Planning Our Ramp Truck’s Voyage

Tim
Update by Tim Suddard to the Ford F-350 Ramp Truck project car
Oct 7, 2015

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Safe at Cobra Automotive. The truck would sit here until we finalized a plan.

With our project ramp truck safely at Cobra Automotive, we were hoping to figure out a sensible plan. Our work and travel schedules were busy and Cobra Automotive owner, Curt Vogt, graciously allowed us to store the truck at his place while we headed back home to Florida to get caught up on our office work. He also volunteered his shop and tools, should we need them.

At that point it was time to call Rennie to join us on another trip north to retrieve the truck. Rennie Bryant has helped us with just about every project we have ever taken on. The call went something like this: “Hey Rennie, how would you like to have a wonderful, all expense paid vacation to see the foliage of New England?” To sweeten the deal we planned the trip to include a Hershey swap meet weekend. We quickly slid in the part where the flight would be one way and that we had to get a 42-year-old truck running and then drive it home to Florida.

Always up for a road trip, Rennie immediately replied, “Sure, I’m in”.

In addition to being a good traveling companion, Rennie Bryant is one of the best mechanics we have ever met. He also specializes in keeping old crappers running with little more than a switchblade and a roll of duct tape.

So, we would get one-way tickets to Newark, pick up a support vehicle from the press fleet (in this case, a beautiful Mercedes-Benz ML 400 SUV) and head up to Connecticut. Once reunited with the truck, we would attempt to get it running perfectly and then head south, stopping at the Hershey swap meet.

And of course to make this whole plan even crazier, we planned to stop and pick up a Triumph Spitfire and some Lotus parts we had previously bought. We would then carry it all home to Florida on this poor old ramp truck which drove so badly, it couldn’t even make it around the block. Sounds like a perfect plan!

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Comments
rcutclif
rcutclif GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/7/15 4:13 p.m.

I was recently driving by myself to pick up a ramp truck. Drive a few hours, buy truck, load my car onto said truck, drive truck home.

Since its a ramp truck I feel like if you drive it home empty you missed an opportunity. Sounds like you are capitalizing on the opportunity.

Jerry From LA
Jerry From LA Dork
10/8/15 12:02 p.m.

What could go wrong?

TRoglodyte
TRoglodyte SuperDork
10/8/15 2:55 p.m.

No guts, no glory . High limit credit cards are amazing tools.

rcutclif
rcutclif GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/8/15 3:02 p.m.
rcutclif wrote: I was recently driving by myself to pick up a ramp truck. Drive a few hours, buy truck, load my car onto said truck, drive truck home. Since its a ramp truck I feel like if you drive it home empty you missed an opportunity. Sounds like you are capitalizing on the opportunity.

I just re-read this and realized I made an ommission that vastly changes this statement. I was recently CONSIDERING driving by myself...

Ooops.

JohnRW1621
JohnRW1621 MegaDork
10/8/15 3:08 p.m.

In reply to rcutclif:

I look forward to hearing more of your newly purchased ramp truck and the adventure that lies ahead!

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