mrgoodwrench
Member
Cool story and good tires ive got them in 37s on my burb for 2 years now and really like them so far.
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Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
Larry's 1978 K10
- Thread starter Larry
- Start date
Larry
Bigassgas Explorer
As we got closer to the turn off to the Doll House my cell came alive so I knew I had blip of cell service. Luckily, my other buddy, Bill, left us a few days prior as he wasn’t feeling well so I was able to send out a text with instructions for him to go to my house grab the Power Wagon and car trailer and head 10 hours back to Utah! 
Within seconds I get a text back “OKAY, I’m on it…call me when you can…..”. As we continued upon up the road and started approaching the switchbacks my phone came alive again with actual 4G so I was able to get out a call to explain to Bill what happened. He was already in route to my house to grab my Power Wagon and a car trailer then would head out to Utah from Southern Colorado early the next morning. Heck, I hadn’t even told my wife what had happened yet and he was already almost to my house to grab the Waggy
So now that we had the ride home figured out, but we still need to try to get this mess of a truck up to the Hans Flat ranger station area to camp for the night then try to limp it to Hwy 24 to met Bill at noon the next day. Hans Flat to Hwy 24 is a long damn way on a horribly wash boarded road!
Well, we finally made it out of the canyon and to the Hans Flat ranger station. The last 20 minutes of that climb out was crazy as the Dodge was busting its ass trying gain any ounce of traction to pull me up. Even with my front ARB locker going the K10 was like a dead weight and was just helpless to the poor Dodge. We remembered there were some nice places to camp in BLM land East of the ranger’s station so we plugged away and found our home for the night. Ironically, this place was where we had planned to camp this night away and we really didn’t get there much later than we had planned even before the truck almost broke in half.
That night was all sat around enjoying cold beverages reliving the entire day and how bad things really could have gone had the frame actually broke in half, severed high pressure fuel lines and sprayed fuel on hot exhaust on a 100 degree day. That would have been a huge fiery mess to have inside a National Park! Rob thought it would be funny to play a prank on me while I took a shower and stash these little electronic gizmos around inside my camper that made cricket noises all night. Little did he know I sleep well to the sound of crickets!
The next morning we took our time packing up and I was able to walk to a hill to get out another phone call to Bill to check his ETA. Here I was thinking we still had at least 6 to 8 more hours to make it to Hwy 24 before he arrived, and he was already in Green River! That dude drove my new Power Wagon with a car trailer behind it 80+ MPH since 4 AM and was only a few hours away! With that new news, I had to pack up fast and hit the road to met him at Hwy 24 because I really didn’t want him ********************** on that wash boarded road in my new Power Wagon for 50 miles to come meet us. The problem was I could only do about 5 MPH as the road was so full of wash boards it literally felt like the truck would just implode.
In the end, he made it about 15 miles up the dirt road from Hwy 24 when we met him. Another one of our buddys rode with him but had to be back at work early the next morning so they dropped the car trailer off and pointed my Power Wagon right back towards Pueblo plus the Waggy wouldn't have had a enough gonads to pull this load 14 hours over the mountains back home. They basically did a 22 hour round trip ride to deliver us a car trailer and Ty pulled it back home for me.
Now the fun part was loading the broken truck and tying it down on the trailer when all conventional methods of tying a vehicles down on a trailer don’t work well when the vehicle is a thread away from breaking in half.
We actually started rolling just before noon on a Friday and didn’t get home to Pueblo until Saturday night. It was a slow ride where even the beloved ole Cummins had its work cutout towing this mess out of the desert, over the mountains and through the trees back home.
We did stop at a campground in Grand Junction on the way home to sleep for the night. This is how I camped. On the trailer behind the Dodge! You should have seen the looks on peoples faces!
More on the actual repair later……….
