Hi all,

I've recently purchased my first Power Wagon - a 1961 W300.

I'm told via 3rd and 4th person that it was originally a military vehicle, then was sold to a fire department, then to a fireman, then to the PO. And now it's mine. I moved it from Ohio to SC.

I've only just received it and have very little experience so far but here were my early observations:

1.) Very cool. This thing is big. Nice stance.
2.) Pretty good shape overall. There is rust but nothing too bad.
3.) Steering - certainly not power assist. But also quite a lot of play while driving. I'm not used to that - is it normal or do I need to make some adjustments?
4.) Suspension - fairly "springy". If you hit a bump - this thing bounces. Seems like it would benefit from some new shocks.
5.) Ignition - takes a bit of convincing to fire up. Probably a mix of my ignorance with the old engine (318 poly, manual choke, 4 bbl carb.) and needing a good tune-up.
7.) Brakes - gotta step pretty hard to slow this beast down. I'm assuming at a minimum the brakes need to be adjusted.
8.) Driving - short trip to the gas station (3 miles) and then to Lowes (5 miles). So less than 20 miles. Doesn't seem to need 1st gear (I'm assuming that's for hard wor. Shifts nicely and I got up to about 60mph. A little bit exciting with the play in the steering and brakes - need to drive quite a bit differently than normal.

I've added it to the registry so I thought I'd say hello.