My Grandfather's pick-up

The truck has spent the winter at the farm of one of my co-worker buddies. He is a mechanic and has been slowly fixing some things. He has replaced the heater core (which was a pain to find because of the A/C), replaced the sending unit in the tank so the gas guage actually works and has repaired the A/C system. He drove the truck out to his place last fall and he noticed it was making a noise which seemed to be coming from the front passenger side wheel. I mentioned that I had experienced it as well. He figured he would take a look at it before he brought the truck back to me. Turns out the pad on that drum was hanging up. It actually wore a grove in the drum. So, after discussing the options, including how much it would cost to repair the stock brakes, I ended up biting the bullet and ordered a disc brake conversion kit from Wilwood.

It took FOREVER for it to get here, but it finally arrived on Thursday.



It's in the back of my other truck right now and my buddy is going to take it home with him this evening. Pretty excited.

 

Wow. Very snazzy brakes for a pickup.

 

Yeah. Believe it or not, they were the cheapest ones I could find. I was quite surprised.
My buddy said "Man, with that set up, all you'll have to do is say STOP!"

 

Just be sure you rig your trailer to stop first. You don't want it leading you down the road.

 

Trailer doesn't have brakes.

 

And that right there, is your safety problem--jackknifing.

 

It's a little trailer, I've towed it with my F-250 crew cab and my F-350 crew cab (both with plenty of brakes) I've never had an issue with it before. Doubt it will be a problem now.

 

Hopefully it won't, but there is gear you can attach on the hitch and truck that helps to prevent it, if for no other reason than the asshats who pull out in front of people because they're too selfish and impatient.

 

I'm not a fan of selfish and impatient asshats.

 

No one is. I see so many d!ckheads that cannot wait another three seconds for me to pass by and pull out since there's NOBODY freaking following me!

 

I used to drive like my hair was on fire. Thankfully I have outgrown that. Unfortunately some never do.

Last summer during a cruise night we were driving the Fury and there were some folks reving their engines and showing off. My oldest son asked me "why don't you ever do that?" I smiled and said "I've reved the engine in this car and driven too fast enough. Now I just cruise." Don't know if he grasped the weight of what I was saying, but it made sense to him.

 

Hopefully, it will reverberate with him when he learns to drive.

 

I hope so too. I'm sure he'll have his fair share of knucklehead teenage driving experiences, but he's a very sensible kid. I'm not too worried about him. His younger brother on the other hand...

 

Middle child?

 

Orth just went back where I'd left off on your Memory Lane adventure. You are a very lucky and smart man. Your family will grow older with the same ideas, ideals, and memories. We loved your old and new photos. Seems like an ideal place to raise a family and enjoy nature.

Just keep in mind that those new brakes will make a big difference, with and without that little RV. I've also pulled trailers that didn't have brakes. It was the only way back then. But now we do have a road full of idiots and need to be very aware.
PS. I'd looked in that old barn!