Trruck enhancement, as it were.
J again:
A funny thing happened on the way to the Diesel Mechanic.
Here we are with an un-inspected F350 DRW 7.3L Powerstroke diesel sitting outside the house.
It needs an oil change, to have the transmission fluid flushed and replaced, new filters for EVERYONE! (At a minimum. It also needs new tires, and it might need more major repairs that we just don’t know about yet. -C)
And what do we do?
We buy seats of course.
Now to understand the seeming insanity of this you have to understand some background.
Just over a year ago I broke down just north of Baltimore, Joppa for those that may know or care.
And while waiting for repairs I went looking at RVs. Now again like Goldilocks some were too big (Class A's for example) some were too small (Pop-ups for example) but some were just right.
They had nice little travel trailers I could tow behind my Dakota; this might work!
HA!
No idea survives contact with the spouse. I'd forgotten that rule. So Cat and I go down to see the little trailers and she says something along the lines of "Blergh." Oh there were more words and concepts and ideas involved but it all summed up as "Blergh".
But she has a plan, one so cunning that if it had a tail it would be a weasel. A pop-up camper she says. I look at her like she has three heads. “Three season camping with Raynauds,” I say. And so dies the pop-up idea. (Raynaud’s disease is when your body thinks you are freezing to death at about 60 degrees F. So it shuts down circulation to your fingers and toes at that temperature, rather than the more normal response of near zero. I’ve got it; I’m very careful in the winter to keep my hands and feet warm and toasty, or I can get frostbite, which really, truly sucks. n.b.: This is an accurate description of what I see as how Raynaud's works, not necessarily how the doctors see it. -C)
So we look some more and lo and behold she finds Fifth Wheels. Now a fifth wheel is like a class A only without an engine and slightly smaller and frankly much more practical as far as layout (and cheaper! -C) Unless you like Class A layouts in which case I'm wrong and you’re right at least for you. But this is my story so ...
Over the next year we look at Fifth Wheels and there is a problem; a Fifth Wheel won't tow behind my existing truck... in fact about all it would do to my existing truck is break it in two.
So we test drive trucks. Huge mistake (And yes I know this is about seats we're getting there) because we drove NEW trucks. Only we can't afford the 35 to 40 grand a new truck will cost. Only Cat's fallen hard for some of the new trucks. In fact being true to her Catly nature she's fallen hard for the most expensive of new trucks the Ford F250 King Ranch only beat out in price by the Ford F350 King Ranch.
Why? Because it’s the must confortable truck you can ever think of. Take full grain saddle leather and make seats out of it. Put them in a truck and you have the King Ranch Truck. Sucker holds its value too. Can't even afford one used.
So a few weeks back we get the used F350 DRW etc etc.... only it has work truck seats. But But eBay is Cat’s friend and on eBay what do our wondering eyes behold? King Ranch seats from a truck a few years newer then ours, but built on the same chassis.
Next up the Diesel Mechanic honest.... "Cat what do you mean your looking at grills?
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We got a good deal on the seats and bought them at a fair price, but it necessitated a flying run to Roanoke and back to pick them up the day before we were supposed to go on vacation. A little reorganization, and there's a plastic shrouded mass looming in our living room. Front and back King Ranch seats from a Super Duty truck, all in good shape. The only thing we don't have is the console; we've got the console lid, but the part itself was apparently a loss. Now to figure out how to get them into the truck.. the bolt patterns are supposed to be the same in all these model years....