My question — and his — for you: Is there anybody else out there who, as a solo driver, has put 3 million consecutive accident-free miles on the same truck?
Crawford’s heard of “one or two guys out there with 7 million miles of accident-free driving” — and Prime itself has a few 6 million milers, he adds — but he knows of no one in his unlikely position. Ever quick with a joke, Crawford describes his reasoning for staying in the truck this way: “I don’t feel like cleaning it out — it’d take me a month and a half.” Also: “I wish I could have kept all the money I made with it.”
On a more serious note, he attributes the truck’s (and the engine’s, with only a single in-frame overhaul) longevity to, primarily, three things.
“Number one,” he says: “I change the oil religiously every 20,000 miles. I used to change it at 15, then Detroit told us if we were using Mobil we could go to 20.”
2. “Every oil change, I put in two gallons of Lucas oil treatment. … I’ll use a couple of gallons in 20,000 miles, but I got almost a million-seven on the engine before the one engine rebuild — and that was just an in-frame rebuild.”
3. “The other thing is I don’t push it — I don’t run at 80. If the right lane’s real rough, I’ll ride in the left lane. I don’t have to reach the finish line ahead of Jeff Gordon.”
It hasn’t hurt that the truck, he says, has been throughout its life more or less like a good Timex — it takes a lickin’ and…
Wish him luck for the next 37K. Roll on…