<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/uIgW-4EnxO4" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/uIgW-4EnxO4</a>]]> A friend of mine who lives in WA now is up here this week first for a Wedding and then to check up on a Rental Property he owns up here as well. He usually makes it up here about twice a year these days. He worked with me at the first gym when I first came up here for about 2 years, but then had a falling out with the owner. He was an ex-gymnast and gym coach, but worked mainly as the Biz Manager for the gym while he was employed there. Did some coaching, but just Classes no Team. We stayed friends after he quit/was fired and would BBQ together about once a month or so and shoot the shit. Whenever he comes up now we always get together.
Anyhow, I am planning a big Road Trip down to the Lower 48 to start scoping out SUN☼ Property possibilities, and my Big Bugout Machine the Tioga RV really is not suited for this. It gets terrible gas mileage. My vision for that machine was as a one-time use vehicle for an emergency Bugout, like say we had an Earthquake and my regular digs were destroyed. I would have the BM as backup housing, parked in a campground around here. Or in a real TEOTWAWKI situation, drive it once out into the Yukon Territory and live off my Preps for a year or two before giving myself up to the Bear, or freezing to death. However, for cruising around the Lower 48, fuhgettaboudit. On a good day on the highway going downhill with no stops and starts, it gets 7mpg.
So for this trip, I was planning on taking my Ford Explorer and then leaving it down there as my Lower 48 Cruisemobile and flying back up here for my SSA Hearing on Aug 16th. However, it would have been fairly cramped, especially for the section across the Al-Can. That is around a 2500 mile stretch without a whole lot of places to rest, and I figure to take it fairly slow. So a bigger vehicle I can actually lay down in to nap is a vast improvement over this. Besides that, when/if I make the final transition down there and move out, I will need a vehicle that can pull a decent size trailer. My Explorer is a V-6, and while it does have a tow package it can't pull a real lot of weight, especially through the mountains.
So when Brian called me and said he was in town, for our Entertainment I said, "Lets go Van Shopping!"
The very first vehicle I found on Craig's List looked just about perfect. Right price at $5500, right vintage at 1999 (I can get a Permanent Registration for this age of vehicle up here), Raised Roof Conversion so short as I am I can almost stand in such vehicles with ducking my head some, a V-8 Engine and the full tow package on a Ford E-150 Chassis. However, on the e-mail I sent out I got no reply.
I looked at a few others. One was real cheap, but did not look in great shape. Another looked good, but was a newer model and way expensive, and no raised roof either. A third looked OK, but on calling it was already sold. So I figured we would just take a drive to Anchorage and cruise the Used Car lots to see what they might have available, probably not buying anything. I have never bought a Used Car from a UC Dealer, they always overcharge. All my UCs have been from individual sellers.
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/zqHZWdFVyyQ" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/zqHZWdFVyyQ</a>]]> However, I made one more try on the #1 Selection sending a Text over the phone, and this time I got a response! Van still available, come for a look.
The guy who owns it is an Israeli with a Body Shop. Him and his brother are heading back to Israel and selling out here. His brother owned the van for the last 7 years, just using it for fishing trips in the summer. It only has 140K miles on it, which for this vintage van is fucking amazing low mileage. These V-8s are good for 300K miles EZ if well maintained. We took it for a drive around Anchorage, some city some highway and the engine performed flawlessly. It is virtually
PRISTINE for this age vehicle. The only real issue was the usual cracked windshield that about every car up here gets from the freeze-thaw cycles. All my carz have cracked windshields. He asked $5500, I offered. $4500. I paid
CASH outta my Doomsday stash on the spot. We agreed on $5000, and he threw in a new windshield, which his friend the glass guy (a native) came over and installed on the spot. The Blue Tape you see in the pics around the windshield will come off tomorrow, I left it on for the drive back to Palmer. He also threw in a full detailing job from another friend of his, but I gotta drive back to Anchorage next week for that. That would cost me $250, he gets it for $150 but will not charge me for it.
Fucking
EVERYTHING works on this Van! Even the fucking Cathode Ray Tube TV and VCR in the Overhead Console in the cabin! You gotta have the van running though the way this is wired up. In the back, the two Captains Chairs can be removed quickly with no tools, it's a latch system. The rear bench seat lays down to a bed, and it's ELECTRIC!!!!! And it WORKS! You push a button and the seat turns into a bed in about 30 seconds!
This may be the best used car deal I ever scored, and all of my scores have been amazingly good. After the one new car I bought with my ex-wife, all carz I have owned have been used. The first was a Toyota Tercel 4WD mini-wagon/SUV I got for $1500. I had to replace the tranny on it for another $1500. $3000 total. That lasted me all through my trucking years, about a decade all together I think before and after included. Next was my Jeep Grand Cherokee LTD, still sitting in a storage unit in MO. It's loaded with every option available on carz of this era. This one I bought for $3500 from a little old lady friend of my mom's at the Senior Center. It was garaged the whole time she owned it, and drove it maybe once a week while she was still driving. It is a 1983, and still looks brand fucking new, although by now needs all new tires and numerous other fixes after sitting in a storage unit for a decade. When I got here to Alaska, for the first 2 months I borrowed one of the Gym Vans, but then bought a 1980s vintage Toyota mini-pickup truck for $500. Total rustbucket, but lasted 2 years, and I sold it to another guy in the complex I was living for $50. The suspension was totally rusted through, but he fixed it up for himself. I then bought the Mazda MPV also 1980s vintage for $900, which I still own and drive regularly. I have never had to do a fucking thing to fix this car in the 8 or so years I have owned it, other than replace batteries and tires, and once the gas lines were cut by siphoners. Finally is the Bugout Machine (the Tioga RV), another 1980s vintage vehicle which I bought for $5000 also, with a pristine interior and only 40K original miles on it in running condition, albeit with incredibly bad gas mileage. So in the last 30 years, I never paid more than $5000 for a vehicle, and many of them are still running too! No car payments
EVAH since I was married. All
CASH transactions. I am the $5000 and under car guy of the ICE Era!
Driving back up to Palmer with it after the purchase, it again performed flawlessly, and tomorrow I will head over to the DMV to get the Title and Tags changed out to my ownership. This will be the vehicle I finish out my life with in the Age of Oil. It's the kind of full size van I always wanted, capable of good towing and enough room to crash where you are not uncomfortable. It appears to get around 15mpg, which ain't great, but is within reason for me on my budget. I will of course be putting more CO2 up into the atmosphere driving it across the Eisenhower Interstate, but less of it than Albert Bates puts up while Jet Setting around the world on his Mission.
One last time, RE will become the Road Warrior he was, this time carrying the message of Collapse across the North American Continent. I
WILL finally drive the Al-Can, the one major road in North America I never drove.
WELCOME TO KOLLAPSNIK.COM
Topic: RE Gets a Stealth Van! (Read 60675 times)
December 21, 2016, 06:12:48 AM