M1010 expo build. The Mountain Turtle
- Thread starter stevo-mt
- Start date
stevo-mt
Member
I finally got the front end buttened back together and taken care of. There were some parts that didn't arrive as soon as I thought so I had to go back through some of the suspension. Also the shock mounts from the front needed a little re-engineering to work for the Chevy. They came in the kit and were for a ford f250 so I welded a piece of angle iron on the back to adjust it to the proper angle. I have the same shocks all around so the front required some cutting to fit the towers up in the engine compartment.
I was able to utilize the original shock mounting holes where the rivets used to be. Now there is the full length of travel and the shocks are properly aligned. It drives super smooth, minus the tires that haven't been balanced yet. And to make it worse still have the wheel weights sitting on the rims, that way the tire guy has something to work with at least.
The sway bar disconnect kit was pretty easy to get in. I do need to build something to pin it into when it isn't in use. I'll have to look into that and see what other people have done.
The rear shocks fit good and were a simple swap.
Since a 37" tire wont fit underneath there for the spare I have a ton of room to play with. I'll be able to easily fit the winch in there and roughly a 30-40 gallons worth of liquid storage of some kind. I'll have two 20 gallon tanks, one on each side, using a fuel tank that is identical but orientated for the passenger side that chevy used on the civy models back in the 80's that allegedly blew up when they were impacted. I have two 5 gallon jerry cans and mounts so total I'll have 50 gallons of fuel. At a fully loaded guess of around 12 mpg should be close to 500-600 miles highway. So in reality it should do alright wandering around the back roads and woods without too much worry.
To make my life easier, since diesels require a return line I am going to just run a transfer pump from the secondary tank to the primary. I will also have the diesel heaters run out of the secondary tank only. That way if the heater gets left on it won't run my primary fuel source dry!
I fly up to Alaska Saturday so I am just kinda wrapping some of the smaller things before I fly out. I'll finish up the aluminum cover for the front winch, get the rear winch squared away with the new motor and redline oil/grease, then square away everything to sit over the summer. If I get time I'll install the york compressor for the onboard air. At least maybe design and build the mount.
I started the list of things that I need to gather over the summer and what tasks remain:
Install secondary fuel tank, passenger side, transfer pump, etc.
Install coolant hoses to rear for espar D5 and rear heat exhanger/heater for rear cab.
Install on board air York compressor and 12v dc compressor, route line to rear and mount air tank in rear.
Batteries and electrical system.
...And all the other stuff that is involved in building a camper. I've got a pretty open schedule this fall so I'll have plenty of time to get some of the other ideas for the camper thought out and materials ordered so they are showing up when I get back. I figure a good month or two should get most everything wrapped up for the truck. I fully expect it to end up taking a bit longer, that seems how it goes on projects!
Outback
Explorer
On my M1028
Sway Bar Disconnect Hanger Kit from O.R.D.. http://www.offroaddesign.com/catalog/swaybarkit.htm
Some pics of the 4" bump stops I recommend you pick up if you already haven't.
All you need is the 90 degree bent bracket (Bottom left picture) that comes with the sway bar disconnect kit. It simply bolts to the bump stop bolt. You pull the pins on the swaybar. Push the swaybar up out of the way and re-pin it to the hold up bracket. That's all it takes.
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CumminAlong
Observer
Excellent! 37s look great with that lift! Nice work man, can't wait to see more progress when you get back to MT.
stevo-mt
Member
Well it has been a couple of months since I have been able to have any time to commit towards the old expo truck. Things at work slowed down a bit so I was able to get my regular days off and order some things that have been out there on the old list. I ordered a Lewmar ocean hatch for the roof. I'm a big fan of marine stuff when it comes to keeping out water at least! There is another benefit it adds a few inches to the height of the roof next to the sink and will make it so I can stand straight up. I was worried how I was going to overcome that obstacle of the truck being 65" in the rear, not quite tall enough to stand, but that isn't a super big deal. I think the benefits of the box outway the shortcomings. With the hatch it will also serve another purpose for providing a spot to shower under. I have an idea for a shower system that would basically be silicone impregnated nylon built into a square that you stand over, then pull up the sides of the curtains and clip it onto the ceiling of the truck. Then when your done with your shower, just roll it up and put it under the sink where it can drain. I'll have to conquer that idea when I get back to the lower 48. I ordered some custom RV dual pane windows for the rear. They are made by a guy out of Washington and should be pretty good. I had to get a custom size due to the 16" on center frame structure of the rear box. I will probably order some portlights for a boat to provide a little more ambient lighting into the truck as well.
