1972 Ford F250 Highboy
Meet “Tumbleweed” Our story starts together in Saskatchewan, 3000km from home, when I purchased it sight unseen and hitched a ride halfway across the country with my sister in law on her way out to BC to drive it home.
After finally getting around all of the rules at the small town SGI office and setting off, maybe illegally The road trip home was less than trouble free. Being just the dog and me I was hoping not to have any serious issues that would test my MacGyver skills too thoroughly. We didn’t make it far before our first “break down” due to a plugged fuel filter, baby stuff. After limping to the nearest auto parts store and buying every fuel filter in the place we then lost the fuel pump. Driving in short spurts we made it to the next town and threw an electric pump at it hoping to get home. Manitoba brought us into the realization that the rear brakes were not working at all and the transfercase bearings so thoroughly worn out that the truck would shake at certain speeds and needed gear oil with every tank of fuel. It was here that I met Darwin who took me in for the night and let me work on my truck in his shop. He lent me his own truck to run into town and pick up the parts to fix my brakes. He also traded me the rust free box off of his old 72 F100 that was just sitting lonely in the barn since it had been taken off the road. Having a nice rust free box I couldn’t cut holes in it to put the large smokestacks that came on the truck back on. This led to an extremely noisy drive before I could find a shop with an old muffler to stuff on the thing. We made it the rest of the way home with minimal catastrophes apart from fueling and lighting issues.
Once I got home I tore the truck apart and fixed up all of the wiring, threw a 7.3 Diesel and 5 speed manual in the truck as well as just fixing it up to be a comfortable and reliable daily driver. Driving it all year has been a treat, people are constantly stopping me and asking questions, complimenting me on all the work I’ve done to it, the biggest thing people seem to notice is the Canada flag headliner and the connecting rod steering wheel. Since I have done the engine swap this trucks average mileage has been 16l/100km, that’s almost 15MPG. Just driving back and forth to work without the trailer on it’s more around 13.5 l/100km or 17.5MPG.
Old Tumbleweed is as much a part of the family as anything. I plan to drive this truck for the rest of my life. This winter it’s getting newer 1 ton axles, power steering and an NP205 transfercase, plans are to pop a turbo diesel engine in it soon too. I’ve placed a number of orders through LMC now, mostly interior and body parts since the drivetrain is far from stock, it’s so nice to be able to go to the one stop shop that is LMC and purchase all of the rubber gaskets, shift boots, door locks, side trim etc…
