1986 GMC S-15
- Thread starter Andrew_S
- Start date
Andrew_S
Observer
^ Thank you. That moose was hard earned, easily 100km+ of hiking, a lot of it through swamps and alder brush. So happy to find that guy when we did.
We spent the last week hanging the moose quarters and gradually cutting/wrapping as it was ready.
Nicole utilizes every last piece she can, this guy had a huge heart, even with a lobe already cut and packed.
Some of the nicest meat,
Liver, Kidneys etc etc,
Even the tongue and the nose,
Couple of big roasts
Packed and sealed for almost 20 hours.
We even save most of the bones for soups.
That all amounts to this. Plus another smaller chest freezer that's also stuffed. Almost had to get a third freezer.
Untitled by sciffles today, on Flickr
We spent the last week hanging the moose quarters and gradually cutting/wrapping as it was ready.
Nicole utilizes every last piece she can, this guy had a huge heart, even with a lobe already cut and packed.
Some of the nicest meat,
Liver, Kidneys etc etc,
Even the tongue and the nose,
Couple of big roasts
Packed and sealed for almost 20 hours.
We even save most of the bones for soups.
That all amounts to this. Plus another smaller chest freezer that's also stuffed. Almost had to get a third freezer.
Untitled by sciffles today, on Flickr
Andrew_S
Observer
I had been putting off doing some work to the truck because we were hunting. Now that we've scratched that itch it was time to scratch some things off the list.
First up was the rear leaf springs. The camper 400ish lbs, with another 200lbs of gear and 100lbs of extra fuel would drop the rear end a good 2". It also rode really soft in the rear. So I decided to rebuild my bastard pack and add another leaf.
Picked up 2 smaller thick leafs off a blazer for a grand total of $15.
Picked up all new pads as mine were badly worn/non existent. The leafs were previously squeaking pretty good when being flexed out hard.
New 6 spring pack.
I didn't take any before pictures.. Previously the back sat 1" lower then the front fully loaded. Now it sits dead level with the front and rides way better. I was really surprised to pick up 1" of lift with that little leaf. The goal was more to improve the ride, which it did drastically. No more squeaks anymore either, love that.
I grabbed my leaf spring pads and new keeper bolts off a local guy. I was stoked when I walked into the shop behind his house. This guy had everything, for very reasonable prices, cash only and talk about a great source of knowledge.
While I was grabbing the leaf I found the unicorn I've been trying to find for 5+ years now. A tach dash!
These are not common and quite rare, at least around here. I previously found one but it was in rough shape and a lot of the plastic tabs were broken so I returned it to the yard. This one is absolutely mint!
Side by side with the stock dash you can see the tach in place of the enormous fuel gauge. The fuel gauge is moved to the place of the seatbelt idiot light which was totally useless.
I switched over my speedo/odometer, gear selector indicator and some of the lights. I pulled all of the wiring off the truck for the tach and built a harness for it. Signal wire from the distributor, ign power wire and a ground and it's done and in the truck and working perfectly. The really nice thing is it came out of the same year truck so I didn't have to repin the harness for the cluster.
I had smelled gas the last few times I was working on the truck and just thought it was because I had overfilled the tank recently.
Took a better look this time only to be quite disappointed.
This is a 4 or 5 year old tank in perfect shape. I thought maybe a rock had gotten into the skid plate and rubbed through the tank, or maybe one of the straps.
After wiping it down you can see one of the 3 spot welds for the internal baffling has cracked and its weeping out of there. ************ job to have to do again. New tank on order. Sure don't make stuff like they used to.
Also replaced the idler arm for the 3rd or 4th time this year?
Went with a heavier duty AC Delco unit this time.
Tough to tell in the pics but the ball joints are much larger then the previous model I was using.
I was hoping to avoid doing this with the SAS coming up this spring hopefully. However it was needed.
Picked up 3 new BFG All terrains, I'll be using the brand new spare I bought previously as my 4th and swapping an old tire on to the spare.
I'm amazed how well these tires hold up. These have 20,000 km+ of backroads on them.
First up was the rear leaf springs. The camper 400ish lbs, with another 200lbs of gear and 100lbs of extra fuel would drop the rear end a good 2". It also rode really soft in the rear. So I decided to rebuild my bastard pack and add another leaf.
Picked up 2 smaller thick leafs off a blazer for a grand total of $15.