Within seconds I get a text back “OKAY, I’m on it…call me when you can…..”. As we continued upon up the road and started approaching the switchbacks my phone came alive again with actual 4G so I was able to get out a call to explain to Bill what happened. He was already in route to my house to grab my Power Wagon and a car trailer then would head out to Utah from Southern Colorado early the next morning. Heck, I hadn’t even told my wife what had happened yet and he was already almost to my house to grab the Waggy
So now that we had the ride home figured out, but we still need to try to get this mess of a truck up to the Hans Flat ranger station area to camp for the night then try to limp it to Hwy 24 to met Bill at noon the next day. Hans Flat to Hwy 24 is a long damn way on a horribly wash boarded road!
Well, we finally made it out of the canyon and to the Hans Flat ranger station. The last 20 minutes of that climb out was crazy as the Dodge was busting its ass trying gain any ounce of traction to pull me up. Even with my front ARB locker going the K10 was like a dead weight and was just helpless to the poor Dodge. We remembered there were some nice places to camp in BLM land East of the ranger’s station so we plugged away and found our home for the night. Ironically, this place was where we had planned to camp this night away and we really didn’t get there much later than we had planned even before the truck almost broke in half.
That night was all sat around enjoying cold beverages reliving the entire day and how bad things really could have gone had the frame actually broke in half, severed high pressure fuel lines and sprayed fuel on hot exhaust on a 100 degree day. That would have been a huge fiery mess to have inside a National Park! Rob thought it would be funny to play a prank on me while I took a shower and stash these little electronic gizmos around inside my camper that made cricket noises all night. Little did he know I sleep well to the sound of crickets!
The next morning we took our time packing up and I was able to walk to a hill to get out another phone call to Bill to check his ETA. Here I was thinking we still had at least 6 to 8 more hours to make it to Hwy 24 before he arrived, and he was already in Green River! That dude drove my new Power Wagon with a car trailer behind it 80+ MPH since 4 AM and was only a few hours away! With that new news, I had to pack up fast and hit the road to met him at Hwy 24 because I really didn’t want him ********************** on that wash boarded road in my new Power Wagon for 50 miles to come meet us. The problem was I could only do about 5 MPH as the road was so full of wash boards it literally felt like the truck would just implode.
In the end, he made it about 15 miles up the dirt road from Hwy 24 when we met him. Another one of our buddys rode with him but had to be back at work early the next morning so they dropped the car trailer off and pointed my Power Wagon right back towards Pueblo plus the Waggy wouldn't have had a enough gonads to pull this load 14 hours over the mountains back home. They basically did a 22 hour round trip ride to deliver us a car trailer and Ty pulled it back home for me.
Now the fun part was loading the broken truck and tying it down on the trailer when all conventional methods of tying a vehicles down on a trailer don’t work well when the vehicle is a thread away from breaking in half.
We actually started rolling just before noon on a Friday and didn’t get home to Pueblo until Saturday night. It was a slow ride where even the beloved ole Cummins had its work cutout towing this mess out of the desert, over the mountains and through the trees back home.
We did stop at a campground in Grand Junction on the way home to sleep for the night. This is how I camped. On the trailer behind the Dodge! You should have seen the looks on peoples faces!
More on the actual repair later……….
Larry
Bigassgas Explorer
So, the big break happened in Mid-June of 2020 but I didn’t get around to tearing into the repair until January of 2021. @zoomad75 and I already had plans to do the 8.1L swap into his K5 and I really wanted to knock that out before tearing into the frame of the K10 knowing it would be a long process. I started on Zoomads 8.1 swap in August 2020, which took around 6 weeks. Late 2020 and early 2021 was actually a nice time in life to have a big projects lined up as the entire world was shut down due to the Rona and I didn’t have to worry about work travel or anything….other than being a home school teacher since schools were closed too. Waiting 6 months before tearing into it also gave me plenty of time to come up with a repair action plan.
It took a good day and a half to blow the truck apart just to get a good look at the frame
The bed floor hasn’t seen the light of day in 10 years and it was filthy! It looked dented up but its just the way the dirt gathered.
