Category: Trip Logs

Nationals 2026 Trip Report

Our trip to Ohio started out with a bit of a whimper. Brian made his way across the bridge at a reasonable hour, and I was packed and ready to hit the road as soon as he threw his bag in the Scout. After kissing Jen, petting the dog, and forgetting my phone on my desk, we jumped in and prepared to start the truck. Then Brian sadly held up several parts of his seatbelt, which had exploded in his hands as he tried to click it in place.

Finley broke the female side of the seatbelt several years ago and I’ve always been able to get it put back together, but this time it was in multiple pieces and we were antsy to get on the road. So I grabbed one of the spare lap belts from the Red Bus and we swapped it into place while big fat drops of rain started coming down around us. Satisfied we had reached a minimum level of safety,  we hit the road for the Park & Ride on Rt. 32, where we were meeting Bennett. He was driving Heavy D, his red-on-white pickup, now that Mr. Hanky has moved to Pennsylvania under the assumed name Hank. The rain continued for a while, at least until we made it past Frederick, and then the skies lightened up and we drove toward the setting sun. At speed the soft top held the water at bay, for which we were thankful.

We decided to stop off at the Oak Barrel Cafe, an unassuming but absolutely top-notch gas station/restaurant where we’d grabbed dinner last year, and where Mr. Hanky decided to blow a lower radiator hose. This time there was no drama, and we each got a giant slice of cake to go for the road. From there we drove another 3 hours and found a hotel in Washington, PA, south of Pittsburgh, for a layover. We’d been hoping to meet up with our friends Chad and Liz, who live nearby and now own Hank, but they’d left a day earlier.

Thursday morning we woke a bit later than we planned on, ate some powdered hotel eggs, and hit the road by 10. The drive west was pleasant and mild—the first 2/3 of the trip was overcast and the recent rain had cooled the hills of western PA and the plains of Ohio down to a reasonable temperature. With a bunch of expensive gas stops, we made it to Dayton and the entrance of the Air Force Museum by 3:30. This year we walked all the way to the back hangar and spent most of our time there, as we hadn’t been able to see much of it last year. After being shooed out of the museum at last call, we drove over to a restaurant to have some dinner, stopped at a grocery store for provisions—ice and beer, mainly—and then headed to the hotel. We met a few friends in the parking lot, checked ourselves in (a ground-floor room is the way to go) and walked back outside to tailgate.

Chad and Liz were already there, and we met her parents, who were super nice. As we all stood around the bed of Heavy D and caught up, a tall silver-haired man drove up towing a Super Scout on a trailer, parked, walked over and introduced himself: Pate, a fellow we’d met up with years ago when I was organizing local gatherings. I shook his hand and offered him a beer, and we all settled into comfortable, fun conversation. At one point Pate disappeared into his truck and came back with a mason jar full of brown liquid with a wooden block in the center, took a sip, and passed it to me: delicious homemade bourbon flavored with a chunk of oak. This was passed around the circle to unanimous approval. We all stayed out until 11:30 or so, and made plans for the next morning to caravan over to the show.

The next morning we powered up with hotel breakfast and headed out to the parking lot. We helped Pate get his truck off the trailer, which gave me the opportunity to sit in a Super Scout for the first time while warmed up the engine; I can definitely see the appeal of taking the doors off a Scout II. Then we caravanned over to the show. After setting up camp and registering, we hit the parts stands to see what was available. A couple of the usual vendors weren’t there this year, but there was still plenty to dig through and many deals to be had. I restrained myself to only buying a set of new hood bump stops for the Travelall—they require fine pitch bolts, which are specific to IH as far as I can tell. Back at the trucks, I pulled out the Bestop box and put a sign on it. Within about an hour I had three guys trying to talk me down on the price. Eventually we made a deal for cash, and I doubled my money, which meant I had cash for parts!

There were a few tech talks that sounded interesting but the one about electrics that I wanted to hear didn’t actually happen; I don’t know what the story was, but the production didn’t seem to be as professional as it had been last year. The whole day seemed to fly by, and before we knew it we were packing up to head back to the hotel. Bill and his girlfriend arrived from Michigan with his Travelall on a trailer and I made introductions. We stayed up again until 11 catching up and drinking beers in the parking lot.

