NHDiesel

When I moved the first time, I made the mistake of taking my father up on his offer to store some stuff in his garage. I left several tools, my motorcycle ('95 Honda ST1100), and some other things there. After I got settled after the move (many months before things were normal), I went down to get some stuff. My bike had overspray all over it, including the brand new aftermarket tall windshield. My brand new motorcycle jack, that I had never used, was bent and twisted, and covered with oil...my guess is that it was used as a transmission jack, or maybe even to pick up the whole end of a car. My part's washer, which was actually a loaner from a friend, was sitting outside for the whole winter because it was in the way. Now I owe the guy a new part's washer, because I'm sure he doesn't want the rusty one back.

I won't even get into what he does to vehicles...

But he's my father, and he has helped us out a lot.

Jim

runamuk

Did the phrase "Naw, really Dad I'll come over and help you out(I'll drive)" ever come to mind??? I bet it does now!!!

I'd personally never put a near 80 yr old in charge of driving any of my vehicles.


Rick

HappyGA

For all the advice and comments, I know what you all are saying. Yes, I do cherish the moments I have and spend with him. Why else would someone drive 2 hours to load scrap iron, it ain't for the workout.

He has helped me a lot over the years, and I have helped him. I feel he owes me nothing, and I owe him everything.

To the post about couldn't I have looked at his stuff and knew what he was like, yeah, I already knew he was like that, but he knows how picky I am about my truck so I was hoping he would have been a little nicer to it. Don't get me wrong, my truck is a truck, I'll drive it off in the woods in a heartbeat, but I am very careful with it as far as looking at what the outcome of whatever situation in front of me could be. he just says it'll be allright, and floors it.

So I got truck back last night from the shop. Cost me $80 to get it lined up. It still pulls to the right, but that is because of the tire wear that it now has on the right front.

He has his truck back now, and I was nice enough to buy him a box for it for when warranty goes out. No more Happy's truck for him. he has his own..

ChrisLib

Awesome post, brought back alot of memories for me,. Hey maybe one day you`ll get to "return" the favor,lol. Love em while they`re here, my dad never got to see my CTD...but knowing the guy he was he`d a LOVED it!

96_12V

I have watched one aunt, and three grandparents pass away slowly from stroke and symptoms of alzhimers' diesease, and gradually, as each one passed further and further along, they lost ability to rechoignize even the very loved ones they had raised. While I understand your frustration regarding your vechile (it was my parents who taught me to always return a vechile with the tank full, and in better shape that I recieved it), it is in the end, just a truck.

Next time you're down there, take his truck, clean it up for him really nice, fix whatever's wrong, and return it without a word to him. The suprise alone may well add months to his life, but the joy he will recieve knowing his son cared that much for him will bless him (and yourself) immeasurabley.

HappyGA

That has already been done. I took it back to him clean, and with a list for him to take to the dealer to have stuff fixed. That is the reason I had his truck, and he had mine. he just got the truck, and wanted me to find the problems before his warranty went out.

SO here is what I found..


tranfer case: chain slips, this would have been very costly after warranty went out.

shifter linkage: trans would go into park, but would not recognize it on the control panel. You would have to shift to neutral to start, cause it would not register as being in park. Also being fixed unfer warranty.

I bought him a Volumizer adjustable power box. you can choose between the setting of: stock, 60hp, and 100hp. This wil be going on after warranty goes out.

So that little trip saved him a couple grand. He has 95,000 miles on it, so it was basicly caught just in time.

newriverSpecon

This is the very reason that my dad is the ONLY person I will allow to take my vehicle and put any load on it. There are three others that I will let drive my truck on their own period. Other then that I will take time to help my friends if they need a truck but I will drive.

Since getting married almost 4 years ago I have had to easy my retentiveness about vehicles. Yes she drives both of out trucks but not with any load and she trys to treat them as I would. It is more of a not paying attention and spilling stuff from the cup launcher or scratching the paint with her bag. Sometimes it doesn't work and I have to accept it. Not always easy, but worth it.

Randy

JyRO

I've let my wife drive my truck a few times. I'm glad she has her own vehicle, because of this:

She leaves it in like 5th gear when slowing to a stop, and waits to nearly stopped to push in the clutch. Meanwhile once the engine starts dipping below idle, it starts feeding throttle to sustain idle rpm, and the truck starts pushing/lugging us. My tongue is bleeding for biting it so hard, because if I say much about her driving skills, I have to withstand days of persecution and re-assimilation (resistance to that is futile).

If she makes a sharp turn into a parking lot, and she has it in 3rd gear, she can't understand why the brakes didn't slow it down very good when she was in the midst of the turn (again, the idle pushing the truck, but this time hard, because its in 3rd).

If there's a pot-hole in the on-coming lane of the road, she forces on coming traffic onto their shoulder so she can make sure we get to run a tire through the middle of it. Heaven forbid we miss one!

It takes her 30 seconds, and 3 grinds of Reverse, to get it into 5th gear (of 6 gears). And afterwards, her right arm's tricep is cramping from pushing so hard. She cannot understand that its not about the force you put into the shifter, its the direction.

This one is done in every car: She dilly-dally's around when there's a green traffic light ahead, and most or all of the traffic has cleared through it already. Its appearant the blame light will turn red soon, but she's just dilly dallying like stopping for traffic lights are fun. 90% turn red and if she had sped up, or kept going the same speed we would have sailed on through. Worse yet is when she sees yellow and slams the brakes and 5 cars in the next lane over go on through the yellow.

Conversely, when there is a red traffic light ahead, she's pouring the coal hot on the flame until 50 feet past Mario Andretti's break marker.

Overall, she's a great driver. But these are the things that she does that makes me want to pull the hair out of my head.

As far as my ole man, he's fine for driving my truck. And actually has fun trying to blow smoke on ole ladies at yard sales . But for some reason, when he tows, he tries to show me how fast he can tow, instead of how carefully. Suffice it to say, I do the tow driving when I can.

- JyRO

cumminsdriver635

10k lbs is nothing big. Dont worry about it. People pull twice that and more every day. If your torque converter is acting fine, and the tranny is shifting good, then its fine. These things were made to pull with. Im still trying to figure out how it got unaligned? Unless he drives through fields at 60mph, i dont see how he could have messed it up that bad that the tire was already wore unevenly. It usually takes some miles ot make a tire wear uneven. Like was said. Just dont worry about it. It can all be fixed, and just remember all that stuff of his you tore up when you were young

Eric

Beamwalker

just be glad you have your dad around still. bent pipes transmissions tailights etc can be fixed or replaced. people are way more important. i didnt know how much until i lost my son {16} almost a year ago.

bmoeller

I don't have a problem with my boss' 84 yo grandpa driving my truck. He is very careful with his, or anyone elses stuff. He is still an excellent driver and his mind is still sharp. Grandma on the other hand......... I don't ride with her much anymore.

I let my dad use it as well, when he needs a truck. He is one that brings it back better than he got it. Or at minumum, the same shape.