded(Diesel)(better than the pearl car!)......It's more like  
21HWY/17 town at this point, but that was my motivation for going  
diesel, and I pulled a 2nd growth fir stump out with the  
beast.....and as far as ride goes, hoping once I get the new bearings  
in the front, it'll be even smoother than smooth....Tom


------------------------------

 Tom:  I had tried to do it all ways, but in the end, I really liked the GMC
3/4 Ton 4X4 that I had bought to plow a big road I had built into a
development project that I was doing in the early 90's.  So a bit more than
a year ago, I started looking for another one. The restrictions were simple:
the truck had to be earlier than 2000 model year, later than a '96 because I
wanted the Vortec engine, the lower mileage the better, and the truck would
have NO northern New England winters. 

It took me a year but one day there was one in central Massachusetts that
felt like it might be the truck.  I wanted the truck to have the 454 big
block gas engine for a couple of reasons, all of which involved cost:  cost
up front, cost of operation and servicing, and long term reliability.  

We bought the truck when we first saw and drove it.  The dealer gave us a
dealer plate to use to get it back to Maine (!), and even gave me a new,
full can of Pentosin that he had in the shop and figured that he would never
need again.  My wife and I drove in convoy back here, and it was clear to me
that that truck had never been in New England being used in the winter
before:  82,000 and tight as when it left the factory.

The truck is a '97. The first owner had pulled a trailer because the hole
are in the bed for a fifth wheel hitch of some sort.  The second owner kept
the truck in his garage because he had a company vehicle.  

I have put ten thousand miles on it in the year that I have had it, which is
a lot more than I intended but I needed to use it a lot this summer.  Except
when I have the plow on the nose, the truck gets a very consistent 12 miles
per gallon, and will do about 14 over the road if kept below 70 miles per
hour with use of the cruise control....big rear axle for fuel mileage.

The drivers' side door handle just broke!  That's the only thing that is
remotely a failure.  I expect that this will be the last truck I will ever
buy.  Once we get the new house done we will have room in the barn for all
the vehicles, and if I can eventually keep this thing out of the weather
except when in use, it will run forever.

Roger