Picked up all new pads as mine were badly worn/non existent. The leafs were previously squeaking pretty good when being flexed out hard.
New 6 spring pack.
I didn't take any before pictures.. Previously the back sat 1" lower then the front fully loaded. Now it sits dead level with the front and rides way better. I was really surprised to pick up 1" of lift with that little leaf. The goal was more to improve the ride, which it did drastically. No more squeaks anymore either, love that.
I grabbed my leaf spring pads and new keeper bolts off a local guy. I was stoked when I walked into the shop behind his house. This guy had everything, for very reasonable prices, cash only and talk about a great source of knowledge.
While I was grabbing the leaf I found the unicorn I've been trying to find for 5+ years now. A tach dash!
These are not common and quite rare, at least around here. I previously found one but it was in rough shape and a lot of the plastic tabs were broken so I returned it to the yard. This one is absolutely mint!
Side by side with the stock dash you can see the tach in place of the enormous fuel gauge. The fuel gauge is moved to the place of the seatbelt idiot light which was totally useless.
I switched over my speedo/odometer, gear selector indicator and some of the lights. I pulled all of the wiring off the truck for the tach and built a harness for it. Signal wire from the distributor, ign power wire and a ground and it's done and in the truck and working perfectly. The really nice thing is it came out of the same year truck so I didn't have to repin the harness for the cluster.
I had smelled gas the last few times I was working on the truck and just thought it was because I had overfilled the tank recently.
Took a better look this time only to be quite disappointed.
This is a 4 or 5 year old tank in perfect shape. I thought maybe a rock had gotten into the skid plate and rubbed through the tank, or maybe one of the straps.
After wiping it down you can see one of the 3 spot welds for the internal baffling has cracked and its weeping out of there. ************ job to have to do again. New tank on order. Sure don't make stuff like they used to.
Also replaced the idler arm for the 3rd or 4th time this year?
Went with a heavier duty AC Delco unit this time.
Tough to tell in the pics but the ball joints are much larger then the previous model I was using.
I was hoping to avoid doing this with the SAS coming up this spring hopefully. However it was needed.
Picked up 3 new BFG All terrains, I'll be using the brand new spare I bought previously as my 4th and swapping an old tire on to the spare.
I'm amazed how well these tires hold up. These have 20,000 km+ of backroads on them.
Last edited:
tennesseewj
Observer
Awesome find on the tach cluster, but that gigantic fuel gauge is pretty sweet 
With that much room to cover surely you can watch it move as you drive!
Can you remind us what size BFGs you are running?
Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk
With that much room to cover surely you can watch it move as you drive!Can you remind us what size BFGs you are running?
Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk
TwinDuro
Well-known member
Oh man, that freezer full o' moose is a thing of beauty! Looks like a long winter of good eating right there. My mouth waters just thinking about bone broth soup or stew.
Bummer on the fuel tank, but very neat on the leaf springs. Its cool that you all have small local shop where you can spring parts like that. It seems like they're far and few between now. They've gone the way of the good old-fashioned radiator shops for the most part.
Awesome find! The tach dash brings back good memories. My family had a "fully loaded" '88 S-10 Blazer 4x4 Tahoe Package for about a decade. It had the 4.3 and a set of good looking period-correct (ha!) black and machined 5-spoke alloys with 31" all terrain tires. With the red paint and black body stripe (the opposite of your S10 hot rod) with the red velour interior, bucket seats and a center console, it was a good looking rig and was a hoot to drive. The factory skid plates and larger tires made it the first rig we actually 4-wheeled in as a family and it took us some fun places in the foothills. Long story long, it had the exact same tach dash and with the TBI 4.3 being a thirsty engine, you could pretty much count on the fuel gauge depleting rapidly at 13'ish mpg. The rig met an untimely end in 2009 unfortunately.
I'm pretty sure there was a G-80 in the back as well because it would always hook up with both rear wheels. One of my Dad and I's favorite past times during the winter was setting up an improvised snow-rally course in the quiet back lot of the YMCA parking at night and seeing who could navigate it with the most style.
Sorry about the ramble, that tach dash brought back some memories...
Bummer on the fuel tank, but very neat on the leaf springs. Its cool that you all have small local shop where you can spring parts like that. It seems like they're far and few between now. They've gone the way of the good old-fashioned radiator shops for the most part.
Awesome find! The tach dash brings back good memories. My family had a "fully loaded" '88 S-10 Blazer 4x4 Tahoe Package for about a decade. It had the 4.3 and a set of good looking period-correct (ha!) black and machined 5-spoke alloys with 31" all terrain tires. With the red paint and black body stripe (the opposite of your S10 hot rod) with the red velour interior, bucket seats and a center console, it was a good looking rig and was a hoot to drive. The factory skid plates and larger tires made it the first rig we actually 4-wheeled in as a family and it took us some fun places in the foothills. Long story long, it had the exact same tach dash and with the TBI 4.3 being a thirsty engine, you could pretty much count on the fuel gauge depleting rapidly at 13'ish mpg. The rig met an untimely end in 2009 unfortunately.
I'm pretty sure there was a G-80 in the back as well because it would always hook up with both rear wheels. One of my Dad and I's favorite past times during the winter was setting up an improvised snow-rally course in the quiet back lot of the YMCA parking at night and seeing who could navigate it with the most style.
Sorry about the ramble, that tach dash brought back some memories...Nice moose! Thanks again for the inspiration and tips. I'd like to hear more about the actuators and freezing temperatures since I'm going to be hooking mine up in the next few days. Any thoughts on why that caused problems? Are they wired through relays or direct power from the switch?
Andrew_S
Observer
Awesome find on the tach cluster, but that gigantic fuel gauge is pretty sweet
Can you remind us what size BFGs you are running?
Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk
Thanks! Yeah you nailed it, could almost see it moving.
They are just small 235/75/15's. Anything more then that and I would have to regear. Trying to avoid doing anything to the diffs/gearing with sas coming up here in the future.
Oh man, that freezer full o' moose is a thing of beauty! Looks like a long winter of good eating right there. My mouth waters just thinking about bone broth soup or stew.
Bummer on the fuel tank, but very neat on the leaf springs. Its cool that you all have small local shop where you can spring parts like that. It seems like they're far and few between now. They've gone the way of the good old-fashioned radiator shops for the most part.
Awesome find! The tach dash brings back good memories. My family had a "fully loaded" '88 S-10 Blazer 4x4 Tahoe Package for about a decade. It had the 4.3 and a set of good looking period-correct (ha!) black and machined 5-spoke alloys with 31" all terrain tires. With the red paint and black body stripe (the opposite of your S10 hot rod) with the red velour interior, bucket seats and a center console, it was a good looking rig and was a hoot to drive. The factory skid plates and larger tires made it the first rig we actually 4-wheeled in as a family and it took us some fun places in the foothills. Long story long, it had the exact same tach dash and with the TBI 4.3 being a thirsty engine, you could pretty much count on the fuel gauge depleting rapidly at 13'ish mpg. The rig met an untimely end in 2009 unfortunately.
I'm pretty sure there was a G-80 in the back as well because it would always hook up with both rear wheels. One of my Dad and I's favorite past times during the winter was setting up an improvised snow-rally course in the quiet back lot of the YMCA parking at night and seeing who could navigate it with the most style.
The wifey has made 3 or 4 soups now. So friggin good. That blazer sounds friggin awesome! I would love to find one like that locally here.
Hey! I think we drained the battery down to much with the diesel heater. I'm going to be rewiring the actuators so they run off the truck start battery. Initially I was against this and wired them up to the house battery. In hindsight the higher amp (20 amp max) and short time period is better suited for the trucks start battery. This way I can drain the house battery down to nothing with the diesel heater and never have to worry about dropping the top. They are direct power to two rocker switches.
Been a minute, working to much and haven't had time for much.
Did get a chance to euro my moose though,
not quite done, still need to whiten it up a bit. Really happy with it so far
also did the bear skull at the same time
We have to do compulsory inspections for certain game here. When I brought the moose skull to the biologist he showed me his moose from this fall. Unreal bull.
The new gas tank finally came in, yup definitely not the right tank
I would never ever ever do this job again without removing the box.
A week later the right one arrived,
New tank all dressed up and going back in.
While I was in the garage cursing at everything the wife went out with a buddy for first ice.
Andrew_S
Observer
New tires sure are nice to have in the snow.
First ice, Kind of?
Sketchy ice but great fishing!
This ice sled is a bear to lug around,
Can't beat first ice brookies
Ran into this absolutely awesome rig on the way up to the lake. After watching it struggle a bit in the snow, I definitely had a rethink on the practicality of a unit like this. We were in 2wd just cruising down the road, he was chained up, moving very slow and kind of struggling with the off camber stuff. Still a super cool rig to see out in the wild though.
