diesel4life

I saw some video of wildwood crest in Jersey where we stayed over the summer and it wasnt even recognizable. Rooftops ripped clean off of houses and buildings entire sides of hotels and beach houses opened up to the inside and the first 3 or 4 blocks inland completely underwater from what i saw. The boardwalk was totally ripped up in spots i mean a couple hundred feet or more just gone. Here in Ohio we are 8 hours or more inland and i drove 300 miles across the state and there are many fields completely underwater. Im talkin acres upon acres of solid water. Lots of trees down and fought a nasty crosswind the whole day. According to the weather man we had over 4 inches of rain as of 6 am and it hasnt stoppe all day i drove 5 straight hours with my wipers on either low or high.I think the reason its gotten so much exposure is because of the lack of preparedness they had when katrina came through. And really the only way they can put the warnings out for people is to put it out there on the tv, the radio, whatever they can do. I heard earlier theres been something like 16 deaths so far i can imagine it would be many times that over if they werent putting it out there so much for people to see and hear. Those are just my thoughts and they dont mount to much

Id be wearing 2 sets out by the time i hit 125k, maybe working on a 3rd set. It amazes me you guys can get that kind of mileage out of a tire! I might need to take some lessons from someone

If you havent had your speedo recalibrated youll wanna do that. If you know anybody with a smarty that would be the easiest the only other way i know is through a dealer maybe somebody else has some ideas. To figure mileage you will want to fill up and reset your trip. Then the next time you fill up take the number of km your trip is showing and divide by the amt of fuel you just put in your tank. You can do it now and get a decent idea but wont be accurate until you get recalibrated.

Had to make an unexpected trip to cincinnati today. A little over 300 miles one way i filled up when i got to town and hand calculated my mileage as i was thinking about what you were saying you got for mileage. It came out to 15.8 mpg i ran between 65 and 70 the entire trip. Could have gotten a little better but it was pouring rain the whole way and was fighting a nasty crosswind from Sandy. My trailer weighs in at 2400 and my best guess on the car is 3000 to 3500?just a guess i dont know for sure so that puts me around 6k. Not alot of weight by any means but just tryin to give you an idea of what a stock truck (besides a smarty) will get. Another factor is how you drive. Im pretty conservative on the skinny pedal i dont use cruise and i dont keep my foot into it just to keep up with traffic. I run the speed limit and if people wanna go around me then theyre more than welcome. You were saying you got bad numbers even when stock what kind of mileage were you getting?

Weve gotten 4" as of this morning clear up on lake erie all related to sandy. Watching the local news people close to WV/OH border have gotten nearly 3 ft of snow. If we see a drop of a few degrees we could see some of that its right on the edge of rain/ sleet. For anyone who has direct tv channel 325 is dedicated to nonstop coverage of any natural disasters that may be taking place. Was watching for a few minutes earlier it looks like those in NJ and NY have been hit the hardest the storm hit with a 14 ft surge and flooded inland a good ways. 6.5 million without power. Good news is the worst is over so hopefully with daylight people will be able to assess the damage. - - - Updated - - - Not a very good pic but this is the break wall at lakeshore park yesterday near where i live. Thats a light pole off to the right and the water was slamming the break wall and splashing 5 to 10 feet above the pole. Weve been seeing 20 footers coming on shore for the last 24 hours. Now this may seem insignificant compared to what the coast is seeing but remember we are over 8 hours drive from the coast. This is all Sandy related. Quite incredible were seeing this kind of weather from a storm so far away.

just looking at your sig i dont know how much better your going to get with your set up. 35" tires and 150 horse sticks is not a good recipe for fuel mileage! Even if you baby it you still wont see the numbers of a stock truck. Im stock with the exception of a smarty and when i stepped up to a 285/75 my mpg dropped by about 1. I drive conservative and i avg 20 to 21 mpg per tank empty no towing. Thats a mix of country road and freeway with maybe 10 percent in town driving just to give you something to compare to.Someone else will be able to chime in a little more about your set up but im thinkin a stock HX may be about at its limits with those big injectors which isnt helping your situation either

Ive been there a handful of times although its been a few years since I was last there. If you travel route 90 through NY/PA/OH your cruising right through my neighborhood. Im just across the border from PA in OH RT 7 the very 1st exit.

nice! Have you ever been to Norwalk in Ohio? If im not mistaken your not too far north of New York?

You cant show us a picture like that and NOT show us whats inside that trailer Come on! I like toys!

82k is alot of miles for one set of tires! I could only dream of those kind of numbers!@ dorkweed, like you, Im just relaying my experiences not trying to stir the pot either. With you running those high air pressures, Im surprised you get such good life out of your tires. Do you haul/tow alot? I run about 55 in mine empty if Im towing Ill pump em up a little more. I would just think with 70 psi all the time you would be wearing the centers out faster. It must be workin for you though from the sounds of it

That is exactly what I did. I bought a fuse tap for a few bucks at the parts store so that all my gauge lights were on a fuse and plugged it right into the fuse panel. I can get a picture of it im not positive thats what theyre called . . This is what i call a fuse tap it plugs in to the panel in place of the fuse for your dimmers but its got 2 fuses in. It so that your dimmers are still fused as well as the lights for your gauges. Hope this helped its not the greatest picture but its dark and raining and COLD!

Many people run take offs from 3rd and 4th gen trucks with no issues (they are 17" wheels). Ive actually been looking for a set of 4th gens for a while now but havent had any luck. Theres pros and cons to them, for starters theres not as many options for tire sizes in the 17 as the 16 inch rim. Plus they are a little more money when replacing tires. But they do handle a little better than a comparable size tire with a 16" wheel (less side wall, less roll). I think they look better also. But your not going to change the overall height unless you go to a taller tire like a 75 or even an 85 which you could do with your 16" wheels for less money. My truck had factory size tires when I bought it and I went to a 285 75 which measures around 32" iirc. So it does give you more top end gearing per say but at the expense of fuel mileage. I lost about 1 mpg by stepping up.

Mother nature sure does have her way of reminding us how miniscule we all are. We are several hundred miles inland and they are forecasting several inches of rain over the next few days (weve already gotten over 2") and sustained winds of 40 with gusts up to 60. All from a storm that was created over the ocean 500 miles away. Incredible. Stay safe everyone!

Patience young skywalker, and let the force be with you. they are tricky to get at, but if you spin the driveshaft just right you can get one at a time. Keep turning the driveshaft until you see the best possible place to get in there and do each bolt in that position. Its been a long time since i had mine out but i seem to remember using a socket/swivel/extension combo

As I stated in my last post, weve seen a 40+* temp swing in the last 36 hours. From 80 and sunny to rain, 40 mph wind and a high of 40. Was actually in the low 30s and POURING rain all last night. The cool temps dont bother me one bit but it sure makes it rough with the big temp swings. This is prime time for cold/flue season, too. With temps bouncing back and forth so erratically it catches people unprepared for the big weather changes and next thing ya know everyones passin the snivels around

I always ran Coopers on almost everything we had sitting in the driveway - from the monte carlo to the wifes 4runner to my toyota pickups. They were a great tire obviously or I wouldnt have kept buying them. Then I bought my first dodge ctd and it had a set of cooper at about 80 percent tread. Withen 30k miles they were shot and I was replacing them. It wasnt an alignment issue I keep all my vehicles tight and well maintained. I couldnt afford a new set at the time and a guy I worked with had just sold his ford and had a spare set of goodyear silent armor pro grades in his garage. I bought them for a very reasonable price they were approximately 50 percent tread and they outlasted the coopers. Same truck, same type of driving. When I eventually replaced those I opted for the Good year duratrac as I do quite a bit of off road hauling of oil pipe, water tanks, seperators, etc plus we get pretty nasty lake effect snow so I opted for something more aggressive. Now obviously they wont last as long as an at but its a sacrifice Im glad I made they are excellant tires I often pull heavy trailers down poorly maintained oil leases and sometimes across fields if it isnt too wet to save from tracking all the equip back. They will dig like no tomorrow ans so far Ive got almost 25k on them and they are wearing excellent flat as a board. I wish I could afford a set of at tires mounted on another set of rims so I could switch back and forth as I only help my friend (in the oil field) a few months out of the year and theres really only about 3 months of nasty weather so for about 6 months out of the year I technically dont need as an aggressive a tire but such is life! They are a great balance for what I do and the road noise is very acceptable considering the tread pattern.

