1991 tow truck conversion

ulsterpark

New member
fuso frame step down

Im just finishing mine as we speak 1998 fuso fg way worse than yours came out good have lots of pictures. NYC
 

kerry

Expedition Leader
Got any pictures of the brake job? I've been thinking of taking mine apart to at least check their condition. Does the drum come off the front without removing the hub?
 

jhrodd

Adventurer
The hub and drum come off together and you need to fabricate a tool for removing and installing the bearings. It's a pretty simple operation and you'll want to replace the seals and pack the bearings while you're at it. You can see the lining thickness by removing a rubber plug but if your bearings haven't been adjusted or greased in a long time then it would be wise to do so.
 

Ford Prefect

Expedition Leader
SO??

It has been four months, what is going on with this truck? Did you get a camper for it? Are you using the truck yet? Goodness I am excited to know! ;)
 

jhrodd

Adventurer
SO??

It has been four months, what is going on with this truck? Did you get a camper for it? Are you using the truck yet? Goodness I am excited to know! ;)

No camper yet. But I have been getting a lot of use out of it. I loaned my FE140 + camper to my brother in May to live in while his house was undergoing some construction, supposed to be for 3 weeks but I haven't seen it since. So it's a good thing I have the FG. I've been hauling my boat with it and it's done a splendid job in spite of the little 3.2L motor :
FGBoat_zps5f5ffec7.jpg

I drained the coolant the other day and it was extremely ugly with a good deal of oil in it. Pulled the oil cooler and put in new o-rings and gaskets, then flushed the motor and radiator repeatedly with dishwasher detergent. It took several days to get all the crud out of the cooling system. Now after several inspections the coolant is still pristine. I also picked up a couple of new brake drums from Autoplicity 2 very heavy drums for $138 including shipping. I thought that was a pretty good deal.
I'll be using the FG a lot building another rental house on my property, still waiting on permits but got the driveway in last week :
driveway_zpsba263557.jpg
 

kerry

Expedition Leader
How much does that boat weight and how fast can it pull it? I'm considering a Corsair F-27 trimaran which weights about 4500 lbs and I'm wondering if the FG can pull it. Of course there's no other load on your truck at the moment.
 

jhrodd

Adventurer
The boat and trailer weighs in at about 7500 lbs. I live at the top of a mile long fairly steep road and my FE140 with the 6 spd auto would pull it at about 35 MPH. The FG slows to about 25 on the hill but it's perfectly adequate around town. I only haul the boat about 3 miles to the harbor to launch it. I think I would want some weight on the truck bed to pull the boat at highway speed.
 

Ford Prefect

Expedition Leader
Building another rental on your property. Sounds nice, I really like the lush green you have in the photos. A very nice change from where I currently am.

Thanks for the update. I hope to read that you get that camper at some point.

Did you do a build on your other camper that I could hunt down?
 

jhrodd

Adventurer
Did you do a build on your other camper that I could hunt down?

Not really, it was pretty simple. I just dropped an S&S Camper on the flatbed :

camper3.jpg

Then enclosed the base and added four baggage doors :

camper.jpg

I also took 2" out of the rear spring packs to level it out. Really changed the look of the camper.
 

Ford Prefect

Expedition Leader
Oh, I think I have seen photos of you pulling a trailer load of vespas around. Ok, yeah I like that set up. Never have been sure how I feel about the slide in bed camper style, but it seems to fit your truck very nicely.

I see that you added the sides where normally space is left for the wheel wheels in a pick up. Are those attached, and therefore slide out when you take the camper off to do engine work, or is it more or less difficult than that?

How did the driveability of the camper change when you took out the two inches? To me that seems like a fairly large loss.

Very cool camper, thanks for sharing!
 

jhrodd

Adventurer
Oh, I think I have seen photos of you pulling a trailer load of vespas around. Ok, yeah I like that set up. Never have been sure how I feel about the slide in bed camper style, but it seems to fit your truck very nicely.

I see that you added the sides where normally space is left for the wheel wheels in a pick up. Are those attached, and therefore slide out when you take the camper off to do engine work, or is it more or less difficult than that?

How did the driveability of the camper change when you took out the two inches? To me that seems like a fairly large loss.

Very cool camper, thanks for sharing!
Yes, the side boxes are built in to the camper and it's very easy to lower the jacks and drive out from under it. It usually has stake sides when the camper's off. Taking out the two inches just made the bed level when fully loaded with the camper on it.
stakebed.jpg
 

blueridge

New member
FG towing boat

jhrodd,

Could your Fuso tow a 5,000lb (total w/trailer) C-Dory 22 and your camper at highway speeds?

tks, John
 

jhrodd

Adventurer
jhrodd,

Could your Fuso tow a 5,000lb (total w/trailer) C-Dory 22 and your camper at highway speeds?

tks, John
I towed this trailer (4500#) on a 3500 mile jaunt and it was fine.
BELLINGHAM027a.jpg

I also tow a 25' Rosborough that weighs 6800# on it's trailer but haven't done so with the camper on yet.

boatlaunch.jpg
 

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