The Plymford

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

My 97 1/2 ton 4x4 went 371,000 trouble free miles. Cost me $1000 in repairs to drive 20 years. Massively overloaded it building my house ( over 4000 pounds in the bed).     hauling race car in a tandem enclosed trailer  over mountain ranges east and west. West coast at speeds up to 80mph for hours on end. The dreaded tin worm finally ate too much but it went to the junkyard with an untouched engine. Tranny, starter,  etc.  In short. They are a good value. 

In reply to frenchyd :

BST ('93 K3500 dually crew cab 4x4) has been a good truck.  And it's not rusty.  But it's still worn out.  Yes, I could throw $4-$5000 at it and fix most of the issues, but it's still almost a 30 year old truck that's been beat on its whole life.  It'll make someone a good farm mule, but for long distances, I'm just not comfortable with it anymore.  That and the whole "wife can't drive it" thing.  So, you do you, but I'll do me.  New(er) truck time. 

I have a cherry 88 F350 crew cab dually with 74K miles. 460 automatic. Trans just had a $2300 dollar rebuild for towing. I'm looking to replace it with a shorter wheelbase truck , as between it and my 44' gooseneck trailer it is a challenge backing into my driveway. It is rust free and prior to me appears to have been garage kept. Based on finding a suitable replacement it would be available shortly and not too far from you (12 miles west of Gettysburg). It is set to tow with a tag trailer or gooseneck (removable ball so bed is usable).

In reply to Don49 (Forum Supporter) :

That sounds like an awesome truck, but I'm really in the market for something newer, and preferably not a dually.  BST will serve me fine until I find the right truck.  Thanks, though. 

Excellent race writeup. I considered attending the Pittrace weekend, but I'm not sure if spectators are even allowed at a Lemons race - especially with Covid still being a thing.

So, did you get the better of the other old Plymouth?

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

I'm sorry you misunderstood.  I wasn't suggesting you get an older truck.  Just that old Chevy's are great values. 
 In spite of 22 previous new Chevy's purchased and a lifetime of great service with them I replaced it with a New Ford. 
   The reason for the Ford ( which I'm very happy with and so far has been as good as my Chevy ) is the aluminum body ( and now chassis ) 

    In all probability you can buy a 1/2 Ton with your same towing and near same load capacity 

In reply to frenchyd :

Problem is, I can't get a 1/2 ton with a crew cab and an 8' bed.  It's got to be 3/4 ton or better to get that.  I agree with you on the old Chevies, mine's been a good truck.  But it's been used hard, and it's old.  Due to the supply shortages and everything though I plan to keep BST going for a bit, though.  Everything I'm seeing for sale that's used is hot garbage and way overpriced.  And I can't justify dropping $50k on a new truck for what I need it for. 

slowbird said:

Excellent race writeup. I considered attending the Pittrace weekend, but I'm not sure if spectators are even allowed at a Lemons race - especially with Covid still being a thing.

So, did you get the better of the other old Plymouth?

Spectators are being allowed on a race-by-race basis as of right now.  They weren't allowed at Pitt (everyone had to be either registered as a driver or crew) but the Sebring race over Mother's Day weekend did allow them.  Check the 24HoL website event pages for specific details.

As for our contest with the green '48 Plymouth...

As I mentioned, the team captain of Bad Decisions Racing and I had a bit of a "race within a race" going on at PittRace ...something along the lines of "which post-war Plymouth-shaped race car does the most laps".  As it turned out, the two cars were fairly evenly matched.  During my stint on Sunday, driving Plymford, I followed the #66 Plymouth for several laps before managing a clean pass. Best lap times for the two cars were 2:25 vs 2:22.

In the end, though, our teal #325 Plymford managed 265 laps, placing 35th overall, compared to 184 laps and P65 for the green #66 Plymouth.

https://www.race-monitor.com/Results/Session/7143480

Our "wager" (toasted on Saturday night) was that the winner shall select a part of the loser's car as a trophy, using Gentleman's Discretion.  Since we packed up and left without settling the wager, I was willing to consider the wager null and void, but if Team Bad Decisions wanted to make good anyway, we were open to discussions.  We found out later on that the '48 Plymouth blew the head gasket in it's L67  (it was apparently in the former owners Fiero and 4th gen Camero drag cars before that ) so they were packed up a bit early. They acknowledged the Plymford's supremacy for now, with a promise of beverages and a similar chance for such an ill advised bet in the future! 

One of the spectators/ other racers happened to catch a video of our two cars drag racing down the front straight, right before T1.  Click either link below to enjoy some hot big fender action:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/cr71wiRbPFamAXee7

volvoclearinghouse said: enjoy some hot big fender action:

 

 

 

I greatly enjoyed the write-up and the hot big fender action.  

volvoclearinghouse said:

In reply to frenchyd :

Problem is, I can't get a 1/2 ton with a crew cab and an 8' bed.  It's got to be 3/4 ton or better to get that.  I agree with you on the old Chevies, mine's been a good truck.  But it's been used hard, and it's old.  Due to the supply shortages and everything though I plan to keep BST going for a bit, though.  Everything I'm seeing for sale that's used is hot garbage and way overpriced.  And I can't justify dropping $50k on a new truck for what I need it for. 

Have you seen the price on the Ford F-150 EV?  $39,974 with a $7500 federal break. 
Rated at 10,000 pound towing. 2,000 pound load 230 mile range standard (300 optional ) 41 minute recharge time. 
    4WD 439 hp. 
    Is that possibly an answer? 

Runs like a train for 14 hours of racing.

Drove it 10 minutes down to the store the other day, and it refused to crank over.  Had to call Mrs. VCH for a lift...

The engine bars over by hand, and the battery is 100%.  I ran a jumper cable from the negative pole of the battery to the engine, and it cranked slightly faster, but still slowly.  All the other cables are pretty fresh.  I'm suspecting a tired starter.  

Yep, sounds like a tired starter.

Does your speedometer work?  Oh I suppose for driving on the street it would have to. Testing it on the street is a good way to ensure reliability.  Hope it is the starter. That should be an easy fix. 

In reply to frenchyd :

Getting a license plate for this thing has probably been the single largest factor in improving its on-track reliability.  

I don't know why I didn't know about this sooner, but as the 460 was in production for over a score of years, Ford saw fit to make improvements to it over the years.  One of these being, sometime around the early 90's, giving it a modern-type gear reduction starter.  Happily, these retrofit into the older engines.  In fact, they're a little smaller, so they fit with more clearance (and typically have fewer heat-soak issues).  New '97 F250 starter on order!

weight savings!