At this point I was able to get a good look at the cab damage where the bed made contact with it. It wasn’t as bad as I thought
The next day several friends came over to help lift the bed off
I hadn't see under her skirt since the late 90s....and she was a dirty girl!
And there he was…..the Grim Reaper
Never mind the weld patch at the top. That was there just to hold it together for the while tearing the truck apart
More later….
It took a good day and a half to blow the truck apart just to get a good look at the frame
The bed floor hasn’t seen the light of day in 10 years and it was filthy! It looked dented up but its just the way the dirt gathered.
At this point I was able to get a good look at the cab damage where the bed made contact with it. It wasn’t as bad as I thought
The next day several friends came over to help lift the bed off
I hadn't see under her skirt since the late 90s....and she was a dirty girl!
And there he was…..the Grim Reaper
Never mind the weld patch at the top. That was there just to hold it together for the while tearing the truck apart
More later….
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zoomad75
K5 Camper guy
Man that was the craziest day on the trail I’ve ever experienced. You could have picked my jaw off the ground when I saw the box separate from the cab.
Jody was the common sense lifeline we needed to stop us from overthinking the problem.
Thinking about what could have been after the fact was nuts. I don’t know how we could have got the truck out of there in two chunks. To say we got lucky is an understatement.
Glad you showed up to share the story hoser!
Jody was the common sense lifeline we needed to stop us from overthinking the problem.
Thinking about what could have been after the fact was nuts. I don’t know how we could have got the truck out of there in two chunks. To say we got lucky is an understatement.
Glad you showed up to share the story hoser!
zoomad75
K5 Camper guy
Back when these trucks were new and carrying big, heavy overhead hard side campers or anything heavy breaks like this were more common. I don’t think you see it as much any more because not many folks are as nutty as we are to take Squarebody trucks loaded with campers out on the trail.
It can happen to any pickup truck though. A few minutes of googling will find countless Tacomas, Colorados, and full-size trucks that bent the frame exactly in the same spot.
Larry
Bigassgas Explorer
So next up was to acquire a frame, but not for the reasons everyone is suspecting. I work for a truck manufacturer and actually used our Navistar Medium and Heavy Duty Truck Frame Repair Procedure manual to a tee where the crack itself was ground out and filled with weld then another frame section was stuffed inside the C-channel and a plate or a larger frame C-channel section is placed over the outside of the frame section then everything is BOLTED together……not welded! There was no welding done on this job other than to repair the crack in the frame itself. Not only was the repair fully bolted on, I only had to drill 1 hole on each frame rail as we were able to use all preexisting holes where the exising fuel tank bracket, cab mount bracket and leaf spring bracket were riveted. This also meant I drilled out at least 34 rivets! That was time consuming!
The purpose of this frame was to cut up to make c-channel inserts. Shortly after getting the frame stagged a buddy came by with a plasma cutter. I ran up to my office for a quick conference call and by the time I came back down 20 minutes later the frame was completely cut up. Those plasmas are fast! Oh, as it turned out this donor K10 frame was actually a C10 frame that someone had done a poor job at converting to 4x4 so there was no love lost in cutting it into bits.
Once the sections were mined out of the donor frame my buddy, Bill, went to work creating these pieces. The C-channel was cut out of the donor frame in the same area where mine cracked then Bill sectioned it to shrink it down where it would fit inside my frame rail. Then he made a plate for the outside of the frame as well. He had countless hours into making these and we test fit them at least a dozen times or more making tweaks along the way.
Pictured here is the repair kit for one side. This was done on both frame rails so there were 4 of these in total made.
Here are shots from one of many test fitments
1/2" Grade 8 flange bolts with flanged prevailing torque nuts were used throughout. I thought about borrowing a huck bolt gun from work but those things are huge and I was worried it I wouldn't be able to get the huck bolt gun in there.
