im really contemplating it.....



BUT on another note....

somehow the pass. axle seal on my truck blew out...dont know why, i just replaced it less than 200 miles ago....i had a big thread on it, where i bought like 8 seals because i kept messing them up (pass. side)....i got it to seat perfect, went mudding and tranny took on water...

ive fixed my tranny, but after last night the seal started leaking, it was a small leak....now im loosing about a half a quart of gear oil by the hour lol.....


AND i got the maxima legal today....cost $100 bucks.....but hey its legal, and my truck can rest a while longer till i can get to it....so this means ill save ALOT of money in gas, so ill make more tips, and i dont have to worry about vehicles anymore....until im ready to get back to my truck of course

Ive talked to the landlord, and have worked out a payment method with him, talked to insurence, and they gave me an extension, and with gas/electricity/cable/internet/phone, is working with us doing payments...

so things are starting to look good for us...

 

Nice. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Give the beast a rest for a while and just forget about her. Then go back in about another 3/4 months and try something new. In the meantime you can have a new hobby of searching bone yards for some u-pull it parts and price things up until you can get one for the right price. Maybe you can get a rear pretty cheap and in 3/4 months you can drop the hammer.

 

I served in the Air Force in the early eighties. Six weeks of boot, for a freshly married (two weeks before I went) man. I was stationed at K.I. Sawyer AFB, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, E3 right out of boot, and got on-base housing within two weeks of my arrival on base. (I was a cop...... worked law enforcement, and then when my security clearance came thru, Security of priority resources, to wit, B-52's, and weapons storage areas.... such fun we have for you...)

My military training did nothing for me in the 'real' world, as I had zero desire to do law enforcement on the outside. (I gave up ANY job where part of the description was: People Shoot at you.) However, being able to put AF service on my resume DID help me get jobs in the outside world.

If you pick a job that has an application in the civilian world, military training can do you very good. Don't expect to see a lot of munitions maintenance positions in the civilian world though......

 

It might be argued that my standards of what is required of an honorable man are set too high or in some other way incorrectly, but it is my deeply held belief that it is dishonorable to take advantage of another man's hardships that may cause him to act out of desperation. It is something I have never done and will never do. To suggest that a desperate man take an unnecessary and potentially deadly risk to feed his hungry children is, to my way of thinking, unconscionable.

I, too, believe that I have 95RAM360's best interests at heart. More important than him, though, is his child. In my entirely arrogant and self-righteous opinion, when a man changes his name to Dad his life is no longer his own to do with as he pleases and the primary consideration in every significant decision he makes until the youngest child attains adulthood must be the well-being of his children. Even though enlisting might relieve a little financial stress today, it would be irresponsible in my opinion to risk getting dead while a little girl needs for her Daddy to be alive.

All that said, back to the original topic: 95RAM360 I'm thrilled to hear that you've found a solution to your dilemma. I'm bummed out about your truck, but I'm glad you've got a reasonable landlord and some breathing room. I've been in those tight financial spots with children looking to me to keep the food on the table and the roof over their heads and I know just how heavily it can weigh upon the soul. It's good to know that the worry is lessened.

When you get water into axles they can generate steam pressure enough to blow seals. You probably ought to check all four. If memory serves you already took care of the transfer case; if I'm mistaken, it, too, should be looked into.

Washing the grease out of u-joints will cause problems in them, too. Lube 'em up when you find the time, before you drive.

For the keep it or get rid of it decision: Is your truck a luxury or a necessity? If it's a luxury, then you should consider it an asset that is available for liquidation if the need arises. I hope it never comes to that.

If it's a necessity, weigh the cost of repair against the cost of a suitable replacement. This decision is only twitchy if the two numbers are essentially equal. You can't really get much in the way of a vehicle for $2200, so it's probably cheaper to keep it even if it's going to be begging for a new transmission soon.

Good luck, man.

HeyYou: Was it being a sky cop that got you the base housing? I was at Eglin 81-84 and knew E-6's who were on the waiting list. Heck, my squadron was so short on barracks space that we had E-3's drawing quarters and rations to live in the ville.

 

Bold: That is VERY true. You spend the money that you would have spent on repairs, to purchase a USED vehicle that you do not know the history of, and may very well need expensive repairs very soon itself. There is such a thing as a Known evil being a lesser evil.

