JCease and I just returned Wednesday from a little adventure picking up my new M1009, and looking at one for him among the upcoming CUCVs. Our plan was to flat tow the truck home. Pickup was super easy. There was no real security, and Glen the GL employee was real laid back. I grilled him on the title/SF97/No VIN Bill of Sale issues, but with no luck. I ended up just with a copy of the invoice with no VIN. My Blazer was not much trouble getting ready for towing. It had almost all the tread on the tires, but they do have a bit of sidewall cracking. The spare was new. It only has mostly starter rust just in all the usual places. This one has what looks like factory undercoating, which appears to have held up well over the years. We dropped the rear drive shaft, unlocked the hubs, put the transmission/transfer case in neutral, hooked up a set of tow lights, and were ready to tow. One of the rear emergency brakes stuck a little, but with a little usage it broke free.
Most of the CUCVs up there appeared to have had the radiator fluid tested in 2004 by the tags. I assume that they serviced the trucks in general at that time, so I would assume most were runners. Lots of dead batteries though. They were a mixed bag as far as rust goes. Lots of good tread on those tires, but they had the sidewall cracking.
So after checking everything out we pulled out and while we could feel it behind JCease’s Chevy Z71 it was not too bad. A little banging from the pintle hitch though. I am guessing some tongue weight helps with that. About 1/3 of the way home though the front drivers side tire decided to rip itself apart. JCease had it under control though and we pulled off with no problem. Unfortunately the spare tire still had the padlock on it, so we had to unbolt the bracket from the body to get it loose. Then we found out that the lug wrench that was in the Blazer was the wrong size. It probably fits the M1008. Anyone want to trade? Well a quick trip to Advance Auto got us the tools we needed. From there on everything went smoothly.
When we got to my house we took a battery from my vehicle, and tried to start it up again. After about 5 seconds it fired right up, and ran great. Yesterday I put the drive shaft back in place, and it drove just great. Almost everything works except for a couple bulbs in the dash being out, and the temperamental headlight switch. Now if I only had a title to prove I owned it.
Now we have to find a CUCV for JCease, and we can put our experience from this trip to make things run even smoother.
Most of the CUCVs up there appeared to have had the radiator fluid tested in 2004 by the tags. I assume that they serviced the trucks in general at that time, so I would assume most were runners. Lots of dead batteries though. They were a mixed bag as far as rust goes. Lots of good tread on those tires, but they had the sidewall cracking.
So after checking everything out we pulled out and while we could feel it behind JCease’s Chevy Z71 it was not too bad. A little banging from the pintle hitch though. I am guessing some tongue weight helps with that. About 1/3 of the way home though the front drivers side tire decided to rip itself apart. JCease had it under control though and we pulled off with no problem. Unfortunately the spare tire still had the padlock on it, so we had to unbolt the bracket from the body to get it loose. Then we found out that the lug wrench that was in the Blazer was the wrong size. It probably fits the M1008. Anyone want to trade? Well a quick trip to Advance Auto got us the tools we needed. From there on everything went smoothly.
When we got to my house we took a battery from my vehicle, and tried to start it up again. After about 5 seconds it fired right up, and ran great. Yesterday I put the drive shaft back in place, and it drove just great. Almost everything works except for a couple bulbs in the dash being out, and the temperamental headlight switch. Now if I only had a title to prove I owned it.
Now we have to find a CUCV for JCease, and we can put our experience from this trip to make things run even smoother.
