Bucket List Trip about to start

[Jim Bathgate]

I bought a 1968 F350 Camper Special Dually about 10 years ago. I'm now retired and have been spending the last year fixing up the truck to do an around the country trip. You see, we have three sons, and they all live far away. When they left home (San Jose) to seek their respective fortunes, they left behind most of their "stuff". So we have three huge piles of stuff, each with one son's name on it. We told them that as soon as any of them settled down and bought a house, that we would be bringing their pile of stuff to them.

So . . . the oldest son moved to Warsaw, Poland, and the middle son moved to Guadalajara, Mexico. Now I cannot drive my truck to Warsaw, and I don't dare drive my truck to Guadalajara. But the youngest son made the mistake of recently buying a place in the Boston area, so next week I will begin my drive from San Jose to Boston with this son's pile of stuff.

I plan on only doing only about 300 miles per day and take route 80 (the northern route) over. After Boston, I plan to head down to Baltimore where my siblings and other relatives live. Finally, I plan to head back to San Jose taking route 40 and route 66. This route and pace will allow time to stop in some of the smaller towns and cities along the way. I always wanted to do that, and now I am.

Here's my truck the day I bought it 10 years ago.

7139_3.jpg

A guy in Gilroy bought it new and owned it for 40 years. He hardly ever used it, and kept it inside one of his barns. When he got too old to work the 1000 acre ranch he owned, he donated the truck to one of those auto charities and that's where I bought it. He passed away a year or so ago at the age of 98. The truck had less than 20,000 original miles on it, original paint, and the original upholstery looks new (I did have the seat redone underneath where the burlap had deteriorated).

And here's a more recent (but not totally up-to-date) photo.

IMG_2719.jpeg

I've built a plywood box inside the stake bed to handle all the furniture and boxes of keepsakes heading back East. Spent a lot of time trying to make it water tight - we'll see. I'll add a photo on take-off day (targeting Tuesday, November 6) and try to provide updates as I travel along. It should take about four weeks total.

[Idaho Chris]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who will enjoy following your journey. Post up lots of pictures, and have a blast!

[Ranchero50]

Should be an interesting trip in the old beastie. I keep an old towel in the truck to roll up and shove under my throttle leg so it doesn't go numb.

Does it have a steering stabilizer? If not it made a huge difference in wandering steering on mine.

Might be worthwhile to install the delay wiper modification from a 90's F series. Love it on mine in misty rain.

What spares are you taking? When I went across country in my '68 Fairlane I had to reset the points each morning so a dwell meter was a great asset.

How far have you gone in it at one go? 300 miles x 11 days might wear you out. Are you doing the sightseeing tour on the way across?

I'd also avoid B-more proper if possible. Too much anarchy since the mayor sided with the didndunuffin's a couple years ago.

[Jim Bathgate]

If I can figure out how to use an iPad as a camera, then I should be able to send pictures as I go.

Ranchero50, no, there's no steering stabilizer on the truck. Manual steering gives you a good workout on the mountain roads around La Honda. It should be a little easier on the Interstates. I'll just have to pay attention. Another of the reasons for only taking 300 miles a day.

I've done 9000 miles in three weeks and 750 miles in one sitting, but that was in a Honda Civic with cruise control, air conditioning, and a son along to share the driving. As Clint Eastwood said - "A man's got to realize his limitations". So 300 miles a day seems about right for me and my truck.

No intermittent wipers on the truck. When I bought it the wipers didn't work at all. They work fine now and I added back the windshield washer pump and reservoir which was also missing.

As far a Baltimore, my family lives in Northern Baltimore County which is horse country. They hold the steeplechase race called The Hunt Cup there each year. I paid my way through college shoveling s**t on one of the horse farms in the area.

Here's a shot I took today of the box I built inside the stake bed to keep #3 son's stuff dry on the trip across country. Lots of thought, work, and caulking went into this box.

IMG_3148.jpeg

And here is the truck squeezed into my workshop.

IMG_3159.jpeg

I have to fold the mirrors in to fit through the door. Also note the box height is limited to the doorway height. In fact I made a nice groove through the redwood door trim with a bolt I forgot to cut off before I backed out. About 1/2" clearance at the top unladen.

Here she is outside ready for a test drive.

IMG_3163.jpeg

Tomorrow, I plan to start loading it. Have to pack carefully for the long drive.

[Jim Bathgate]

I forgot to mention the spares I'm bringing along. Extra set of points, plugs, condenser, fuel pump, spark plug wires, red and black wire, crimp connectors, a BIG toolbox, flares, safety vest, battery powered work light, fuses, three cases of lead substitute, dwell meter/timing light, brake fluid, rubber fuel line, [censored] sink, and a credit card. I think the back two feet of the eleven foot bed will be all my tools and spares.

Another shot of the truck outside my workshop. I designed and built that shop 20 years ago. If I had known then that I would have ended up with this truck, I would have made the doorways taller and wider.

