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When Annie found the CB on board it was "Breaker, Breaker - this is Flame" - another avenue for chit chat! Her main concerns were that the CB and CD were on board and as described.Flame is a little bit tired - she's been around the block more than once. Enthusiastic about diesel powered F Trucks we saw this on ebay while travelling home in the F150, it seemed too cheap and probably was - but the saving grace is it has an Isuzu 6BD1 engine and with the matching Isuzu 5 speed manual transmission. It was obviously used for long distance outback travel as it is fitted with an additional 300 litre fuel tank in the tray and the initial clean out was interesting - plenty of red dust, a rough and ready collection of spares to save the situation - gaffa tape, radiator stop leak etc. We found fuel receipts dated during the previous 12 months that indicate travel in WA and Queensland. Judging by the tow bar it has been set up for long distance towing.On the return trip we discovered a few idiosyncrasies - it had a bad case of crabbing. First gear is next to useless, but in 5th it cruises well on the highway at 100 Km/h - final drive ratio is yet to be determined but it seems that a step up to 33 inch diameter tyres from the present 31 inch diameter is worth consideration. Engine noise on the highway was not a drama, possibly due to the 3 layers of carpet and a lead underlay, yes you read it right. I have stripped the carpet out and have a new vinyl mat on order with decent underlay - the lead can stay, it seems like a good noise barrier. The crabbing has now been fixed - the rear springs were differing lengths. The rest of the issues were minor repairs to lift the game on road worthiness and general operation - new shock absorbers, headlights and various other lights, windscreen washers, window winders, seat belts, fan belts etc. It was previously registered in SA but appeared to reside in Queensland, my guess is that the previous owner was dodging the roadworthy issue - but still doing plenty of distance.
2016 update - Flame has been our hack for a few years now, she has done about 20,000Km including a 5,000km road trip with our 70's Millard slide on camper on its back (see Road trip below). Only one mishap it blew a rim which could have been very scary if we were driving at more than the 10km/hr when it happened.
The Isuzu diesel is brilliant! It has average 7.65 km/litre over life with us, even getting that on the open road with the camper.
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