The Ramp Truck Journey: Day 3

Tim
Update by Tim Suddard to the Ford F-350 Ramp Truck project car
Oct 13, 2015

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We made it to Clinton, New Jersey, at 2:30 in the morning. And no, we did not park in the handicap spot, but it did describe our condition pretty well.

Road trips are supposed to be fun, and that includes stops at cool places. If you are a fan of old Lotus cars, not many places are cooler than RD Enterprises.

We awoke a bit bleary-eyed after a long day and less than five hours sleep. We had stopped in Clinton New Jersey, well away from city traffic as we started Day 3.

The truck started right up and while the brakes seemed a bit mushy—possibly due to some braking heroics the night before—we decided to press on. We had scheduled a a couple appointments and wanted to get to the Hershey swap meet before closing time.

We arrived at our meetings with RD Enterprises and Eastwood with no problems, and arrived at Hershey in time to meet up with Carl Heideman.

Carl, a Hershey regular, is one of our magazine writers. And he came bearing gifts. He had brought us a quarter panel from a Lotus Elan from Michigan for one of our next project cars.

With yet another item to place on our quickly-overflowing puzzle of a ramp truck, we broke out more straps from our fresh bag of Mac’s Tie Downs, and got everything secured.

We have used Mac’s Tie Downs before, and while there is cheaper stuff out there, Mac’s products are very well made. They’re also reasonably priced at about $150 for four 6-foot straps, wheel straps and a nicely-made bag to keep everything in.

We were now roughly 900 miles from home.

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Comments
2002maniac
2002maniac Dork
10/13/15 12:50 p.m.

So cool. You and Rennie always have the best adventures. My favorite was the cross country drive in a Ranchero with no generator.

dean1484
dean1484 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
10/13/15 12:57 p.m.

Tie down straps are great and should be put on a podium next to duct tape and crazy glue.. . . But what happened? All I am now thinking about are those brakes.

Carl Heideman
Carl Heideman
10/13/15 3:35 p.m.

I know what happened (at least the Readers' Digest version) but can't wait to read about it in detail! I also don't want to be a spoiler...

mazdeuce
mazdeuce PowerDork
10/13/15 3:37 p.m.

But we WANT spoilers!
They totally could have written this from the road, it's not like they were spending their time sleeping.

Carl Heideman
Carl Heideman
10/13/15 3:43 p.m.

No offense, but you clearly haven't spent much time with Tim. He's always hatching a lot of crazy things at once and it takes a little while to get it all written down!

mazdeuce
mazdeuce PowerDork
10/13/15 3:57 p.m.

I'm just playing the antagonist, hence the at the end. I understand and appreciate Tim's considered style of putting stories on paper. Though I DO want to read the rest, I'll gladly wait for him to get it down the way he wants.

Type Q
Type Q Dork
10/13/15 4:30 p.m.

Tom promised us "Much calamity" and all we have on day three is a mushy brake pedal and endorsements for Macs tie-downs and Carl Heideman.

I am sure the endorsements are well earned. I guess I have to tune in tomorrow to follow-up on the calamitous foreshadowing.

kb58
kb58 Dork
10/13/15 4:35 p.m.

I hope it's not like those reality shows that build the tension music up up up, only (and always) to have it amount to nothing, "brought to you by..."

Tom Suddard
Tom Suddard GRM+ Memberand Associate Editor
10/13/15 8:45 p.m.

No worries. We're legit.

kb58
kb58 Dork
10/13/15 10:21 p.m.

I don't know, we'll see, we have a pretty high standard for "drama!"

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