So it’s been a number of years since I have been on this fantastic resource of a group forum, however I just wanted to say thank you for all the past assistance and share my story.

 

I’ll try my best to give you the cliff notes version... 

 

I found this forum during an exceedingly, difficult time in my life when the one thing I could do that would make the rest of the day melt away was work on my truck... however I had very little knowledge but wanted to learn... I would spend hours reading through old posts during many sleepless nights... I was even a little nervous about admitting I was a female, so I think I may have even initially signed up under my husbands name... 

 

My truck was the only thing I kept during my horrendous divorce... I refused to let my husband take it... I signed over my business, my house... seriously everything except my truck... well... the divorce ended up dragging on for more time than is even reasonable to think about... and I ended up naming the truck “baby” bc of the redonkulous fight over it and how attached I grew to it... nothing crushes your sole more than when your soon to be ex tells you the only reason he wants the truck is so he can smash it or sell it for pennies... grrr

 

I hid Baby in a number of friends yards, garages and an assortment of other places... I finally thought it was safe to get her out of hiding this past year after my ex passed away and well the drama was finally over... whew...

 

I finally could allow myself to do a few things I had wanted to do, I reupholstered the seats With leather, installed new carpet... and so many other things... I’ll list later... 

 

I was working down in Arvada, CO and she was stolen from right in front of the house I was working on flipping... full of my tools and laptop and well it felt like my whole life... I had disconnected the battery and popped a variety of fuses and yet they were able to steal her In less than a min.  I heard her drive away and literally ran after it like a crazy person 

 

Luckily she self rescued as I predicted, I had been putting off fixing a leaky connection on the power steering pump, and just topping it off before I drove it.  Within 15 miles Baby was abandoned in a field... however stripped down horribly... transmission gone, beat to **** and horrific looking.   It was towed to a insurance yard and then to a diesel mechanic that was recommended by the insurance co... 

 

and then she disappeared for real... stollen from the mechanics parking lot 

 

ARE U SERIOUS?

 

so I thought I’d share my tail of sadness not for sympathy but merely a heads up... make sure you have some cleaver anti theft disable tricks... bc people are getting more serious about taking these trucks... 

I'm old so forgive me if I don't 'get it' okay? the truck pictured above, is that a different one from the one stolen twice? I am so sorry about what you have been thru! People can be to brutally unfair. I am a person with such a strong sense fairness I get very angry when I hear another person taking advantage, which is, in your case, putting it mildly.

 

 Even tho I live a ways out of the main stream and because of your very interesting short story posted above, I want to thank you but, I need to figure out a sneaky fail safe way to protect both my second gens. It is unfortunate that we cannot post about any such great ideas or risk giving it away.

 

I think MoparMan or IBMobile had some great theft stopping ideas.

 

Oh no, I honestly started to ramble and wasn’t very clear... yes the truck pictured was the one that was stolen twice... bugger...

You have been thru a lot. I am impressed how diligent you are with your truck getting it back in shape. More than Amazing!

And just throwing it out there... currently in midst of fighting with insurance company over “replacement cost” so if there is somewhere you’d recommend posting a quick note to get any opinions about that... let me know and I’ll update the specs as best as I can and repost

 

Also, in the market for a different truck if anyone is looking to get rid of one

Welcome. That is quite the story. I have daughter who has been thru a nasty divorce 7 years ago and on going since with 2 grand daughters in the middle of it all. Its heart breaking. 

Enough of that. Our commonality here is the trucks. Male or female is secondary. I am preparing to divorce my job and retire. That will be an easy victory. Since buying it in 01 it has been on the road constantly. I have managed to keep it mechanaically sound with the help of every one  here, cosmetically it has suffered. So I hope to bring it back after I retire. Be nice for it to look as good as yours does.

We have small cadre of women here already who are not afraid to get dirty with wrench or tackle something new. So again welcome to the farm.

I would like to make a follow up statement; despite my dissatisfaction for the asshats who took my truck ... I absolutely haven’t been happier.. life is fantastic... without looking I stumbled across the guy I was always suppose to be with... a guy who isn’t intimidated by the grease, and is a fellow garage dweller... we have successfully conquered more than a few houses together now (living and working in a construction site for months on end) and shockingly still like each other.. we have an adorable puppy who is spoiled beyond belief and makes us take a break every now and then to go for a hike ...  I didn’t mean to share so much, just felt it necessary to share the positive as there is tooo much negative in the world these days 

6 hours ago, BluePine said:

And just throwing it out there... currently in midst of fighting with insurance company over “replacement cost” so if there is somewhere you’d recommend posting a quick note to get any opinions about that... let me know and I’ll update the specs as best as I can and repost

 

Also, in the market for a different truck if anyone is looking to get rid of one

3 years ago I paid $16,500 for my 190,000 2001 Laramie. Do not let the insurance short you in any way ok? It has been a good worthwhile truck to me. Jee wiz all the leather and all the options came with it. Love that truck. Now has 240,k on it and shows signs of going twice that easy,

4 hours ago, BluePine said:

I would like to make a follow up statement; despite my dissatisfaction for the asshats who took my truck ... I absolutely haven’t been happier.. life is fantastic... without looking I stumbled across the guy I was always suppose to be with... a guy who isn’t intimidated by the grease, and is a fellow garage dweller... we have successfully conquered more than a few houses together now (living and working in a construction site for months on end) and shockingly still like each other.. we have an adorable puppy who is spoiled beyond belief and makes us take a break every now and then to go for a hike ...  I didn’t mean to share so much, just felt it necessary to share the positive as there is tooo much negative in the world these days 

Good to see some come out of all the bad. I worked with my wife for 15 years traveling around country building resteraunts, mainly chick fil a's. I know alot of folks that would have bet against that working. But much to my surprise and joy it worked out beautifully. Some of the best we have had out 47 we been married.

 

 

Get a hold of me I've got a one wire kill that it will not start. Then if you have the Quadzilla and level it on level 1 (Valet mode) and then set valet mode for like 10% it will still drive but barely. Its top speed is 20 MPH on my truck. Even another member here had a Quadzilla and they stole his truck and abandon the truck because of lack of speed. (Valet mode).

 

I just had Eileen's car broken into just a short time ago. We figured since her car has an alarm it safe. NOPE! They broke out the window and stole my camera out of the back seat and the alarm NEVER went off.