Enjoying Ham's '48 - A Trip to the Spa
Most of us just take our pretty Jeeps on fairly short trips to get ice cream, make a Post Office run or just putter about. But, if that is all we do, we are probably not seeing another side of our Jeep. And, that side might really please you.
The long delayed trip to the body shop (Spa) for paint touch up finally happened yesterday. The trip from my “car barn” to Butch’s Body shop is a 40 mile trip, but the first third or so is through city traffic in Fort Wayne. You do a lot of gear stirring in town, but traffic lights are a great equalizer and a 40 MPH Jeep is not at a speed disadvantage in town. At just about every light you get a “Thumbs up” or the window comes down and you get asked “What year is it?” The answer is “It’s my Dad’s ‘48 – he lets me drive it some now”.
By the time I got through town and started up State Road 3, the truck had been running for about half-an-hour and things were getting warmed up. I had to stop at the light at State Road 205 and an old white van pulled beside me. Yep, the window came down and there was an Amish man looking at the truck. (In Indiana the Amish hire drivers to move them around to different job sites.) He asked the usual questions, and then told me “Well, a man who works on my equipment has one just like it – but it needs more work to look like yours.” I believe that all 17,000+ 2WD trucks had to have been sold in northeast Indiana since everyone knows someone who has a truck “just like mine.” The light turned and off we went.
Traffic was light on State Road 3 and I found my lane and just putted along. Now, I tend to have a light foot on the accelerator so I set the needle on the speedometer at a shade over 40 and eased on down the road. After a bit, I looked down and I was running at 45! So, I backed off a little and after several miles, I was back up to 45. Now, you can say I was getting into the throttle a bit more as time went on, but I really believe that as things warmed up the truck just runs easier.
I tend to forget all the places that have multi-viscosity fluids and what happens as those fluids get warm and start to thicken up a bit. The 10W-30 VR-1 is getting up towards the 30W range. The 75W-90 in the transmission is thickening up, as is whatever I have in the differential. Things that whined a bit or clacked (like that one lifter in the engine) quiet down. Laugh if you will, but even old mechanical things run better after they get warm and loosen up – kind of like old men.
What’s my point in this? If you never take your Jeep out on a road trip, you may never see just how well it runs once all the fluids thicken up and the bias-ply tires get warm enough to lose the corners. Grab Momma and say “Let’s take the Jeep up to the lake and eat lunch”. You’ll be a Rock Star for the day in more ways than one.
