Moving Bronco cross country fail (56k warning)
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From: Dover AFB DE / Harrisburg PA
Moving Bronco cross country fail (56k warning)
This summer I had found out I was moving from Colorado to New Mexico. Then two years there until I retire and finally come back to east coast away from high altitude sillyness. Anyway, I had to go to PA for my 20th high school reunion, so the dumb idea fairy told me to drive east with 2008 F250, then come back west towing the 1994 Bronco that's been parked about 10 years to tinker on after work. Should have just flown out and back, and paid a shipper $3000. Oh well, strap in for the stupid...
The rental I had secured from uCrawl was the full trailer. When I pulled up to the dealer, there was a service truck blocking the trailers. That's weird. Went inside to pay and roll out. First obstacle was to rent things now, uCrawl wants you to use an app. Forget that, I have a flip phone for a reason. The manager eventually did the checkout on his own computer. Thanks dude. "Why is the trailer blocked with a service truck?" The manager didn't even know there was a truck there for servicing. First obstacle on this trip located when investigating what the service truck dude was doing. He was trying to order parts for the trailer that I just signed for. "You can't have this one, it's not safe." Why? "The straps are torn." I'll use my own straps. "No. you can't do that." Well, the best they could do was credit me and drop down to a tow dolly. ****. Now I'll have to drop a drive shaft that's been in since 1994 in PA rust. Oh well, I hit it with my purse, the bolts came out, so let's send it.
Next day. Somewhere on the road in hammer down big time in western Maryland or West Virginia, BANG! "The **** was that?" As cruse kicked off and we rapidly slowed in the left lane going up grade, I thought I blew a u-joint. No shot to make it over two lanes in moving traffic. As I went for neutral to save a flopping driveshaft from harpooning my diesel tank, the shifter was already in N. "Well that's weird." Grabbed fifth straight back, dumped clutch, and the boost built back up fast. Cresting the grade, I shoved up to sixth, but was met with unhappy grinding noises. "Ok back to fifth." Dammit. Three hours until the first hotel stop at 63mph. This is gonna suck. First luck of the trip was a Napa next to the hotel. Bought a pan and fluid for a parking lot fluid stop. Pretty sure I was laying in trucker pee, but got the glitter fluid out and fresh fluid in. Maybe she'll hold together, but I had a feeling similar back to being the crew chief of the last C17 riding out of the closing FOB Bastion with the Taliban surrounding the fence after I "temp fixed" a cargo door ditching lock.
****. Made it to near Lebanon Indiana for a fuel stop. Turning out of the parking lot, the steering wheel kept spinning and the truck went straight. Well that was unexpected. Steering box popped like a cork. Thankfully not on the highway. Put driveshaft in Bronco, backed off dolly, connected dolly to Bronco, and waited for tow truck. The three hour wait for tow truck found me time to call around storage centers where I could stash the F-250 for a future I'm not sure what to do with that one. Plan B is to see if a Bronco that has sat for 10 years with no AC, no gas gauge, more leaks than a BP oil well, and a temp installed EEC can make it across MO and KS in the summer heat. The Taliban are circling the runway.
Score two to the Taliban. Didn't even make it to the storage center. ****! The fuel pump decided to exit the group chat. The tow truck driver with the F-250 saw I died in her mirrors, looped around, and called her boss for a second truck that was long enough for the Bronco and uCrawl dolly. Both are now going to the same yard.
Shoutout to that towing company. First driver was kind enough to come back to the yard for me, take the tow dolly to a uCrawl dealer, and drop me at a hotel by the airport. Flew to Colorado the next morning with schemes on what to do to get these ****boxes across the country.
First idea was a shipping company from Indiana to CO or even where I was moving to in NM, but I have trust issues. First plan is a month later, fly to Indiana, rent a car, buy a GPS from a Walmart, rent hotel next to storage center, change bronco fuel pump, change F-250 steering box, rent uCrawl truck/trailer, return rental car with uCrawl rig at airport, load Bronco on trailer, then hammer down bigtime to Colorado with the Bronco in tow correctly. Plan actually worked except for the rental car return spot at Indianapolis International was way too low for the uCrawl to fit. Had to unload at the cell phone waiting lot, return car, then Chevroleg it back to truck a few miles away. My choice to get the 12ft truck instead of the 10ft was to be a dually incase of a flat tire in Kansas. Didn't want to be stranded again.
Boonville MO.
Thankfully no problems all the way back to CO. Now I had to get that Bronco movable. No shot at taking down the tank from rusty PA winters since 1992, so I did the cut a hole trick.
She runs! Leaked a quart of oil backing off the trailer to this spot though. We'll address that in NM next year.
I think we are on plan D or F by now, but I gotta still get all my junk in CO down to NM. That should be easy with my big *** trailer. Will my UTV and Bronco fit at once? Let's experiment.
I think it can work with a big *** loop supertrucker drive. Fired up the mapquest and see what the times will be.
