Made it home!

Well, 270 miles, 6 hours and one breakdown later, the Dodge made it to East London.
All is not entirely well though, the PTO doesn't seem to work (possibly operator ignorance), there's more rust than the seller openly admitted (mainly round the windscreen on the inside and on the wings) and it doesn't look like it's been serviced since it was made. Biggest problem appeared on the way home, even on slight inclines, the 3.9 Perkins Turbo would slow from 55 to 50 to 40 to 35, then I'd drop to 4th gear and hold 35, 30, 25....and so on. At one point I was driving on the hard shoulder at 15mph with the hazards on, 2nd gear, foot flat on the floor. Not good. Eventually I was rumbled by the VOSA blokes and they started explaining that I had 2 hours to get off the hard shoulder before plod turned up and got the Dodge off on THEIR (expensive) terms. I stuck it out, fired her up after and hour and we were back up to 50mph for 20 miles or so, then started losing power again.

I suspect it's one (or all) of the air or fuel filters to blame. The engine will get a complete service this week by someone who knows what they are doing so that should hopefully sort it out. Apart from the fuelling problems, the engine is smoooooth and the ride is pretty nice for a 5600kg truck.

I'd just like to point out that the VOSA chaps actually do a pretty good job of shielding vehicles on the hard shoulder from being destroyed by Latvian HGV drivers on their 18th hour of driving. Thanks VOSA blokes.