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New truck, good story. And went to the dragon

Berto

By Berto
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Berto Newbie

Berto

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So first and foremost I went to Texas last week to pick up a truck I bought on the internet from the North Texas Truck Stop. The reason I went down was I wanted a quad cab, 2wd, 6spd, rust free, and of course Cummins. I saw this truck and made my move. NTTS has very good prices and they are hard to bargain with. When I get down there the truck has some dings but all in all is still a great truck. Mechanically it seems fine. If I had to do it again, I would. BUT I would just fly down on a weekend with a few trucks in mind and get one. Maybe check out a few other places. This particular one was a 1 owner truck and didn't have a 5th wheel/gooseneck on it. So the chances it was pulled to death are slim. Inside its been taken care of.

 

So on the drive back from Texas with the new truck. I left at 2pm on Friday and had to be home by 11 am on Saturday so I could get to 'Mazdafest'. I stop by and see some family friends I hadn't seen in 10+ yrs that live in Dallas which was cool. Then I head out, first point where it gets interesting is in Little Rock, AK. The National Weather service comes on the radio saying that there was a confirmed tornado that touched down on I-40 east of the city on mile marker 170, "anyone on I-40 at this point should evacuate their car and get in a ditch right now". Uhhh I am on I-40 mile marker 163, crap. So I take the exit and get under some cover at a gas station. I am able to get on the phone with dad and pull up weather.com on Mcdonald's Wifi.

 

I see that there is a storm ahead of me and one below me coming my way. So I wait for 30 mins and tell dad, " I got a gap between the storms with just rain, i'm going to try to shoot the gap". Sure enough I did and the only thing I got was rain. Dad later told me he thought he heard a tornado went through where I was waiting!

 

So then I get outside of Memphis, I need fuel. I finally found a station that was open have the guy hold my credit card and to pump fuel. $80 later I go to pay and its denied. To make a long story short I was on the phone with the CC company for an hour at this gas station getting them to straighten everything out. They had put a block on my acct because I was outside my 'living' area. Urgh its 2am and I am driving straight through home! So I drive a bit more, get close to Nashville, TN and decide its time for a small nap. At this point its been raining pretty good for a while but I stop at a hotel parking lot and just sleep in the truck.

 

I wake up and its still raining 5 hrs later (at this point...i'm not making Mazdafest). The windows are fogged up Titanic style, and I can't see outside. I open the door of the truck to go to the bathroom in the hotel and there is water all the way up to my nerf bars. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. I start the truck up, defrost and go up towards the Hotel to turn around. I come back to the entrance and its flooded, bad. So is the road that accesses it. There was another guy with a lifted 4x4 cummins and he was saying he tried to get out but the water went over his hood, crap. So one of his passengers takes off his shoes and just starts walking through the water, finding the shallowest path for us. We end up driving on sidewalks, grass, whatever. Finally make it to the highway and I start heading home.

 

There are wrecks everywhere from people hydroplaning. I get home and turn on the TV to find out almost all the highways in Nashville were closed due to flooding. One of them shows water up to the roofs of cars. So I run back outside to the truck to unload...and all of the bags that were on the floor of the truck are wet. After doing some investigation it looks like the water level had gone up so far it was INSIDE my truck. I didn't feel it because my feed were up on the seat. The water must have come up and then gone down.

 

I was able to get it all dry and not problems but it was still a pretty crazy story.

 

So this weekend we had a trip planned to Tail of the dragon. I was able to land a trailer to haul the car and 2 buddies on motorcycles so we could split the gas on the way down. I was able to drive the dragon a few times and then the Chrohala Skyway. It was awesome. We had great weather. The truck pulled up everything in 6th gear in cruise control :).

 

I liked the skyway more than the dragon though. A little more speed. The LS1 RX-7 did great. I personally did not feel any handling difference between the rotary and the v8. Here are a few pics but one of the guys we went with was on the dragon taking hi-res pics so I will get it on here once he sends them to me.