Bronco and UTV down to NM, NM to IN empty to get F-250, load F-250 back to NM, leave F-250 and trailer in NM, NM to CO empty, CO to NM with uCrawl house load and Jeep. HAMMER DOWN BIG TIME with 7 days to get it done. Biggest question is what to haul with. A friend offered his clapped out Dodge, but I'm on a strict limit of one damaged transmission on this job overall. Getout the checkbook. The reservation was for a shortbox F-250, but the manager said if I could wait an hour, this thiccc girl was returned early.
Yeah that'll work.
Drinks DEF like me and Coors Light though. Other than that, no problems to NM. Got a great rental house with five acres, huge shop, and 3 roomates.
Perfect spot for a motor pull out and refresh.
Theres no time for that yet. Concentrate! I gotta go. Had that cruse control locked at 85 with an empty trailer to MO for the night.
Shoutout to the storage place for not letting my stuff get stolen.
SO, I really want a new truck now. Regular cab, 350, XL, dually, white... However it will not be a diesel. This DEF is junk as ****. My complaint is you can't get to the DEF level gauge while in drive. The truck has to be in park to check. Then you are randomly hammer down big time with a load and this stupid screen pops up.
If you stop, this is the sub menu to see the level.
The rental I had secured from uCrawl was the full trailer. When I pulled up to the dealer, there was a service truck blocking the trailers. That's weird. Went inside to pay and roll out. First obstacle was to rent things now, uCrawl wants you to use an app. Forget that, I have a flip phone for a reason. The manager eventually did the checkout on his own computer. Thanks dude. "Why is the trailer blocked with a service truck?" The manager didn't even know there was a truck there for servicing. First obstacle on this trip located when investigating what the service truck dude was doing. He was trying to order parts for the trailer that I just signed for. "You can't have this one, it's not safe." Why? "The straps are torn." I'll use my own straps. "No. you can't do that." Well, the best they could do was credit me and drop down to a tow dolly. ****. Now I'll have to drop a drive shaft that's been in since 1994 in PA rust. Oh well, I hit it with my purse, the bolts came out, so let's send it.
Next day. Somewhere on the road in hammer down big time in western Maryland or West Virginia, BANG! "The **** was that?" As cruse kicked off and we rapidly slowed in the left lane going up grade, I thought I blew a u-joint. No shot to make it over two lanes in moving traffic. As I went for neutral to save a flopping driveshaft from harpooning my diesel tank, the shifter was already in N. "Well that's weird." Grabbed fifth straight back, dumped clutch, and the boost built back up fast. Cresting the grade, I shoved up to sixth, but was met with unhappy grinding noises. "Ok back to fifth." Dammit. Three hours until the first hotel stop at 63mph. This is gonna suck. First luck of the trip was a Napa next to the hotel. Bought a pan and fluid for a parking lot fluid stop. Pretty sure I was laying in trucker pee, but got the glitter fluid out and fresh fluid in. Maybe she'll hold together, but I had a feeling similar back to being the crew chief of the last C17 riding out of the closing FOB Bastion with the Taliban surrounding the fence after I "temp fixed" a cargo door ditching lock.
****. Made it to near Lebanon Indiana for a fuel stop. Turning out of the parking lot, the steering wheel kept spinning and the truck went straight. Well that was unexpected. Steering box popped like a cork. Thankfully not on the highway. Put driveshaft in Bronco, backed off dolly, connected dolly to Bronco, and waited for tow truck. The three hour wait for tow truck found me time to call around storage centers where I could stash the F-250 for a future I'm not sure what to do with that one. Plan B is to see if a Bronco that has sat for 10 years with no AC, no gas gauge, more leaks than a BP oil well, and a temp installed EEC can make it across MO and KS in the summer heat. The Taliban are circling the runway.
Score two to the Taliban. Didn't even make it to the storage center. ****! The fuel pump decided to exit the group chat. The tow truck driver with the F-250 saw I died in her mirrors, looped around, and called her boss for a second truck that was long enough for the Bronco and uCrawl dolly. Both are now going to the same yard.
Shoutout to that towing company. First driver was kind enough to come back to the yard for me, take the tow dolly to a uCrawl dealer, and drop me at a hotel by the airport. Flew to Colorado the next morning with schemes on what to do to get these ****boxes across the country.
First idea was a shipping company from Indiana to CO or even where I was moving to in NM, but I have trust issues. First plan is a month later, fly to Indiana, rent a car, buy a GPS from a Walmart, rent hotel next to storage center, change bronco fuel pump, change F-250 steering box, rent uCrawl truck/trailer, return rental car with uCrawl rig at airport, load Bronco on trailer, then hammer down bigtime to Colorado with the Bronco in tow correctly. Plan actually worked except for the rental car return spot at Indianapolis International was way too low for the uCrawl to fit. Had to unload at the cell phone waiting lot, return car, then Chevroleg it back to truck a few miles away. My choice to get the 12ft truck instead of the 10ft was to be a dually incase of a flat tire in Kansas. Didn't want to be stranded again.
Boonville MO.
