Dual builds- Camo K5 and Big Crew Cab

[mountainexplorer]

I felt a little worried when we first saw it on the front tires. It's just insanely huge. Almost too huge. At first it reminded me of those excessively lifted show truck with no front drivelines, u-bolt shapes leaf springs, and 24 shocks across the front end that never do anything.
Well, it's not supposed to be a show truck it is supposed to get used in the mud, at mud bogs, and to be able to give some of the kids "mini-monster trucks" rides around the field. So forgive the excessive lifted look. Trust me once I get this out of the way and my other cheap and easy Chevy's I have, I'm wanting to build some sort of a crawler that's tube framed and 4-linked so I have vehicles two extremes of the wheeling spectrum and something in between.
But here it is in it's rediculouseness:

 

[yellowK20]

Whats the plan for your steering full hydro???

are you running dropped hangers 12" springs and tall perches??

 

[mountainexplorer]

Yeah full hydraulic steering, set up just like a case backhoe, same orbital valve and dual ram. Plus getting rid of the steering column rod to the box and brake booster is necessary to clear the headers for it.

12" superlift springs off another truck, a piece of 4x16 channel I got froma friend who works at a steel fabricators shop, and some longer shackles made from scrap steel. We actually shortened the 12" tall spring perches that were on the rockwells (guy I bought them from made them 12" tall). We made them 6".

 

[yellowK20]

Cool, your gonna run fenderwell exit headers?? or Hooker tractor pull headers???
on my bogger I had to relocate my master (and ditch the booster) for my hooker tractor headers to clear

 

[mountainexplorer]

I have some zoomie type headers for it that will stick straight up. It will have to run a non assist regular master cylinder and luckily since it will be full hydraulic steering, that also eliminates the problem of the shaft from the column to the box which would also be in the way of the drivers side header.

Last weekend barely got to work on the two projects cause of other trucks needing attention or parts to be pulled. All I did was get the front spring hangers made for the Camo Blazer. Decided to make my own.
More examples I shouldn't weld.

Maybe Camo Paint will hide the bad looking welds?

I really didn't want to drop the front springs down like this on the Blazer because I want it to be as low to the ground as possible. But using 52" rear Chevy springs requires moving the front hangers forward. Since I have longer shackles in the back of the front springs, lowering the front hangers by the 2" of this tube steel should bring the pinion angle back to normal so I don't have to run any sort of degree shims. I'm hoping with the rear shackle flip and Ford rear springs in the rear, and the Chevy rears up front with the longer shackles and spring hangers moved, that it won't be over a 6" lift over stock. I was hoping to stay at4 " of lift max, but if it flexes out decent, there may be alot of rubbing. And I want to preserve the 42" Iroks. There will be lots of fender trimming anyways.

 

[mountainexplorer]

Today got my 60 housing back now with 5.38 gears and a Detroit locker for the Camo Blazer. Not pretty looking outside but at least it is inside.

Also got my crossover/rear high steer arms for it. I have less than a week to get this thing together and driving for a trail run on the 25th.

And the typical other things I call "distractions" of which there a lot of not pertaining to the main projects at hand.
Trying to mess with other axles...

Supposed to modify my Meyers mount for my '83 truck.

Worked a little bit on my red '78... got it pushed out of the garage into the light to start getting it closer to running again.

I'm supposed to be working on these motors too.

Started to mock up my NP205 to NV4500. Homemade adapter modified from a template.

Will need to clearance the tailhousing for the 205 shifter rails still.

Doing some comparisons to the Adavance Adapters kit.

I hope to get one NV4500 and 205 into my Suburban soon, and the other into my '85, and the other maybe into my red truck.

 

[86-1ton]

ooooooooooohhh nice 60... doesn't matter what it looks like, it just needs to be tough like a rock...!

 

[USSkoval]

You sir, have too many projects I can't say much though because I have way more than I can tackle, but your projects are much cooler than mine

 

[bftank]

where'd ya get the boomerang from?

video was funny i thought any minute some nut job was going to start dancing in it

 

[hunter29078]

cool projects

 

[mountainexplorer]

Yet another 4 days of not being able to really work on just the main projects at hand:
Had to stop on the way up and pick up free furniture on the side of the road.

Spent most of Saturday robbing axle parts off another front end to fix my Stepside so we could go pull out someone's stuck truck Saturday night. Found out my stepside had necked down inner shafts... so pulled the good thicker shafts and 35 spline outers from another 5.13 Detroit front end to put it back together.

The rest of the weekend was spent tearing apart 5 more Dana 60's and mixing and matching parts. The 4.88 welded 60 came out of my GMC and a 5.13 Detroit 60 went back in. Finished that last night. Now my GMC is back on towing duty. I just can't use 4wd.

Had to start to smooth out the driveway ruts from the spring thaw before it hardens too much.

Had a friend working on a stereo install on my tan truck after using it to go haul another scrap car someone wanted hauled up, had other friends run errands in the blue on, and also start tearing apart front ends. Now my tan truck accepts those round disc things.

