Sawmill bonanza.

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Damn that's a great deal for $20! I've got a 2001 Silverado I bought in 2013 with about 176k on it. I would have loved to have found a full size 4x4 with a 5 speed manual (or Ford with the 300cid 6 and a 4 speed) but they're very rare. This Chevy is great though - I don't use it much, dump runs, getting firewood, building material etc. But when it sits for 2 weeks in single digit temps it starts right up. Although I wanted a manual, the 4.8 V8 and automatic is a nice drivetrain.

In fact today when dropping off brush at the dump I picked up several pieces of split wood, a couple that need to be split that were in the pile. Why someone dumped split wood I don't know - seemed fine. Sometimes I wish I got a regular cab with an 8' bed. What I've been doing to maximize the load is also filling barrels with brush, 2 behind the passenger seat and middle, a rectangular shaped barrel behind the driver's seat. I do need to pull up both seats up closer, the driver seat ends up closer than I'd like but tolerable for a few miles. I've done the same when picking up wood. Being a $4900 truck I don't mind putting things like that in the back cab.

I'm going to need to see if there's any local mills that offer firewood - never thought of doing that.
 
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An older guy I work with has a 1500 Silverado 4.8L with over 350k on it, drives it every day. I've always been partial to Ford but we've owned almost every brand over the years.
 
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Holy smokes, that's some serious mileage! That's the most I've ever heard of on a Silverado - and it's a daily driver. Encouraging to hear reports like that. Mine is a 1500 extended cab, I know I've overloaded it's half ton rating a few times transporting firewood.
 
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It was off the road for maybe 6 months, something on the frame rotted and he wasn't sure if he was going to fix it. I saw him in a MSHA class we had 2 weeks ago and he was driving it again. Our company has a fleet of Ford mostly F150s, many have over 200k. My company '10 F150 crew cab 4.6 has 172k on it and it runs great, drive it every day too. Except Sunday's
Edit: the 08 F150 I had before this one, same 4.6L, had 235k and ran fine when I got the current one.
 
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My son watching over my shoulder as I surf the Hearth, says "Man that guy needs a trailer!"
 
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Stelcom66 said:
...the 4.8 V8 and automatic is a nice drivetrain...
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That's what I have - 4.8 / 4L60e tranny. Awesome truck to drive, just disappointed in the durability of this unit. The broken leaf would have been a disaster if I was at highway speeds, Lucky i was moving slow on a quiet street, otherwise would have peeled the tire off, taken out brake lines. I suspect maybe some junk steel / parts got into the mix for that model year, but who knows for sure. I talked to Transport Canada (should have been a safety recall IMHO) - apparently lots of others complaining to them as well.
 
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Fred Wright said:
Had never driven a muscle car before. I started that 442, put in reverse, stepped on the gas and smoked the tires right there in the driveway
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Love those cars. A friend had an Olds Delta 88 (not much to look at, kind of a boat) way back when we were young and crazy, when we used to "cruise" on Saturday nights. 455 rocket - he would light it up in the parking lot off the main drag, so much smoke the cars on the street had to slow to a stop !!!
 
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D8Chumley said:
It was off the road for maybe 6 months, something on the frame rotted and he wasn't sure if he was going to fix it. I saw him in a MSHA class we had 2 weeks ago and he was driving it again. Our company has a fleet of Ford mostly F150s, many have over 200k. My company '10 F150 crew cab 4.6 has 172k on it and it runs great, drive it every day too. Except Sunday's
Edit: the 08 F150 I had before this one, same 4.6L, had 235k and ran fine when I got the current one.
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Wow - 172k on a 2010? You guys gotta be on the road a lot! I do field service with a company SUV but only put on close to 20k a year. When I looked for a truck a few years ago I had no preference. I have heard of Fords accumulating very high mileage, other brands too. I saw a report saying the vehicle that had the most and highest reports of miles I think was a Ford F250, not sure which engine. So far I've been lucky with the 2001 Chevy. Before that I had a 4 x 6 trailer that I pulled with my Subaru Forester - used that several times to haul wood. It wasn't the same size/class hitch on the truck, it's smaller.
 
