Are Tailgate Dampeners Frowned On Around Here?

[P. A. Schilke]

Hahahaha
Sounds like my old 1968 Ford F100 Ranger short bed! No power stearing and manual drum brakes too!

Hi John,

Another back story, I was handed the task of building the AWD F Series in 1974 The transfer case was a New Process Gear (Chrysler) with an interaxle differential, NPG 203 transfer case. The stock trucks were ordered before I took over the project. The build was to be in the Experimental Garage Vehicle build area overseen by a great fellow Bob Hoover. Not likely Bob is with us today as he was near retirement at the time I met him. Anyway, I met Bob to introduce myself and make arrangements for overseeing the build. Bob was wonderful..big smile and having experiences with green horn engineers like me. We instantly liked each other. So he told me that two of the build from units were over in the Engineering and Research parking lot and would I help him move these two trucks over to the X Garage build area. You bet...so we were driven over to the lot with Bob having the keys for both vehicles. He handed me a set of keys and we set out to find these trucks. F250 HD 4x4s...no problem finding them as they were both white, but they towered over all the other vehicles in the flippin' lot! So I got out of the shuttle van and approached this truck that I was to drive. My nose was even with the door handle! Yikes! So opened the door to this bare bone truck with ZERO options. Manual steering, Manual brakes, a 4 speed manual trans with 1st gear being 6.67 1st gear. Started up the truck and Bob had found the other one so I drove over to him but I could barely turn the steering wheel as such low speed and hitting the brakes I thought I was going to bend the steering wheel to stop the flippin' truck. Bob said, let's go...sheesh! We got the vehicle back to the X garage and I bailed out of the truck...aghast that Ford would even sell something like this....

We have come a long way from those days!

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

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[Glocker]

Hi John,

Another back story, I was handed the task of building the AWD F Series in 1974 The transfer case was a New Process Gear (Chrysler) with an interaxle differential, NPG 203 transfer case. The stock trucks were ordered before I took over the project. The build was to be in the Experimental Garage Vehicle build area overseen by a great fellow Bob Hoover. Not likely Bob is with us today as he was near retirement at the time I met him. Anyway, I met Bob to introduce myself and make arrangements for overseeing the build. Bob was wonderful..big smile and having experiences with green horn engineers like me. We instantly liked each other. So he told me that two of the build from units were over in the Engineering and Research parking lot and would I help him move these two trucks over to the X Garage build area. You bet...so we were driven over to the lot with Bob having the keys for both vehicles. He handed me a set of keys and we set out to find these trucks. F250 HD 4x4s...no problem finding them as they were both white, but they towered over all the other vehicles in the flippin' lot! So I got out of the shuttle van and approached this truck that I was to drive. My nose was even with the door handle! Yikes! So opened the door to this bare bone truck with ZERO options. Manual steering, Manual brakes, a 4 speed manual trans with 1st gear being 6.67 1st gear. Started up the truck and Bob had found the other one so I drove over to him but I could barely turn the steering wheel as such low speed and hitting the brakes I thought I was going to bend the steering wheel to stop the flippin' truck. Bob said, let's go...sheesh! We got the vehicle back to the X garage and I bailed out of the truck...aghast that Ford would even sell something like this....

We have come a long way from those days!

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

Ha! Imagine my young self, having only ever driven modern cars with things like power steering and such, and getting in that F100. Oh, and on my first drive I lost three of the four brake cylinders! ?