Mock up of the steering arms and caliper brackets on the 60 front for the Camo Blazer. I bought the brackets years ago and remember thinking they were to run Dana 44 calipers on Dana 44 rotors on a 60 hub assembly.

Fought forever with the drivers side knukcle stud that broke off.

Since I used the good shafts and 35 spline outers from one front end on my Stepside... and the old u-joints on the stepside refused to come out so I could remount those 35 spline outers on thicker inners with new joints, I couldnt assemble anything. But bolted in the housing.

Finally got the drivers side arm on.

Found out high-rear steer arms wont allow a shock to mount to a factory GM location on the axle.

Finally got one u-joint and shaft separated and got the short side mounted up and in the axle.
Tried to make the caliper brackets work, only way they would was to mount the spindle after the brackets. Thats not right. But everything lined up, except me using 2wd GM calipers needed grinding to work on these brackets, and then caliper bolts wouldnt go in with the rear steer arms.

Mocked up and made it work with a Dana 44 rotor. But the axleshaft has way too much movement now.

Thinking these brackets are for a 5-lug rotor conversion instead. Though when buying them remembering the ad saying for 8-lug Dana 44 rotors. Oh well. I don't like the spindle mounted after the brackets, so it all comes back off and the stock 60 caliper stuff goes on after more hours of time wasted. I get to start finishing this project Thursday so it will be running Friday and on the trail Saturday.
And my Stepside is the backup rig and it needs a day's worth of work after I discovered it's front axle ring gear bolts are all backed out. My GMC tow rig runs now but brakes are bad all of a sudden. My car trailer license plate I just replaced is now missing again, the backhoe needs an alternator, a friend needs his motor back this week out of a white Chevy, and another friend needs the blue truck to drive with different motor tranny and t-case in 2 weeks, cause the 454 in it has to come out to go into the Camo Blazer before this weekend. Not to mention the 50 other deals going on and things I have to haul, move, sell and work on.
I may just disappear for 2 months and forget any deadline I may have had.


This is supposed to be going in 2 weeks and I didn't even have time to touch it in 4 days of daylight to after dark working... and this is with me off work from any job right now.

 

[y5mgisi]

Madness!

 

[K10 KRAWLER]

Wow, how many trucks do you have!?

 

[mountainexplorer]

How many do I have? Depends on what you classify as a whole truck. Or also depends on the day of the week. Of the main fleet, it's the ones in my signature that I plan to keep.



Got back up to work on it Thursday afternoon after loading and hauling this.

As of Friday the 24th, it was on all 4's but still no motor, tranny or t-case.

Slid the motor, tranny and t-case in as one unit and got it in place. As sunset was approaching, decided not to keep fighting with the Blazer and all the little things left that are no big deal but take time. The 42" Iroks went back onto the Stepside and I fixed the broken shackle, put a tie rod on it (still didnt do the high steer conversion on it) and just got it running again to make todays run. Left Ione just before 11pm Friday.
The Camo Blazer will make it to the Moyie Mud Bog in May but not the Pinehurst, Idaho "Cabin Fever" trail run this year that starts this morning.

 

[K10 KRAWLER]

 

[mountainexplorer]

Well appearantly if I spend 24 hrs a day 7 days a week up there I'll still never get time to touch the Crew Cab. It won't be at this weekends mud bog. So I'll make up for it in numbers this year. The Camo Blazer is going along with my Orange Blazer, Camo Blazer, Stepside, Truck Blazer and GMC and tan '83.

Camo Blazer now has the 42's on it and moves. Still work to do but hey it moved under its own power for the 1st time since 2001.

 

[y5mgisi]

It looks great! They all look good, but the camo does have a great stance!

 

[jekquistk5]

Wow... cant wait till I read the at the bog story where you tear down and rebuild a motor just to run. Love your Stories man!

 

[86-1ton]

forgive me for being an idiot, but how much lift do you have on that camo blazer again...? i really like that stance - pretty low c of g and 42's...

 

[mountainexplorer]

The Camo Blazer has Chevy 1/2 ton 52" long rear springs up front, with leafs removed to the 4 longest remaining per side. It has shackles that are 2" longer than stock, and I dropped the front spring hangers (well made my own) attached to a 2" piece of steel channel.

The rear is an echobit bolt on shackle flip, with 2" longer than stock shackles, and stock '82-ish Ford Bronco rear springs. I am guessing it to be no more than a 6" lift. Once I dropped the 454 in it, the front end really sagged down and flattened out the springs and the rear sits a little higher.

This last weekend was its trial run. Still no rear shocks and the fronts only had 3" of uptravel due to how much the springs sagged. It has Ford shock towers up front, but I cant raise the drivers side up more cause of the steering column.

We took up "up the creek" on a little short trail they have with rocks and it flexed well and was a soft ride. But it felt tippy to me even with it's low stance. Maybe I just wasn't used to something that wasn't stiff. But I took it easy cause it seemed tippy to me when we were leaning to either side. Plus, somewhere between 2001 and now, the seatbelts must have came out. I didn't realize that till we got in it to go up the creek and went to put them on and none were there.

As for how the mud bog weekend went, I screwed up my main mud bogger on my 4th pass. I made another post about that with the video link.