[Ed Snyder]

As you all have probably surmised, I made it home from Wichita in the one ton Suburban yesterday evening. I drove 1778 miles and used 151 gallons of gas for an average of 11.8 mpg. I kept it between 60 and 65 mph for the entire trip which was mostly on interstates until I got to Winnemucca, NV, after which it was two lanes the rest of the way home. I can't remember right now what the overdrive ratio in the Watson box is, but I was probably turning somewhere around 2400 rpm at those speeds. The truck has a tach, but it's not working right now.

About 50 miles outside of Medford there was a truck scales, so I pulled over. The front "axle" weighs 2900 pounds and the rear weighs 3500 for a total of 6400 pounds. I was surprised that the rear weighs that much more than the front.

Until a few years ago when Dad installed lap belts for the driver and right front passenger, the Suburban had no seatbelts. I don't know how the 11 of us survived all those years and thousands of miles without them! Rusty Nut said that if the truck were painted yellow it would look like a school bus. Since school buses have no seatbelts, I guess we were OK without them. I'd feel better now, though, if I could install some 3 point belts at least for the driver and right front seat. And maybe some lap belts for all those rear seats later.