I was set on performing all of my own wiring harness, fuse panels, and relaying but that has changed. I will be done up in AK in mid-September and it can snow in Montana anytime from October on. My goal is to have a bulk of the truck completed to a point that I can live in it before November. I want to stay in it while I'm getting my pilots license
. I ordered a bunch of Blue Sea circuit breaker panels and an AC selector switch. I have many of these types of electrical equipment but it would be super time consuming to match the visual appearance and the straight forwardness of their panels. Plus they are pretty well laid out and time tested. The A/C selector switch is a pretty nice find as far as being able to switch between generator power, inverter power, and "shore" power without back feeding to any of them. It was essentially spending $180 bucks to eliminate a couple extra relays and switches, but with the cost of a generator or inverter it is a good safety investment. I bought some of their DC panels as well. I was going to have everything all fused to switches but the space, and mainly time, savings of a pre-assembled clean panel is well worth it. They had some on the ship I was on that were 30 years old, so they do hold up.
I bought a heated in line Racor fuel filter/water separator, as well as a Mr. Funnel filter that you can use anywhere with the jerry cans or the generator. After seeing what those puppies will do with the rough gas we get out in the bush I would trust them anywhere.
The other big purchase was an Espar D2 air heater to match the hydronic heater. I liked the air heater from the military, but not being able to control it with a thermostat was kind of a downfall. Also I was having to use an electronic device to convert it from 12v to 24v and that isn't something I want to go out on me in the Arctic. Its kind of unfortunate because the military heater would put out some BTU's!
My original idea of doing this on more of a budged kind of went out the window. At this point I am fully committed to living in this thing for a while so why not make it as nice as I can?! As time goes on its starting to sound more and more like the turtle exp. truck. I am using many of the same components that they did. Its tough to out what works well and a lot of time can end up in researching things like that. But I guess thats whey we have forums like EP!
Some pictures of this summer's adventures. Its good that my new job doesn't seem like work at all!
I was set on performing all of my own wiring harness, fuse panels, and relaying but that has changed. I will be done up in AK in mid-September and it can snow in Montana anytime from October on. My goal is to have a bulk of the truck completed to a point that I can live in it before November. I want to stay in it while I'm getting my pilots license
. I ordered a bunch of Blue Sea circuit breaker panels and an AC selector switch. I have many of these types of electrical equipment but it would be super time consuming to match the visual appearance and the straight forwardness of their panels. Plus they are pretty well laid out and time tested. The A/C selector switch is a pretty nice find as far as being able to switch between generator power, inverter power, and "shore" power without back feeding to any of them. It was essentially spending $180 bucks to eliminate a couple extra relays and switches, but with the cost of a generator or inverter it is a good safety investment. I bought some of their DC panels as well. I was going to have everything all fused to switches but the space, and mainly time, savings of a pre-assembled clean panel is well worth it. They had some on the ship I was on that were 30 years old, so they do hold up. I bought a heated in line Racor fuel filter/water separator, as well as a Mr. Funnel filter that you can use anywhere with the jerry cans or the generator. After seeing what those puppies will do with the rough gas we get out in the bush I would trust them anywhere.
The other big purchase was an Espar D2 air heater to match the hydronic heater. I liked the air heater from the military, but not being able to control it with a thermostat was kind of a downfall. Also I was having to use an electronic device to convert it from 12v to 24v and that isn't something I want to go out on me in the Arctic. Its kind of unfortunate because the military heater would put out some BTU's!
My original idea of doing this on more of a budged kind of went out the window. At this point I am fully committed to living in this thing for a while so why not make it as nice as I can?! As time goes on its starting to sound more and more like the turtle exp. truck. I am using many of the same components that they did. Its tough to out what works well and a lot of time can end up in researching things like that. But I guess thats whey we have forums like EP!
Some pictures of this summer's adventures. Its good that my new job doesn't seem like work at all!
stevo-mt
Member
I will be back in the lower 48 sometime Mid-end of September, maybe we can make a deal.
krebsatm02
Observer
Awesome, I'm glad someone else started on one of these. I have one that's sat for a number of years, but that's changing now that I graduated. I can't wait to see what you do with the rear. I'm using mine as a tailgating vehicle this fall, but after that major work is going to be done. I'm shopping for a 12 valve cummins with an NV4500. Please take pictures when you cut into the box for windows, I'm curious to see what the construction looks like.
stevo-mt
Member
I'm getting anxious to start working on it again! So in my departure from my truck I have been supplementing it by buying parts and and doing a little bit of design work, at least what I can do, remotely.
I found a super good deal on a new 3 burner stove top/ range that will run on LP, and also a norcold fridge that is approximately similar dimensions. Essentially what I'm thinking right now is to take one of the aluminum back boards and sacrifice that for a cabinet base frame for the range/stove top, sink, and fridge. I can use aluminum and plywood to make a good structure and then prefab the cabinets/appliances in my garage on some saw horses. Then when its done and finished slide it into the truck and hook up the electrical wires, plumbing, and gas.
As always after doing more research and investigating to what other people have had success with I am changing the way I'm approaching this build. I'm only planning on being able to sleep 3 people in it max, unless I can find another aluminum stretcher. The box will more or less remain in tact overall and minor modification here and there. I was all ready to cut into with the metal skilsaw but the fact its primarily going to be a one or two, and if it calls for it a three person outfit there isn't really a need to add more work that doesn't gain myself a lot. The drivers side of the box will be couch/sleeping area for one person. Below the pad I'll have a piece of plywood that will be able to slide out to span the rear of the box, 3/4" fits perfect. This will also allow the cushion of the back to be used for the pad for the second person. If a 3rd person is along then the aluminum back board that is at the bottom of this can be put up into the stock m1010 bracket and used as a bunk. The idea of having a kitchen table was the motivation of cutting into everything, but by installing a Laugen sailboat table into the mix I think it will work out to have anchored on the passenger side and when not in use swing over the kitchen stuff. At least that's the "theory" for now.
With all the changes there are quite a bit of plans and materials that I need to re purpose or maybe think about selling. I will have my older fridge that I found on craigslist last spring, but since its kind of self contained now it can become a passenger in my trailer, which is a m1101. Yet another awesome Craigslist find that I picked up before I bugged out for the summer. Since a big portion of this truck's life will be a hunting, trapping, or snow machining base camp I thought it would be fitting to find a trailer that kind of matched it.
(generic picture, mines pretty much the same)
I couldn't even buy the materials for what I ended up paying for it! So now I can pack some of the other luxurious things that I don't really need when I'm setting up somewhere for a longer length of time. It will give me a spot to throw my craigslist fridge. I've been camped out at some pretty remote spots this summer and its a good reminder of how awesome refrigeration space is! Even being able to keep ice frozen for an extra few days is a luxury that I would love to have when hunting or fishing! The M1101 has 37" humvee tires as well so I swap out tires with it if needed. Plus the trailers clearance and ride height matches perfectly for the M1010 with a 4" lift. I was amazed how well it pulled dragging it from Oregon to Montana with a 1/2 ton Ford. I could cruise 70 mph with no issues. Luckily for me the M1010 only goes about 62 mph tops with 37's.
With rear coolant heat exchanger and the espar coolant heater it made sense to utilize the lines that will be running to the rear of the box for cabin heat to add in a seaward hot water heater. A 36 gallon fresh water tank, seaward water heat exchanger, 12v pump, and the rear cabin heater/blower should all fit underneath the passenger side compartment of the existing compartment in the rear box. That will give me a total of 42 gallons of primary fresh water, plus what ever I have in h20 jerry cans.