 

The cabin we stayed at was awesome too. Had a creek in the back. a hot tub on the rear deck overlooking the creek.

 

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c192/BertoBizkit/Tail%20of%20the%20Dragon/DSC03465.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c192/BertoBizkit/Tail%20of%20the%20Dragon/DSC03475.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c192/BertoBizkit/Tail%20of%20the%20Dragon/DSC03495.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c192/BertoBizkit/Tail%20of%20the%20Dragon/DSC03496.jpg

New S5 taillights

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c192/BertoBizkit/Tail%20of%20the%20Dragon/DSC03468.jpg

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zeitgeist57 Newbie

zeitgeist57

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Awesome time, Berto! The truck looks great as well. Were you able to fit two bikes in the bed of your truck? That thing is a hauler!

 

You'll remember adventures like this down the road...both the return voyage from TX and the NC trip! :)

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Mallard Newbie

Mallard

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I am going to blame all the weather disasters on you.

 

I bet if I log on to CNN and look for pictures of tornado's, flooding, oil washing up on shore, etc. from this weekend I'll see Berto's truck in the background of every single one.

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Berto Newbie

Berto

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where did you stay down there berto

 

oh and hit me up im gonna be in indiana in june.

 

how close to putnam are you?

 

http://www.snowbirdcreeklogcabin.com. I didn't make the reservation but this is the site they sent us to to get directions.

 

Awesome time, Berto! The truck looks great as well. Were you able to fit two bikes in the bed of your truck? That thing is a hauler!

 

You'll remember adventures like this down the road...both the return voyage from TX and the NC trip! :)

 

 

Yeah we fit 2 bikes in the bed. Buddies bought some front wheel holder things from harbor freight and bolted them to a sheet of plywood that fit between the wheel wells on the truck bed. Worked out great. Got about 14.5 mpg with that set up on the whole trip, that includes about 4-5 hours of non-highway time climbing mountains.

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Berto Newbie

Berto

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More Pics

 

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c192/BertoBizkit/Tail%20of%20the%20Dragon/RX7TOTDMay201024.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c192/BertoBizkit/Tail%20of%20the%20Dragon/RX7TOTDMay201023.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c192/BertoBizkit/Tail%20of%20the%20Dragon/RX7TOTDMay20104.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c192/BertoBizkit/Tail%20of%20the%20Dragon/Wallpaperrx7.jpg

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Berto Newbie

Berto

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why 2wd over 4wd? Just curious

 

Nice truck though. If I was going to buy a truck, It would definitely be a cummins

 

Research 'Dodge Death Wobble' on youtube or anywhere. A mysterious problem with the 4wd that no one really knows what is going on. This problem is 4wd specific.

 

Fuel economy is better with the 2wd

 

Less components to break....increased reliability.

 

For the 2 times a year it snows where it might be nice to have 4wd i'll just take my time and drive careful. Never had problems with a 2wd truck.

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Adam Apprentice

Adam

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FUCK YOU BERTO

 

I am stationed only a few hours from the dragon and was contemplating going there this weekend and trying the new bike out on the skyway and the dragon. I would have definitely gone if I would have known you would have been there.

 

How was the traffic on the dragon?

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Berto Newbie

Berto

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FUCK YOU BERTO

 

I am stationed only a few hours from the dragon and was contemplating going there this weekend and trying the new bike out on the skyway and the dragon. I would have definitely gone if I would have known you would have been there.

 

How was the traffic on the dragon?

 

I didn't know you were that close, you need to keep in touch homie. Still got the same cell #?

 

traffic on the dragon was Great actually. Since the one end was closed there was no thru traffic (semis, etc)

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nurkvinny Enthusiast

nurkvinny

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Research 'Dodge Death Wobble' on youtube or anywhere. A mysterious problem with the 4wd that no one really knows what is going on. This problem is 4wd specific.

 

Nothing against your new truck (I love 2500 2wd diesels), but I think this issue is only on leveled trucks (where people raise the front only, to "level" the truck).

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