Pics of your tow vehicle?

Gary S wrote: Donald80SN wrote: Does Obama know that you have all of this stuff???? Does not matter didn't you see the above posts we're from Chicago

Alan, I miss your 81. That was one sexy damn boat.

Nice tractors Gary!

Quinner, when did you get that new green boat?

62 wood wrote: 96 1/2 ton Chevy Silverado 4x4

62 wood wrote: 96 was ordered with factory tow package, 3:73 gears and a posi, pretty rare for a half ton.

Serious question, how do you get 4x4 without posi?

REgina is only rated for 7,000 and is now 1 wheel squeal. Wheel speed sensors failed long ago, which are necessary for the electronic traction control, which sucks anyway, and ABS.

Seems like a lot of the older chebbies didn't have a limited slip. Our shop truck had one but the rear was trashed and was replaced with a full unit with an open rear end. Marks new 2wd diesel had an open. It wouldn't pull boats out on a wet ramp so he dropped the cash to install a limited slip unit. I won't buy a truck without limited slip(not as big of a deal on a 4x4). One plow truck we had was an open and it did fine(1/2 ton). All of our 2500 plow rigs and diesel towers were all limited slip optioned.

The "limited slip" in my mom's SRT-8 300 sucks. Its actually just controlled by the anti-lock brakes. When one wheel spins it applies brake pressure and transfers torque via the spider gears in an open differential. Its pretty hard to drive it sideways with only one wheel smoking :(.

The new truck is a clutch pack style limited slip and it works great.

They have no problem calling it 4x4 even if you can only spin 2 tires at a time, like the man says it would be optional, and relatively rare for either a 4x4 or a 4x2 to have “positraction” (check for option code g80 to be listed in the glove box)– which in the chevy trucks in question was provided by an eaton limited locker, my understanding is they locked up at more than a 100 rpm difference in tire speed, unlocked at all speeds above 30.   If you have a duramax truck you got one, if you bought an off road package (z71 pre 2008) you got one, if you ordered it special you got one. Some dealers added them with towing packages on their pre order trucks. I considered upgrading my 4x2 Sierra from an open to a g80 axle when I grenaded the old one, but even on 10 year old junkyard axles they were charging 7-800 more for the g80 version.

Nothing fancy, not color coordinated, not powerful, just a plain little rig. I really like the looks of the older "square" boats on their trailers....nice lines.

I do like this thread I do

MartyMabe wrote: Look at that Awesome Astro Van! All Wheel Drive, 4.3L V6 pulling the Air206...70 mph at 17-18 mpg going to the Adirondacks. Thanks Marty for the Pic....

Wow now I'm seeing motorhomes, tractors, and everything in between. I've seen that some even have the color of their rig matching with the boat.

Zach should have experienced it before it's "heart transplant"   

2000 mitsubishi montero sport ls

That's what I have heard. I may get to experience its heart in another boat some day!

I would love to see that thing in person J bear.

The fall of the small truck was caused ultimately by the lack of increasing fuel efficiency standards.   Or alternately their prominence in the mid seventies through early nineties was the result of said regulations, combined with the second tier product management and marketing.   The full size trucks are always going to have the advantage of high volume in the US due to the commercial users. That volume allows them to tool up to the point that the extra 8-900 lbs of material in the full size truck doesn’t make it cost any more to design and build per piece than the small truck. Absent the need to sell the smaller platforms to average out the number of larger trucks they were selling the auto companies would much rather sell you a larger truck with the higher profit margin. The larger trucks therefore get all the design effort.. the little truck platforms that were actually pretty nice in the mid eighties got nothing more exciting than new body panels or required safety/emissions updates.   The big trucks got better and pretty soon you got just as good mileage with the big truck as the little truck, the prices were pretty close, parts for the big ones are cheaper, resale for the big ones better…   The last Colorado is what happens when you take your B-team product development staff and tell them to produce a new platform quickly and cheaply. Reliability and efficiency take time and skill to produce and are hard to market, bigger and more horsepower are easier and quicker – Marketing groups think everyone is Tim the toolman Taylor.   

Then when it doesn’t sell they learn the wrong lessons… oh no boss it’s not that we built a crappy truck it’s just that that segment of the market is dead, or the engineers made it cost too much- yeah that’s it.   

Combine the above with all the new safety gear both regulated and driven by insurance institute testing and you have the reason why a new civic now looks like an early 90s accord.. and doesn’t get any better real world mileage than the 80s civic.

If we payed close to the actual fully burdened cost of gasoline over here like in Europe, or Japan our cars would likely look closer to the cars they have over there even if our streets are bigger.   

I've been buying new PUs since 1981 and at times the small trucks have appealed to me, mainly the Toyotas and Rangers. Each time I considered them, I was surprised that they cost just as much and the gas mileage wasn't any better, so why go small?