Saturday, October 25, 2008

Good old Dodge


1993 Dodge Dakota extra cab 4x4 with the 4 liter motor. 200k miles. Left rear and rear window replaced with a sheet of lexan. Windshield cracked, both taillights plastic broken. Rusty. Fuel gauge busted. Radio not working. Holes in truckbed where rocks that outweighed the truck landed. Interior looks like a wolverine was let loose in there....Kind of smells like it, too. Parking brake release is a bare cable.
Runs great.
My Dad, (dead over a decade now) went with me to work the deal when I bought it new. When he died, Mom and I drove it (the truck) to the mortuary then to Home Depot for materials to build his coffin. I brought our first born home from the hospital in it, pulling over every 10 minutes to check on her. (Same daughter is learning to drive now, in the same truck) Middle child may have originated in the same truck. Back when money was tight, made good side cash roofing, building additions, and building decks with this truck. All the materials for our copter station were hauled in it. Rebuilt two homes, totally built one and starting another---hauling way more than the specs say. Moved massive rocks. Spent a Christmas Eve getting people unstuck by pulling them out. Turned it into a big float for Christmas caroling hay rides. Pulled stumps. Erected powerpoles. Drove down Disneyland Mainstreet in it---after hours, to get a tandem axle trailer to recover someone's broken down car again, on Christmas Eve. Been as far south as Loreto, in Baja. Been all the way to Kalamazoo with a cab-over camper.
As long as it keeps plugging along, I'm going to keep it. I doubt I could sell it for what it's worth to me. The one thing that dressed it up a bit was putting really big burly tires on it.

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