Hillbilly Hauler, or.. my first diesel

[Beagle]

it's still getting used, just in a different capacity.


Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss... except for that extra 110 hp and 210 ft-lbs. It has an auto, a/c, and cruise like the red one. Crank windows, vinyl everything. Rides like a donkey cart. I should pony up for a 4wd truck. I can't believe they ride better, but they do. Ahh well, that's not what I bought it for.



I need to fix the cigarette lighter.

[Deaf Bob]

So... In other words worth fixing...



Just read your Dodge thread... But I'll still say it.. Worth fixing...
Probably not able to send it out to be done because of payments..
Maybe have BBR and his boys fix it as learning how to fix that stuff and a deal all around?

[Beagle]

the a/c blower fan quit again, the front end needs a rebuild from the pitman arm out, the master cylinder is getting soft, and I'm low on spare time to do the glow plugs and other piddly stuff a 19 year old truck pretty much always needs... decided to leave this one at the lake in case I need it for towing a boat or moving the trailer. You don't get over 20 mph in the park so the steering problem is fixed, you don't spend much time there in the winter so the glow plug problem is fixed, and since you're outside all the time anyway, you don't worry about the a/c. The horn works, so the brakes are more or less taken care of..

Poor old truck, seems too young to be put out to pasture. I made the mistake of driving a couple of newer diesels and the HP/TQ difference is pretty huge. I'd call this one a huge win, one of the cheapest to keep things I've ever had. Thank you truck.

[STINEY]

Very interesting. Good to know, thanks.

[Beagle]

fixed the squeaky squeaky squeaky in reverse thing today... dried up and brinnelled to hell rear universal joint. I replaced both of them (1350's) on general principle. Not really worth a mention on a hotrod forum, but... the '97 F250 single cab long bed has a one piece Aluminum driveshaft. Of course I didn't measure it.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Even Chuck Norris' truck runs away from those trucks!

Something like this?

would you pull in front of that truck? if that truck was 2 miles down the road and going 20 mph in a 60 - you'd wait, and follow at a respectful distance praying all the while that the driver doesn't look back at you.

[STINEY]

Even Chuck Norris' truck runs away from those trucks!

Something like this?

[SuperBuickGuy]

the best trucks are ones that look like the previous owner died in the horrific accident that caused the damage, but now beat back out to be driveable and are still on the road

Chuck Norris runs away from those trucks.

[Beagle]

I really get the love hate relationship. I'm using a 4x8 trailer to haul the water now (275 gallons is really more than a 1/2 ton trailer should haul. 1/2 load of water.) and not really digging it.The being able to leave things in it without freaking out when I go into a restaurant or rest stop on the road part, I'm loving.

I'm so far into grampa mode that I'd put nut-serts and eye bolts on it through the sides and use a boat lift type lift to pull it up into the rafters. I could put the attachment points on the sides at each end and replace with pan head screws when it's on so it wouldn't look too much more 'billy than the rest of the truck. It's all aluminum, so it's light. The guy I got it from and I dang near threw it over the truck.

Paint? ha! I used a 24 oz ball peen and an 8 pound mallet to get the bed rails as close as they are now (not very). The truck had been jack-knifed hard with a gooseneck trailer in a previous life. The kind of jack-knife that only the completely inept, Schleprock unlucky, or blind drunk folks can do. The bed rail was bent, the bed was pushed into the cab hard enough to bend it, and the fender has a lovely crease in it. All of this contributed to it's well below blue book value when I bought it. I looked at the frame rails and it was fine. I beat this thing pretty hard so I wasn't worried about it having been "Pre-disastered"... It came with character built in.

still kinda missing the charm of the plywood fastback. hahaha.

[Deaf Bob]

Stack blocks/barrels near 4 corners, climb in with 2- 8+ foot long 2X4s. Lift the front with your shoulders from inside and slide the 2X4 under.. Repeat in rear.. Be sure you are stacked high enough to drive out!

[milner351]

Truck caps are a love hate thing, I've bought several and sold several - some guys hate em, some guys can't live without them. I like to think someday I will have a pulley system set up to lift the cap off the truck by myself, instead of relying on at least one more person to help - I've taken 8 foot 'glass caps off by myself - I wouldn't recommend that if you care the least bit about the paint on the truck or the cap!

It sure is nice to see a thread about trucks being used as they were intended and neat practical tricks - that pipe over the gas strut idea is pure genius.

[DanStokes]

Not me!

I'm 5'5", having shrunk 1 1/2".

Dan

[yellomalibu]

A friend of mine has a kreg jig, and yes, it works as advertised. Of course the key to good results is making sure your saw is aligned and cuts exactly square.

I paid $25 for my topper, and I was happy to spend $40 on a pair of new gas struts. I like the window to go up and stay up like it's supposed to. I would have paid for the paint, too, but since I had never used that particular paint before, and because I'm such an awesome customer of theirs, Sherwin Williams gave me a gallon of gloss DTM to try. (works great on fiberglass topper)
My business partner paid $300 for his topper, paid maaco to paint it to match his truck, but hasn't coughed up the $40 for new struts. His are too short, and the window will hit you in the face if you don't duck.

[DanStokes]

You went about this all wrong. As I understand it all you need is an ex-con because they teach them locksmithing at The Big Schoolhouse.

Actually, I don't know if they still do that but they used to. Now why would you teach a known criminal how to work on and defeat locks? Never made sense to me.

Dan

[Beagle]

okay, so there's videos on locks and I have a book on locks (5.98 at Half Price bookstore about 15 years ago) and this lock is about as simple as it comes, but I lucked out and had a key where every pin was long meaning I could file the key down and make the lock work rather than having to get a blank or get into dorking with the pins.

Full disclosure: it'd be cheaper to get the key from a locksmith for 8.00 or buy a whole new lock mechanism for 16.00 but you guys know me. I spent an hour making it work for free cuz I'm not into spending more than 50.00 for the whole thing WITH working keys. HA!


The lock mechanism - the short handle just pries off with a screwdriver from inside the door. This is a good opportunity to break the glass on your 50.00 topper. Another good opportunity is drilling out the rivets that hold the lock to the door. I got lucky, the glass remains intact.



This is a tumbler door lock style lock. You can disassemble it without having to have the key first. The "pins" (6) have differing heights to make them align with the bore or not depending on the cut of the key:




sorry for the crappy picture. Cheap phone camera and I don't get along...



the pin furthest to the left shows what it should fit like. The other five pins are high meaning I needed to file the key down to make them center (flush with cylinder)

Keys are mostly brass and easy to file with a small round and/or triangle file (jewelers files are best, but I don't know where mine got off too )

The procedure is file a little, check a lot. If you had the catalog for the lock, you could get dimensions from it. Since I don't have a Yale (or any other) catalog, I faked it.



unlocked



locked




it's important to leave out at least one part to where you have to pull the retaining ring twice and wipe the grin off your face from not having puncture wounded yourself the first time.



hate those things. Getting one off and reusing it once is good luck, twice is almost unbelievable. We'll see how long this lasts... having bled on the unit, however, I have a small degree of confidence that it will work for a while.

Short version: Work for 20 minutes, pay for new lock. Save forty minutes, puncture wound, and shot glass of blood for something important. Not my style...

Oh yeah - this is just to make sure the door stays shut on the road. I didn't do it for any sense of real security. Any idiot with a brick can defeat the security in less than one second. Security is never any better than the weakest link, and let's face it. Glass is fragile.