Half-ton pickup redux

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Up here there’s so much hardwood and it’s rural so I know most of the people around here. I’m always asking about wood. It pretty much heats the house for me.
 
Ashful said:
Heck... I’d take the 6.2L Hellcat motor in a 1/2 ton, too!

Not a “Dodge guy” here, either. Historically, they’ve been junk, but the SRT cars are actually impressively good cars. Challenger, Charger, Durango, or Cherokee, the motors are all the same:

SRT 392 = 500hp 6.4L naturally aspirated

SRT Hellcat = 700hp 6.2L supercharged

Just odd that one can buy these motors in Durango’s, and even Jeep Cherokee’s, but not in a full sized half ton pickup. That was all I was getting at.



I’ve owned and driven much older and cheaper cars than that, but... never with an engine smaller than a 2.0 turbo or 2.4L natural)
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Oh ok, I didn’t read into the messages that well I guess... if you want to see what big displacement does and have Netflix, watch season 1 episode 10 of Roadkill. The guys are having fun in a car with a custom built 727. They stopped for gas once and they said they went 80 miles on 15 gallons but it was liters where they were at, down under.
 
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Will have to check that out! Never owned anything in the 700 CID territory, myself. That’s serious big dollar stuff, I imagine. Been in the presence of a 640 cid supercharged Mustang, years ago, which was just crazy enough.
 
Ashful said:
Will have to check that out! Never owned anything in the 700 CID territory, myself. That’s serious big dollar stuff, I imagine. Been in the presence of a 640 cid supercharged Mustang, years ago, which was just crazy enough.
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Yeah they were talking well into the six figures for how much The builder had into the car.
 
cant imagine being able to spend that much on a toy
 
WiscWoody said:
Up here there’s so much hardwood and it’s rural so I know most of the people around here. I’m always asking about wood. It pretty much heats the house for me.
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That's a great situation to be in. They want it gone, and you want it. I wish I was more rural.
 
Stelcom66 said:
That's a great situation to be in. They want it gone, and you want it. I wish I was more rural.
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It’s rural and it’s a national hardwood forest area. A good place for many paper mills including Scott paper, Kimberly-Clark, Domtar, Boise Cascade papers, Wausa paper and more and many hardwood lumber mills including a big Louisiana Pacific mill. I imagine all along the northern part of the country theres mills like here. There’s a lot of Elm, Oak, Maple, Ironwood, Birch, Poplar and some hickory to cut and burn. I really didn’t think of it when I built my house here. I lived in the Minneapolis area back then and no one I knew there burned wood but after I moved here I quickly realized it was the way to go and it’s worked out well. About half of the homes that are not in the small villages- the homes out in the woods around northern Wisconsin burn wood for heat. I guess I’m getting off the subject here ....
 
WiscWoody said:
I guess I’m getting off the subject here ....
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Yeah, let's get back to chickens. I mean, snow removal.

It's finally warming up into the high 20s here and we're getting up to a foot of snow tomorrow, followed by a windy day wirh 50mph gusts! That means TWO days where I get to play with my toys! (I also may well get to try the generator; I have a high risk power line.)

And speaking of chickens, we have more single-digit highs coming up after the snow. The wife has been researching cold weather chicken maintenance again. I got sent out to seal up any low-lying cracks in their coop, but the gable vents are staying wide open and they don't get a heater. Apparently if you seal up their coop, the water from their own respiration gives them frostbite.
 
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It was -1F this morning, when I took water out to them. Same instructions as the last few days, “drink quick, while it’s liquid!”
 
Ashful said:
It was -1F this morning, when I took water out to them. Same instructions as the last few days, “drink quick, while it’s liquid!”
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apparently putting a bottle of salt keeps the chicken water from freezing?

I have to buy new tires on my truck... i don't really want to do that :P
 
Ashful said:
It was -1F this morning, when I took water out to them. Same instructions as the last few days, “drink quick, while it’s liquid!”
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Idea: keep a brick or large rock on your stove at all times. Whenever you go out to do a chicken thing, throw the hot brick in the water and throw the cold brick on the stove.