IMG_3167.jpeg

Webmaster, why would you censor the word that comes before sink in the first paragraph? That is weird. The word I used is the place where you keep your refrigerator and where meals are prepared. Why would this word be censored?

[popeyes71]

Welcome fellow San Jose-ian! Looking forward and wishing you my best on your trip. I agree with you about not going down to Guadalajara with the truck. For one thing, you may not get all your sons things there or the truck since others along the way may want them more than you. I'm sure your son will truly appreciate you bringing all his stuff to him in Boston. Have a safe trip!

[jzjames]

It should be fun. Don’t forget the earplugs.

[Jim Bathgate]

Thanks for the tip on earplugs. I packed them, and if the drone of the engine gets to me, I'll try them out. The truck is fully packed now except for suitcase and personal items. A few more tasks to cover tomorrow (have extra sets of keys made, and get a fire extinguisher), then I'll be set to go on Tuesday morning after the traffic dies down. First stop is planned to be Fernley, NV which is 291 miles. This includes going up and over Donner Pass (7000 feet) which will be a good challenge for my fully loaded truck. Weather forecast is good for the first couple days, so keep your fingers crossed.

[Ranchero50]

Take a post a bunch of pics. Plus remember to enjoy the trip.

[Jim Bathgate]

Made it to Fernley Nevada which was my day 1 goal. The truck ran fine and went up and over Donner Pass like a champ even with the ton of stuff in the back. I was passing big rigs on the grades and only needed to downshift into 3rd a few times.

I did have a scare just past the summit when the truck started to die. A few weeks ago I bought a nifty electronic gadget that plugs into the cigarette lighter that gives you a continuous readout of voltage and also provides accessory power outputs to GPS units, phones, etc. I had been monitoring the gauges frequently all day, and all was well, except suddenly the accessory gauge only showed 2 volts. Then I smelled burning electronics. I remembered that I had plugged in an iPad to one of the USB ports on the accessory unit a few minutes earlier. I immediately unplugged the accessory unit from the cigarette lighter and the engine started running fine again. Strange.

The only other issue I had was at the Pilot gas station at the end of the day. The two gas tanks hold a total of 43 gallons and were near empty. Even though I was now in Nevada where gas is way cheaper than California, it was still going to run more than $100. But the pump stopped right on $100. Fifteen minutes later after talking with the gas station attendant and my bank on the phone, I was able to finish filling the tanks. The bank thought I had left the card behind and somebody else was filling up at my expense.

I haven't figured out yet how to get photos from the iPad to this forum. Once I figure it out, I'll post some pictures.

[Jim Bathgate]

OK, let's try the photos again. Here I am in San Jose about to take off on my Bucket List trip. My wife will manage things while I am gone. Thanks dear.

IMG_0048.jpg

And here's proof we made it to Donner Summit.

IMG_0049.jpg

IMG_0050.jpg

[Jim Bathgate]

I've had an "interesting" last two days. The truck started missing now and then while running at 60mph. It gradually got worse, until I stopped in Battle Mountain, NV and had a shop there take a look at it. He reset the points, replaced the fuel pump, and taped up a wire he thought might be shorting. Back out on the road, the truck seemed to run better for about 20 miles, then got significantly worse, so much so that I had to stop for the night in Clarin, NV. In the morning, I could hardly get the truck to run at all. I called a tow company to haul it to the nearest town with a decent mechanic.

My broken truck parked outside the Clarin Inn waiting for a tow to Elko.

IMG_0078.jpg

Unfortunately, no mechanics in Clarin so had to have the truck towed into Elko which has a great old time mechanic who was able to diagnose and fix the problem in a couple hours. For the rest of the day the truck ran great. Here's a shot along route 80 at a rest stop.

IMG_0077.jpg

Now in Utah, here's a shot near the Bonneville Salt Flats.

IMG_0080.jpg

I'm now in Lake Point, UT for the night. Hope to make up some of the lost time tomorrow.

[sargentrs]

Loving the trip log! Thanks for letting us ride along with you. So what turned out to be wrong with the truck?

[Jim Bathgate]

There was a mismatch between the coil and the points so the points were getting fried. New coil, coil resistor, and points made all well again. Evidently the repro coil (made in China) that I had put on was the culprit. In this case, putting style over substance was an expensive mistake.

Speaking of Chinese quality control, I bought a bucketload of 1/4" made-in-China carriage bolts at the Orchard Supply Hardware going-out-of-business sale at 80% off. I used these bolts to build the wooden box inside the stakebed. Some lengths of these bolts were so badly toleranced that I had to use a thread cutter to clean out the threads enough to get the nuts on.

[sargentrs]

Sometimes it's the simplest things! Glad you got her going again. Hmmm...wonder why that hardware store went out of business... Keep us updated on your travels. Enjoying the trip with you!