Sparse Gray Hackle
Geezer
This is a great thread for both the corn binder and Alaskan! Great skills! Thanks for sharing!
72 IH + ‘85 Alaskan = Questionable Judgment...
- Thread starter Nailhead
- Start date
Nailhead
Well-known member
You bet— thank you! I was beginning to wonder if all this wrenching on old iron really interested anyone here.
More to come…
Nailhead
Well-known member
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 at Alcan in Grand Junction:
My ex-GF and I picked them up, thinking it would make for a fun weekend getaway. It didn’t.
I got three new u-bolts with the springs. Normally, you’d get four, but the pumpkin is offset so far to the passenger side that IH utilized studs threaded into the differential housing casting to secure the springs. One was bent:
And I couldn’t find any grade-8 studs of that length anywhere online, so we went with gr-8 bolts, easily obtained locally:
Keep ‘em torqued, they should be fine. They’re gonna have to be.
After 6 weeks, my new ones were ready at Alcan in Grand Junction:
My ex-GF and I picked them up, thinking it would make for a fun weekend getaway. It didn’t.
I got three new u-bolts with the springs. Normally, you’d get four, but the pumpkin is offset so far to the passenger side that IH utilized studs threaded into the differential housing casting to secure the springs. One was bent:
And I couldn’t find any grade-8 studs of that length anywhere online, so we went with gr-8 bolts, easily obtained locally:
Keep ‘em torqued, they should be fine. They’re gonna have to be.
Nailhead
Well-known member
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 saved.
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 saved.
Nailhead
Well-known member
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:
These also work well to keep the top from slamming down over speed bumps & railroad crossings.
These also work well to keep the top from slamming down over speed bumps & railroad crossings.
Nailhead
Well-known member
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 that truck had been immobile for nearly two years:
It still is, really.
Honestly, it was very strange seeing the empty spot in the shop where that truck had been immobile for nearly two years:
It still is, really.
Nailhead
Well-known member
So got the new wheels mounted up & I went for a shakedown to a buddy’s place:
Then it was time to load up on Harry’s trailer & head south:
I was looking forward to this like an IRS audit because of all the construction on I-25 along the Front Range, and I was almost proven right on a really rough bridge joint at Centerra; how I didn’t stack that mess up in a multi-car event I do not know. I know my ass left the driver seat when I hit that sumbitch.
All’s well that ends well:
Weird seeing that here.
Then it was time to load up on Harry’s trailer & head south:
I was looking forward to this like an IRS audit because of all the construction on I-25 along the Front Range, and I was almost proven right on a really rough bridge joint at Centerra; how I didn’t stack that mess up in a multi-car event I do not know. I know my ass left the driver seat when I hit that sumbitch.
All’s well that ends well:
Weird seeing that here.
Nailhead
Well-known member
First on the list became the fridge. I’d run it on gas, plugged it in, run it off 12V, and nothing worked: it simply would not cool. I even turned it upside down for a day and tried to run it after righting it, because that’s what the interwebs suggested. Nothing.
So it was out with the old:
And in with the new, after some complications.
I ordered a Dometic replacement that was as close to a drop-in as I could find, and it arrived broken because the factory packaging was pathetic: one layer of cardboard to protect it through its journey from Denmark, or Sweden, or China, or wherever it is they come from.
Returning it seemed like a dumb idea if the factory couldn’t pack its products any better than this, and besides the vendor had essentially washed their hands of the matter, so I replaced the plastic “nailing fins” with equivalently-sized aluminum ones, and moved on.
I had a LOT to do to be ready for the annual Memorial Day camping trip to North Park.
So it was out with the old:
And in with the new, after some complications.
I ordered a Dometic replacement that was as close to a drop-in as I could find, and it arrived broken because the factory packaging was pathetic: one layer of cardboard to protect it through its journey from Denmark, or Sweden, or China, or wherever it is they come from.
Returning it seemed like a dumb idea if the factory couldn’t pack its products any better than this, and besides the vendor had essentially washed their hands of the matter, so I replaced the plastic “nailing fins” with equivalently-sized aluminum ones, and moved on.