First ice, Kind of?
Sketchy ice but great fishing!
This ice sled is a bear to lug around,
Can't beat first ice brookies
Ran into this absolutely awesome rig on the way up to the lake. After watching it struggle a bit in the snow, I definitely had a rethink on the practicality of a unit like this. We were in 2wd just cruising down the road, he was chained up, moving very slow and kind of struggling with the off camber stuff. Still a super cool rig to see out in the wild though.
Andrew_S
Observer
^ Brookies are just one of those fish that always mesmerize me with their beauty.
Making moose smokies,
Hiked up Spion Kop
New toy for this ice season,
Folks are visiting again for a couple weeks, got them out for a day on the ice.
That regular cab life,
Some of the best tasting fresh water fish imo
Gave the old blue canopy away to an older gentlemen. Was happy to see it was going to get used and not thrown in the landfill.
This years christmas tree
Checking out some other lakes ice conditions
Absolutely love running into these guys
Making moose smokies,
Hiked up Spion Kop
New toy for this ice season,
Folks are visiting again for a couple weeks, got them out for a day on the ice.
That regular cab life,
Some of the best tasting fresh water fish imo
Gave the old blue canopy away to an older gentlemen. Was happy to see it was going to get used and not thrown in the landfill.
This years christmas tree
Checking out some other lakes ice conditions
Absolutely love running into these guys
ITTOG
Well-known member
Your new toys got me thinking... haven't I seen those on here before. Not sure I decided to spot check but didn't see any. Seeing some of the build pics for the two trucks while spot checking made me decide to go page by page and look back at the build. Doing this through 21 pages was fun. I know that isn't all the pages but it was transitioning into the truck camper and those posts are fresh on my mind. You have done a lot of work to those trucks. So much fun and accomplishment. While doing the review I did confirm where you have shown other versions of those devices two other times. 
Do they wear out or is it improved performance and or functionality?
Also, the other major topic in this thread is fishing and hunting. So I am curious, do you ever buy steaks, hamburger, fish, etc from a store? Seems you do enough hunting and fishing you have fresh meat for the year. What a gift.
Do they wear out or is it improved performance and or functionality? Also, the other major topic in this thread is fishing and hunting. So I am curious, do you ever buy steaks, hamburger, fish, etc from a store? Seems you do enough hunting and fishing you have fresh meat for the year. What a gift.
Andrew_S
Observer
^Those Vexilar flashers are super robust and last forever. The newer versions have some different features and better batteries. My old flasher I paid $400 for it 7 years ago used and it was just time for an upgrade. That being said I did resell my old unit for $500 two days ago. They hold their value incredibly well, kind of like guns.
We hardly ever buy fish, but yup we definitely buy a nice steak on occasion and we usually split half a lamb with another couple in the summer/fall. The only other thing we will buy is a whole chicken from a local farmer once a month or so. This year with the moose, bear, fish, venison and all the small game, we will be supplied for a while. It's awesome to have a dinner with family and friends and have that connection to what you're eating.
Last week or so of the folks visiting,
Mission creek greenway
Checking out a couple lower elevation lakes for freeze up,
Another evening out on the ice,
Prime-Time
20 or so fish and a fire
2 for dinner,
Proper Hilda right here
Hope it turns out because she has 8+ hours into at the moment
Salted and drying for the next round of work
As far as the truck goes, did an oil change! no pics haha,
* Bonus vid of skipping rocks on ice, turn the sound up
We hardly ever buy fish, but yup we definitely buy a nice steak on occasion and we usually split half a lamb with another couple in the summer/fall. The only other thing we will buy is a whole chicken from a local farmer once a month or so. This year with the moose, bear, fish, venison and all the small game, we will be supplied for a while. It's awesome to have a dinner with family and friends and have that connection to what you're eating.
Last week or so of the folks visiting,
Mission creek greenway
Checking out a couple lower elevation lakes for freeze up,
Another evening out on the ice,
Prime-Time
20 or so fish and a fire
2 for dinner,
Proper Hilda right here
Hope it turns out because she has 8+ hours into at the moment
Salted and drying for the next round of work
As far as the truck goes, did an oil change! no pics haha,
* Bonus vid of skipping rocks on ice, turn the sound up
