Ham Radio Venture Overland

Lost the engine in my 06′ Ram 4 X 4 (181,000 miles) and decided the best option was to replace it. The total spent to date for the engine replacement, front differential repair, and now exhaust and front suspension components is close to $11,000. A new truck is about $55,000.  I just couldn’t pull the trigger on that as we already bought my wife a new car last year and have four more years of payments to endure.

I hope it was a good decision but I’m feeling the weight of the new debt on a truck I paid off years ago.

Bottom line is that I need a truck and I like this one. We’ve been on many adventures together pulling the boat to Central Oregon fishing with the truck-camper and exploring ALL of the high-Cascade lakes to the Mountains of NW Oregon and SW Washington State. We’ve adventured off across the desert roads to find a spot to camp away from everybody. We’ve hauled building materials and tools to build and maintain our place on Lake Merwin, Wa.

Now we have a 19′ travel trailer (so my wife will go too) with a bucket list of exploring places like Yellowstone National Park, Banff AB, the ghost town of Bodie, California and a few others we are researching.

Seems like stuff doesn’t hold up as well as it used to and I’m likely not done. As great as it would be to have something ‘new’, I’m pretty attached to this one as it has pretty reliably carried me many miles away from the grind of city life and work. The truck deserved the repairs after what I have put it through.  We’ll role-the-dice and keep on truckin.