A step too Far
 

So I bought a 1983 Chevy k20, brief specs

It started life a 6.2 diesel but at some point in the last few years it was swapped out for a 454 of unknown year.


10 Bolt front axle (needs to go)
14 Bolt rear
700r4 Trans
35 inch tires on 16.5 inch rims

Not sure of the gearing but it doesn't struggle on the freeway


The only thing that really needs to be done is the fuel tanks. When the swap was done the owner tryed running gas in them but was getting a lot of dirt out of them, so he switched to a 5 gallon jug. The plan right now it to drop the tanks and look inside can clean them if I can and reuse them if I can.

The next thing would be to get an aux fuel tank to add some extra range.

After that swap out the very small 10 bolt for something a little stronger, Thinking dana 60 or maybe building a 14 bolt front.

Don't understand the title of the thread. :huh:

I have a car problem, And this may be the one where my friends step in and have a intervention lol

You can always go fewer and deeper rather than spreading money and time wide.

Thats part of my plan. I'm going to cut back my buggy truck, and then get everything else up to 100%

I needed a pickup and this was a good deal 2k so it was hard to pass it up.

I like those. My brother has 16.5" wheels and he gets his tires from the military surplus or whatever and gets Hummer tires pretty cheap. They are 37" though.

Thats my plan for this truck. Get h1 wheels and 37's i should be able to get 4 for under 800$ (i'm gonna get 6 because non of my other trucks/friends run this tire/wheel)

Did you get the link I sent you? Only $50 each.

So i found a dana 60 front end, the only downside is that its a drw (dully front axle) I think i'll get it and just run stock H1 wheels without recentering them. I might have to put a spacer in the rear but i'll see.

What's different about the dually front axle?

The axles are about 4" wider on each side and require the offset wheels and special hubs. That is IIRC

Well that's if you run a normal wheel, Because I plan on using stock wheels which already sit so far in it will bring my track almost back to normal.

A DRW and SRW are the same axle just with different hub. (SRW hub are like 400$ )

I installed one of my fuel tanks today. It was a pain in the ass!!!



Gas is alot of money

I take it the tank is a 20 gallon? My Suburban has a 44 gallon tank so it costs me around $185 to fill it now.

Ya right now it has a single 20 gal tank. The truck was setup for two 20 gal tanks. But in its former life its fuel system was messed with. My plan is to add in the second tank and an AUX tank in the bed my total goal is to have 80 gal of fuel

So I just pulled the trigger on some wheels and tires, I found a cheap set of 24 bolt humvee wheels and 37's i'm picking them up this weekend

Damn too bad they didn't leave in the diesel. the 6.2 is a decent motor. It gets good gas mileage too. And banks made a turbo kit for them.

SO do I, I was looking for a 1ton diesel but they are a little harder to find and a lot of $$.

The 454 does have a 4 speed behind it so it does get a little down the highway. I've been getting about 12 from it so far and most of that was in the city.

In my 95 diesel suburban 2500 4x4 with the 6.5 turbo diesel, I got over 20mpg easily on the highway. I would love a 454 in a dually dropped on the ground with some 20s or something maybe.

Had a weekend to get some stuff done on the truck, i need to make it ready for a off road trip next month so I still need to install the extra 20 gal tank and get a way to transfer that to the main tank.

I've had a 12,000 pound winch for a few months that i've been wanting to mount and it gave me a chance to build bumper.

I'm going to mount the bottom of the winch foward to give it a bit more strength.




And here is the start of the bumper

Oh i almost forgot i got some h1 wheels and 37's

Nice, I need to get with you and make some bumpers for mine too. Gawd awful stock ones are NOT going back on.

Do what Phil did on his Land Cruiser, he has an electric pump to pump fuel from the auxiliary tank to the main tank and has it wired to a toggle switch.

My front bumper wont be built for pure strength, it will have areas that we stupidly reinforced but most of it will be 1/8 inch steel plate. my rear will be 1/4 for most and even more stupidly reinforced. I have 2 20,000 pound d rings that are going on the back.

This is going to be my final version

I want something like this

So tube bumper with a skid plate and brush guard

Yup, simple and sexy

I told you I have the one that we put on Eric's Explorer sitting on the side of my house. We pulled it from a full size Bronco and I cut 10 inches from the middle and then sleeved it back together. I probably still have the sections I cut out if you want to cut it and weld them back in.

Do you have a winch for the back too? It might be worth fabricating up a mount that can be swapped from the front to the back just in case. Oh and don't forget an on board air compressor for filling up those tires. After they have been aired down.

no winch for the back, I don't see a need for it as of right now.

Onboard air is on the list but not in time for the trip. I dont air down that much anyways and with the 37's i have the full size run flats so you cant really air down with out messing up the tire.

A bumper?

Yep. There isn't a skip plate anymore but this is how it looked on Eric's Explorer. It still looked huge but on the Bronco it looked good. I took ten inched from the middle so it wasn't too wide for the Explorer. You can see how the two bars in the middle are close together, they used to be 11 inches apart.

I don't remember that at all. So all I have to do is widen it again?

Well I had some free time this weekend so I started to wrap up my bumper. I still need to wire up my winch and finish adding strength in a few areas, but the basic shape is done.

Looks good. Are you going to put the winch behind it and have the cable exit through the bumper?

Ya thats the plan. I might get some synthetic winch line before I mount it.

I still need to reinforce it and put a slanted edge on the bottom to finish it off.

Next step after that will be a new grill.