The Bigger Red Pig

[lstzephyr]

Well I thought I would update. Lately I have been trying to go to college and my friends rib me about the truck sometimes, but its just too useful to sell. It really looks ridiculous hanging out in the local campus parking lots. My friend commented about how it looks like it should be on a snowy mountain or in a desert somewhere, not parked up next to a civic in downtown Birmingham, Alabama! The truck dwarfs most of the cars in town. It looks normal off in the grass though.

At the moment it really needs brakes. A shackle flip would also be a good thing as the back of the truck is a bit saggy. The truck sagging isn't really a problem driving it, but it is annoying, and looks sketchy. Its doing some funky things with steering too. I think it has something to do with the back limited slip and low tire pressures but I'm not sure. That will get addressed as well. I'm going to finish up my bike first though, as I don't like having at least one functioning vehicle.

The cap, and the setup in the back is really useful. There is a ton of tools, tires, spare parts, and a skateboard in here, and yet it is organized.

I've switched the bike over to supermoto for running around Alabama. A dirtbike as commuter isn't as useful here as it is in the desert. A supermoto however is an absolute blast!

NOW with all that said, step in the wayback machine with me and lets go back two months to hiking in Zion national park. There was a beautiful girl, a beautiful area, and we had nothing but time.

We drove in to the park, and as had been the case with most of the trip, everywhere we stopped a couple people would comment on my bike. A ton of people seemed interested in it. This was a common sight.

He commented that he thought my bike was something really old until he took a close look at it and realized he had one just like it.

We caught a bus into the park and got off on every stop to check out as much as we could.

But as with all things it must come to an end. The park was closing and we were headed to Las Vegas for the night so we headed back to the truck and left a little after the sun had set.

We got to Vegas late at night. It must have been around midnight, but my friend had a key to a house. She had friends that had a house there, and had mailed her a key, however when we tried the key in the lock it didn't work! We wandered around for a bit and thought about what to do but right when we gave up the front door opened and a teenager let us in. None of us had ever met eachother but he let us in and let us stay for the night without too many questions. It all works out.

The next morning we wandered around vegas a bit. We both quickly got bored of the casinos and agreed we should have spent more time in Zion. Hurrying to vegas wasn't useful, but we were there so we wandered a bit more, got some mexican, then left town.

We had parked in a lot with a liquor store. We laughed at the name.

Away.

We got to Los Angeles, which is my friend's home, without too much more trouble. The old dodge managed 65 just fine, and we just meandered along in the slow lane. Nevada is a beautiful area. I will definetly have to come back and do some camping sometime.

I spent a week hanging around LA. We raced sailboats, went for walks on the beach, checked out yacht clubs, grilled, did some windsurfing, and just generally had a blast.

As with all things though, it must end. I was really reluctant to leave, but the fact was that I couldn't stay anymore. I needed to find a college to go to so I could finish my degree, and I just couldn't afford California. This time I would be solo again. Just me, the dodge, and an old dirtbike.

 

[lstzephyr]

I left in the morning with no real fanfare. I have done this enough that staying has started to feel stranger than leaving. I miss the people I have left behind, but if I hadn't left something and someone else behind I never would have been in the place to meet the current set of people.

A lot of the time I think about replacing this truck with a bus, a van, something bigger, or something smaller. But when I was driving up the hill out of California and out into the Nevada desert the old dodge made perfect sense. Everything I own at 20mpg isn't too bad I guess.

I spent some time just hanging out in the desert.

We had spent a bit of time in Zion, but I decided I wanted to head back at night to get some long exposure shots. I spent a little time screwing around near by, mostly just taking pictures.

When I got to Zion I took the truck out onto some dirt roads for a few hours.

Rolled into zion at about midnight. I set the tripod up on the hood of the truck. The exposures were usually close to a minute, with a minute for the camera to make sense of them. Add in that I took about 20 in each spot to composite and I was hanging around out there quite a while! It was very peaceful.

These are the results.

At around 2am I drove off into the woods and found some place to crash. The next morning I went in search of a slot canyon. It took a bit of finagling to find one, even a small one.

Popped the bike off to do some riding while I was at it.

Soft sand!

But the view was awesome.

After that it was run over to Colorado where I dropped in on Metcalf who was an awesome host! Thanks again, man! His dodge is even cooler in person.

Sometimes i just can't sleep so it was back in the truck and off into the boonies. Later that night at about 3 am I found a camping spot at went to sleep.

I missed Colorado!

