I Want To Drive My Bus To My Baby Each Day

Last week "Big Red" went into the shop for annual maintenance and a complete rebuild of the front end: new ball joints, tie rods, linkage; pretty much everything but the steering box itself (which is still being contemplated, but may not be necessary.) At this point in time, I've now replaced all the major mechanical components with new or newly rebuilt parts: engine, steering, suspension, transaxle are all less than seven years old and have - at most - less than 50,000 miles wear.

Just to put that into perspective: when I replaced the engine with a new rebuild back in 2001 Red had about 190,000 miles under his wheels. Currently my odomoter is just over 240,000. Granted rebuilt parts don't have the same kind of useful life as new OEM parts, but they should get 75 - 80% of that, if not more with due care and regular maintenance. And, given that I'm only putting about 3,000 a year on it at this point (with an average annual mileage of only 6,250 over the past eight years), barring an unforeseen catastrophe, it's entirely possible I can keep Red in good running order for another 20 years.

Assuming of course that gasoline is still available in 20 years time, that is.

(Although secretly, I'm hoping mass-produced hydrogen fuel-cell conversion kits will hit the market in about 10 years.)