Posted by Jeff in N. Texas on Monday, January 20, 2003 at 9:08PM :
Today, while at a small local auto.repair garage, I ran into one of the prevoius owners of the 59 FF I recently purchased. I was asking the owner about some parts for my 230 engine, and this other gentleman who was there heard me mention "Power Wagon. He began telling me a story about a 59 that he once owned. Turned out, it is the one I now own. What a small world! He filled me in on some of the early history of the truck, how he got it, and who he sold it to. Now I know the whole story of my truck.
He only owned the truck about a year, and his experience with it was pretty funny. Seems he thought it would make a good truck to take to their hunting property in Wyoming each year. He loaded it with all their camping gear, pulled the axles in the rear, made some kind of "blank hubs" for the front and so it was rigged to freewheel for easy towing. In the fall of 1968, they set out for Wyoming from Texas, towing the FF with a 1965 ford pickup. He said they liked to burned that Ford up towing that heavy Powerwagon. They made it to Wyoming, used the PW for hunting, then loaded up to drive home. Left camp and got about 5 miles down a bad road, when PW decided to swerve toward the ditch. It took the Ford with it and tore the tow bar to pieces in the process. After reinstalling the axles and hubs, they towed the Ford out of the ditch. Instead of trying the tow again, they decided to drive the PW back to Texas. HE said this was their second big mistake. He drove the PW at a top speed of about 35 - 40 MPH. Said it took him over 24 hours to make the trip. He sold the truck a few weeks after getting it home. We all had a good laugh over this story. It was fun to hear about the past life of my truck.
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