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bag of hammers said:
That's what I have - 4.8 / 4L60e tranny. Awesome truck to drive, just disappointed in the durability of this unit. The broken leaf would have been a disaster if I was at highway speeds, Lucky i was moving slow on a quiet street, otherwise would have peeled the tire off, taken out brake lines. I suspect maybe some junk steel / parts got into the mix for that model year, but who knows for sure. I talked to Transport Canada (should have been a safety recall IMHO) - apparently lots of others complaining to them as well.
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That must be the tranny I have then, 4L60e. I like that it doesn't downshift on the slightest grade. Too bad about the trouble you've been having. So you don't think the broken leaf wasn't due to excess weight in the bed? Yea - good thing you weren't on the highway. Maybe it was due to inferior steel, ironically I've seen more reports of trouble on a GM truck forum with the newer GM trucks, not so much those 15 years old like mine. Hopefully you won't have anything else major for a while.

Winter is here again in New England - about 3" of snow on the ground. The wood stove is going, that's fine with me. Maybe the same as well for you since you're quite a bit north of me.
 
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D8Chumley said:
http://www.autoblog.com/2010/10/26/man-hits-1m-miles-in-ford-f-250-in-four-years/
http://www.millionmilevan.com/
YMMV lol. I got the trucks as hand-me-downs when we got new ones. I like 'em pre-scratched so I don't have the expectations to keep them as nice. We have a bunch of guys driving far, depending on where they live and what job they might be working on. As with any brand you will have the good and bad, but IMO maintenance is a big factor
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Another Ford F250 report - that mileage is crazy! True with any brand there's good and bad. I recently changed the oil on mine, nice to see it's easy to do. I did have to remove one running board (tube type thing, not sure what it's called) to get underneath. I've only put on about 3k miles in the 2 1/2 years I've had it, and some of that's due to my sons borrowing it while their vehicles were repaired. I wonder if the oil should be changed yearly, even only after accumulating about a thousand miles.

Mine came with a bedliner - nice when throwing in wood. I saw another 2001 Silverado 4x4 with an 8' bed for sale. I'd probably have to pay at least $1,500 on top of mine if I was to trade it in. Right now I can't justify that to gain a foot and a half. I've seen bed extenders - they go over the lowered tailgate. Don't think I'd use that when hauling wood though - a lot of weigh over the tailgate can't be good. Instead, I'd put it in the cab behind the seats. Glad that mine is a 'pre-scratched' truck!
 
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Stelcom66 said:
you don't think the broken leaf wasn't due to excess weight in the bed?
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One time on a dump run with some drywall scraps, etc. from a bathroom reno, I thought I was pushing it, weight scales at the landfill showed only 360 kg. Pretty sure that's as much as I've ever had in there. The shop that fixed the springs told me they were seeing tons of trucks around the same age as mine - not just the GM's, to be fair. They were also thinking maybe some bad steel in the mix @ '08, '09 '10 vehicles. Truck seemed fine driving home after work that night when it broke, then just as i was leaving a stop light, rolled over a set of railroad tracks @ 10 mph, heard a clunk, kind of a "flat tire" sound out of the back end. I stopped and had a look, the clip leaf snapped and swung out into the tire, started digging out the sidewall. Turned out that GM added a warranty item for this issue to cover it for 5 years, must have been happening to a few customers, but i was just past that when it broke. The dealer reimbursed me for part of the repair, even though I was out of warranty (goodwill - decent of them). My beef was with GM - if this was a known defect (and it's a safety issue IMHO) it should have been a recall.

Yeah, looks more like winter here now, than it did in December. Had the stove rolling this weekend, sure was nice to have that heat cranking out.
 
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