We also added an additional crossmember where the forward bed bolts pass into the frame, which was the epicenter where the cracks formed to begin with. Now with everything passing test fitment it was time to tear out all back out to paint everything then reassemble and start torquing bolts........a lot of bolts!
This was also an opportunity to clean up this mess of many years of added circuits piled on top each other every time something new was added. I completely revamped the fuel lines, ARB air lines, ARB circuitry going to the compressor on the camper, power cable going to the rear winch and the power cable going to the battery inside the camper. It is amazing how much crap we end up adding to a vehicle out of necessity
This was also a perfect time to mount, wire and plumb in a EVAP canister. This mod alone turned out to be a life changer. It is sooooo nice not smelling gas fumes anymore on a hot day inside the camper or anywhere near the truck. I should have done this years ago
With the camper out of the way was also a great time to update the rear window
The rear cab wall repair turned out pretty nice too
4 months after the repairs started, it finally rolled out the door to bask in the sun for a few hours.
EVAP Can from a 1998 S10. I have since added one to my Suburban too!
That big 3/4" heater hose is actually the power cable that goes up into the camper so it doesn't lay there forever
Time for reassembly!
The purpose of this frame was to cut up to make c-channel inserts. Shortly after getting the frame stagged a buddy came by with a plasma cutter. I ran up to my office for a quick conference call and by the time I came back down 20 minutes later the frame was completely cut up. Those plasmas are fast! Oh, as it turned out this donor K10 frame was actually a C10 frame that someone had done a poor job at converting to 4x4 so there was no love lost in cutting it into bits.
Once the sections were mined out of the donor frame my buddy, Bill, went to work creating these pieces. The C-channel was cut out of the donor frame in the same area where mine cracked then Bill sectioned it to shrink it down where it would fit inside my frame rail. Then he made a plate for the outside of the frame as well. He had countless hours into making these and we test fit them at least a dozen times or more making tweaks along the way.
Pictured here is the repair kit for one side. This was done on both frame rails so there were 4 of these in total made.
Here are shots from one of many test fitments
1/2" Grade 8 flange bolts with flanged prevailing torque nuts were used throughout. I thought about borrowing a huck bolt gun from work but those things are huge and I was worried it I wouldn't be able to get the huck bolt gun in there.
We also added an additional crossmember where the forward bed bolts pass into the frame, which was the epicenter where the cracks formed to begin with. Now with everything passing test fitment it was time to tear out all back out to paint everything then reassemble and start torquing bolts........a lot of bolts!
This was also an opportunity to clean up this mess of many years of added circuits piled on top each other every time something new was added. I completely revamped the fuel lines, ARB air lines, ARB circuitry going to the compressor on the camper, power cable going to the rear winch and the power cable going to the battery inside the camper. It is amazing how much crap we end up adding to a vehicle out of necessity
This was also a perfect time to mount, wire and plumb in a EVAP canister. This mod alone turned out to be a life changer. It is sooooo nice not smelling gas fumes anymore on a hot day inside the camper or anywhere near the truck. I should have done this years ago
With the camper out of the way was also a great time to update the rear window
The rear cab wall repair turned out pretty nice too
4 months after the repairs started, it finally rolled out the door to bask in the sun for a few hours.
EVAP Can from a 1998 S10. I have since added one to my Suburban too!
That big 3/4" heater hose is actually the power cable that goes up into the camper so it doesn't lay there forever
Time for reassembly!
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Larry
Bigassgas Explorer
If you're still running a 6.2L diesel there isn't much you can do. If I recall correctly, the old non-computer controlled diesels just vented to the atmosphere. The EVAP I added operates exactly as it would on a 1996+ GM production vehicle where the ECM controls the engine mounted EVAP purge solenoid as well as the Vent Valve that is mounted on the rear passenger side of the frame. Those modules work together to burn off fumes when cruising while storing fumes in the canister when not running. EVAP is an emissions device manufacturers added for EPA compliance in the late 60s/ early 70s to capture the fumes/hydrocarbons and its one emissions device I actually love.
