Thought I'd show my face, just bought myself a smiley recovery truck, not too rotten underneath and drives pretty well. It's only going to be working part time but when it's grafting it will be grafting.
Took it on it's first run yesterday working, 315 (ish) miles (Speedo acting funny) and, well it didn't die or fall apart lol.
Couple of niggles, the nearside shock can been seen jiggling up and down a little, the top plate thing under the bolt has a gap before the rubber bush, when I'm turning left (weight off that wheel) it does knock a bit. It isn't the metal it's bolted to (my last one collapsed there so believe me I've checked that lol)
The main concern I have, which seems to have developed during yesterday because it didn't do it when I bought it / drove it home, there's a bit of a whine that sounds like the gearbox area from about 50mph. Aside from this, but also around 50-60mph, particularly when empty, if I'm driving at a steady speed on a flat road (ie not under load) there's a sort of grindy vibratey thing going on that feels like it's coming through the prop. There aren't any leaks that I can see, and the gearbox looks like it's been replaced relatively recently. I'm going to drop and replace the gearbox and diff oil when I can get some, probably on Tuesday because I've got work planned on Monday. If that doesn't solve it I'll get the prop bearing carrier things done. Hopefully that will sort it. I can manage for now but it's not pleasant and I'm worried about it getting worse. If it's something anyone else has experienced (I know my description isn't great lol) I'd welcome pointers
Apart from that, the front left wheel bearing can be a bit noisy and the bottom ball joint was an advisory at MOT so I'll get that looked it, it's a happy little truck that I can see me getting on with. I could've bought a newer, quiter, more economical bland characterless something, but I've got a soft spot for smileys, and when this came up and turned out to be decent enough (and cheap enough) I couldn't say no to its little face
Photo attached