I had a LOT to do to be ready for the annual Memorial Day camping trip to North Park.
Nailhead
Well-known member
While the fridge space was open, I installed my new inverter/charger:
and its remote:
I also installed a cold-air return for the furnace, and a USB outlet:
And then I wired the USB outlet, fridge, and house 12V supply to the fuse panel:
The house 12V was originally pulled from the truck battery through a 4-pin cable from the camper to a receptacle on the cab of the truck. For simplicity’s sake, I installed that receptacle on the front end of the driver-side toolbox and wired it to the fuse panel.
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and its remote:
I also installed a cold-air return for the furnace, and a USB outlet:
And then I wired the USB outlet, fridge, and house 12V supply to the fuse panel:
The house 12V was originally pulled from the truck battery through a 4-pin cable from the camper to a receptacle on the cab of the truck. For simplicity’s sake, I installed that receptacle on the front end of the driver-side toolbox and wired it to the fuse panel.
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Nailhead
Well-known member
At this point, I decided to give the muffler shop down the street a shot at replacing the dual exhausts and their screaming glass-packs:
They failed the first attempt, routing the crossover above the front drive shaft and over the clutch access cover:
It’s the louvered sheet metal behind the pipe, and has to be removed once in a while to grease a fitting on the throwout bearing.
They also installed the muffler as the lowest point on the truck, so they got to do it over.
Attempt #2 resulted in a new and different defect that I’ve forgotten, and grease stains on my new seat. Time to cut my losses and move on.
My neighbor gave me the number of a shop 10 miles or so to the north in Berthoud, said it came recommended. I called, and it turned out Dan, the owner, had been doing exhaust work since the ‘80’s. Sounds good.
Turns out, hi did know what he was doing:
Dan did great work for reasonable money. Competence is refreshing.
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They failed the first attempt, routing the crossover above the front drive shaft and over the clutch access cover:
It’s the louvered sheet metal behind the pipe, and has to be removed once in a while to grease a fitting on the throwout bearing.
They also installed the muffler as the lowest point on the truck, so they got to do it over.
Attempt #2 resulted in a new and different defect that I’ve forgotten, and grease stains on my new seat. Time to cut my losses and move on.
My neighbor gave me the number of a shop 10 miles or so to the north in Berthoud, said it came recommended. I called, and it turned out Dan, the owner, had been doing exhaust work since the ‘80’s. Sounds good.
Turns out, hi did know what he was doing:
Dan did great work for reasonable money. Competence is refreshing.
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Nailhead
Well-known member
We’re in the middle of May, at this point, with a couple of weeks before the Memorial Day deadline. New fridge installed & working, house electrical system complete, with isolator, circuit breaker, and all cabling done; wiring for camper clearance run. Just needed to come up with a cooler mount. Using some found objects, I did:
It works great, with both my Yeti 50 (shown) and the 35:
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It works great, with both my Yeti 50 (shown) and the 35:
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Nailhead
Well-known member
Departure day finally arrived, all fueled, watered, and packed up— time to head for Walden. Woo hoo— two and a half years in the making!
Walden or bust!
Bust— this is how far I got before the fuel pump quit pumping:
It didn’t quit operating, it just quit moving fuel, like it vapor locked, or something. It had done this once before, but I had attributed it to the dual exhaust pipes being too close to the bottom of the gas tanks. With those gone, I didn’t see this one coming. I did have AAA, though:
Huge disappointment.
I packed up a tent in the daily driver and went up the next day:
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Walden or bust!
Bust— this is how far I got before the fuel pump quit pumping:
It didn’t quit operating, it just quit moving fuel, like it vapor locked, or something. It had done this once before, but I had attributed it to the dual exhaust pipes being too close to the bottom of the gas tanks. With those gone, I didn’t see this one coming. I did have AAA, though:
Huge disappointment.
I packed up a tent in the daily driver and went up the next day:
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