K.I. was a tiny little SAC base with a single runway, and six buffs on alert status, (along with the corresponding KC-135's....) and a pair of F106 fighters, our only purpose in life was to support the bombers, so, there just wasn't a lot of folks there, and there was a good bit of on-base housing. I really don't know if my MOS had anything to do with me getting housing that quick...... It was a beautiful place to be, except in winter..... I don't have any idea whose brilliant idea it was to run an exercise in the dead of a UP winter...... but, if I ever meet him, he isn't going to like it. Standing on a slab of concrete a mile long, and half a mile wide, with NOTHING to stop the wind, in -80 degree weather (not including wind chill....) is NOT fun. When the grease in my M-16 freezes, leaving me with a 7.5 lb club...... I am not exactly going to be very effective at guarding anything...

 

Good thing those Canuckistanis weren't infiltrating from across the lake, eh?

I was on hurricane ride-out crew at this joint:




With all of the high voltage in the transmitters (5184 of them at the time, all behind the square portion to the left) I wasn't too keen on the idea of mopping up any leakage that got past the radome. Fortunately the next hurricane to blow through waited until after I was gone.

The biggest worry we had was the occasional rattlesnake that came into the building to get warm. They all came right into my shop.

 

Wandering WAY off-topic here.... but........

When I was in tech-school at Lackland, (and later, camp bullis....) Rattlesnake hunting was the favorite pass-time. They make for some good eatin'.

 

As you look into this further and further,it does look like welfare.You have to have a family to get GOOD benefits,with welfare you have to have a child to get housing for free or minimal cost.Welfare gives you food,shelter,and helps pay utilites.Our government is all about spending our money.But the military is patriotic.Pfft.We havent fought a worthy war since WW2.We fight in Iraq for Bush's revenge for Saddam putting a hit contract out on his father.Iraq didnt have anything to do with 9/11 so how is that helping us? We blow up all thier infrastructure so Haliburton can make billions repairing so Cheneys stock goes up.If you are in the military you are fighting for rich politicians to make them richer while the Amercian people grow poorer paying for it.This country is a failed democracy transforming into socialism.Lets face it,like Rome before we are being destroyed internally.We have had our time and now let the next great civilization come forward.

Btw....hold onto the truck alittle longer.It cant hurt,the world is gonna end in 2 years anyways.

 

wow...this thread got out of hand real quick when it turned military. there is nothing wrong with the military, or the army. there are some points i would like to cover real quick bc this isn't about me or cpt or anyone in the military, its about 95ram. i was active for a fews years, and currently been in the guard for 3 years. been enlisted all of it. will commission this fall and seek active duty again. there is nothing dishonorable with a man/woman sacrificing his time, energy, and life into something for the greater good of this country. now with the national guard cpt, you DONT get out of the service if you leave a state. you do an INTERSTATE transfer which allows you to serve in another state doing the same job. also, the guard has a program to help their soldiers find civilian jobs (just like PayS). currently i am the S-1 for my unit as a SMP but was enlisted as a good ole grunt in the infantry until recently.

also, welfare is a reality if you cant manage your finances. hell the army takes care of you and your family. just like cpt said you get BAH and BAS. you dont live in the barracks if your married as an enlisted joe. as an officer you can choose to live on post and have everything covered for you while raking in some good pay. you can also live off post and still receive BAH and BAS. it really is a great deal. as far as the army letting in ****bags, well that doesnt happen. all the army components are at strength and no ****bag is getting in. ...

but 95ram, i hope things start going well for you and yalls family. it sounds like it may be turning around already. i say drive the maxima,and keep the truck to work on when you can without pushing the finances to the brink. as cpt said, its fun as a hobby adn now you can have time to just search around and price parts. just focus on the family and job. everything else for the truck will come in time...good luck, you've put too much time, money, and effort into that truck just to part ways.

 

of course the iraq/bush card...im sorry to not let this go but whenever someone opens mouth and inserts foot, i have to stand up and say something...especially when its an ignorant assumption about our military. mr freeze should just stick to topics about trucks on this forum. otherwise, with all these ignorant posts you have made, your credibility goes out the window. who knows the REAL reason why we went to iraq, its not our job to question our commander. we move out smartly and draw fire. with iraq we got rid of saddam and his sons, how is this bad? i have tons of buddies over in iraq right now just drawing down waiting to come home. we're leaving it in a better situation than when we arrived. now it is up to the iraqi people to carry on what they want and how they want it.

if it wasn't for the united states military, this world would be even more of a **** hole. todays crisis are happening and continuing to happen because of a weak military strategy on pennsylvania ave. but the military stands ready and will always stand ready to defend our country, constitution and our interests. not always gonna be pretty, politically correct, or popular but political/popular wars cause unnecessary death.