Saturday morning we met up again for an even larger caravan, this time collecting Bill at a gas station down the street. This was the first time he had driven his truck long distance after thrashing on the drivetrain and front suspension the night before he left, so I think he was happy to have a group of guys in trail. We made it to the show with no problems and set up camp with our group. Scott from the Super Scout Registry parked his truck on the other side of our row and I worked with a couple of guys next to us to make him space so that he could pull in next to Pate to have two original Super Scouts next to each other. I think this made them both happy.

Once we were set up, we went back out to the parts stands to see what was left and what was new. With a bunch of cash in my pocket, I was keen on finding big stuff without having to pay for shipping. The first thing I grabbed was a used Scout seatbelt to replace the one we’d cobbled together in the driveway and a length of wire with a very specific male/female connector from Phil Coonrod. This wire connection is the key element for fabricating a wired dome light for the Scout that I’m going to put on the rollbar.  Over at the Scout Connection booth I splurged on a set of door felts for the Travelall. These are expensive, but are well worth the cost, because they make rolling the windows up and down much easier—and prevent the glass from breaking when you close the doors. Ask me how I know. Further down at the Scout Boys stand I spied a set of 800 gas tanks, and before I could ask, Doug told me I could take them for $10 each. I could not get my cash out fast enough: the driver’s side was a little rough, but the passenger side tank looked almost NOS: bare metal with zero holes anywhere. This was the deal of the day. I also picked up a Travelall-specific armrest mount, minus the pad, for $5. I’ve got four of these from the green truck, but two of them are cracked pretty badly.

We returned to our camp and I put my other two parts for sale out in front: a new Straight Steer bar and an early Scout 80 heater plenum, each at what I thought was a reasonable price. We then went to listen to the Scout Motors update, which was delivered by one of the heads of marketing. It sounds like everything is still on track and they are making great progress on the facility. He dispelled most of the odd rumors we’ve heard. It was a bummer they didn’t have the display trucks there this year, but it was good to hear that things are still moving forward.

In the afternoon, we finally got our act together and walked around the display trucks, but people had started leaving early for some reason and by the time we made it out to the rows, probably 1/3 of the trucks had already left. What was still there was really cool though. I talked to a guy with a beautiful, pristine C-series pickup at length about his wheels and some other details: It was a 1964 model with the same 16″ wheels I have. He’s running LT215/85R16 tires, which are readily available anywhere; this will be my new direction. I spent a bunch of time drooling over his picture-perfect grille surround, thinking about how mine is disintegrating.

He also had a really nice GM-style armrest in his truck that looked better than the stock plastic mounts, which gave me an idea for mine. I measured the bolt holes on the plastic one I’d bought and realized it wouldn’t fit the holes already drilled in my doors, so I’m on the hunt for some aftermarket units.

I also stopped by the IHPartsAmerica booth to talk with Jeff and Zaed about two things: I had the clutch core from the Scout from last year that I wanted to turn in for store credit, and I wanted to show them the C-series cupholder I’d designed. Jeff was interested in the design, made a few suggestions, and told me to get a shipment of 10 set up to resell! I cannot explain how excited I was about this. One of the first things I did after chopping the recap video together was to update the design and send it off to SendCutSend.

Reluctantly, we decided to leave at about 4 o’clock to get back to the hotel and prep for the auction as well as get some dinner. Because we got back early early, we were able to score parking spots close to the stage, and cooled off in the pool before the event. There were a lot of donations for the auction this year, and we had gotten word that an anonymous donor was going to match the final amount. Nobody had bought the straight steer or the heater plenum so I put the former in the auction with our names on it. I tried flying the drone over the parking lot before the event started, but I was having issues with stability and didn’t want to crash it on top of somebody’s expensive truck so I put it away and set up a time lapse on a tall pole.

The auction was a lot of fun; there were only a few things I was interested in, but I was surprised the straight steer didn’t collect more money than it did. I guess most people who need one already have one. The auction wound up collecting over $12,000, and with the match they raised $25,000 for two charities. When that was over, we hung out in the parking lot tailgating.

