The following is a report from Bob of a Dec. 1-4, 1999 adventure.

Bob's Truck

BOB's ADVENTURES in e-COMMERCE: Subtitle: Repairing Our Way Across The USA Introduction: Because I couldn't pass up such a bargain on the internet auction --eBay ™ --I successfully bid on a bucket truck (like the electric power companies use for repairing lines, and like municipalities use to replace street light bulbs, traffic signals, etc.) This truck had been used by the Salt River Project, the second largest power company in Arizona, and was being retired. Such a bargain!! BUT, the truck was in Phoenix, Arizona, and we were responsible for getting it home to Chapel Hill, NC! I checked with shipping companies and found that the cost to transport the truck was going to be between $1.25 and $1.50 per mile, plus loading and rigging. It's 2,300 miles from Phoenix to Chapel Hill, and the $3,000 plus for transportation would have eaten away any savings, so we elected to fly to Phoenix and drive the truck home. Some called the arrangement foolhardy, some called the arrangement crazy, and some called it adventuresome. We chose "adventuresome". And then there were those who asked: What in the world are you going to do with a bucket truck that will reach 35 feet up? I could manage only a feeble response: Put the star on top of the Christmas tree? But the real reason was that I'd never owned a bucket truck before! So, I purchased some cheap airline tickets for Mike and me, loaded up a suitcase with tools, my computer, and a digital camera, and headed for Phoenix. What follows next is a brief synopsis of our "adventure." Trip Report Driving a 1982 Ford F-600 Versalift Bucket Truck from Phoenix, AZ to Chapel Hill, NC We arrived at Phoenix as scheduled at 11:15 AM on Wednesday, December 1, 1999. George Cunningham of Cunningham and Associates met us at the airport and drove us to his company where the truck was located. His mother, Pat, helped us with the paperwork and after a few preliminaries, we departed about 12:30 PM for the Arizona license agency for a temporary license tag. We obtained a temporary tag, fueled the truck, and started driving east at about 1:30 PM. We noticed that the truck was vibrating badly at high speed, and we promised ourselves to have the front tires balanced at the first opportunity. On a suggestion from Gilbert Libby, a friend living near Albuquerque, we drove as far as Grants, NM to spend the night. We had planned to meet with Gil the next morning in Albuquerque and have the wheels balanced. However, on Thursday morning we discovered a gas leak on the carburetor, and decided to have it fixed. The local Ford dealership in Grants was quite accommodating and otherwise helpful. They diagnosed the problem and told us that we would have to have the carburetor rebuilt. I was told that it would be about a 2-3 hour procedure, but it turned out that we spent the entire day, from 8am to 6pm at Ed Corley’s Ford dealership. During our wait, I also arranged to purchase another tire, as the left front tire was in bad shape. A tire shop was supposed to send a service truck to the shop where our bucket truck was being repaired to mount and balance the tire, but they didn’t show by closing time when the rebuilt carburetor was installed and adjusted, so we forged ahead, driving east on I-40. At about 8:30 PM we vibrated into Moriarty, NM, where we found a 24-hr tire shop at a truck stop. They were able to mount the new tire, and balance both front tires. (I must mention that these are 9R22.5 truck tires, so finding someone who is equipped to deal with this size is a challenge!) We left Moriarty at about 11:30 PM heading toward Amarillo,TX. Mike was driving, I was napping. Around 2:00 AM, Mike woke me and told me that the headlights were dimming. We looked for an immediate exit and found Tucumcari, NM. Stopping at a gas station, we filled up but couldn’t restart the truck because the battery was nearly dead. We got a jump-start from one of the employees and headed for the nearest motel. The next morning, I was able to start the truck. We discovered that the wires on the alternator had shorted out. We went to the local K-Mart and bought a spare battery and a set of jumper cables and then headed to the local NAPA auto parts store. Fortunately, the alternator checked out okay; we had only to replace the regulator and rewire and mount the alternator. In all, our repairs took about 2 hours and we were back on the road by about 11:00 AM. Mike and I decided to make up for lost time and to try to outrun the winter snow storm, which was forecast for eastern New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle, by driving nonstop in shifts. The truck behaved well and we rolled along at 70-75 mph toward Oklahoma. About 4:00 