Welcome Snowflake (the truck)

Driving, driving, driving. We’ve driven six straight days to get from West Yellowstone, MT to Poolville, TX (a bit west of Fort Worth - Dallas). Molly & Cody are clearly tired of travel days. We never drive that much, so why, you ask, were we in such a hurry to get to the heat of Texas in July? The answer is that we decided to morph our Ford F350 pick-up truck into a 2009 International Durastar 4400 Medium Duty Truck (I think that it is really big). It is 14" wider, 20" longer, and 14" higher than the Ford F350. It has two 50 gallon fuel tanks and we’ve been told that our mileage will not be significantly worse than in the Ford.

Welcome Snowflake!







Robert named the truck Snowflake because it is snow white (and not little and dainty).

We bought the new truck over the phone and via email. The process was very easy. Wayland Long of 2L Custom Trucks is known for producing beautiful truck conversions and he has delivered one for us. The interior is beautiful.



This picture is meant to provide a bit of perspective on the size of Snowflake.



Climbing into the cab is a two-handed operation.

Snowflake has a push-button automatic transmission (that should be the easy part) but also has switches to control things that I’ve never of heard of previously.



Hitching up seemed easier in part because Snowflake as a rear camera so Robert can see the hitch and in part because it doesn’t have tailgate side walls that obstruct my view of setting the height of the 5th wheel. The air-ride seats will take some time to get used to controlling. (Each rider inflates his or her seat independently, depending on how much cushioning one wants.)

Oh, and Snowflake does have an air horn in case someone wants to make a statement!

HONK!!!!!