Big Red

Batteries

Finally replaced the starting battery in my truck. I don’t know what made it go bad so quickly, but it was $135 to pick up a new one, and now with two nice strong batteries I shouldn’t have any problems keep the lights up at a camp or for that matter starting my truck.

I got three years out of the original two batteries in my truck. Hopefully the new set will last somewhat longer, as at least the deep-cycle/marine battery is a better quality battery.

I Re-Registered My Truck

My registration sticker was expiring on November 30th. I applied for my new registration sticker.

The DMV described the fee schedule as follows:

$1.00 – DMV transaction costs, such as credit card processing, record services, cost of new sticker
$98.00 – Fee to cover welfare benefits for 13-year old mothers in New York City

Total Cost: $99.00

Lifting Math

Rainy days are good for sitting around and doing back of the envelope math calculations…

Height of Roof of My Truck per GM = 73.6 inches or 6 foot, 2 inches
Height of Cap on Truck 73.6 + 5.5 per ARE for MX cap = 79.1 inches or 6 foot, 7 inch

With Zone Lift Kit (adds 6.5 inches) plus 35 inch tires vs stock 31s (adds 2″ per tire as they measure the radius of tires) together adds 8.5 inches = 87.6 or 7 foot, 8 inch. My tires are wearing out, at some point I got to bite the bullet and get the lift kit.

The current hood height on my truck is 4 feet. The CB antenna is 4 feet. The mount is roughly 6 inches. The current height of the antenna is 8 feet 6 inches, which hits all the McDonalds 9 foot low clearance signs. After I get my lift kit, the CB antenna clearance 110.5 inches or 9 feet and 1.5 inches.

The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation says I should be good for clearance on most DEC truck trails up to 9-10 feet, and the antenna is on a spring when I hit low branches.

Getting Big Red Back Tommorrow

Getting Big Red back tomorrow around 11 AM …. There is some repair to the interior that still has to be done, but I was told I could drop it off to have the repairs finished one afternoon next week. Going to stay in town this weekend, just to make sure things are running fine, but next week I will head up to Moose River Plains for the long weekend.

God Really Doesn’t Want Me To Get My Truck Back

God Really Doesn’t Want Me To Get My Truck Back. The shop drove my truck to get the bedliner re-sprayed, and found the fuel gauge wasn’t reading, so now they have to install a new fuel sending unit tomorrow afternoon. At least that’s a relatively minor repair. Other than that it’s running good, or so they say. But they are still hopeful for getting my truck back tomorrow, abit later in the evening.

Big Red Almost Returns

Big Red is painted and reassembled. Tomorrow morning the bedliner gets re-sprayed, once the bedliner dries the cap will be reinstalled and re-wired on Friday. I expect to have Big Red back midday on Friday.