Jim from Super Scouts stopped by with a nice little part he and I had discussed earlier: a washer unit for the Travelall using a modern motor mated to a custom bracket he’d built. All three of the wiper units I have—the original, the one from the green truck, and one I pulled from a parts truck—are all rusted solid, so a new weather sealed unit that’s more powerful is exactly what the truck needs. Grateful, I paid him cash and stored it in a dry bin in the truck. We hung out until about 11 before Brian and I decided our social batteries were low and we hung it up for the evening. Bennett came in not too long after that and we all crashed out after a long day.

Sunday morning we were dragging a little bit but got packed up and ready to leave at about 10 o’clock. By that time we were one of only about 10 trucks left in the parking lot: everybody else had either headed for home or the show by then. I topped off all of my fluids, including coolant, and after gassing up, we hit the road. Right outside of Enon, Ohio I suddenly lost power steering and brakes and was able to pull off the exit and stop out in front of a logistics warehouse. Opening the hood revealed that the radiator cap had blown off, dousing the front of the truck with coolant, which popped the power steering belt off the pulley. The belt was a quick fix: loosening a 1/2″ bolt for slack, looping the belt back on, and tightening the pulley back up. The radiator  cap was another matter, but once again, Bennett came to the rescue: he had a spare in his truck. With that fixed, I started the truck back up and we decided to hit Super Scout Specialists, which was only a mile and a half down the road. On the way I stopped at an auto parts store and got an eight dollar radiator cap for a backup.

There were a bunch of trucks already out in front of the store, and we joined the crowd inside, browsing the displays and parts. There were a lot of things that would be nice to have but nothing I really desperately needed. One thing I did find on a shelf was a reproduction plastic travel armrest with a soft foam pad in a gray that looks like it approximates the original color. These were $50 apiece so I put them back for future consideration.

I did look carefully at one of the ambulances in the front display area to see what they’d mounted on the front fenders back in the day, and realized that instead of extra lights, my truck probably had a pair of sirens on each side. Mine were a different model—I’ve got three bolt holes in a straight line as opposed to four in a square, but the idea is the same.

We wandered through the rear part section and found a good scout 800 dash pad for Brian, which he put back, and a couple of other nice to have items that we didn’t really need. Out in the parts yard I spied the black Travelall I had pulled the window from three years ago and another white truck next to it: both looked to have 16 inch wheels. The ones on the white truck were in much better shape. I filed that away for future reference: I want to see what they’re asking for just the steelies, and maybe they’re in better shape than the ones I have.

We bought some small stuff and hit the road by noon, which meant we were going to be getting home late. The drive was uneventful other than periods of rain; again, with the top rolled up safari-style, there was little water intrusion in the truck other than a leaky corner above the passenger A-pillar, which Brian plugged with a rag. We didn’t hit major weather until we were about 1/2 hour from home, when the heavens opened up on us and traffic slowed to 30mph. Thankfully the wipers in the Scout worked diligently, and two applications of Rain-X made it so that I could see the road ahead of us. I do have to re-adjust the headlights downwards, though.

We rolled into the driveway at about 9:30 and quickly threw Brian’s gear into his truck; he still had another hour to go before getting home. I pulled the truck in the garage, shut her down, and brought my gear inside.

As always, I had a fantastic time at the show. There’s nothing better than getting together with your friends for an adventure, which takes you to a place filled with more friends who are all there for the same reason. I can’t express how welcoming everyone is at the show—and now that we’ve been there five times, we know almost everyone. As I mentioned earlier, this year felt like it flew by. I didn’t feel like I saw everything or got to talk with everyone I wanted to, which is completely different than in years past. I also didn’t take as many pictures or shoot as much video as in years past, which was also strange.

One of the things we’re talking about is maybe attending Harvesters in the Holler, another event that happens in Tennessee in September; this is an 8-10 hour drive, but it sounds just as friendly and fun as Nationals, without the vendor/show component. It’s more of a meet-up/barbecue/camping event, which sounds like a lot of fun. We’ll see. Hopefully gas will be cheaper by then.

