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How long have you been driving a diesel truck?

Never..
 
Brutal_HO said:
First one I was licensed to operate and maintain was an M109 maintenance van (Deuce and a half) in 1980. Course that was multifuel. We also operated the 60KW diesel gensets, and while I wasn't licensed to drive it, I had to back the 5-ton tractor trailer 52' computer van for the operators many times because only one of them, their team SGT, could back it.
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Funny, the first one I drove was an M109 also but the one with a 155 howitzer barrel on the front of it.

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Max1 said:
Funny, the first one I drove was an M109 also but the one with a 155 howitzer barrel on the front of it.
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Yea, I don't know why they classed it M109. I guess maybe they had duplicate wheeled vs tracked?

I supported a com site attached to a tactical nukes field arty det in Germany 1981-1984. In fact, I guess I misspoke on the M109, it was 1984 when I got stationed at Ft. Riley.
 
Only since 2005, I was one of those people who didn't want to try one because of the GM 350 V8 converted to diesel in the 70's
 
Since the early 00's for me. First diesel was a GM 6.2 that didn't even have enough power to get out of its own way.

Sure was a cool truck though.


Brutal_HO said:
First personal diesel was my 04.5 HO. This is only my second personal diesel. Drove the hell outta a friend's 94.
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I had an '06 cummins that was my first "new" diesel vehicle purchase. Still one of my favorites. That gen HD Ram ran good! I put a mail-order super chips programmer on it along with some basic exhaust mods and the damn thing would power slide from a stop through turns fully controllable by the accelerator pedal.

Truck was a beast.
 
Firebird said:
Only since 2005, I was one of those people who didn't want to try one because of the GM 350 V8 converted to diesel in the 70's
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I think that was still the basic GM Gutless wonder diesel they used in the GM CUCV in the 80-90's until they replaced them with Hummers.
 
Brutal_HO said:
Yea, I don't know why they classed it M109. I guess maybe they had duplicate wheeled vs tracked?

I supported a com site attached to a tactical nukes field arty det in Germany 1981-1984. In fact, I guess I misspoke on the M109, it was 1984 when I got stationed at Ft. Riley.
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I lived at Ramstein 6 years and Spangdahlem three years as a military brat, my last trip over was 1975 for a reforger that I was there for 120 days and spent most of it at Grafenwoehr. We stayed in old German WWII barracks that had a single pot belly stove in each barracks and the latrine was a half block away. Ahh the memories.
 
Drove military vehicles around 2000 or so. Hmmvw and 7ton. Had company F550 service trucks since around 2007. Bought my own diesel around 2013.
 
Since 2008, but I got my license in 2006 so most of the time that I have been able to legally drive lol.

That was for a company that has a fleet of Fords, mostly F-350 diesels. Driving those trucks was really fun for me back then but really solidified getting a Dodge Cummins for a personal truck for both me and my Dad (he worked there also).

Out of those Fords we had 3 old 7.3l power stroke single cab sick shift duallies and those were by far most guys favorite trucks to take out on jobs. The others were 6.4 and later 6.7 power strokes. Seeing the cab come off the 6.4 for injectors and the high pressure fuel pump going out on the 2011 to a tune of 10 grand or so if not for the warranty was what opened my eyes. We also had an '07 Duramax dually too which was a good truck mostly. The next year my Dad got his 2012 3500 and that was the first Cummins I had the pleasure of driving. Just looking under the hood of that truck made me realize that's the truck I would want for myself one day. I'm huge on doing my own maintenance and was eventually the fleet mechanic with that old job.
 
In 1999 I bought a 91 D250 CTD. Ran that for about 8 years then went gassers until Feb 2021.
Also had a 99.5 diesel Jetta for about 15 years.
EDIT: Almost forgot about the 81 diesel Rabbit pickup I had for 7 years.
EDIT #2 Also diesel powered boats for almost 30 years, including a Cummins 6BTA 270hp Diamond Performance series.
 
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I started in the late 80's with a used 1984 Chevy 6.2 diesel pickup. It was a gutless wonder, smoked like hell and sold it after a couple years. After the chevy I bought a used 1985 Ford 6.9 diesel. I soon found out it had a blown head gsket and ended up pulling the heads in my driveway and gave it a valve job. I didn't have the money to pay someone, so I had no choice but to fix it myself "those were some heavy castiron heads". Shortly after that the injector pump went out. I pulled that off and took it in for a rebuild. Finally the trans blew and sold it shortly afterwards. Back then those non turbo trucks were pretty gutless but fuel was cheap, 89 cents a gallon and they got good MPG's.
In 1994 I bought my first Dodge Cummins 12 valve, what a difference from the non turbo trucks prior.
I've owned two Duramax's, two Powerstrokes and several Cummins since my addiction. Hopefully this 2021 HO will be my last
 
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