On Thu, 10 Jun 2021 12:14:21 -0400, micky wrote:

I borrowed a pickup to take junk to the dump, and it's been working fine
for 2 days. Today, on my second trip to recycling, on the Xway, it lost
power, and I was slowing down. I pulled to the shoulder and let it idle.

My first thought, reading this so far, is that it's a fuel issue. Clogged
fuel filter, contaminated fuel, plugged fuel line, water in the fuel,
something like that. The fuel pump isn't ruled out yet, either.

An engine that starts and idles without any issues, but runs out of power
at higher RPM, screams fuel to me.

Automatic transmission, I noticed that I'd probably been in 2nd for 5
miles. Is that likely to cause this problem? (FWIW I couldn't see the
gear indicator from where I was sitting, and it was tricky to get it to
engage in any gear.)

I don't fully understand that. If the Xway is the freeway, I assume you'd
have noticed that the engine was running at a higher RPM than normal. Even
so, I wouldn't expect 2nd gear (with an auto trans) would cause any lasting
issues. If the engine was starved for fuel, the higher RPM caused by
running in 2nd gear might have made things more noticeable.

The engine temp, oil pressure were normal. I followed the shoulder to
the exit, about 4 miles before I would have gotten off, and I was able
to go 30mph but probably no more. Stopped at a 7-11 and bought
transmission fluid,

Transmission fluid for THIS vehicle? Why? Is this related to the cryptic
statement above about it being tricky to get it into gear? I assumed that
was because you had the cab area full of crap to be recycled.

but I coudln't find the under-hood release (only the
in-car release.) I also couldn't find the 4-way flasher or the
windshield washer!!

It about a 2001 Dodge RAM 1500 V8 Magnum Laramie SLT with, oops, 250,000
miles.

I was stopped at the 7-11 for 10 or 15 minutes and when I got going
again, the truck seemed to run fine. No opportunity to go more than
40mph, but it did accelerate from 10 to 35 while going uphill. That
seems pretty good.

Others are far more qualified than me, but it still sounds like a fuel
issue to me.

So

I haven't googled yet, but how do you open the hood on this truck?

I needed the wiper to get rid of the big blob from the cicada, but I can
do that manually. Before the car trouble, at about 20 mph, another
cicada hit me right in the eye!

Hmm, it also has no windshield. What a truck.