"All fossil-fuel vehicles will vanish in 8 years..."

[Razer]

On 05/21/2017 01:15 PM, grarpamp wrote:
>>> Lern2wrench.
>> You can't "Wrench" them when they're 30 years old. They've fallen apart.
>>
>> I mean... I MEAN... If you really love that hole in the pavement
>>
>> in it for humans.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Harvester_Travelall
>
> Looks cool, probably a lot of them in Cuba.
> Just like code, you can wrench on it, debug it, hacker it,
> maker it, hobby it, mod it and trick it out with bling.
> Humans do that just because they can.

IH marketed them to midwest farmers as part of a package deal (the
Central Valley of California was another hotspot and that's where alot
of the specialty wrecking yards for them are) 'for the misus' if they
bought the combine or big tractor.

It was always 'power everything'. Brakes. Steering... No such thing as a
wind-down back window. Unlike the pickup trucks which were essentially
the same vehicle  'capped  off' at the back of the front seat and a
pickup truck bed instead. There was also a "Travelette" that had seating
for four and small pickup truck bed. Quite a few were HIgh clearance 4
wheel drive versions Forestry services loved them. Literally
unbreakable, and repairable by the side of the road if something did go
wrong, and IH also supplied them to railroads where they were outfitted
with drop-down rail wheels for moving work crews around.

The running joke was alway "If the serial number was one number
different it might have been a combine instead". They came with a "Line
Setting Ticket" with the complete rundown if everything installed (like
a big rig might), and they weren't cheap. In 1965 a basic travelall
listed fr the same price as a base caddy... (Wait for it...) $10k. I'm
sure they were heavily discounted when the farmer bought the Combine....


Mine was originally a 3 speed with overdrive (horse trailer towing
vehicle) but it chucked a gear (1965-1985... 30 years) and I stuffed a 4
speed from a similar year Dodge pickup in it... which gave it a 'stump
puller' 1st gear because of the differential gear ratio mismatch. So low
I didn't need the clutch. I could rev the engine and just push the
shifter up by the 1st gear gate, and it would drop in. The truck would
lift on it's suspension about a foot, and it would start rolling. After
that it was 'gravy' to shift without the clutch. Try doing that with any
mdern transmission that uses shitty little needle bearing capped into an
aluminum housing and you'll be replacing the transmission before long.

The only problem was once you bought one... Unless something
particularly tragic happened, you never had to buy one again. That's
what killed it, and the pickup truck sales too. But in 1983 when I
needed a new rear axle for one that "Mushroomed" on brake drum removal,
the factory  still had one ... undoubtedly overmanufactured for warranty
purposes and then written off, but they had one. There's no such thing
as 'overmanufacturing for warranty purposes anymore, and if it's done
the parts are ditched as soon as written off.

That's one reason why maintaining a 'New Millennium" car like it's a
'classic', will fail. To expect an aftermarket that will still have an
"axleshaft" for a 30 year old vehicle is laughable.

Rr