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Packing Up

Peer Pressure is (mostly) packed and ready to go to Ohio, currently sitting in the garage waiting for some morning rainstorms to pass. Brian is going to ride with me, as he hasn’t been able to get Slowflake’s wiring issues sorted out. I’m bringing a bunch of stuff with me in the hopes that I can sell it, along with the usual tailgating gear and a jumbled bag of cameras and cords. Probably more cords than cameras, actually. I’m going to add a full-size tote for that and my clothes to make sure that any oncoming storms don’t soak my dry stuff. I believe the truck is ready for the trip; I took her out and back to Westminster last weekend, about 70 miles, and she ran like a sewing machine. I also used her to ferry 1/2 ton of donated food that Jen collected over to the local elementary school on Monday, which made me feel really good.

I just stumbled on the fact that Crown Victoria steel wheels are 15×6.5 with a 5×4.5 bolt pattern. There are two generations, and the ones closest to what I’d need are the 1992-1997 model years, which have a backspacing of 4″ and an offset of 0 to 12mm. I could easily put a 235/60R16 on this and be in good shape; the trick would be whether or not I could fit hubcaps on the rims.

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Mission: 800 Recovery

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Mission: Recover Dan’s 800 was successful. More successful than I had anticipated, actually. The Saturday-morning plan was for Brian to bring his fancy new aluminum trailer over from the Eastern Shore for its maiden recovery mission, which meant we needed to meet early so that he could get back home in the afternoon for an appointment. So Bennett and David and I met up before dawn in my driveway and we did a convoy of Hondas stuffed with recovery gear to Dan’s house, with a brief stop at Dunkin’ for fuel. The second-gen Honda CR-V is now the official chase car/recovery vehicle of the Old Line State Binders.

Brian pulled up shortly after we got there, and thankfully the field was dry and cold enough to be solid under the axles of the trailer. After walking the route, we found it clear and dry enough to drive on, so Bennett and I pulled as close as we could to the 800 and started unloading tools.

I gave the family cash and got a bill of sale for the truck, although there’s no VIN number I can find anywhere—on some trucks it was bolted to the firewall and on others it was bolted to the door. This truck has neither, so getting a title is going to be a challenge—but I have two good options there. Later on I’ll scrape the frame rail to find the true VIN and get a lineset ticket.

Brian is a pro at navigating through narrow corridors, and quickly had the trailer backed up to the truck. While he was doing that I started loosening lug nuts—and found out quickly that the driver’s side studs are reverse thread. I’d brought two spares for the front tires, and with an assist from Brian’s corded impact gun (run off the plug on the back of his Ford hybrid, very trick) and my Hi-Lift jack, we had the wheels swapped and the truck ready to roll very quickly. (Note to self: diagnose and repair the lowering linkage on the Hi-Lift). Running the line out from his winch, I hopped up into the Scout, put it in neutral, and we quickly had it up on the trailer. It went so smoothly, in fact, we had it strapped down and ready to move by 9AM. I threw the two bad tires in the back as well as an original skinny 7″ steel wheel and we strapped all of the loose parts down.

Then we went bushwhacking behind the garage and David and I walked the steel half-cab to the bed of Brian’s truck. With that in place, My task was done, but we wanted to stop back in the woods to see if we could get the visor off the junk Travelall for Bennett, as well as scope out the bed extensions on the other pickup. With a bunch of PBblaster, verious screwdrivers and a BFH we got the visor and the mounts off the truck, as well as some other doodads.

With that stuff secured, and a final survey of the remaining vehicles in the bushes, we checked the straps again and got on the road for home. Back at the house, my neighbor moved his second car out of the driveway so Brian could back the trailer up and straight into our yard. We dropped it in between the garage and the greenhouse with few problems, folded up all the straps, and cleared out.

With that done, I treated the guys to a hearty breakfast down the street, and we all marveled over how quickly the job went. Back at the house I handed off some tools and a vise to Brian, and a spare wheel and the manual shift column I’d collected to David, a nd everyone left for home around 1PM. I came inside and promptly fell asleep on the couch with a snoring dog, which was exactly what I needed.

