Here's the story of the time I bought my first truck. It was no ordinary truck, mind you. This was TRUCK-ZILLA! It was a 1983 3/4 ton Chevy utility truck. It had a huge steel bed with the lock boxes all around the sides, and a custom made steel rack on the top for carrying inordinately large objects. Now you might ask yourself, "Why in the world would Dave need a truck like this?" The answer is quite simple. I wanted a truck, and the price was right. 200 dollars to be exact! Of course it had a few minor mechanical problems, but that's to be expected for the price I paid.

Among its problems were: rust (you can never get away from that one!), a missing shock absorber, a flat tire (I had to change the tire before I drove it away), the bolts that couple the transmission to the engine were loose, and there was a hole in the engine's oil pan. My biggest concern was the hole in the oil pan. Everything else would be no problem for the trip back to my house. After talking with the seller about the oil pan dilemma, I decided that it should be able to make the trip home. I had no idea what kind of evening I was in for!

The quickest way from Crown Point to Lake Station is straight up I-65. I had it going about 55 mph on I-65, when suddenly started to slow down without my consent. I gave it more gas, and it only went slower. My first instinct was to turn the ignition off, and put the truck in neutral. When I did that, all I heard was a loud bang, followed by silence and lots of smoke. Slowly, the truck coasted to a stop. Apparently, the hole in the oil pan was bigger than I thought, and all of the oil leaked out before I could get it home.

Now I've got a dilemma. That truck isn't going anywhere without some serious help. I tried to start it back up, but the starter couldn't even turn the engine. Luckily, my mother came with me to purchase the car, and was following me back to my house in my old rusty '72 Pontiac. (Talk about a person that looked out-of-place!) I got in the Pontiac, and started driving her back home. All the way there, I was calling everyone I knew to try to get a crew together to help me get this truck back home.

I finally got 2 people to commit to helping me. They were the 2 biggest and strongest people I know, so I figured we were in pretty good shape. Ultimately, I wanted to try to repair the engine enough to get it to drive itself home. It didn't have to run well, I just wanted it to run! No good. The engine was seized up. It took all of our combined strength to free it up again. Ok, so now the engine turns. That's an improvement, but it still won't start. And on top of that, it's making this horrible screeching sound when it does turn! By this time, its about midnight, and we're finally realizing that this thing is not getting home under its own power.

I'm cheap. I'm really cheap. I bought a $200 truck, and I'm not about to pay another $50 to make my life easier and have someone tow it to my house. Besides, what kind of story would that make? "Yup Son, one day before you were born, I bought a truck, blew it up, and had it towed." That's just not the way I do things! I'd rather do it the hard way, and have a good story to tell the next day! No, I couldn't call a tow truck, so what do I do? What any sane, rational person would do, of course. I drove 30 miles out to Kouts, IN! There were a few things there at my friends house that I needed in order to get the truck home. More specifically, my 30 foot chain, and some heavy duty bolts.

Now to pull a truck of this size and weight, we're going to need something big and strong. Hmmm..... I've got an idea! Lets chain it up to my '72 Pontiac LeMans and drag it home! And that's exactly what we did! We bolted the chain directly to the frame of the Pontiac on one side, looped it through a hook on the front of the truck, and bolted it back to the frame on the other side of my car. Anyone that has seen my Pontiac, knows its no small car, but this truck dwarfed it, easily. It had to look really strange to passers by on the highway, but it worked like a charm! That Pontiac didn't even break a sweat! The engine in the Pontiac is so powerful, I don't even think my gas milage was affected! We pulled it at about 40 MPH the rest of the way down I-65 with one of my friends in the truck to steer and brake, and another following us with his 4-way flashers on. It was smooth sailing from there on out!

Here's the Pontiac that I pulled it with!

Incidentally, I already had another engine at home, so within a couple of weeks, I replaced the engine, and repaired all of the major mechanical problems. I still have the truck, and with all of the times I've used it to haul things that no ordinary truck could handle, its certainly paid for itself!

Here's a picture of Truckzilla. This particular picture was taken at the beginning of my notorious fence project. (I'm sure that one will become one my my adventure stories some day) It's only a 3/4 ton truck, which means that its only designed to haul 1,500 pounds of cargo. Of course in this picture, the truck is carrying 60 - 80 pound bags of concrete mix, and approximately 400 pounds of lumber on the top rack, which adds up to a grand total of 5,200 pounds! (That's only 3,700 pounds overweight!)