 

[lstzephyr]

In Utah I had let the bike up a bit quite and the bars smashed into the back window. The poor back window broke again, this time pretty bad. I went full ghetto and got it to stay in place.

I hit a couple other parks after that. Mainly the sand dunes.

Came across a train out in NM.

And some varied other attractions.

Along the way I got my friend out on my bike. He had always wanted to ride it, so I finally convinced him.

But mainly I just booked it back to Alabama. I had a date with a big ole girl. She is a bit hefty but she has it where it counts. A compressor, a berth and a keg on tap! :snorkel:

It was another awesome trip I wish could have lasted longer! Hope you enjoyed the pictures and the little story.

Tune in next time for "Where did Alan go with that big red truck now?"

 

[Metcalf]

No problem! Stop by any time. The new house AND SHOP is soooo nice.

 

[lstzephyr]

Enjoy that shop! I am using a little one car shop here, which is sooo nice.

I need some opinions on a couple things.

1. I am looking at diy4x shackle flip. I need to get the back end up a bit. I am thinking a shackle flip, plus an ez inch with 1.5 offset should do it. This truck will always be carrying some weight so I want to keep the stock springs for now. Should get rid of my stock block, and be solid enough to last a long time. I don't like doing things twice and every other idea I have had would require me to do it again later.

2. I am starting to try to figure out a high steer setup. I am thinking an arm from these guys(http://www.kozoffroad.com/pages_catalog/steering/d60hightsteering/d60highsteering.htm) and getting a piece of dom tubing bent by the local offroad shop should get me close. Probably a 1.25x .250 wall tubing bored and tapped for 7/8 tie rod ends. I will most likely use a jam nut on the end of the tie rods. I think I need a Grand cherokee arm too. I have a steering joint to weld to the steering shaft too. All that and it should actually go where its pointed.

3. I need to do the brakes. Any other things I should think about when going through them? I am going to grease the front bearings, and check/service the kingpins.

I have been doing a bunch of diving, rock climbing, and since its cooling off it is about time for the truck to start pulling camping duty. I'm looking forward to this winter!

 

[SChandler]

Here's an idea for you: The 89-90 Cummins/Dodge trucks used a 4" block in the rear instead of the 6" block that the 91-93 trucks used, so the rear springs on a 89 or 90 should be about 2" taller than the 91-93 trucks. I know I've seen people use the 91-93 blocks in 89-90 trucks to lift the rear to match lifting the front with the 2.5" Skyjackers. If you could find a good set of 89-90 rear springs, it seems like that would mostly level out the truck and be the simplest (and cheapest?) plan. I've entertained that idea for my own truck, but money for my truck is in extremely short supply right now.

 

[lstzephyr]

I thought about doing that. My truck has the shorter block/taller springs on it. I actually bought a taller block from a 91-93, but I never got it/told the guy not to worry about it. At the time I didn't have time to deal with it, now I do.

I would really like to get the block out of there though as the wheel hop in sand/snow drives me nuts. I think that the low back end is causing the steering to be worse, so if I get the back up it should put more weight over the front end. That is the theory at least.

 

[SChandler]

I understand wanting to get rid of the blocks, I've thought about it a number of times. It will be interesting to see what you end up with. I'd really like to hear your opinions on the shackle flip if you decide to do it. I've not seen anybody do it on truck that gets used for more than off-roading, so your input will be appreciated.

 

[rxinhed]

When I had my 75 Dodge W200, I used Superlift 5.5" rear springs and deleted the block. This made the rear level with the Rancho 4" lifted front. Your shackle flip idea is not a problem. You can find the process on ramchargercentral.com as well.

Truck had a tool laden service body, too:

R-

 

[lstzephyr]

I have been thinking to stay away from lift springs because I thought it would lower the weight capacity. I don't use the full capacity too often, but when I do I want it there. Your 78 looks like it still had plenty of capacity though(nice looking truck too!). I've had a bunch of ideas about how to fix my trucks saggy butt.

I've thought about doing an add a leaf, or adding a junkyard leaf, or adding a ez-inch/zero rate too. I may order a zero rate, install it and see first because a shackle flip would pretty much require one anyway.

I thought about pulling a leaf out of the front springs. I wonder what the difference in a one inch and 2.5 inch skyjacker anyway? Probably arch which wouldn't be easy to change.

I thought about air bags, that would give me the inch higher out back, and adjust for load. The travel is good up front, and good out back, its just not high enough to carry a load in the back. I wonder if I could get airbags on the truck for 100-200$.