On Sunday I took advantage of a free hour to pull the spark plugs and dump some Marvel Mystery Oil down to the pistons, as well as pull the carburetor to soak in cleaner. The plugs were fouled with carbon as was the carburetor, which means it was running too rich when it was parked. The whole truck is filthy, which is no surprise, so it’ll need a good pressure wash before I can really start tearing things apart. The plan is to move Peer Pressure up to Brian’s place, where he’s got a spare garage bay he can rent me in January with a plug for a trickle charger while the weather is salty. I’ll keep the 800 at the house where I can work on getting it moving, and leave the Travelall napping in the driveway.

I have a crap-ton of video to edit over the holiday break, including some drone footage I shot before I crashed it into a tree and broke one of the legs. So that repair job is also on the calendar. But stay tuned, it’ll be live soon!

Big thanks to Bennett, David, and Brian for all their help and another fun early-morning tetanus adventure!

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Braked

Well, this weekend was a journey. Mostly a good one; a lot of good stuff got accomplished, and I spent a bunch of time with friends, but it wasn’t without its challenges.

We had a workday scheduled at Brian’s place in the country to work on Heavy D, Bennett’s long-sidelined pickup waiting for welding repairs, a windshield install, and re-assembly of the front clip. The last time I was out there I’d bent and formed a complicated section of metal to weld to the front of the firewall but Brian’s commercial welder was too strong to work the sheet metal without blowing through it. We were also going to help Brian move his pickup around and place the bed on the frame to free up space, and see what other stuff we could get up to.

My plan was to drive Darth Haul out there for her first short-distance trip, so I worked on the engine timing and fuel system on Thursday. I was having issues with the fuel pump pulling debris from the saddle tank up into the pickup and clogging it, so I rigged the boat tank up with a length of hose and put it on the passenger floor. After loading up my tools, welder, and welding bin, I hit the road at about 9 and took my time getting out there. Brian’s place is about 20 miles away, and I took back roads to avoid any high-speed sections. The truck did very well! Shifting is smooth, the engine is strong, and the brakes worked well. I noticed a vibration at 40mph and heard some rubbing in back, which foreshadowed later events.

At Brian’s house, I helped he and Bennett to clean out Mr. Hanky, because our friends Chad and Liz were coming down from Pittsburgh to possibly buy it. Bennett has had it up for sale since Nats in order to free up cash and space for a cleaner Scout, and they’ve been in the market for another project for a while. They arrived at 11 and he showed Chad the truck while we caught up with Liz. By 1PM the deal was done, and we helped them load the trucks up with a pile of extra parts. It was bittersweet to see Hanky drive away, but it’s great to see him going to a good home—it reminds me so much of selling Chewbacca to Carolyn to give to Brian—I know they’re going to do a great job reviving him.

After moving Brian’s pickup and freeing up a bunch of floor space, we had pizza delivered for a late lunch and then set to work on Heavy D. The first big task was to re-install the windshield, and luckily the rubber was designed exactly like what I put in Peer Pressure, so I knew how to align it in the channel. Between the four of us and with judicious use of glass cleaner, we got it in place and then used plastic putty spreaders to guide the edges into the channels, then fold the locking flap over.

With that done, I set my welder up and put the patch in place, ground it down, and got it ready for paint while Brian and Bennett started hanging fenders. Within about an hour we had the truck put mostly back together and ready for a test fire. The carb was mad at being ignored for a year, and didn’t want to run properly, so Bennett will have to go back and diagnose that. By 5PM we wound down and set course for home. I took Bennett back to his place, but noticed the truck working harder as we drove. Stopping for gas I found all four wheels hot to the touch, which told us the brakes were dragging. By the time we got to his house the passenger rear was smoking slightly. We pulled the wheels off and cooled them down with a hose, then banged the drums off with a hammer. The pads were all the way extended, which meant that the system wasn’t releasing pressure. It was getting dark, so he gave me the keys to his CR-V and I drove that home after parking Darth in his driveway.

