SOLOMON LUNGER takes you along for a ROAD TRIP to PHOENIX

It’s All About the Journey and Memories

road trip: Noun; a journey made by car, truck, bus, or other forms of transportation.

Why start this story out with the definition of the phrase “road trip”? Well, for one, let’s analyze the definition: “A journey made by car, truck, bus, or other form of transportation,” the keyword being journey. To some, a road trip is the way to a vacation or a way to get from point A to point B. To me, however, the journey is the entire point of the road trip.

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I have always found that the journey itself is what life is about, especially when on the road. Let’s take this particular road trip back to how we got the idea of taking three classic Ford trucks on a trek from Snohomish, Washington, to Scottsdale, Arizona.

The Plan

About a year ago, I purchased a 1971 Ford F-350 crew cab motorhome sight unseen out in Peyton, Colorado. The truck caught my eye for two reasons: 1. It was the same color as my 1970 F-250 Crew Cab, and 2. It had more room for my family. The truck had not been on the road in decades, and Jason, the fella I bought it from, said that the 390FE in it was blown. So, safe to say I was in no rush to get it back home as it was a big project. I just wanted to secure the truck for that day in the future when I could get on it.

Fast forward eight months, and one of my good friends, Kyle Delfel from DelFab, called and asked what my plans were with this truck. I told him that eventually I needed to get another motor to swap in and make it roadworthy to drive back to Miami. He asked me if I wanted his help, and that he had an idea. I told him I was all ears.

Robert, a.k.a.@oldfordcrewcabs on Instagram, was organizing his second-annual get together in March in Scottsdale, and Kyle wanted to get the truck back on the road for the event. Here was the plan: I would drive the ’70 F-250 down there, he would drive his all original 1966 F-250 crew, and his father Brian would drive his 1977 F-250 crew. We would all caravan down together while making some awesome memories along the way.

Good News, Bad News

I said I was in, but I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. The first step was to pick up the truck in Peyton, Colorado, and bring it back to Snohomish, Washington, 1,400 miles each way. So, I flew out to Seattle and met Brian at the airport. He had his 32-foot Maxx-D trailer hooked to his F-450, and off we went to Colorado.

We picked up the truck and headed back to Washington. When we returned, I only had four days until my flight back home. The initial plan was to do a motor swap, but we needed to make sure the motor in it was truly toast. So, we put a battery to it and it spun. Then we went out to the yard and grabbed some parts off some parts trucks. Without much effort, we got it to run.

At this point, we all had a big stress off our shoulders. The motor didn’t need to be swapped, which left us more time to get other stuff done. We put together a list of everything the truck needed to be safe and roadworthy. The list was long. For the engine, we needed a carburetor, distributor, spark plugs, plug wires, hoses, belts, and filters. For the chassis, we needed brakes, tires, wheel bearings, gas tank, fuel lines, and any soft lines like power steering and brakes. We also had to clean a really nasty, dirty interior for a comfortable cross-country road trip.

Five Days, Three Rigs Ready

I flew back home and planned out and ordered what was needed. Everything was sent out to Washington, so when I flew back four weeks later it would all be ready to install. Time passed, and the parts showed up. After flying back to the West Coast, we had five days to get all three rigs ready to go. We wasted no time and got right on it. Before long, we were ready to hit the road.

We had some fun, drank some coffee, and back on the road we went.

The trip got a little more interesting when Kyle said we will be camping the entire time. I had my motorhome, Kyle had a 75th anniversary Shasta trailer built-in 2015 using all the ’60s parts, and Brian had a newer camp trailer. So now they needed to get their original trucks to tow these trailers the entire way there.

If you don’t know the Delfels, they are 4×4 kind of guys, and both the ’66 and the ’77 F-250s were perfect original examples of 2WD crew cabs. Being the guys they are, they decided to make both of their trucks 4x4s. Originally, Kyle planned to leave his 300ci Inline 6 and 4 speed in the truck, but after hooking it to the trailer and driving it up a grade, he quickly realized it was underpowered. So, he decided on a Gen 3 Coyote 5.0 and 10-speed transmission. Mind you, we had 29 days until we had to be on the road driving to Arizona. Brian was a little less crazy—he just wanted to hop up his 460ci big-block Ford a bit.

Failure Is No Option

It wasn’t easy to source a Gen 3 Coyote in a short period of time. What was even harder to source was a Ford Performance control pack. Kyle called Jason at Fat Fender Garage and told him what he had in mind. Jason said that he had just about everything Kyle needed for the swap on the shelf. So, they put together a list, and Jason got it all packed up and sent out. He even pulled the control pack from one of his personal builds to get it to Kyle in time.

The three of us wanted to just throw in the towel and give up so many times, but we all knew that failure wasn’t an option, and that we had to head to Arizona. On the day we needed to leave, we had finished up all three rigs. We loaded up and head out on our journey, but not before stopping to say hi to our buddy Jeremiah Orthmann and see his awesome dentside crew cab. To me, that’s one of the best parts of the road trip journey: stopping in to see friends and make new ones along the way.