Maybe I should just install a giant winch, or a bunch of tractor weights on the front lol.

 

[huntinguy]

Don't put on air bags. I have them on one of my trucks. They make axle wrap very bad and they are bouncy. I think the shackle flip would be the best bet for you. Or a set of custom springs so you can keep your load rating. Good luck.

PS. A two inch lift isn't going to change your COG very much. I have a four inch lift on mine and it doesn't feel tippy at all.

 

[dd76522]

i've had the diy4x shackle flip sitting in the shop waiting to go in for nearly two years now, it's definetly a nice piece but i don't think it's a one way kinda deal, if you're carefull cutting the rivets you could easily save the old shackle bracket if you should need to switch back
having said that i have shackle flipped most of the trucks i've owned the last few years and don't have a single negative thing to say about ride, handling or load carrying. it's been a huge improvement every time
it's not going to help the tail dragging you have going on with wieght in the truck at all though
i'd look into replacing those rear springs, my 90 was routinely carrying up to 6000lbs in the bed and towing some retarded loads and would only sag that bad with a combo of weight in the bed and a silly load on the trailer, maybe deaver or alcan can help you out with something appropriate? i think you'd be happier going that route maybe even combined with the shackle flip? it's a wee bit of coin but the results would far exceed any kind of band aid you could put on with the stock springs imho

 

[lstzephyr]

I thought I should go ahead and update this thread. The steering healed itself and as scary as the thought of mechanical things wearing to the point that they work better is, I decided to leave well enough alone for now. The back suspension I just haven't gotten around to yet.

I broke my motorcycle's frame so the big red pig got a complete teardown and rebuild. In the meantime my truck went into daily driver mode. Its nice having two vehicles.

Since the bigger pig was now getting run everyday I started to get annoyed by a couple things.

The old headliner was looking really sad, and sagging down on my head.

The back window flew out at some point again, after breaking into 5 pieces. I helped a friend move, and broke it even more.

The old cracked mirror needed to go.

I picked up a set of new mirrors, some plastic trim, and some headliner material and went at it. Then before I stuck the headliner back in I covered all the interior plastic above dash level with black vinyl. This is the result.

Then I added an egt gauge which is still temporarily mounted. I have a cup to mount it permanently with, I just haven't gotten to it yet. Having an egt gauge is much nicer than I thought it would be, its great for keeping an eye on things. Considering I generally hate gauges I think that says something. My bike still doesn't have any gauges not even a speedo. I find them distracting but the egt is useful enough to stay. I probably will turn the pump up a bit more now too.

The grill was pretty hammered so I took it off to fix some cracks and whatnot. The truck really looks battered without a grill but the headlights still work, so why not. In the meantime I put a new back window in the shell. It is a nice 1/4 in piece of plexiglass with some quality weatherstripping. It was expensive, but it shouldn't go anywhere this time! The best picture I have of it is in the woods, so use your imagination, but it is soo much nicer than the old window.

With all that out of the way, I took it down to a vintage motorcycle race.

It was awesome! Just about one of anything you could want. MX, gp bikes, cruisers, dirtbikes, stuff for sale, museum, planes, old bikes, you name it, it was there. The wall of death was really cool too! I wasn't feeling a hotel, or driving back and forth each day so I went off into the woods and camped with some climbers I know. There was a pretty big rocky climb up to the campsite which was fun at night with a truck wider than the trail! Turns out they hadn't cleared it in a while, but it is full width, so I guess it is cleared now. I just used a cot, sleeping bag and blanket in the bed and it was very nice. Without all my stuff it feels really spacious, like having a small cabin!

I also took the truck hiking, and some wandering in the woods.

Alabama is beautiful this time of year.

I originally set out to have a truck I could hop in and go camping or take out into the woods to do whatever without a second thought. I think after all this time it is getting close to what I really wanted. In other cool stuff, I ended up in the newspaper when a local photographer found me sitting on the hood of my truck reading a book and wanted to use it for a story. So that was pretty cool. I'm still going after my goal of doing more this year. So far so good.

 

[stumpjump]

Its very cool to see all the places you've gone and I love your old dodge.

I also had a few quick questions on your paint:

Did you thin it or add anything to it (hardener, ect.)
How long was the dry time
How many coats
What did you use to cut in.

 

[chilliwak]

Thanks for posting those pics Zephyr. Its great to be able to see your travels and the old Dodge, which seems to be running great!:Wow1: you might want to get some kind of grill on that truck soon, as your radiator is very exposed and fragile!:Wow1::ylsmoke: