72 IH + ‘85 Alaskan = Questionable Judgment...

[Nailhead]

My buddy Harry & I hatched this plan two years ago over a 12-pack of Michelob. We were sitting in his Wyoming shop trying to come up with a new project, after he’d finished this one:

And we’d finished this one:

It was pretty simple build, really: bed and engine from one truck onto the other, new wire harness, a heater, some welding & paint work.

I was getting the itch for an off-road camper again, after owning and camping in this:

And one of these later:

:

There was always an M725 (in keeping with the Kaiser theme):

But we concluded it would require a complete drivetrain swap and thousands of $ to make it drivable— let alone livable— so that was out.

I then turned my head to look at the back of Harry’s shop (where all the productive drinking takes place), and found the...solution?

A 1972 International Harvester 1310 1-ton 4x4 flatbed. How hard could it be? Find a popup camper, slide it on that flatbed, go camping. All we lack is finishing.

Just gotta replace a bad rear main seal and plumb up the stock fuel tank.

Pack up the camping gear, ice down a cooler, we’re as good as out of here.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Nailhead]

My primary concern with this truck was whether the 304 would move it along at (secondary) highway speeds. I wasn’t looking for another 50-mph vehicle (see “M725” above).

Test drive day, June ‘18:

After an out-&-back down the service road to the Laramie exit, any doubts were dispelled: that 304 punches way above its weight.

On to the plan: beer in hand, we concluded that the existing flatbed had to go, replaced by a frame to support both the camper and those side boxes.

Time to go camper shopping.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Nailhead]

After quite a bit of time spent on Craigslist, I noticed quite a few popup campers priced from $500 to $1500— “projects”, to be charitable. There was almost nothing to be had from there up to the high four-digits, where the selection became good once again.

I was becoming discouraged until I saw a listing for a ‘69 Alaskan like my grandfather had when I was a little kid. I loved that camper: the process of raising & lowering it always fascinated me.

I went & looked at it, and it followed me home. Literally.

The interior was what sold me, combined with an apparently unique “Alaskan” aroma that took me back to the area west of Walden, CO in the early ‘70’s.

It was not without its issues, however: this is the result of trying to fill the water tank:

Needed a full Pirelli seal replacement, too.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Nailhead]

It was about this point I broke my right thumb riding in my buddy’s UTV, so wrenching was off the table.

Towed the camper to Wheaterville:

Went to the IH show & swap meet in Kremmling, CO:

Checked this out on the way home:

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Nailhead]

Fast-forward a few weeks, cast is off my hand, ready to get to it.

Time to drop the tank after removing the huge skid plate under it-

We never could figure out why it had been disconnected and replaced with a plastic, bed-mounted tank. I thought all that mouse-nest junk probably answered the question, as corrosive as it can be.

Looking down the filler neck didn’t clear anything up, either, because it looked brand-new in there.

Some testing-

cleared it up:

It seems like it rusted through due to mud buildup on the skid plate. The testing also revealed a total fuel capacity of 12 gallons. 12. Maybe 100 miles on a good day with a tailwind. Apparently, this truck originally had a utility bed of some type on it that required the tank to be cut flush with the back of the cab, reducing its capacity by two gallons.

Driver-side fender-fill fuel tank added to the growing parts list.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[shortbus4x4]

Gotta put some pictures here of the Alaskan on your M715. Pure old school Alaskan camper porn!

 

[Nailhead]

Gotta put some pictures here of the Alaskan on your M715. Pure old school Alaskan camper porn!

And the camper on the Jeep ain't even the old school one...

 

[SDDiver5]

Love me a 304! Have one in my Scout 800 SR-2. Love the grill on the 72 as well! My dad had a 72 1210 Travelall with the IH diesel that was also a 4 speed and I always thought it was so awesome.

Good luck!

 

[Nailhead]

Love me a 304! Have one in my Scout 800 SR-2. Love the grill on the 72 as well! My dad had a 72 1210 Travelall with the IH diesel that was also a 4 speed and I always thought it was so awesome.

Good luck!

Thanks man! Covid-19 has the build shut down for the foreseeable future (I'm not going to risk bringing it to Harry with his bad lungs), so I guess some luck would be handy getting rid of this plague.

SR-2's are the bomb!

 

[Nailhead]

October ‘18, time to get to work on the rear main seal issue.

First step: engine removal.

Pretty much the standard routine

Except for this:

A broken transmission crossmember.

The parts list grows yet again...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Nailhead]

Came back to Wheatland a few weeks later with a rebuilt clutch assembly:

A replacement for the cracked exhaust manifold:

And the best crossmember I could find at Coonrod’s in Grant, CO, which also needed repair (just less than mine):

We repaired and reinforced it:

And we started the long process of installing A/C by realizing Harry’s parts Scout had this on it:

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Nailhead]

A pic I found around this time (12/18) showing the direction I wanted to go:

A CL listing with the same vibe:

Those added incentive.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[givemethewillys]

I love everything about this project. I hope you can keep it going! There was an international crewcab listed at worldwide vintage autos a few months back that I wanted soooo bad, but couldn't convince the wife that a 40 year old truck was worth 20 grand. She was probably right, but I'm still disappointed.

Alaskan campers and old trucks are two of my favorite things!

 

[Nailhead]

2/19: found a driver-side fender-fill tank on Binder Planet, bought from really nice guy who happens to be Gary Allen’s tour manager.

The delivery vehicle is in the left background.

I was super excited: I’d cleaned & lined the take-out tank for the M715, and got great results relatively simply, and I had no reason to expect otherwise from this. Little did I know that had almost everything to do with the square (-ish) shape of the Jeep tank.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Nailhead]

At this point, I had to run a little errand.

To Portland, OR.

To pick this up:

The thing is, I’d gotten a girlfriend a few months after I bought the NCO, and she doesn’t travel light. Roosevelt’s River-of-no-Return expedition comes to mind.

Frequently.

Anyway, that NCO was looking kind of small, so I found a one-owner ‘85 CO on CL that was garage kept.

It was also pretty much factory-hideous on the inside (compared to the NCO):

Whatever— a buddy and I made the trip anyway:

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk