...it is a beast, and I treat it like any other hot rod - like a 'toy'. Its first day out since his near-literal hibernation was a success, tho not without some issues. We went to Chinaman Gulch out near Buena Vista - always a great trail, and always a bit 'bigger' than the previous time. Bud did just fine, tho about a quarter of the way into the trail I started noticing a burning smell, which upon inspection I noticed the r-rear rotors was 'dripping'. Yeah apparently the corrosion from being out east and not moving for several years took its toll on the rear calipers and the pistons weren't retracting, and the rear brakes were dragging, enough so to liquify the grease in the hub, which was dripping out the bottom of the slotted rotor - literally smoking hot. Also noticed the left rear was almost as bad - not smoking but too hot to touch. Our solution was to unbolt/pry off both calipers, wedge a small tree branch between the pads, and duck tape them to the top of the leaf springs. Worked great, and since were in lo-lo most of the trail I really didn't 'need' brakes most of the time, and the front F550 brakes are so strong I didn't hardly notice not having the rears. Also interesting is the grease apparently cooled off enough to become 'grease' again and never dripped the rest of the trail.

The rest of the trail was uneventful - the truck seemed to 'remember' why it was built and performed just like it always has - it was like spending quality time with an old friend