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At this point, the big day had come: after all the measurements, beer-fueled debating, and flat-out hoping, we removed the outer duals, aired down the inners, and finally— without drama— got the ship out of the bottle: Honestly, it was very strange seeing the empty spot in the shop where...

A few years back, there was a 10’ cabover “project” for sale on the Alaskan Camper website. It was very much a project, consisting only of the lower portion of the camper; the upper half had blown off somewhere in Wyoming, IIRC. With that in mind, Harry and I came up with some hold-downs...

I’d had a local welding shop cut caps for the open ends on the camper frame, so with the aid of an improvised jig, I welded them in: Longmont Welding charged me $40 to cut all those, and each one fit the way it was supposed to. Best $40 I spent on this project, what with all the time it...

Got the cab interior back together: Roughed out something to break up the form of that massive bumper: Burned in some tow hooks to the side, and drilled mounting holes for a Black Oak light bar before I welded on my little “calf” bar.

Next up was replacement of the roached front springs. The truck had a huge winch on it when Harry bought it (think tow truck winch), and the front springs showed it, with bent main leaves and barnyard leaf additions of varying lengths added to both packs. After 6 weeks, my new ones were ready...

You bet— thank you! I was beginning to wonder if all this wrenching on old iron really interested anyone here. More to come…

After the shop heated up, we got the knuckles back together: These require a tube each side of John Deere corn head grease for the lubricating parts previously mentioned. Why this particular grease? Supposedly, it liquifies in motion and solidifies when stationary, keeping more of it in the...

I’d gotten my tires mounted up in the interim: I brought them with me- So I could be sure and break a toe unloading one of them: Gotta keep roof repair fun… Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

At this point, I got to take an unscheduled break from the trip north and work on the truck because of a huge snowstorm: This is what we got here: Wheatland got something like 36”, a quantity that the town public works department was simply unable to deal with. The town streets were...

We got our parts, and The Maestro installed the Speedi Sleeves, since he’d done it before: We also came up with a king pin bearing race installation tool, and fabricated that from 3/16 plate, all thread, and some nuts: Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

While waiting for brake parts, I started putting my battery box together: I included an SAE solar charge plug obtained from Amazon: Other punch-list items included a rear axle drain plug protector: Yeah, it’s just a big ol’ washer, but I think it’ll keep the new drain plug from...

Here’s Harry pulling a hub seal: Here’s Harry checking out the new flaring tool: Here’s the new rear axle brake lines: New hose, too. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Already done: Thank you! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I’d bought these axle shaft seals after reading a thread on Binder Planet where the OP had removed the front diff after pulling the bearing caps and running a clean rag between the ring & pinion gears by twisting the drive shaft, thus avoiding the need for the case spreader he didn’t have. It...

Next we moved to the front axle: Got the drums off both sides, and removed all brake components because all new internal parts for the brakes on both ends were on order from Rock Auto. Front & rear brakes are identical, which is nice. The drums had next to no wear to them, which is even nicer...

Time stare denial in the face and open up these brakes. Yeah, sure, they’re brakes; they’re really important, but they’d worked just fine on the June ‘18 test drive, so I was fine not opening up a big drum-brake can-of-worms. Can open, worms everywhere… Time for seals, Speedi...

I’m back. Holidays over with. So we got the camper all bolted up on its green-treat spacer: Checked spare tire clearance: And everything was looking great. Gonna be camping any time now. And then I noticed this: Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Less rotational mass makes a Ti crankshaft sensible in some scenarios, but a Ti cam? With a diameter of, what, 2-3", the rotational benefit would have to be next to unnoticeable.

That's more than I paid for my '85 one-owner Alaskan!

I've been trying to figure a solution to a rear ride height issue on the 1-ton IH pictured at left, and have weighed the P & C of new springs, an airbag system, new springs with an airbag system, and airbags with a spring delete, and have pretty much decided on an airbag system with the present...