PM, after having refueled at Elk City, OK, which is some 120 miles west of Oklahoma City, the truck wouldn’t restart. The starter had died. We were able to phone an auto parts repair store and have a new starter delivered to the gas station. Mike removed the old starter and installed the new one in less than an hour and we were back on the road again. The rest of the trip through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina was without incident and we drove nonstop–except for fuel and food stops–to Chapel Hill, arriving about 6:30 PM on Saturday. Statistics: Started trip home: Wednesday, 12/1/99, 1:00 PM, Phoenix, AZ Odometer = 52,708 Engine hours = 2235 Arrived home: Saturday, 12/4/99, 6:30 PM, Chapel Hill, NC Odometer = 55,012 Engine hours = 2275 Miles = 2,304 Driving hours = 40 Gasoline consumed = 423.7 gal, $531.14, average mpg = 5.9 (after carburetor repair) Other expenses (excluding food and lodging): Temporary tag: $15.00 Carburetor repairs: $457.74 Tire: $306.60 Tire mounting & balancing: $67.11 Alternator repair: $27.65 Battery & jumper cable: $85.92 Starter: $85.16 Total other expenses: $1,051.68 Total gasoline & repairs: $1,582.82 ### The following is a report from Bob of another recent adventure. Feb. 22-23, 2000 THE DYNAMIC DUO IS AT IT AGAIN !! Subtitle: Another e-Commerce Experience with Adult Toys Introduction: What?.....Could it be?.....Another Ford cab-over truck on eBay ®? This is Bob's NEW "Derrick/Digger" Truck upon arrival in snowy Pennslyvania. finally back home - Now let's see, this lever should ... Wow! Is this ever fun, now to find a sandbox!... I think I've got the hang of it... This new beauty is a digger/derrick truck with a 35-foot - 5-ton crane, an 18-inch post hole auger, and a bed-mounted 10-ton winch. A truck like the power company uses to install poles and transformers, and to pull wire from pole-to-pole. Did the seller put the decimal point in the price at the wrong point, or was it really that much of a bargain? I had to find out, so I phoned the seller, and found out that this piece of equipment had recently been replaced by a similar, although newer and larger derrick truck, and was, indeed, for sale at such a reasonable price. We arranged for the purchase and Mike and I planned a trip to Lake Harmony, PA (near Scranton in the beautiful Pocono mountains). We had to wait about three weeks until most of the snow had been cleared from the main roads, and on February 22, we departed Chapel Hill at 5 AM in Mike's new pickup truck. Trip Report We arrived at the home and shop of Bob Figlock and his son, Rob, just about dusk on Tuesday evening. Rob and his Dad were warming themselves by a wonderful home-made wood stove in the large shop. They (operating as Robert Figlock Construction Company) are in the business of designing and installing pre-fabricated wood and steel buildings and they used the derrick for erecting trusses and panels. We found them to be kind and friendly folks and we were instant friends. Since it was getting dark, and we were weary from the trip, we elected to find a motel for the evening and visit with the Figlocks early the next morning. Finding a motel during skiing season in the Poconos can be quite a challenge, but we managed! The next morning, Rob showed us how to operate the equipment, gave us some tips on operating practices, and then showed us around their shop and some of their large toys. Their shop, like ours, is a wonderful treasure trove, and we purchased a power drive for pipe threading that Bob said was surplus to their needs. Another item, which turned out to be a life saver, was a pair of walkie-talkie radios, with which Mike and I could keep in touch during the trip home. After accomplishing the paperwork for transfer, we bid farewell to our new-found friends, and with me driving the digger/derrick truck, and Mike following in his pickup, we departed Blakeslee PA. Our trip home, through the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina was uneventful except for frequent gas stops - until we reached Danville, VA! There Mike, who was following me, radioed that the truck was leaking water. So we pulled into the parking lot of a church, raised the cab, and discovered that one of the hoses had burst. Since it was about 10 PM, we elected to leave the truck in Danville, and Mike and I returned to Chapel Hill in his truck. The next evening, February 24, Andy and I drove to Danville with a new radiator hose, a gallon of water and a gallon of anti-freeze, and within a few minutes had the new hose on, and were back on the road. We arrived in Chapel Hill about midnight. Statistics: I didn't keep detailed statistics, but I can safely say that Mike was delighted that his truck got about 6 times the gas mileage as my "new toy"!