On the Road

On the first day, we left a bit late and drove about 350 miles to our first campsite. All of us were very happy with the trucks and how well they performed. Brian found that his ignition box was acting up and needed to be replaced. Kyle and I didn’t seem to have any issues except stopping for fuel every 100 miles.

We stopped at this quaint little RV park when it was very late and dark. The next morning when I woke up, I got to see how awesome it was to have three generations of Ford crew cabs all camping alongside one another. We had a Slick (’61-’66), Bump (’67-’72), and a Dent (’73-’79) all there.

We got ready for the day and hit the road. First stop was Napa Auto Parts to get Brian a new ignition box. Then we found an old junkyard full of rusty gold, scored a sweet tailgate and some hubcaps, and kept on truckin’. It was a fairly uneventful day, mostly just driving.

We made it all the way to Nampa, Idaho, that night and set up camp again at a nearby RV park. The next morning, I headed over to visit a couple buddies in town—Jimmy at Old Iron Diesel and Josh at Modern Timber—to check out some more Ford trucks. When I got there, Jimmy looked over my truck and asked me about my oil leak. I told him I wasn’t sure of the issue, but when I stopped for fuel about every 100 miles, I would check all fluid levels and top them off accordingly. Well, he took a quick look, found the leak, and fixed it up. We had some fun, drank some coffee, and back on the road we went.

Drama in the Desert

We were making good progress and just got into Nevada when Brian’s truck started smoking like crazy. His transmission got so hot that the fluid was boiling out. We pulled over and thought this would be it for him, but it cooled down and we figured we’d limp to the next gas station 42 miles away in Jackpot, Nevada. To our surprise it made it and it seemed like it fixed itself.

We didn’t stop to refuel in Jackpot and decided to try to make it to Wells, Nevada. Bad idea. If you have ever been on that stretch of highway, you know that there are no gas stations, no cell service, and it’s a two-lane highway all the way. We all had walkie talkies to communicate. Brian was in front, I was in the middle, and Kyle was in the back. About 20 miles from Wells, I ran out of fuel. Kyle stopped, grabbed my fuel can, and filled it up in town. After he came back and I refueled, we made it to Wells to meet Kyle. He said he had a buddy named Austin in Ely, Nevada, with a shop where, hopefully, we could figure out Brian’s transmission issue. The new plan was to make it to Ely to see what we could do.

Brian took it slow going up the hills and caught up in the straights. Kyle went ahead as he could drive the fastest and get to Austin’s shop to figure out the problem while we slowly made it there. So, it was now Brian and me caravanning. But after a bit, I looked in my mirror and he was nowhere to be found. I call out on the radio, but nothing. Kyle was too far ahead of me to be in range and Brian was too far behind. I knew I had enough fuel to make it the 70 miles to Ely but wasn’t sure if I had enough to double back to Brian and then to Ely. There was zero cell service. I decided to keep driving until I got to cell service, and then called Kyle to tell him that Brian likely needed help. It’s important to note that Brian was carrying all the tools with him.

Send the Rescue Crew

I made it about 35 more miles, and my truck started to shake like crazy. I pulled over thinking maybe I popped a tire, but no. I looked over the rest of the truck but didn’t see anything. I’m in the middle of the Nevada desert on a two-lane highway with no cell service and no tools. I had no choice but to keep driving until the truck completely broke down or I made it to cell service. So that’s what I did—but it just got worse and worse.

I eventually made it to Ely. Once I had cell phone service, I saw texts from both Kyle and his wife asking if I was OK. I assured them I was. They told me that Brian broke down about 10 miles out from Wells, and that Austin was en route with a tow truck to go rescue him.

Kyle kept driving to Las Vegas, our destination for the night, and advised me to go to Austin’s shop to wait for he and Brian to get back to diagnose the issue I was having. I fueled up, drove to his shop, parked, and went to bed in the back to get a few hours of sleep. I woke up the next morning to a call from Travis Zinner, one of our friends from Apache Junction, Arizona. He drove all night long with his truck and trailer to rescue Brian and tow him to Arizona where they already had a shop that was ready to rebuild his transmission for him.

We got Brian loaded up and then went to my truck to diagnose the issue. The front driver’s wheel had come loose and the wheel was no good anymore. I grabbed my spare and put it on, only to realize that three of the studs had broken off, the brake caliper was broken, and the dually hub was now warped. With all that said, my truck did not continue to drive the trip. We left it safely behind at Austin’s in Nevada, and I hopped in with Travis to go to Scottsdale for the event.

A Successful Journey

Nine uneventful hours later, we made it to the Old Ford Crew Cabs meetup at the Goodguys show. Kyle made it with little issues. Brian’s truck made it but was towed there, and my truck didn’t make it at all.

Some people would say our road trip was a failure, but to me it was as successful as ever. I saw just how amazing this Ford truck community really is. For every issue that came up, we had buddies rushing to help—so much so that Travis, who was already at the show, loaded up to come rescue us.

We named the motorhome Dusty Roads, and I am so pleased with how it performed. It didn’t see the road for decades, but with minimal repair we got it going and drove it more than 900 miles. It might not have made it to the event, but it will get fixed and log many more miles to come.