72 IH + ‘85 Alaskan = Questionable Judgment...

Nailhead

Well-known member
My buddy Harry & I hatched this plan two years ago over a 12-pack of Michelob. We were sitting in his Wyoming shop trying to come up with a new project, after he’d finished this one:

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And we’d finished this one:

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It was pretty simple build, really: bed and engine from one truck onto the other, new wire harness, a heater, some welding & paint work.

I was getting the itch for an off-road camper again, after owning and camping in this:

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And one of these later:

:
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There was always an M725 (in keeping with the Kaiser theme):

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But we concluded it would require a complete drivetrain swap and thousands of $ to make it drivable— let alone livable— so that was out.

I then turned my head to look at the back of Harry’s shop (where all the productive drinking takes place), and found the...solution?

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A 1972 International Harvester 1310 1-ton 4x4 flatbed. How hard could it be? Find a popup camper, slide it on that flatbed, go camping. All we lack is finishing.

Just gotta replace a bad rear main seal and plumb up the stock fuel tank.

Pack up the camping gear, ice down a cooler, we’re as good as out of here.


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Nailhead

Well-known member
My primary concern with this truck was whether the 304 would move it along at (secondary) highway speeds. I wasn’t looking for another 50-mph vehicle (see “M725” above).

Test drive day, June ‘18:

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After an out-&-back down the service road to the Laramie exit, any doubts were dispelled: that 304 punches way above its weight.

On to the plan: beer in hand, we concluded that the existing flatbed had to go, replaced by a frame to support both the camper and those side boxes.

Time to go camper shopping.


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Nailhead

Well-known member
After quite a bit of time spent on Craigslist, I noticed quite a few popup campers priced from $500 to $1500— “projects”, to be charitable. There was almost nothing to be had from there up to the high four-digits, where the selection became good once again.

I was becoming discouraged until I saw a listing for a ‘69 Alaskan like my grandfather had when I was a little kid. I loved that camper: the process of raising & lowering it always fascinated me.

I went & looked at it, and it followed me home. Literally.

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The interior was what sold me, combined with an apparently unique “Alaskan” aroma that took me back to the area west of Walden, CO in the early ‘70’s.

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It was not without its issues, however: this is the result of trying to fill the water tank:

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Needed a full Pirelli seal replacement, too.


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Nailhead

Well-known member
It was about this point I broke my right thumb riding in my buddy’s UTV, so wrenching was off the table.

Towed the camper to Wheaterville:

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Went to the IH show & swap meet in Kremmling, CO:

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Checked this out on the way home:

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Nailhead

Well-known member
Fast-forward a few weeks, cast is off my hand, ready to get to it.

Time to drop the tank after removing the huge skid plate under it-

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We never could figure out why it had been disconnected and replaced with a plastic, bed-mounted tank. I thought all that mouse-nest junk probably answered the question, as corrosive as it can be.

Looking down the filler neck didn’t clear anything up, either, because it looked brand-new in there.

Some testing-

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cleared it up:

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It seems like it rusted through due to mud buildup on the skid plate. The testing also revealed a total fuel capacity of 12 gallons. 12. Maybe 100 miles on a good day with a tailwind. Apparently, this truck originally had a utility bed of some type on it that required the tank to be cut flush with the back of the cab, reducing its capacity by two gallons.

Driver-side fender-fill fuel tank added to the growing parts list.


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SDDiver5

Expedition Leader
Love me a 304! Have one in my Scout 800 SR-2. Love the grill on the 72 as well! My dad had a 72 1210 Travelall with the IH diesel that was also a 4 speed and I always thought it was so awesome.

Good luck!
 

Nailhead

Well-known member
Love me a 304! Have one in my Scout 800 SR-2. Love the grill on the 72 as well! My dad had a 72 1210 Travelall with the IH diesel that was also a 4 speed and I always thought it was so awesome.

Good luck!

Thanks man! Covid-19 has the build shut down for the foreseeable future (I'm not going to risk bringing it to Harry with his bad lungs), so I guess some luck would be handy getting rid of this plague.

SR-2's are the bomb!
 

Nailhead

Well-known member
October ‘18, time to get to work on the rear main seal issue.

First step: engine removal.

Pretty much the standard routine

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Except for this:

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A broken transmission crossmember.

The parts list grows yet again...


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Nailhead

Well-known member
Came back to Wheatland a few weeks later with a rebuilt clutch assembly:

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A replacement for the cracked exhaust manifold:

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And the best crossmember I could find at Coonrod’s in Grant, CO, which also needed repair (just less than mine):

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We repaired and reinforced it:

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And we started the long process of installing A/C by realizing Harry’s parts Scout had this on it:

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Nailhead

Well-known member
A pic I found around this time (12/18) showing the direction I wanted to go:

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A CL listing with the same vibe:

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Those added incentive.


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givemethewillys

Jonathan Chouinard
I love everything about this project. I hope you can keep it going! There was an international crewcab listed at worldwide vintage autos a few months back that I wanted soooo bad, but couldn't convince the wife that a 40 year old truck was worth 20 grand. She was probably right, but I'm still disappointed.

Alaskan campers and old trucks are two of my favorite things!
 

Nailhead

Well-known member
2/19: found a driver-side fender-fill tank on Binder Planet, bought from really nice guy who happens to be Gary Allen’s tour manager.

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The delivery vehicle is in the left background.

I was super excited: I’d cleaned & lined the take-out tank for the M715, and got great results relatively simply, and I had no reason to expect otherwise from this. Little did I know that had almost everything to do with the square (-ish) shape of the Jeep tank.


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Nailhead

Well-known member
At this point, I had to run a little errand.

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To Portland, OR.

To pick this up:

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The thing is, I’d gotten a girlfriend a few months after I bought the NCO, and she doesn’t travel light. Roosevelt’s River-of-no-Return expedition comes to mind.

Frequently.

Anyway, that NCO was looking kind of small, so I found a one-owner ‘85 CO on CL that was garage kept.

It was also pretty much factory-hideous on the inside (compared to the NCO):

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Whatever— a buddy and I made the trip anyway:

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