EVAP definitely got better over the years as technology improved where the ECM took control. The EVAP operation of older carburated vehicles was pretty sucktastic at best that's why I removed mine years ago but adding the modern take on EVAP is totally worth it if you have a computer controlled engine. The down side is I will need to clean the throttle body much more often just like modern vehicles as the hydrocarbons coke up throttle bodies pretty bad over time
Very nice work! I knew this would end up even cleaner and better than it already was.
Did all of the holes need to be welded shut and redrillled on the inner plate because of the resectioning?
Do you feel that your new evap set-up is superior to the TBI era canister?
Would a TBI eco run the later model can if needed?
Did all of the holes need to be welded shut and redrillled on the inner plate because of the resectioning?
Do you feel that your new evap set-up is superior to the TBI era canister?
Would a TBI eco run the later model can if needed?
Larry
Bigassgas Explorer
Thanks! There are always room for improvement when they're in surgery center ??
Of all things, I really didn’t expect the EVAP to become a topic of conversation ?
I don’t feel the canister itself is as important as how the purge solenoid and vent valve operate. From what I remember, the TBI era was okay but I don’t recall those using a vent valve. TBI rigs definitely had purge solenoids on the engine though. I also don’t really remember TBI rigs smelling like raw fumes like the older carburated rigs so I wouldn’t bother messing with it. When my Suburban was TBI I don't recall it smelling like fumes but I had to remove the EVAP can to make room for the second battery....then it really stunk, especially inside the cab. The Suburban benefitted more from upgrading to this EVAP system than the blue truck did. The ole Burb is raw fume free now!
If you’re smelling fumes you may need a purge solenoid or have a leak somewhere in the EVAP lines.
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ExpoMike
Well-known member
Swapping the 6.2 out for a Gen VI 7.4L BBC. Going to put an aftermarket TBI (stock type setup) sinceci didn't get any of the original EFI with the engine. Deal with gas fumes on my classic cars but would like to not deal with that on my camp rig.
zoomad75
K5 Camper guy
The issue with the aftermarket TBI would be if it controls the EVAP purge and vent solenoids. The factory setup will wait to purge fumes until you are at a part throttle cruise type scenario. I haven't researched the aftermarket systems enough to know if they can facilitate the EVAP functions or not.
Larry
Bigassgas Explorer
Reassembly......... The camper jack skates won’t clear the rear tires so that’s why the tires came off when pulling and installing the camper.
I often get asked where the ARB twin compressor is mounted. Well, here tis! Its mounted on the lower wall outside of the camper where it gets fresh air but still protected from the elements. As you could see in earlier pictures the air tank lives on top of the right rear wheel tub.
That pretty much wraps up the break and repair. A few weeks before we took off for Desert Trip 2021 Bill and I made a day trip to the local mountains to give it a good validation run and it did great. Didn’t have a single issue pop up and it was amazing how much different the truck drove on the highway and off-road. It feels so much stiffer and you don’t see the bed and cab flex like crazy as these trucks are famous for.
I forgot to mention I added a second 100W solar panel while the camper was off. This is the new solar panel arrangement. 200w total now
Mr. Bill!
I often get asked where the ARB twin compressor is mounted. Well, here tis! Its mounted on the lower wall outside of the camper where it gets fresh air but still protected from the elements. As you could see in earlier pictures the air tank lives on top of the right rear wheel tub.
That pretty much wraps up the break and repair. A few weeks before we took off for Desert Trip 2021 Bill and I made a day trip to the local mountains to give it a good validation run and it did great. Didn’t have a single issue pop up and it was amazing how much different the truck drove on the highway and off-road. It feels so much stiffer and you don’t see the bed and cab flex like crazy as these trucks are famous for.
I forgot to mention I added a second 100W solar panel while the camper was off. This is the new solar panel arrangement. 200w total now
Mr. Bill!