Greetings From Minnesota

[HotWheelsBurban]

Dang. I feel really sorry for you. That vehicle must cost you a fortune compared to what I put in here in the States. Do you daily drive it? If so, I'm really sorry that it costs so much in parts and fuel. I live in an affluent suburb in MN and our cost of living is higher than average for our state. Right now gas is $3.59 USD/gal and people around here still complain about it. We (as Americans) honestly have no idea how high gas is around the world. I sometimes watch CarThrottle on Youtube and he's from the UK. He's what got me into cars (and made me learn British car slang) and he posted video about pickup trucks back in 2016. Even before COVID he was paying around $8 USD/gal which is why trucks like ours are so rare and also why pickup trucks never caught on over there.

In Houston, Texas area, gas is between $3 and $3.20 per gallon. I live near two Kroger grocery stores with gas stations and usually use them for fueling (since I can use my shopping rewards points to get discounts). This past weekend, I saw that gas in Austin is around 20-30¢ per gallon higher there; fortunately I only had to fill up once there! My truck has a 34 gallon tank so it's a little cheaper to fill it than my Burb, but the downside of that is less range. I think we got an average of 12 mpg on the trip, but we got better mileage on the way home.

 

[Boots97]

I don't think you would've, I never really ventured to the twin cities until I moved to Superior. You might've seen my truck/Cimmaron if I was going to a Wild game. My C3500 was unmistakeable, it was usually being obnoxiously loud, or the radio obnoxiously loud (hides that belt squeal!), usually full of tools or full of family. Or both

I've been to a wild game or two IIRC back when I was little. Now that you mention it, that does seem familiar.

 

[Boots97]

Welcome from Western Wi, I work in the St Paul area and live in Wi. I've got 3 of these old pigs currently, just used for truck stuff and daily drive a little Cruze.

Awesome! I'd love to have 3 of these trucks! Nothing wrong with driving a little Cruze. I plan on buying an older Corolla or Civic as a secondary vehicle to help save me some gas.

 

[Boots97]

Thanks-yours looks very clean too. Yup-they salt the roads here at 0 Celcius-at the mention of frost even lol. Fuel is expensive. Parts I source from rockauto mostly( usually with me within 4 days if I use Fedex)-some members here are also helpful with some of them-in all honesty mist of the parts is not much of a worry. Panels and bigger bits is another story altogether. Not many gmt 400s here-I think I saw more squarebodies than these.

Yeah I've heard panels are really tough over there. Your Tahoe is extremely clean. Doesn't surprise me that there aren't many gmt400s over there since GM never sold them overseas originally (except for ambulances/fire trucks). Rockauto is super good with parts selection. They're based in Madison, WI so I usually get my parts in a day. Surprised to hear that squarebodies are more common than gmt400s. Did you buy yours in the UK or did you have it imported? Did it have to be converted to RHD? It's super cool to see how much love these trucks get outside of the US and Canada.

 

[Boots97]

@Dariusz Salomon @RedneckWithPaychecks @df2x4 Here's some road salt rust off my truck. Not clean, but MO rust is not nearly as bad as MN rust.

 

[Boots97]

In Houston, Texas area, gas is between $3 and $3.20 per gallon. I live near two Kroger grocery stores with gas stations and usually use them for fueling (since I can use my shopping rewards points to get discounts). This past weekend, I saw that gas in Austin is around 20-30¢ per gallon higher there; fortunately I only had to fill up once there! My truck has a 34 gallon tank so it's a little cheaper to fill it than my Burb, but the downside of that is less range. I think we got an average of 12 mpg on the trip, but we got better mileage on the way home.

Wish I could have some $3-$3.20 gas rn. We don't have Kroger stores in MN but I know that Costco gas is $3.18 if you're a member. How big is your Burb tank? My tank on my K1500 is 25 gallons. I average 17 mpg on the highway.

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

Wish I could have some $3-$3.20 gas rn. We don't have Kroger stores in MN but I know that Costco gas is $3.18 if you're a member. How big is your Burb tank? My tank on my K1500 is 25 gallons. I average 17 mpg on the highway.

Burb tank is 42 gallons...and guess when the fuel pump went out? Three days after we filled it up! So my neighbor and I had to fill 5 buckets with gasoline in my front yard! Then the tank still had around 12-15 gallons in it, so we used two floor jacks and four hands to get it down and then back up again. My crew cab tank is 34 gallons. I had 600 points so gas was $2.60 instead of $3.20...only thing nice about not working now is I'm not buying a tank a week!

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

Kroger has a bunch of stores under their umbrella, so you may have an affiliated chain and not know it. But I do know there's some areas they're not in.

 

[df2x4]

Sounds a little weird, but I hope I can travel back to MO one day with this truck and drive on the roads this truck used to drive on and see that part of MO. I've been to KC before but haven't gotten to see central MO before.

We've got some absolutely beautiful scenery and two lane roads. I drive down this little gravel road that runs right next to the Missouri river once every couple months or so just to cruise and admire.

I'd like to visit MN again one of these days. Haven't been since I was a little kid, my mom's parents had a house in the Walker area on Leech Lake. Apparently my Grandpa has a snowmobile trail named after him somewhere up there, I'd love to find it someday.

 

[RedneckWithPaychecks]

@Dariusz Salomon @RedneckWithPaychecks @df2x4 Here's some road salt rust off my truck. Not clean, but MO rust is not nearly as bad as MN rust.

For our standards, thats a clean truck! I've seen so much worse rust from a lot further south than MO, hope it doesn't rust anymore than that