Rufus the Ram is a decade old this month. i got him with 8 miles on the odometer, and it was all downhill from there. man, what a long, hard life you've led. you've earned your keep for good in my stable though! in the coming days and months you will eventually be returned to your former glory and better.

week 1, like 3/99:



maybe i'll post some more pics later on.

1/9/2009 12:14:02 AM

how many miles now!

1/9/2009 7:04:51 AM

how much of it is left?

1/9/2009 8:00:36 AM

not much

1/9/2009 8:04:02 AM

happy 10th!!!

1/9/2009 9:17:02 AM

I'm eager to see the evolution of this glorious vehicle, that was handed down from god.

[Edited on January 9, 2009 at 9:19 AM. Reason : non typer]

1/9/2009 9:19:16 AM

happy happy

1/9/2009 9:31:41 AM

NOTICE BURNOUT MARKS IN FRONT OF HIS HOUSE

PROBABLY FROM SAID TRUCK

1/9/2009 10:03:35 AM

Here's the truck's history from a TWW observer's point of view:
Year 0-5: Beat all to hell.
Year 6-10: Sitting in pieces in a barn.
Year 11-15: ??? (probably sitting in pieces in a barn)

1/9/2009 11:30:03 AM

^^^^^^^^not really sure, probably somewhere around 75-80k. the odometer only says like 60k, but it's waaay off from most of those miles being with tires a lot bigger than stock.

^^^^^^^i dunno, maybe like 35-40% of stock pieces? engine, cab, front end, and half the frame are original. everything else has either been eliminated or swapped out/upgraded.

^^haha, i don't remember but probably so "testing" the new tires. it was like 1 or 2 weeks old in that pic, i had just gotten 305/70/16's put on. being a stripped down base model, it came with little 225/75/16's. it would light those things up well into 3rd gear in 2wd and would burn all 4 in 4hi through 1st gear.

^lol, pretty much. it (hopefully) won't be years until it's back on the trails/road though. it's just a matter of doing the labor, i have all the parts sitting around. built 1 tons, suspension parts, etc. i had pretty much completed the tear down, cutting/grinding bracketry off, and had just started getting into the fab work before my motorcycle accident. so, obviously all that's been a large part of the halt in progress. i also need to get 240v service run out to my garage for the welder and some decent 120v. right now, it's just got some ghetto 120v service that used to feed an old shed and is hardly suitable to run a light and grinder at the same time. that's not a big deal though. i've just been procrastinating on getting an electrician out there to do what needs to be done since i haven't been physically able to really put it to use until recently.

the extended delay has been good in a way though, my original plan was to build this huge monstrosity on rockwells and 48's. it would have looked cool, but probably been mostly useless. the vision it's evolved to should be infinitely more practical, versatile, and capable in terms of a hardcore rock/trail rig.

1/9/2009 7:06:25 PM

Those arent burnout marks, thats where the airbrakes on the garbage trucks needed adjustment. Used to happen all over my old neighborhood too.

1/10/2009 10:44:31 AM