Washington to Alabama move

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Hurlbutt
430 crawler
430 crawler
Posts: 72
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2020 8:30 pm
Location: Alabama

Washington to Alabama move

Post by Hurlbutt » Mon Apr 13, 2020 12:03 am

I used to live in the Washington north west, 80 miles north of Seattle. My Wife retired and had had her fill of the area and wanted to move, maybe to the southern hills of Missouri and I was thinking east Tennessee. My wife didn’t want east Tennessee again and Missouri wasn’t working out. Our son and his family had moved to the Huntsville area a year previously so we looked in that direction too. We looked for reasonable property and living costs with a doable distance to a heart transplant facility for on-going care. We ended up on Sand Mountain, near Rainsville and Fort Payne (home of the group Alabama).

I’ve done a lot of driving for this move. It’s about 2700 miles for a one way trip from Washington. So far, there have been six round trips and one 2300 mile one-way trip from Pendelton, OR where I flew up which was this last trip I just did. There was a round trip (2000 miles) to our west Texas property to retrieve furniture and such and four 720 mile round trips to Pendelton, OR, from Washington to store things to get out of Washington sooner and avoid mountain driving in the winter. I have two more trips planed from Pendelton, one is a round trip and, I will fly out and drive back for the other like the trip I just completed. And, you know, moving expenses are no longer deductable.

My high school best buddy and one of my brother-in-laws has allowed me to store my treasures in and around his hangar, short term. With the Covid19 situation, no one is traveling. When I bought the 1010 loader (it hasn’t found it’s way home yet), I was told about a truck delivery driver who makes trips out of Texas and the last flight he did down from Knoxville was nearly empty. Riding in an empty plane sounded good to me and planned the trip. I had planned on a one way trip in the future so just shuffled the order some. My brother-in-law located a Craigslist bargain to avoid renting a truck for less than truck rental. It’s an ‘85 Ford E350 with a box which is some longer than 14 feet. It needed a bit of work on the lights and the roll up door needed some parts but over all was not bad. When I hit the road, the odometer was at 191170. The paint is white with green trim but scratches reveal rental truck yellow.

It is amazing how much stuff that truck can swallow! All my stuff that was in the hangar plus the most of the lawn art is here. All that is left is my ‘89 F250 with the 7.3 idi that needs the E4OD transmission which I’m rebuilding (parts on hand but not the round-to-it) installed and my diesel Beetle that I was doing the belt and pump on when it fell off the priority list. There also the trailer with the bulk of two Cessna 150 airplanes on it and my engine stand and engine hoist, crane, cherry picker or what ever you choose to call the thing (terminologies are a bit regional) which are in use (he is rebuilding his Ferguson TO-20).

I towed Roadkill (that’s what I call one of my trailers) on this trip with the Chinese tractor (24 hp diesel 4x4 with Koyker loader) that was given to me which had been given to the previous owner and the owner before him. (Yup, it was rough. Been significantly dismantled and left out in the 10 months of the year rain for years, out in a field from what I was told.) Also had the PTO powered, auger type wood splitter, the box blade and the bushhog (not capitalized because it’s not that brand). Also squeezed in the 4x8 utility trailer by having it on edge against the tractor.

The flights were a bit lonely. I was the only passenger when flying from Huntsville to Orlando. Orlando to Seattle Tacoma was at 16% capacity and we were spread out and they are doing much more detailed cleaning these days. I was schedualed to fly from SeaTac to Walla Walla, WA that evening but the flight was canceled. After spending the night Sleepless In Seattle (I think Tom Hanks has done that too) I flew to Pasco, WA with maybe five to seven other passengers. From Pasco I flew to a privet strip near Pendelton in a four place Cessna.

Nearly all passengers wore masks, many wore masks in the empty terminals. There were more TSA personal standing around and socializing than travelers. With all TSA and airline employees and airport workers, travelers were in the minority. Most of the businesses were closed so choices were limited for food and shopping.

The trip was ten days total. EARLY Thursday morning until 10:30 Saturday night when I got home. Flight out, one day in the Jeep cruising back roads, working on the truck and loading, plus some socialization. I haven’t gone through the receipts to see what the mileage was. I was told that with the 460 it would be about 8 mpg. Most of the trips have been around 10mpg pulling loads with my F350 with the turbo 7.3 idi and my F250 with the 7.3 idi. I did a couple of the heavy loads with my son’s F350 duelly Power Stroke and got 10 mpg, so not better mileage but SOOO MUCH NICER! The F250 doesn’t have turbo normalization so pulling a load gets pretty slow going up to the 8640 ft summit east of Laramie. The F350 does better with the same engine with normalization but the boost in the Power Stroke makes such a difference. That 8640 elevation accounts for over 25% power loss with the F250.
Bill

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77 Ford
1010 crawler
1010 crawler
Posts: 477
Joined: Tue Nov 22, 2011 7:52 pm
Location: Missouri

Re: Washington to Alabama move

Post by 77 Ford » Fri Apr 17, 2020 9:06 am

Goodness that's alot of miles! Too bad Missouri did not work out for you we are always on the lookout for JD crawler people =)
JD- 450C track loader
Serial #208336T

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