The sole Bronco II in a city: a Russian odyssey

[hurgrave]

Hello camrades (isn't that expected of Russian to call others 'camrades' )!
Let me introduce myself on a message boards of RS.
My name is Max Shkel and I own a 1987 manual trans Bronco II XLT. It's the sole driveable B2 in my home city of Tyumen and one of maybe a five dozens in Russia. I also own a 1993 Crown Vic - rather an odd choice in a land of Hyundai and Dacias.

And here are the shots.

And that's me 'outdooring'

 

[scooter]

Wow!
1st Russian on TRS?
Welcome!!!


Todd S.

 

[redneck_rainey]

Pretty cool! Its good to see the ford oval in other countries

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Welcome, I hope you like this forum. You write English well. I have to ask...how much is fuel over there? Right now I'm paying ~ $1.10/liter.

Richard

 

[chrwilkins30]

the truck actually looks to be in pretty good shape. How hard is it to get parts around there?

 

[hurgrave]

Thank you for warm response!

My B2 is actually not in a great shape. Body is mostly ok (except rear body-to-roof pillars). Engine is also running acceptably, tranmission (infamous FM145) is noisy but still shifts ok. My eternal damnation is a starter teeth slippage: http://therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=127360

Spare parts are not a great problem in Russia since we've got Paypal, Ebay, R*ckauto and LMC. The shipping is a pain 'cause sometimes you spent $40 on a part and lose $60 for shipping. Shipping time is significant also. Typicaly it's about three weeks from USA to Moscow and about a week inside Russia. Tyumen is about 1200 miles from Moscow and that does make a difference. Capital city American trucks owners are much less limited. They even have salvage yards and some servicemen and shops. Zounds of big Broncos were imported as encashment vessels to Russia and hundreds of CVPI's entered a police service. The pool of Gen1 Explorers is significant too.
The most annoying is shipping time. It brings great delays in any work. You take away the small seal or gasket and... just wait for a month or more. We have to make lots of preventive repairs or wait with our rigs disassembled.

Gas prices are bit disappointing in Russia. We usually pay about a dollar per 1 L (yesterday it was 0,91 USD per litre). A typical month salary in Russia is about 5-7 hundred US dollars so the relative price is high. That is why we like a LPG fuel system upgrade to an older V6s and V8s.

That's all for now methinks

 

[ronclark]

Welcome to the TRS, its always great to see Ford else were in the world.

 

[Jim Oaks]

Welcome aboard!

Seems odd to see a Bronco II in Russia.

 

[hurgrave]

In fact there are lots of 'Big Three' cars fans in Russia. There are strong communities of blue oval, cross and pentastar followers. No matter of prohibitive customs and road taxes.
Two countries differ very much but something is common: vast roads, spectacular sights, thousands of freeway miles to go (except we count in metric values), good company and a bit of nomadic spirit. And it thinks to me that's what a true american car is built for.