Thankfully no problems all the way back to CO. Now I had to get that Bronco movable. No shot at taking down the tank from rusty PA winters since 1992, so I did the cut a hole trick.
She runs! Leaked a quart of oil backing off the trailer to this spot though. We'll address that in NM next year.
I think we are on plan D or F by now, but I gotta still get all my junk in CO down to NM. That should be easy with my big *** trailer. Will my UTV and Bronco fit at once? Let's experiment.
I think it can work with a big *** loop supertrucker drive. Fired up the mapquest and see what the times will be.
Bronco and UTV down to NM, NM to IN empty to get F-250, load F-250 back to NM, leave F-250 and trailer in NM, NM to CO empty, CO to NM with uCrawl house load and Jeep. HAMMER DOWN BIG TIME with 7 days to get it done. Biggest question is what to haul with. A friend offered his clapped out Dodge, but I'm on a strict limit of one damaged transmission on this job overall. Getout the checkbook. The reservation was for a shortbox F-250, but the manager said if I could wait an hour, this thiccc girl was returned early.
Yeah that'll work.
Drinks DEF like me and Coors Light though. Other than that, no problems to NM. Got a great rental house with five acres, huge shop, and 3 roomates.
Perfect spot for a motor pull out and refresh.
Theres no time for that yet. Concentrate! I gotta go. Had that cruse control locked at 85 with an empty trailer to MO for the night.
Shoutout to the storage place for not letting my stuff get stolen.
SO, I really want a new truck now. Regular cab, 350, XL, dually, white... However it will not be a diesel. This DEF is junk as ****. My complaint is you can't get to the DEF level gauge while in drive. The truck has to be in park to check. Then you are randomly hammer down big time with a load and this stupid screen pops up.
If you stop, this is the sub menu to see the level.
Thread Starter
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Senior Member
Joined: Dec 2004
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Likes: 26
From: Dover AFB DE / Harrisburg PA
These were the tenth or 12th jugs I've used so far. No thanks on this. I was stopping more for DEF and to pee instead of getting actual diesel fuel.
Made it to Tulsa with two more jugs of DEF.
Dumped off the F-250 and trailer with the horses at the new party pad. After all that towing, the dually was a rocket empty. My concern is getting my new truck with a 7.3L gas isn't going to be fast enough. The DEF shananigans is for sure pushing me away from a new diesel, but I do value speed. Maybe I'll drive a 7.3L first before ordering.
Anyway, no time to waist as I only have to days to get back to NM. Next rental uCrawl packed, Jeep loaded, and back on the road.
So thankful to have escaped CO. I did not like the overpriced and crowded mountains and more happy with this view.
First week on the new job was a tough learning curve, but I couldn't wait to get the F-250 back on the road. Quickly snagged this unit off eBay for $3000. Rolling the dice on it being a runner, but I was feeling ****y again.
Hitup the on base hobby shop for a nascar fast change out on a very nice lift.
Always that moment of truth of the first start after a manual swap, but she was good to go.
Back to being HAMMER DOWN BIG TIME OLE SON! That last unit was done for sure. Still might take it apart to see the kibbles and bits.
Currently rewiring the whole shop to bring from so far below code, I'm not sure how it hasn't burnt down, to being able to make the 1994 great again!
Adrianspeeder
Made it to Tulsa with two more jugs of DEF.
Dumped off the F-250 and trailer with the horses at the new party pad. After all that towing, the dually was a rocket empty. My concern is getting my new truck with a 7.3L gas isn't going to be fast enough. The DEF shananigans is for sure pushing me away from a new diesel, but I do value speed. Maybe I'll drive a 7.3L first before ordering.
Anyway, no time to waist as I only have to days to get back to NM. Next rental uCrawl packed, Jeep loaded, and back on the road.
So thankful to have escaped CO. I did not like the overpriced and crowded mountains and more happy with this view.
First week on the new job was a tough learning curve, but I couldn't wait to get the F-250 back on the road. Quickly snagged this unit off eBay for $3000. Rolling the dice on it being a runner, but I was feeling ****y again.
Hitup the on base hobby shop for a nascar fast change out on a very nice lift.
Always that moment of truth of the first start after a manual swap, but she was good to go.
Back to being HAMMER DOWN BIG TIME OLE SON! That last unit was done for sure. Still might take it apart to see the kibbles and bits.
Currently rewiring the whole shop to bring from so far below code, I'm not sure how it hasn't burnt down, to being able to make the 1994 great again!
Adrianspeeder
Last edited by adrianspeeder; Sep 25, 2025 at 11:18 PM.
Thread Starter
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Senior Member
Joined: Dec 2004
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From: Dover AFB DE / Harrisburg PA
Originally Posted by Raoul;[url=tel:5284613
5284613[/url]]Talking retirement?
I remember you posting when you joined the Air Force.
Where has the time gone.
I remember you posting when you joined the Air Force.
Where has the time gone.
Adrianspeeder
Thread Starter
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Senior Member
Joined: Dec 2004
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Likes: 26
From: Dover AFB DE / Harrisburg PA
