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Say Hello To Jules

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I said good-bye to Senior and Junior last week and this is their replacement.  I got a bunch of stuff I wanted, didn’t really lose any features, dropped my payment and cut my interest rate in half.

Why am I naming the new truck Jules, here’s a couple million words.

I will say that 6.7L Diesel is a serious kick in the teeth.  I am a little sad to let my manual transmission go, but there are upshots to an automatic and this one has a full manual mode.  Now to fix the boat for this summer.

I will be getting at least one of these wallets to put my insurance and registration info in.  I will probably get one for myself as well.

Now if you don’t get the tie between the wallet and the name Jules, let me enlighten you.

The running winner was Marci, short for Marcellus Wallace until the wife mentioned Jules.  I also thought about using the code names from Reservoir Dogs.

Deep down I really wanted to do Jayne but another friend of mine’s got that one for her truck.

Built Ford Tough

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So as I said on Sunday I put my baby into a ditch.  It was a hard hit and had to be winched out of the hole.  I didn’t really think about taking pictures mainly because I’m not a big fan of documenting my stupidity.  At this point though I kind of wish I had.  It would make a great commercial.

The drive home on Sunday had a shimmy though the steering and the wheel was no longer aligned.  I spent last night with the pressure washer removing the concrete clay caking the tires and undercarriage.  I removed a large quantity of clay that was caked on to everything including all throughout the wheel.  By the end I was covered in mud from it flying off while cleaning.  I only blasted the mud off though, she will get a bath this weekend.  Tomorrow, if I get the green light, I shall go do something special for a post.

This morning I dropped her off for an alignment check and to have the front end looked at in detail on a lift.  Also if they could I wanted my steering wheel put back to center.  While driving in this morning there was no vibration through the steering, good it means that the wheel was out of balance from the clay, which I expected.  The truck tracked well and didn’t drift so the alignment seemed like it would still be good but I wanted numbers.

Well I got the numbers back and everything, remained within spec.  I didn’t bump it out of alignment, didn’t bend a tie rod, didn’t do a damn thing to that truck other than de-center the steering wheel.  That’s right, all that happened from a trip into the ditch was that my steering wheel was no longer pointed the correct direction for center.  They say “Built Ford Tough” for a reason.  I just don’t like finding out or pushing those limits first hand.

This weekend she’ll get a nice bath and right now I’m debating on a road trip with her in September.  I just need to talk with some friends to see if we can split a hotel room.