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The Great Smaug

Overview Gallery Discussion
GWeakland620 said:
Minus the truck, it sounds like a good plan. The only thing you could benefit from is maybe a crew cab instead of the standard cab. But I understand the attachment.
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It's just an emotional thing. I got the truck 7ish years ago, back on the family farm. It has tagged along through schooling, wedding, at least 8 rounds of moving from place to place, and lots of general stuff hauling. And, of course, thousands of miles' worth of road trips. Everything except kids. It just can't handle that.




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And that's just 2012/2013. Plenty has happened since then.
 
I'll get over it, I'm not one to hold stuff tightly. But it was a fun trip down memory lane.

I might pull it out this summer, I might not. We'll see how much bulk stuff hauling I wind up doing. The trailer carries more than the stepside does, anyways. So the K5 can haul stuff when needed.

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GWeakland620 said:
Im not so sure I've ever seen one to base any judgment off of.
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A dually has something of a step profile, but I wouldn't call it a stepside. It would be more normal for a CCLB, though.

Given the headaches of only having a toy bed, I don't recommend stepsides for folks with pickups. It may look neat, but the lost space is felt every time I load the bed up. The more popular shortbed would be worse yet.
 
After some quick Google searching.

This is a shortbed, but I think it looks good.

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And here is the long bed version. With paint, this may look alright.

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You should also have figured out by now that I'm too pragmatic to care much about appearance. I don't care if it looks good, but I sure do miss that extra 2 feet of width. That would be a 50% increase from what I have now!
 
campfire said:
It would look better if it had a '67 bed instead of a squarebody bed. :wink1:
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You do realize the stepside bed was the same for like 50 years right. Just the style of the fenders changed a little.

I think a cclb stepside would look good. As for usefulness other then being a short bed my stepside has never been any less usable then the standard bed on my dodge. One time hauling a loud of dirt in both trucks the stepside was actually easier to empty and clean out.
 
KirsL said:
You do realize the stepside bed was the same for like 50 years right. Just the style of the fenders changed a little.

I think a cclb stepside would look good. As for usefulness other then being a short bed my stepside has never been any less usable then the standard bed on my dodge. One time hauling a loud of dirt in both trucks the stepside was actually easier to empty and clean out.
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Yeah, it's not much of a change. It's mostly the round taillights. ;)

As for the loss of cargo space, opinions diverge. I say that if you've never missed the extra space, you either aren't using the truck to its full potential or you're carrying dense cargo (like dirt, where you run out of weight capacity before you run out of volume). For fluffy stuff, like newlywed college students moving from place to place twice a year, the volume is missed. Or even for building my house. If I want to carry drywall AND a few bags of other supplies, I either hafta stand the drywall up or place the other objects on top of them. Having done it both ways, the drywall gets scuffed more than it would otherwise.

Big deal? No, but it is an item on my list of cons. At least for a farm truck.
 
I like the 66 era slanted fender step sides. Looks fast sitting still...
 
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I prefer "E" range load on 3/4 ton trucks,they seem to last longer and the stiffer sidewalls and more plies don't get punctured as easily..

I'm not the guy to ask about new tires though--my last new set of 4 were bough back in the 80's!..ever since then I've run used ones from salvage yards or the bargain rack at tire shops,yard sales,etc..had pretty good luck with them too..

The discussion about the stepside beds hits home with me--I'm not that fond of the 8 foot stepside on my '82 K2500,it does "look" better than a fleetside in my opinion,but it is dinky as far as carrying capacity..50" wide,and with my tool box up front,I have maybe 6 feet of cargo room..my riding mower wont even fit in the bed ,the mowing deck chute sticks out too far...

I have thought about putting this flat bed on it maybe--I saved it when the truck its on in the picture was scrapped..that bed has no wheel wells and a platform that is 78" wide and a bit over 8 feet long--I could park 3 of my tractors in that bed,with room to spare..

It is made from 4" C channel,weighs about 900 lbs,the truck plowed great with that bed on it..it has an electric winch/crane on the right rear corner now too...thing has sat outside over 10 years though,and will need a lot of rehab,paint,etc...that bed will strengthen the frame too,not a bad thing since my '82 is almost 35 years old and is probably getting thin in spots..1977 GMC K2500 007.jpg
 
Your relay should be on the firewall instead of the fender, but the concept will be the same. Dad pulled power off of the accessory fuse, but that meant he didn't have plug power while cranking. :doah: That got switched around really quick. ;)

I just pulled power straight off of the relay feed, and sent a single pair of wires through the firewall. For my electric fuel pump I used a light-up switch, so I had to feed +12V out, +12V back, and ground out to the switch (3 wires). In this case I opted to pull power off of the fuseblock, so I still only have 2 wires going through the firewall (+12V to pump and ground to switch).

It should be pretty straightforward, and there are many ways to skin this cat. Just don't do something that will prompt cursing from the next owner...
 
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