CK5
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K30 Crew cab wrecker

General purpose truck. Daily driver, medium trails, tow rig. Simple, capable, and reliable are the main factors.
Plumbed in the radiator transmission cooler along with the external filter. Flow goes out the trans, filter, cooler, back to trans. Later I'll add in a second trans cooler again.

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Your front drive shaft looks funny
 
Little here, little there, it's coming together. Main hoses for the cooling system installed and the coolant filter secured on the fender well. Waiting on a bunch of fittings to finish it and the power steering system. The new reservoir for the power steering fluid just needs some minor work for it's mount then it's ready.

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Used today to work on the rear part of the chassis. Wrecker bed compresses the rear suspension about 4 1/2in all by itself (down to just before the upper overloads make contact) so hopefully the truck ends up sitting level after the shackle flip. If not might play with the airbags to get it just right. Also trimmed the last few inches off of the frame so the wrecker bed will sit right with 1in of gap between the cab/bed.

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5x3x5/16in angle iron to serve as the rear mount for the bed as well as a reinforcement.

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Planned fuel tank, going along the passenger side. Can't use the suburban tank because of the reduced space between the axle and rear of the truck.

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Stripped off the wheel lift mount and the original rear bed mount (it was broken into 3 pieces) then finally worked the bed into place. Little bit of work with the mag drill and the middle mounts are now setup. Wheel well is lined up enough that I'm not going to move the axle back any further than the 64"s pushed it already.

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Waiting on the last plumbing parts for the power steering/cooling systems right now. Ended up having to run the longer rear shackles so that the 64"s could fully flex without making contact with the shackles. Also moved the front leaf springs back 1" to center the steering arm travel. Quick test fit of the front bumper as well

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Thanks, really wanting this thing driving again soon.

Not the biggest intercooler but it came with the engine. 6 1/2" tall 3 1/2" deep. Used some strap steel and rubber backing to build the mount. Shouldn't interfere with the AC condenser when it gets replaced.

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This thing will be sweet! You gonna just dump the exhaust out the pass side before the rear tires? I'm sure it was mentioned but are those just 255/85R16 tires on there now?
 
This thing will be sweet! You gonna just dump the exhaust out the pass side before the rear tires? I'm sure it was mentioned but are those just 255/85R16 tires on there now?

235/85/16"s right now, don't look as small as I figured they would with 3-4" of lift.

Exhaust is a good question, as well as the air intake. Turbo sits on the driver side of the engine and there's a decent path for the downpipe until the tcase PTO which attaches to the driver side of the np205. Need to mock it up and find out if that will be in the way. All the exhaust piping I have sitting here is 4".

Thought about routing the exhaust outside the frame along the driver floorboards and make it exit the side after the cab. Hang the muffler where the stock saddle tank was.

Having the exhaust cross under the engine then up/over the tcase on the passenger side might work. Great spot for the muffler behind the tcase if the exhaust can squeeze back there.

The underside of the rear is going to get crowded. Saddle tank from a C60 will occupy the passenger side between the cab/rear axle outside of the frame rail. Similar sized storage box (about 2-3ft long) is going outside the frame rail along the driver side. Between the frame rails are the PTO shaft with the chain drive for the bed, driveshaft, hitches (rear and gooseneck), and the 2 air tanks under the rear of the bed as well. Linkage for the winch controls hang down beneath the bed sub frame just a bit and run near the inside edges of the frame.

Air intake plumbing will probably be along the driver side frame rail outside, then up through the bed to the air filter housing.
 
Bolted up the alternator then went to one of the old dump trucks and snagged it's fuel tank/mounting brackets. Not the nicest looking but it's still solid.

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Triple checked the measurements for where the tank will go

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And so long rusted through side panels

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The fuel tank will match up to the same width as the duals currently are. The bed is actually a few inches narrower than the tires.Eventually the rear portion of the bed will get widened as well, just not yet. Need to take care of the front bed mount and frame reinforcement before the fuel tank gets mounted.
 
Electric vacuum pump is wired/plumbed so the trans can shift out of 1st gear. Have it running directly from pump-actuator and so far it's shifting at lowish rpm's which is fine for me. Only gotten it up to about 30mph so far.


Steering. Turning radius and response seems to be normal. The power assist is stronger than before which makes sense with the few hundred psi higher pump rating.


Wired in the upper tail lights, still have the lowers to do.


Suspension is soft, unexpectedly really soft. And in dire need of shocks to control the rebound hahaha. That being said though it's a good thing. Shocks will help and the helper air bags will provide extra support when needed.


Downside, not going to be able to finish getting it back to daily driver until either the fall semester starts, or I make some good money this summer. With known finances (until september) it's either finish the truck and be broke, or have some play money and do other cheaper projects.


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After taking most of the summer off I'm gettin around to workin on the wrecker again. Drove it out to the lot and along the way it felt like it was running out of fuel so disconnected the fuel line from the tank and yet it, it was getting plugged up. So rather than sending that old tank out to get cleaned decided to get a 20 gallon fuel cell instead. Placed the tank in a few spots, picturing ideas. Figure having the tank pushed forward to 1" from the cab with the fuel filler at the rear is what will happen. Leaves enough room behind the tank for a 5" wide storage box and enough room for 37"s. There's also room on the outside, the legs stick out the same distance as the outermost edge of the cab.

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The smaller tank opens up the possibility of going to single rear wheels which would drop future tire costs big time. According to some info from Holmes the wrecker bed assembly weighs 1500 lbs, plus the weight of the tools at another 500ish lbs. Going off that and the weight specs for this year truck, should be about 4000-4500 lbs on the front axle and about 4500 lbs on the rear axle. Better balanced front/rear than I figured assuming those weight claims are accurate.
 
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