Road trip preps for a 317,280 mile truck

[MDettling]

I buy a spare key the same day I get a new car.. The one I just got has a funky drivers side key cylinder, get locked out after exiting the car w/ keys inside. How many of you carry a 2nd key on you? I do...

 

[Nick1994]

Originally Posted By: MDettling

How many of you carry a 2nd key on you? I do...

I do, but it's on my key ring I live in Phoenix, so I often take a key off the ring and start the car and let the a/c cool the car while it's locked.

 

[claluja]

Originally Posted By: FlyNavyP3

Getting settled in following the road trip in the old truck. Had a moment to crunch some numbers for the trip. Put gas in the truck a total of 15 times of varying volumes throughout the trip. The final fill up was completed following my return to work so the total trip miles for calculating overall fuel economy vary slightly from the total trip mileage. However the 17 additional miles I put on before filling up is only about one half of one percent of the total trip miles so I'd argue that it hardly skews the data for fuel economy calculation. Total miles driven per GPS for fuel economy calculation 3806.6 total gallons used 184.736. Yields 20.6056 MPG. That 20.61 MPG included all of the idling in traffic, warming up on cool mornings, and a full day of off road driving. Needless to say I'm really happy with how the truck performed for a 30 year old vehicle with now nearly 322,000 miles on it. The truck remains my daily driver and will likely get an OC and UOA in the next few weeks on the home brew synthetic blend and a filter cut on the Beck Arnley filter currently installed on it. Replacement fill for oil will likely be another batch of home brew synthetic blend this time with a FL-910S to see if the better ADBV helps with the cold start rattle the BA filter exhibited after about 1500 miles on this OCI.

Great mpg. WAY higher than what I get on my 4Runner.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: MDettling

I buy a spare key the same day I get a new car.. The one I just got has a funky drivers side key cylinder, get locked out after exiting the car w/ keys inside. How many of you carry a 2nd key on you? I do...

I do too! My first "nice" car came with a credit card key, and it saved me a couple of times. I carry two key chains. One is all my automobiles, and it's a carabiner, so I can always pop just the key for any vehicle off, easily. The other is the house keys and misc, along with a spare to most (all?) of my vehicles. House keys go into a pocket, car keys get clipped to a belt loop, as I don't use my house keys that often.

 

[FlyNavyP3]

I was very pleased with the mileage overall, especially for a 30 year old truck with this many miles. As a little update I've since rolled 322,000 miles. This week I'll be switching the rear differential from a Detroit Locker (ratcheting style automatic locking differential) to a Detroit True Trac (Eaton) which is a Torsen type differential. The Detroit Locker has been in the truck for the last 60,000 and although it works exactly as it should, I've grown tired of its inherent driving quirks and sadly I don't use the truck off road enough anymore to justify it for daily use. Since the entire third member is removable on a Toyota axle much like a Ford 9" or Chrysler 8 3/4" I will be rebuilding a spare with new bearings and the TrueTrac and swapping the entire assembly. For one it reduces down time, also it leaves me a complete third member complete with Detroit Locker and 60,000 miles on the bearings to swap back in should my opportunity to drive off road changes in the future.