Faults:

Transmission leaked a little. Replaced with newer 87 700r4 for the overdrive purposes.

General Comments:

Absolutely great truck. I've had her loaded so high that I rubbed the power lines and she didn't squat.

It was originally purchased locally by a guy who hauled a camper from northern Indy to Florida every year. When he bought it, he had the leaf springs beefed up; 15 leafs per side. I've had 6,000 lbs in the bed and just the tires were squatting, not the truck itself. I purchased it from his brother and never had any real problems with it.

The battery froze one winter when it was -25 out with the wind chill.

Faults:

This truck has been great. The only thing I have put on it was a tie rod, ball joint, pitman arm, and battery when it was 7 degrees out. That was the ONLY time it ever left me sitting.

General Comments:

Reliable, tough, and comfortable. A little hard on gas, but for what it is, it's great all around.

I haul a ton of pellets at a time, and whatever else I may need to haul or pull. It strains with my 18 foot low boy, but it's a stock 305, and I didn't get it to win any races.

Faults:

I paid $900 off the side of the road by the Delaware Water Gap.

Drove the @#$%* out of it for years as a work van.

Rebuilt trans at 200K.

New charging system, battery.

Set of used tires off a wrecked Explorer.

Sold it last month for $500. 25 years old and off to further battles!

General Comments:

I've 2 '89 Suburbans (diesel and gas), which are the stuff of legend in the reliability department. The GM full size truck platform of this period is military grade tough. If you're tired of driving modern day glitchboxes, go out and pull a clean old Blazer K5 from the southwest where things don't rust. Spend $5000 or so on a really nice one and it will TROUNCE the EARTH FOREVER.

Faults:

The inner door pull handle had to be replaced.

Seat is wearing out super bad, and will need to be replaced.

Salt has rusted bed very bad.

General Comments:

The truck is super tough.

Will not get stuck.

Awesome 4x4.

More pulling power than 1 man can use.

Plenty of hauling room.

Faults:

The distributor rotor was the most recent issue.

This truck has had three motors over the years. The current is back to the same basic stock motor 5.7 350 with upgraded carburetor and camshafts. One configuration snapped the crankshaft after one of the crankshaft bearings seized. Another blew its guts out all over the road for an unknown reason.

General Comments:

My father bought this back in 1979 when I was 4 years old, used with 12,000 miles on it. Since then he had had it running down the road constantly, over the mountains and back, transporting diesel engines he would rebuild for his customers. I remember many trips in this truck, back and forth to his property he owned.

This truck is a beast! It handles very well for a tank. It will haul just about anything you hook up to it. I remember my dad owned a bulldozer that was as big, if not a little bigger, than the truck, and that he never had a problem getting around with the dozer in tow. Except when my brother wanted to borrow it, and accelerated too quick and it snapped the chains holding the dozer in place, and it ended up hitting the rear bumper of the truck, twisting it. The dozer died horribly that day, but the truck was fine except the bumper and a dent in the side of the truck from where the bumper bent up into the side of the bed.

Still, you should see this truck today. After 30 years on the road, this truck is still in pretty good shape! There is a little rust starting to form around two of the wheel wells, and a few small dents. The bed of the truck is in the worst condition, but it still mostly just scratches and missing paint from being used as a work truck.

My dad took this truck around the western half of the U.S. with an old Bell camper and towing a Suzuki Samurai over a 2 month period, and never had any problems on that trip.

Now I own it and am planning to fix it back up, because I have many memories in this truck. I love it. I just wish my dad was still around to be able to enjoy what I will be doing to his truck!