The next morning I got there at 9 with all of my brake tools and fluids, and we started troubleshooting the system. After tearing apart and rebuilding the rear drums three times, we tested the master cylinder upstream and verified it wasn’t the lines above either axle. So we disconnected and bench bled the master until it looked clear, then connected everything back up to test. It looked like the brakes were grabbing and releasing, and a test drive verified this. While under the truck I also noticed a huge dent in the driveshaft, which explains the vibrations above 40MPH.

I packed up my tools, extended my sincere gratitude for Bennett’s knowledge and time, and set course for home. She ran well and didn’t feel like she was struggling the farther we went. The brakes and clutch felt good, and I got her home with no problems. The wheels were hot when I checked them after parking it, but not scalding as they had been before. It may take another bench bleed to really kick the issue, but for now, I’m happy she’s back in the driveway.

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Sunday Drive

I drove the Scout to Easton over the Bay Bridge on Sunday and it ran like a top. It was a perfect day for a drive: Sunny but cool and the traffic was light. I was nervous about tourist traffic coming back in the evening and got on the road early in the afternoon but sailed all the way through Kent Island and over the bridge with no stopping.

When I got home, I had a little time to futz with the Travelall in the driveway before the girls got home and fired it up again. The idle was super rough, so I loosened the distributor and started adjusting the timing. It was at that point I noticed one of the plug wires had come off, which made no sense: I’ve never touched the distributor before then. Hooking that back up immediately cleaned the exhaust up, and the truck idled much smoother. At that point, the girls let me know they were headed back home, so I disconnected everything and buttoned the truck back up. I’m going to have to pull the carburetor off and clean it up. The accelerator pump is not functioning, and I think the jets are probably a little clogged. So I’m gonna pull it tomorrow and start cleaning things out after dinner.

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Weekend Wandering

Without Darth in the driveway, I’ve been tackling some small things on the Scout that have been bugging me. The biggest of these was the exhaust donut leak, which was not remedied a couple of weeks ago. Looking around the interwebs I found a two-piece flange replacement available locally, and set about to installing it. Getting the original flange off was easy enough, but getting the new one on was trickier. Because it’s heavier and thicker, it sits lower on the exhaust pipe and thus requires a longer bolt. And its location next to the frame meant that there was a lot of wiggling and some hammering involved to get it in the right place before I could tighten it up. But after a brief test ride Saturday and a longer 50-mile drive on Sunday, there’s no leak, and I think I can call this fixed.

While I was under the truck I tightened up the emergency brake cable, which has been loose for months, and checked that off the list.

Sunday I met up with Bennett, Brian and a couple of other folks up at Dan’s place to show our friend Brendan the whole stash in the woods; he’d be the guy most interested in clearing a path and hauling out all the trucks. I prepared better this time, bringing a can of 40% DEET, duct-taping my ankles, and generally insuring that the ticks couldn’t get to me.

We started in the garage and looked over all the stuff in there, and then walked back through the field to the trucks in the woods. The underbrush has grown a lot in two months. Brendan looked over things carefully and then we walked back to the garage, discussing what he’d be interested in and what he wasn’t.

While that was happening, I dug out a trio of good hubcaps from the huge stash in the garage and made a good deal on them. Brian made a deal on a rusty Scout 800 tailgate, which he had to go back into the woods for.

While he and Bennett did that, I cleared off one of the better Scout 800s closer to the house, which was covered in vines, and got a better look at it. I’ve been thinking about a test vehicle for Brian’s electrification project, and that truck looks like an excellent candidate. I think I’ve talked him into taking advantage of the sale. If he had the space I’d recommend grabbing it and the blue 80 to be able to account for all of the changes between early and late production models.

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Back home in the garage, I was looking a little closer at the gauge set Tyler handed off to me, and rubbed off some of the dirt to reveal the serial numbers. I was surprised to see the initials SW, which almost certainly stands for Stewart Warner, and started looking up the serials. It turns out they are Stewart-Warner, and they look pretty cool. So, I’ll have to consider if I want to swap those in.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   1 Comment on Weekend Wandering  |  Posted in Friends, Junkyards, Trip Logs