F350 Super Duty achieves 1,020.00 Miles.

[csv8]

There are milestones and then there are "million milestones."

With the economy still wobbly for many folks, there are some vehicle owners not only delaying purchase of a new vehicle but trying to surpass all expectations for how long they cam make their current wheels last.

And for a handful of pickup owners, adding a seventh figure--yes, more than a million miles-- to their odometer is all in a days work. A million miles is more than a big deal. It’s like driving to the moon and back twice and still having 97,512 miles to go. On a more realistic basis, it would take 10 years, driving 273 miles every day to hit the million mile mark.

Gary Mueller was told by his friends to get a new truck when his 2002 F-350 Super Duty hit 300,000 miles. But he didn’t listen, and now, he’s got 1,020,000 miles on his truck.
http://autos.aol.com/gallery/million...?ncid=webmail8
“This truck isn’t just a truck; it’s an extension of me,” said Mueller. “I take care of it and it returns the favor. I see no reason at all to think about retiring it.”

Mueller, who retired from Ford in 2000, had planned on traveling around North America and enjoying his retirement. But when he lost nearly 70 percent of his investments, he had to find a way to supplement his income.

That’s when he started hauling recreational vehicles and campers, delivering to them to customers around the country. For the past 10 years, he’s visited 48 states and seven provinces in Canada. Traveling during his retirement, without actually retiring.

It takes dozens of sets of tires, scores of oil filters, and thousands of gallons of fuel, these million milers say.

“I’ve gone through three water pumps, five alternators, a couple of starters, a U joint and a couple of ball joints,” said Duane Thalen of his 1999 Ford F-250 diesel Super Duty. “Things wear out.”

Thalen, 47 from Grand Rapids, Mich., delivers campers and hauls other things on a weekly basis, averaging more than 600 miles a day Monday through Friday.

“I always make sure I’m home for the weekend,” he said, even as he was driving through Pennsylvania with a boat in tow headed for Minnesota.

“I bought this truck used in 2004 with 100,000 miles on it,” Thalen said. “Now, it’s at 1.2 million miles and just keeps going. It just keeps going.”