Wow that's a very impressive souvenir. Congrats on the new ride!Bit of a story here so bear with me...
Spent the holiday week vacationing in Florida visiting family, as we often do. Drove from NJ to Florida in a 2010 Expedition with 210k+ miles. I'm a big fan of preventative maintenance and regularly get 200k+ miles out of my vehicles so I wasn't concerned. Just did a major overhaul on the truck ~ 3 years ago which included new control arms, axles, pivot points, rubber, etc. on the entire vehicle. Also regeared to 4.10s during that refresh, installing a TrueTrac in the rear and Ox locker in the front. This matters in a moment.
We get to grandma's house, which is miles outside of Gainesville in the middle of trees and not much else. We unpack the truck and the wife drives into town to get food and whatnot while the kids play with grandma and I take a nap. We drive straight through the night on these trips so I was a bit tired.
The wife gets back, wakes me up, and tells me the truck is broken. My phone was in the truck with her, which she realized when she tried calling me, and she had nobody else's number at the house. The front locker decided to lock up for some reason so the truck was fighting any attempt to turn. I take a look and confirm the symptoms, though the IWE system should have left the wheels unconnected from the front axles regardless.
Jump ahead a few hours and I find the IWE solenoid failed, which caused the hubs to think the truck was in 4wd. I bypass the solenoid so the vacuum system disconnects the hubs and the truck is drivable again. Happy with the result, I clean up my tools and get things put away. As I'm rolling up the windows the driver's window falls into the door. *sigh* I tape the window in place as I'm not replacing a window regulator while on the road. (pic below taken in Cocoa Beach, where we went after visiting family)
My vehicles typically let me know when they're done, and a failing vacuum system combined with a fair amount of body rot thanks to road salt tells me the truck's on its last road trip. I was planning on replacing it in 2025 but it seemed to have other plans.
The next morning I get a price drop email from AutoTrader on a truck I'd been watching. (I've been watching nationwide pricing as an active spectator sport) The dealership's kind of on our way home. It seems too perfect. I called Monday and they won't hold the truck until Friday but will keep me in the loop throughout the week. They stay in touch, but jump ahead to Thursday afternoon and I get another price drop email on the same truck. I call, they take my deposit, get the paperwork going, and know that I'm driving from Cocoa Beach Friday morning to their dealership in NC.
I and the kids enjoyed a rocket launch from the beach at 5:12am Friday and we all hit the road by 6am.
(The launch was mind blowing. It was clear enough to see stage separation and watch stage 2 fly far enough to follow the curvature of the Earth.)
Traffic like crazy but we make it to the dealership by 5:15pm. Everything about the truck is exactly as expected so I sign on the line, we stay in a hotel overnight about an hour closer to I-95, and the wife and I drive home 2 vehicles the next day. The kids rode in the Expedition as they didn't like the soft top noise from the previous evening. I'll address that in time.
(I'm entirely unaffiliated but Autopark Honda in Cary, NC was excellent to buy from.)
2021 Badlands, manual transmission, lux, towing, proper color, the right wheels, etc.
I don't know if I'll ever understand all the tech in this truck but the automatic high beams are uncannily intelligent. The whole vehicle is light years ahead of 17yo me's 1984 Bronco.
Anyway, this is the most expensive vacation souvenir I've ever purchased and I'm thrilled to have it in my driveway today. Been on this forum for a little while now but as of Friday I can actually justify being here.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I'm a bit giddy and my wife's tired of hearing about the truck so I had to share with someone somewhere that might appreciate it.
Sponsored
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