4x4 1 ton chevy ifs conversion

[lstzephyr]

I saw the same thing, couple of years back. Way out in the middle of nowhere, driving down a long straight dirt road, I saw a pickup and horse trailer about 30 yards off the road in the desert. The passenger-side wheel/A-arm had come off - deep gouges in the road that veered off into the desert - and once the pickup was off into the rough desert alongside the road, the horse trailer detached from the truck and rolled. There was a dead horse behind the trailer. The desert was pretty rough in this area - lots of boulders and gullies - and I was surprised the pickup hadn't rolled also. Looked like there was no control at all over the direction of the truck once the A-arm broke off. The wheel/A-arm assembly was still attached to the truck, laying beside it, but only by one bracket. There was no one around, so someone must have happened by and picked up the driver before I got there.

Guess that's one of the reasons why 99% of the ranches around here run either Fords or Dodges.

Yep, I've seen the same sort of thing but it was a mountain work truck in Colorado. It was used to work on the ski lifts at Aspen Ski Resort and one day while driving down the service road it had a catastrophic failure on the drivers side. I honestly can't remember what broke but I do remember it really screwing stuff up and convincing me I wanted a straight axle. I was one of the guys fixing the damn thing, at least the really jacked up rotor and knuckle. That truck had 50k or so but it had had a hard life, it may have been jumped right before the failure as well. It broke near a waterbar, the driver denied jumping it, the mechanics all were convinced he had, who knows. Either way, sketchy.

Ford van seems to be the way to go. Although a old hippy 60s Gm panel might be pretty sweet too! I think they still had a full frame back then.

 

[Loopie]

Forestry, Farm/Ranch and Mining site trucks get ABUSED way more often than not! So sure, in that situation certain makes and models will show themselves to handle the abuse better.
But for any regular Joe Blow wanting a personal vehicle...it'd NEVER see the abuse those work trucks do. (which also brings to mind this tip...seriously reconsider ever buying a truck or van that was used in those fields of work!)