Insulate the bucket and I bet one hot brick will go all day!
 
i thought i would share this very insightful post :)
[Hearth.com] Half-ton pickup redux
 
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jetsam said:
Is it about doing 60 in neutral with 0 coolant temp, or about 200k miles? ;)

I got a HEI conversion to replace the coil, distributor, and associated crud in my old dodge. If winter ever ends I'm going to put it in and see how she likes it!
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the 200K roll over... oil temp has no time to warm up by the time i get on the highway, and neutral is really Overdrive :) I like to know if someone steals the truck, they will most likely blow the engine :)
 
Cool! What kind of truck? I ended up trading in my SUV for an older truck. For me the utility of a pickup truck had priority of the luxury of the SUV. This is a 2002 Silverado, previously I had a 2001. I've already got a couple leads for sources of wood. At some point I may also get an older economical car, but this is fine for now.

Jetsam, what engine is in your Dodge, 318 V8? I had a 1980 with the 225 slant 6, 4 speed on the floor.
 
Stelcom66 said:
Cool! What kind of truck? I ended up trading in my SUV for an older truck. For me the utility of a pickup truck had priority of the luxury of the SUV. This is a 2002 Silverado, previously I had a 2001. I've already got a couple leads for sources of wood. At some point I may also get an older economical car, but this is fine for now.

Jetsam, what engine is in your Dodge, 318 V8? I had a 1980 with the 225 slant 6, 4 speed on the floor.
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It's a beat to hell 1976 Sno Fiter with a 318, 4 gears. Lots of surprises for me as to what Dodge was doing in 1976. Factory oil air cleaner, which was pretty much unheard of in passenger vehicles in the mid 70s. Full time 4wd with the fancy hubs that you don't have to get out into the snow to lock. Electrical system that appears to have been designed in the 1940s. :p

It's getting new ignition and fuel pump this summer, and if time allows (I have a shed to build and a mountain of wood to get and split) I'm going to completely rewire it too. The factory wiring was comically bad when it was new, and it hasn't aged well either.
 
jetsam said:
Is it about doing 60 in neutral with 0 coolant temp, or about 200k miles? ;)

I got a HEI conversion to replace the coil, distributor, and associated crud in my old dodge. If winter ever ends I'm going to put it in and see how she likes it!
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Winter will never end.... get more wood!
 
jetsam said:
It's a beat to hell 1976 Sno Fiter with a 318, 4 gears. ...
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Oh yea, a Sno Fiter! I remember someone in the 80s having one of those, a brown one and now it's driving my crazy who. Maybe it was a boyfriend of my sister's. I recall it had a long decal or stripe on the side. I think it would be great to recondition yours. I can appreciate the amount of work involved. I've never heard of a an oil air cleaner. If it rained my 1980 Ram 150 sometimes wouldn't start (speaking of electrical) and it could be resolved by drying the inside of the distributor cap with a hair dryer. Sounds like the factory wiring/connectors is another thing that's improved over the years

I hear ya re: other projects. Sometimes I wish I bought my wood split so I wouldn't have to make time to split it so I could do other things, but that's why it's been free lately.
 
Oil air cleaners were common up until the late 50s, I think, and disappeared when paper filters took over in the early 60s. Some new vehicles still use them to this day, but it's mostly heavy equipment.

Oil air filters don't filter as well as paper, but they can handle much dirtier conditions. Pain in the ass when you're working on the carburetor, though.
 
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Just a couple of the reasons I never got into Dodge trucks. had a couple buddies with those,spent more time under than in them.
 
Interesting re: the oil air cleaners that I never heard of.

This time I got a regular cab, 8' bed. Always wanted an 8' bed since my 1980 Dodge. I rarely have passengers now, so more room for wood. I made a box for loading groceries from the back. The box isn't huge so it can be easily removed/stored when hauling wood. I was considering a typical box behind the cab, but I wanted to use the plywood I bought to put on the floor and sides of the Honda Pilot when I hauled things - a form of recycling which I've been more into lately.

[Hearth.com] Half-ton pickup redux
 
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