Where are my manners, think I put the cart before the horse. Hello, I’m trukntigger tho most just shorten it to Tig. Effingham IL is home (Jct of Interstate 57 & Interstate 70), fly over country is more like it- in the middle of no where surrounded by everything. (2 hrs to St Louis MO, 3 hrs to Indianapolis IN, and 4 to Chicago or Nashville.) Without great detail leave it at I lost my job at age 55 driving semi and find myself on disability so I had to downsize my life before my planned retirement at 65 or so.

Define downsize, in my world that’s when you loose your prized 2015 Chevy Colorado LT 4x4 loaded and adopt a 1998 Blazer LS 4x4 as a replacement (she still working and got to keep her 2015 Mazda CX-5) among things my wife and I are doing. Yes there are cheaper replacements but I refuse to give up my only hobby bass fishing, which meant replacement needed to be able to pull my 2012 Tracker proteam TXW175. Found used pickups are just too over priced so the compromise was a Blazer.

I got a so so deal on this thing. For one, I paid too much but everyone thinks that with cars. In this case its very accurate, $2500 for 1998 with 200k miles. Confession time: my thought was when I purchased this that mechanical work is easy vs body work, I’m no artist so I prioritized body/interior condition over mechanical which was an error on my part. Within first 30 days I have already pumped about 1k in parts into this thing, labor for the most part was me and a few of my sons friends when needed.

Body wise it is very clean hardly a spot of rust anywhere and the interior is decent, no tears or stains and busted up plastics. Mechanically it ran, got home from place of purchase over 200 miles away without stranding me and my son who was 2nd driver. Only after you take possession do you really get to find out what you have to fix. *Sigh* that brought me here. I leave this greeting that one expects some things like a brake job and tires and wipers, general maintenance stuff. The finer details like power window, rear wiper, etc etc..arggg! Never ends, so without further delay the 1st day home obligatory picture.



Day 1, new home. 1998 LS 4x4 200k miles

You can see nose of the now gone 2015 Colorado behind Blazer.

Started trucking in 1991 here. You have no clue how many times I drove thru Grayson Ky on way down to the Carolinas. Hyway 9/double A isn’t it that runs from over by Cincinnati and cuts to Grayson dumping you on 64 towards Huntington. Ran that way a lot until Ohio upgraded Hyway 35 from Dayton to the WV line. Lost my medical to blindness.

Surprised me, rubbing my right eye at night a few years back and noted things had less glare in left and the zipper faded earlier. Saw doc, sends me to another place, they send me to some specialist in StLouis. Aged Macular Degeneration he said, rather young to get it I was told. Started giving me injections to slow the progression in left eye, no cures. Wet in left, dry in right which deteriorates slower but nothing they can do for it. Anyway last spring I go in for another eye check in StLouis and vision had taken a big drop, over 20/100 in left, 20/40 right. Law says 20/40 in both corrected, no more medical card. Add in other physical issues from driving all those years like the pinched nerve in left elbow (from resting it on door sill) and other things, apparently my regular family doc wont let me do much of anything and next I know on disability. I want to say before anyone thinks otherwise I did eat right and take care of myself. I’m 6’6” and still tip the scale at just over 210 lbs.

For now I’m bored to death. Can still drive a car kinda, I mean I do it daytime only and limit it as much as possible. No clue if legal or not, my lic is not up for renewal till April 2020. I like to think of myself as vision impaired. Anyone with this condition knows what I mean, you have no focus in center but still see. My right eye is ok at 20/40 currently. I mean to say its how I can function still like do this forum (iPad and pinch zoom) or work on my Blazer. It’s harder, need lots of light, a magnifier at times and help here and there but I manage.

I will keep the advice in mind. Did not want to tear down engine till something bad did happen. Front seal leaks but not horrid. Lifter tap first few mins after startup. Saw quite a bit of carbon build up in EGR and throttle body. Figure when something major goes like that gasket you mention will do complete tear down and refurb it top to bottom. 90% of this Blazers use is within 10 miles of the house and no job to go too or obligations, I can wait for it to blow.

Over here in flat land country I have one major advantage, no hills and 2 of the 3 lakes I tow boat too are within 15mins of the house and 3rd is 40 miles. The rough part is the closest lake is my favorite- semi private, no wake just troller motors but rather rough ramp, no docks but excellent bass and crappie fishing. It has just rough poured concrete and if water level low one heck of a drop on trailer wheels when concrete ends so need good traction (aka:4wd) to tug it out because shore where auto sits is gravel. Used to have a 2000 Chevy Silverado LS 2wd v8 (no Posi/g80 diff) was a struggle at times with that rig so I got that 2015 Colorado with the v6 and 4wd and figured the Blazer here a close replacement to that and should pull it out.



1st boat hauler- 2000 Chevy LS Reliable but fuel mileage was poor. Hard to park at Walmart and such. Got my moneys worth out of this truck use wise tho.

Better boat hauler- 2015 Colorado, I really miss this truck. Crisp handling, good fuel mileage for a 4wd truck. Easy to navigate parking lots. This was at my favorite lake 3 miles from home

Yea, they put up a new Loves east of here on 70 in Greenup about a year ago. Last place I worked we used nothing but Loves too. Midwest regional, loved it. Home every Friday and left out Monday. $1400 week guaranteed. 90% was drop and hook, all no touch. I miss it, good people to work for. Worked there for years. Ran nothing but IL,eastern IA,southern WI, IN, western OH, KY, TN, eastern MO. On rare occasions did special request for a customer and would go to say GA or TX or such. Owner was as shocked as I was when I lost my medical card like that.

Double A was a hilly beast at north end. Pretty scenic tho, I did like it in spring or summer just had a thing for not liking school bussing hours. Never could pass them when I really wanted too. From my house here I can see the Flying J sign up in air from backyard when the leafs are gone. That Pilot is one exit north/east up from mine. Like most of them I hate those fuel stops, lack of parking and space in a big way. You want your truck hit, park there.

Bah, its ok CR. I’m good, lots of people have it way worse. I lost my youngest brother end of summer last year to cancer, that was worse. (He was fighting it for years and he and all the family knew his time was getting short). Glad your mom doing better, not sure what surgery they did on her eyes tho, maybe cataract removal. Not cures yet for this. In extreme cases they can implant a camera but it tends to give tunnel vision and some other issues. I will say watch your own eyes if your mother does have it. This disease has increased chance of occurring if in your family history. My own mom is 76 and has been legally blind from it for years.

So what happened to the welcome to the forums? Blazer, the better Jeep and all that jazz? It is better, I had a CJ5 hard top 4sp, those manual locking wheel hubs, back in 1983. Was in Airforce at the time, stationed in Elmendorf Alaska (outside Anchorage) Fun drive in that thing up the then all gravel AL-Can hyway from home in Chicago burbs to there (heard its all paved now). It made it but had radiator fixed twice and found out once up there I had low compression on 2 of 6 cylinders. That thing hated the cold and you froze in winter if it did run and that was a hard top. Rough ride, short wheelbase and nickel dimes you to death at every turn. Blazer definitely rides better, my heat rocks and so far it has always started, not sure on the nickels and dimes yet.