We own a 2001 Dodge RAM 1500, 360 engine, auto transmission.

This truck is our hay wagon. With a trailer, it delivers 65 bale loads multiple times per year. It's how our llamas have enough food to eat in order to stay alive.

In the winter it's also our plow truck. Which is a life-line for us, since we live 7.5 miles of twisty, steep, dirt-road away from the nearest paved road. (We weren't sure if we were going to be able to drive to the grocery store and buy ourselves food for the last couple days, due to the crazy snow we got up here.)

The truck doesn't have huge miles, still under 100k. But it works hard, and the work it does is tough work.

We appreciate this truck, and - for obvious reasons - we want to keep it healthy.

It's hard to find a good mechanic. Nobody we've found, or been able to ask anyone else about, seems to know how to work on these beyond the most basic, shallow, simple maintenance. So when the rats chew on the vacuum lines, or a hose slips off the transmission cooler, we've often fixed it ourselves. But our knowledge of how to fix these trucks is shallow, too.

We need a good mechanic. One we can trust. One who will do right by us. And we are willing to pay that good mechanic well, to keep this truck running for us. (If you know what the cost of new trucks is like right now, you understand how big an expense buying a new truck would be. Not to even mention the cost of putting a new snow-plow on.)

If you know someone who you personally would trust to work on your life-line truck, that keeps your animals alive and keeps yourself from starving in the winter, please hit me with a comment.

(And realize that I wouldn't be asking the Internet for advice, unless I was in fairly dire need...)