OverlandTherapy
New member
Hello!
Long time lurker but I finally have a rig to throw into the mix. Our story starts with most, craigslist and inappropriate use of work time. When I was 9 years old my father bought a brand new 5 speed 1999 Dodge 2500 Cummins off the showroom floor. I remember riding home in it that night just blown away. As a 9 year old I had died and gone to heaven. I knew I had to have one from that moment. Over the years I always was a dollar short or 5 minutes late to making my dream become a reality.
Ah.... There we are we May, 25, 2017, scanning Craigslist at 8 am for "4x4 Cummins" In a state I am not even residing in. BAM. There she is... 1999 Cummins 4x4, 5 speed with a flat bed. 7500 bucks. One immediately placed phone call to St. George, UTAH and I had an over the phone handshake that the buyer would hold the truck for me until 10AM Saturday. AWESOME. Now.....where am I getting 6,000 dollars. List my own truck (2000 Tundra SR5) at 8:45am, sell it by noon... Call wife at 3pm to pick me up from work. "Truck broken?", she asks...
I felt like a kid going to disneyland for the first time! My Father in that original 99 Dodge Ram 2500...now with 400,000 on the clock drove me to mine!
Here she was the day I got here.
She had 312k miles on her and at the time I was a full time mechanic with certs from Cummins, GM and Ford for the major diesels. I wasnt scared and believe it or not from an engine standpoint I have had zero problems.
My real claim to fame was after driving the truck back home, my wife and I turned around the following Friday and took our first road trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon....ironically passing back through St. George on our way home that weekend.
So... Like all builds, this portion was simply saving money. It would be 4 months later that I would find a StarCraft Pine Mountain 800 Pop up Camper for sale in Yuma....and ON our wedding anniversary my wife and I went and grabbed it.
So out came the torch and grinder to make it fit.
UGLY AS SIN.... But mine.... I was Redneck happy.
Now with my mismatched turtle...it was time to focus on things that would help me take this ugly duckling off road. The joke has been with my dad that its much easier to upgrade a truck...when you have 2. So everything I started to do to my truck...he started to do to his. We got a wicked deal from a place called Logan Fab works out of PA on our bumpers....cause we ordered 2.
Tucked in a Keeper 17.5K Wireless winch.
TO be Continued..
Long time lurker but I finally have a rig to throw into the mix. Our story starts with most, craigslist and inappropriate use of work time. When I was 9 years old my father bought a brand new 5 speed 1999 Dodge 2500 Cummins off the showroom floor. I remember riding home in it that night just blown away. As a 9 year old I had died and gone to heaven. I knew I had to have one from that moment. Over the years I always was a dollar short or 5 minutes late to making my dream become a reality.
Ah.... There we are we May, 25, 2017, scanning Craigslist at 8 am for "4x4 Cummins" In a state I am not even residing in. BAM. There she is... 1999 Cummins 4x4, 5 speed with a flat bed. 7500 bucks. One immediately placed phone call to St. George, UTAH and I had an over the phone handshake that the buyer would hold the truck for me until 10AM Saturday. AWESOME. Now.....where am I getting 6,000 dollars. List my own truck (2000 Tundra SR5) at 8:45am, sell it by noon... Call wife at 3pm to pick me up from work. "Truck broken?", she asks...
I felt like a kid going to disneyland for the first time! My Father in that original 99 Dodge Ram 2500...now with 400,000 on the clock drove me to mine!
Here she was the day I got here.
She had 312k miles on her and at the time I was a full time mechanic with certs from Cummins, GM and Ford for the major diesels. I wasnt scared and believe it or not from an engine standpoint I have had zero problems.
My real claim to fame was after driving the truck back home, my wife and I turned around the following Friday and took our first road trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon....ironically passing back through St. George on our way home that weekend.
So... Like all builds, this portion was simply saving money. It would be 4 months later that I would find a StarCraft Pine Mountain 800 Pop up Camper for sale in Yuma....and ON our wedding anniversary my wife and I went and grabbed it.
So out came the torch and grinder to make it fit.
UGLY AS SIN.... But mine.... I was Redneck happy.
Now with my mismatched turtle...it was time to focus on things that would help me take this ugly duckling off road. The joke has been with my dad that its much easier to upgrade a truck...when you have 2. So everything I started to do to my truck...he started to do to his. We got a wicked deal from a place called Logan Fab works out of PA on our bumpers....cause we ordered 2.
Tucked in a Keeper 17.5K Wireless winch.
TO be Continued..