Jrgunn5150
Member
This is Clifford, he's a 2002 2500 HD crew cab long bed with a 8.1 and Allison transmission. I never intended it to be a build or an overlander or anything, it just kind of happened.
Usually we just pull ATV's and tent camp,
Over time I had to repair the cab corners and rockers, and the bed got rusty,
For a time we had a cabin, but going the same place all the time got boring fast,
In some recent bad weather a guy trying to pass lost control on the interstate and clipped me,
I beat the crap out of it to get a tail light into it and took it to the adjusters,
They said it was totalled, we'll give you 7200 for it or something. I had just driven a 2016 6.0 truck last year, the dealer let me take it for a weekend, we towed our little trailer on our normal route. I was really unimpressed, that thing was always shifting, always at 3500 rpm or more. I didn't want a new truck and definitely didn't want to pay the crazy prices people are asking for used trucks.
Started looking for new/replacement beds. Beds in my area of Central Michigan are about 1500 for something truly rust free, about 1000 for something that "just needs a patch". Found alot in the south in the 400-700 range, but by the time I rented a trailer and paid fuel and hotel bills, I'd be right back at 1,000 -1200 before paint, almost none of them were red.
Kicked around the idea of a flat bed, but the fact that you have to strap literally everything down on them is a big turn off for me. My wife uses my truck alot in her furniture store to pick up and drop off antique furniture and haul between her different locations. I use it to haul hot rod parts around, engines, transmissions, etc. It's very much used as a truck, having sides and a tailgate just makes everything so much easier.
I remembered the GI Gyp project and Tug Truck projects in the magazines like so,
And I started looking around at the different cargo beds. I could get one for 800-100 it seemed, I just needed the right one. After a ton of searching and hunting, I came across an m101A2 on my local forum that the guy had linked to Facebook. Ironically it never showed in my Facebook searches.
He had the cargo cover, all the bows, had put new civilian tires on it, 12v LED lights, and was including the pintle in the deal. I contacted him and explained I'd like to see it, but I needed to get some measurements and stuff. He was really cool about everything, even if he thought I was weird, we struck a deal and I brought the trailer home.
8 bolts and 2 wiring plugs are all that hold the stock bed on,
The M101 is held to the trailer but 12 or some little clamps and J bolts into the crossmembers, it's also relatively easy to pull.
The front and rear crossmembers line up well enough with the factory mounts that I could use the M101 clamps front and rear. I'll need to fabricate middle mounts, I'm ok with it for now, but I don't want to use it with only 4 3/8 bolts holding it on in any real capacity.
Ironically, the Silverado bed fits the M-whatever trailer as well as the M101 fit my frame lol. I just plopped it on there and ran 4 bolts through the floor to the crossmembers. The lot where all my crap sits belongs to my father in law, he has alot of rental properties and does alot of renovations and things, so he can use a decent trash trailer, the one he has is pretty beat down. It's the least I can do for marrying his daughter and robbing him of rent on that lot for three years now lol.
Out near term plans are to build a new bumper that compliments the bed, fix the fuel filler, built a raised platform to sleep on while storing our gear underneath, and have it be removable for the 99% of the time the truck is hauling things and not camping.
Once it's warm enough I plan to bedliner the new bed red/black to match the rest, add underbed boxes for maybe a solar charge controller, air compressor, and the normal straps/clevis/jumper cables I run around with all the time.
In the long term, I think I'd like to SAS it and re-gear it for more serious offroading to cooler locations. I often drag a trailer through some pretty hairy terrain, we always camp where we ride.
Anyway, that's the beginning, I'm looking around collecting ideas on how to make camping more pleasant while still being camping and enjoying my stay here, thanks for looking!
Usually we just pull ATV's and tent camp,
Over time I had to repair the cab corners and rockers, and the bed got rusty,
For a time we had a cabin, but going the same place all the time got boring fast,
In some recent bad weather a guy trying to pass lost control on the interstate and clipped me,
I beat the crap out of it to get a tail light into it and took it to the adjusters,
They said it was totalled, we'll give you 7200 for it or something. I had just driven a 2016 6.0 truck last year, the dealer let me take it for a weekend, we towed our little trailer on our normal route. I was really unimpressed, that thing was always shifting, always at 3500 rpm or more. I didn't want a new truck and definitely didn't want to pay the crazy prices people are asking for used trucks.
Started looking for new/replacement beds. Beds in my area of Central Michigan are about 1500 for something truly rust free, about 1000 for something that "just needs a patch". Found alot in the south in the 400-700 range, but by the time I rented a trailer and paid fuel and hotel bills, I'd be right back at 1,000 -1200 before paint, almost none of them were red.
Kicked around the idea of a flat bed, but the fact that you have to strap literally everything down on them is a big turn off for me. My wife uses my truck alot in her furniture store to pick up and drop off antique furniture and haul between her different locations. I use it to haul hot rod parts around, engines, transmissions, etc. It's very much used as a truck, having sides and a tailgate just makes everything so much easier.
I remembered the GI Gyp project and Tug Truck projects in the magazines like so,
And I started looking around at the different cargo beds. I could get one for 800-100 it seemed, I just needed the right one. After a ton of searching and hunting, I came across an m101A2 on my local forum that the guy had linked to Facebook. Ironically it never showed in my Facebook searches.
He had the cargo cover, all the bows, had put new civilian tires on it, 12v LED lights, and was including the pintle in the deal. I contacted him and explained I'd like to see it, but I needed to get some measurements and stuff. He was really cool about everything, even if he thought I was weird, we struck a deal and I brought the trailer home.
8 bolts and 2 wiring plugs are all that hold the stock bed on,
The M101 is held to the trailer but 12 or some little clamps and J bolts into the crossmembers, it's also relatively easy to pull.
The front and rear crossmembers line up well enough with the factory mounts that I could use the M101 clamps front and rear. I'll need to fabricate middle mounts, I'm ok with it for now, but I don't want to use it with only 4 3/8 bolts holding it on in any real capacity.
Ironically, the Silverado bed fits the M-whatever trailer as well as the M101 fit my frame lol. I just plopped it on there and ran 4 bolts through the floor to the crossmembers. The lot where all my crap sits belongs to my father in law, he has alot of rental properties and does alot of renovations and things, so he can use a decent trash trailer, the one he has is pretty beat down. It's the least I can do for marrying his daughter and robbing him of rent on that lot for three years now lol.
Out near term plans are to build a new bumper that compliments the bed, fix the fuel filler, built a raised platform to sleep on while storing our gear underneath, and have it be removable for the 99% of the time the truck is hauling things and not camping.
Once it's warm enough I plan to bedliner the new bed red/black to match the rest, add underbed boxes for maybe a solar charge controller, air compressor, and the normal straps/clevis/jumper cables I run around with all the time.
In the long term, I think I'd like to SAS it and re-gear it for more serious offroading to cooler locations. I often drag a trailer through some pretty hairy terrain, we always camp where we ride.
Anyway, that's the beginning, I'm looking around collecting ideas on how to make camping more pleasant while still being camping and enjoying my stay here, thanks for looking!