Bien this is going to be a rach truck are you using 4.10 gears? It seems like someone was trying to find a set of the 3.54s i cant remember if it was on here or not. You should be able to sell them pretty easy if your not using thm lots of people swap there 4.10s out for the taller gears. I had a 2000 with 4.10s and my 98 with 3.54 gets much better mileage. 4.10s would be great if i towed heavy all the time or lived in a mountainous area but i live in farm country and tow up to 13k occasionally with my 3.54s and the rest of the time i only tow between 7 and 9k for the most part and they work well for me. For what i do they are a well balanced choice. I would love to do the 3.73 split but for the money its hard to justify.

[/i I would have to agree with the wheel bearing theory with what little info you left. Hopefully youve got things figured out by now, let us know how you make out!

I believe the 3rd gens have the plastic or nylon you have to melt to get the universal out but Ive never seen that on a 2nd gen. Should just be c clips on the inside of the ears that lock the universal to the driveshaft.pop them off wiith a flat tipped screwdriver and a hammer and you should be good to go

I was recently reading through the class action lawsuit that is (still) going on with the 6.o powerjokes. Ford is claiming that the 6.o made up nearly 80 percent of ALL of Fords engine related warranty issues. Ouch! I dont have any stats to back it up but from my observations in this area at least the 6.4 and 6.7 arent much better off. Only difference now is they cant point their finger at Navistar they can take all the credit for those over engineered hunks of future scrap.

I generally cut the old universal off first just inside the ears of the driveshaft with a grinder and a cut off wheel. This makes it much easier to press the individual bearings out one at a time. I use a big vice with a socket like I said they press out much easier once you cut the universal out your only pressing one cap at a time this way instead of two. Once the old joint is out, I ususally polish the ears up with a little emery cloth or a file if theres any burrs add a little grease and press the new one back in. As far as what manufacture Ive had good luck for the most part with NAPA I always buy the greaseable kind they just seem to last longer for me Ive never had much luck with the sealed ones.Probably the most important step is to mark the relationship of your driveshafts before you drop them as they are balanced and if they get put back together 180* from the way they are matched you will most likely have a worse vibration than you started out with

Well after near constant nights dipping down into the low 30s and occasional upper 20s weve had 2 days of 80* with night time temps staying well above mid 50s.... well get just enough of this weather to get "comfy" (80 feels hot when your used to 50) and then well get slammed. Such is life on the coast of the great lakes, it can be sunny and in the 40s one day and the next be in the single digits with white out conditions. Lots of lake effect snow storms especially when the lake is still open and we get a good blast from Canada.Just got the wifes trailblazer back on the road today been going over everything on it the last few days as it has been sitting since May. My truck is more or less ready Im just about due for an oil change other than that shes ready for whatever mother nature decides to give us

Thats true but first he would have to get the free floating rotor set up like you have. The early 2nd gen trucks are set up a little different than your 01. The wheel studs are pressed through the rotor and into the wheel bearing. So to do a simple brake job and swap rotors or turn them down you have to remove the wheel bearing/ brake rotor assembly, pressthe wheel studs out, put the new rotor on and press the studs back into the bearing. If the wheel bearing hasnt been out in a long time and you live in an area where there is lots of corrosion like myself, they can be a real pain to remove. This was a horrible setup dodge used on the front ends of these trucks.

Youll really like the new duratracs:thumbup2: i run 285/75s ive got about 20k on em so far they are wearing very well flat as a board and still a ton o tread left on them. They bite really well in the mud and snow i dont have any complaints about them at this point.Im jealous of you guys with your 4th gen wheels ive been looking for a set for quite a while and havent had any luck. Theyre either too far away to go get or theyre asking full retail price for the dang things Dont get me wrong i like my factory wheels ive got theyre clean and straight but i think the new wheels on the older trucks really sets them off.

I would think you would have to find a set of spindles off of a 2000 to 2002 truck. I believe they have the wheel studs in them as opposed to bieng pressed through the bearings like ours are. With that bieng said, your saying you cant get to your abs sensors? Ive heard of people removing them and injecting grease through the hole into the bearing. I assumed they did this with everything on the truck still, but i could be wrong.