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- Oct 16, 2019
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My take on my first truck is the first truck I ever rode in and where I spent many miles as a passenger; my dad’s 1968 Ford F-100 Ranger with an FE series 360 engine.
He bought it new to carry a 10 ft camper. Suffice it to say it was too much camper for a half-ton truck; when the camper was loaded the cab doors wouldn’t close.
So he did the only logical thing, he modded the heck out of it. Fishplated the frame, put in a 1-ton Dana 60 rear axle with 4.56 gears, overload springs and matching 1-ton front drums. And if I recall it had 7.50x16 split rims. Because of the low ratio rearend the engine turned 3000 rpm at 60mph. So he added an overdrive transmission to reduce engine rpm at highway speeds.
He drove that truck every where, all over Canada and the US, it went across Canada ten times when we lived down East and summer vacationed in the West.
There was nothing he wouldn’t haul or tow. Dad towed my brother’s 9’ x 40’ single-wide mobile home from Lethbridge AB to Kelowna BC taking the Salmo cutoff route which had elevations where there was still snow on the side of the road in June.
Mom and dad were vacationing in Death Valley one Christmas and the engine block developed a crack at a freeze plug. He had it brazed so they could get home. When he traded it in on a Ford van it had 497,213 miles on the original engine, never rebuilt and didn’t use any oil to speak of.
I really wanted to buy that truck but I didn’t get the chance. I have fond memories as a child spending thousands of miles in the cab watching the world go by.
My dad passed away 13 years ago
He was my hero and role model. I miss him terribly.
Thanks for the opportunity to reminisce about ‘my’ first truck (sniff)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
He bought it new to carry a 10 ft camper. Suffice it to say it was too much camper for a half-ton truck; when the camper was loaded the cab doors wouldn’t close.
So he did the only logical thing, he modded the heck out of it. Fishplated the frame, put in a 1-ton Dana 60 rear axle with 4.56 gears, overload springs and matching 1-ton front drums. And if I recall it had 7.50x16 split rims. Because of the low ratio rearend the engine turned 3000 rpm at 60mph. So he added an overdrive transmission to reduce engine rpm at highway speeds.
He drove that truck every where, all over Canada and the US, it went across Canada ten times when we lived down East and summer vacationed in the West.
There was nothing he wouldn’t haul or tow. Dad towed my brother’s 9’ x 40’ single-wide mobile home from Lethbridge AB to Kelowna BC taking the Salmo cutoff route which had elevations where there was still snow on the side of the road in June.
Mom and dad were vacationing in Death Valley one Christmas and the engine block developed a crack at a freeze plug. He had it brazed so they could get home. When he traded it in on a Ford van it had 497,213 miles on the original engine, never rebuilt and didn’t use any oil to speak of.
I really wanted to buy that truck but I didn’t get the chance. I have fond memories as a child spending thousands of miles in the cab watching the world go by.
My dad passed away 13 years ago
He was my hero and role model. I miss him terribly.
Thanks for the opportunity to reminisce about ‘my’ first truck (sniff)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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