Since I will be installing an espar air heater in the rear as well, I'll have the M1010 air heater that will be removed. I haven't had a good chance to test it very much so if anyone is in need of one let me know. It will be out of the truck in October, delicately might I add... I'm sure someone from here or the steel soldiers website could use it in a m1010 project. I just don't want to rely on the 24v converter that I bought for it. Espars are pretty popular and I know that there are a ton of them floating around Montana, Alaska, and everywhere in between. That free's up a lot of room where the ducting used to be for the air heater. I'm going to have to cut out that area since it would be an ideal place for a thetford porta pottie. They make a bunch of different sizes so once I figure out what my clearances will be I can choose the one that matches. It will probably not be used very much at all, but every once in a while one of those could be handy. :elkgrin:
I Just got back tonight from doing some construction/maintenance work on a cabin out on the Alaskan peninsula. It sparked some good ideas since I am aspiring to build a portable cabin. The cabin had a super simple plumbing system that draining petcocks at all the lowest points in the pex piping, simple, but that can be overlooked. I'm going to use a standard sink, mainly for replacement parts should the event ever occur I forget some water in it and it freezes. The sprayer hose in the faucet needs to be able to drain somehow. I now realize that nothing with the faucet will work if that is not up to snuff, at least on the old style of sinks with a separate sprayer. To fill the cabins water systern, which was a 4x4x8 plywood box lined with some new pond liner we hooked up a little gas honda mini 4 stroke pump and threw the suction portion in the creek and ran a really really long garden hose up the hill and in about 45 minutes it filled the systern. I've been tossing around the idea of getting a little marine bilge pump with a roll up hose. I'm not sure how much I would use it and if its worth the extra money/weight (maybe 10 lbs total), but it was sure nice packing a little tiny pump to the creek this time than the buckets and gallons that I used last time I was there! I could see where that would be nice set up hunting or something, but yet another luxurious thing that I don't really need but would be nice to have.
Something else that I learned, bears don't really care if you dead bolt/lock a steel cabin door. In this case the door lock held, up until the point where the bear decided to bend the bottom of the steel door in over a foot. Then the lock popped out of the door jam. Then there was a bear party in the cabin!:wings: On the helo flight back we passed two other nice cabins that had been ransacked by the brown bruins. Needless to say, I'm now convinced there isn't a camper, or cabin for that matter, that is bear proof!!!
@ krebsatm02, I was debating the whole cummins swap myself and I keep coming up with different ideas and whether or not if its worth it, at least at the moment. The figure I can find is 215 hp for a stock 6bt. The weight of a 6bt is ~1100 lbs vs. the old detriot's dry weight of 700 lbs. From best guess, I'm hoping a banks turbo kit might be able to get the detroit up to 200 hp, with a J code engine. ( I found/bought one on craigslist used for cheap, so its worth a shot at least for the short term) If a guy just looked at with numbers power to weight ratio in this scenario would put the detroit on a pretty good standing .28 hp/lbs for the dd and .195 hp/lbs for the 6bt. But... in the real world the cummins is a terrific motor, better than a 6.2, that runs for ever and you can get parts from combine or something if you need to! I would love to have a cummins and it might happen, but realistically for what the costs are to replace it I am going to have to put the turbo on the 6.2 and run it for a while, the thing only has 23k miles. Then at the point that I decide enough messing around and i need more HP to move 10k lbs of junk then I will probably revisit this! All the donor trucks pricing that I was able to find in MT was leading me to believe that I would be money ahead to get a wrecked dirtymax, power stroke, or even a newer cummins and move into the modern diesel age. Which would have its drawbacks too. The workload is great either way a guy goes. But I'll get some good interior pics of whats in there for sure! I'm was thinking about adding some insulation inside somehow, but it would be tough to be the fire resistance of the aluminum! I don't know how many times that I looked at your truck before I decided to pull the trigger on this one! It gave me confidence that this type of thing could be done to one of these. Now that I'm in it I can see their benefits and their drawbacks. For being 7400 lbs though it did pretty good cruising around Moab and all the mountains back to Montana in winter!
I found a super good deal on a new 3 burner stove top/ range that will run on LP, and also a norcold fridge that is approximately similar dimensions. Essentially what I'm thinking right now is to take one of the aluminum back boards and sacrifice that for a cabinet base frame for the range/stove top, sink, and fridge. I can use aluminum and plywood to make a good structure and then prefab the cabinets/appliances in my garage on some saw horses. Then when its done and finished slide it into the truck and hook up the electrical wires, plumbing, and gas.
As always after doing more research and investigating to what other people have had success with I am changing the way I'm approaching this build. I'm only planning on being able to sleep 3 people in it max, unless I can find another aluminum stretcher. The box will more or less remain in tact overall and minor modification here and there. I was all ready to cut into with the metal skilsaw but the fact its primarily going to be a one or two, and if it calls for it a three person outfit there isn't really a need to add more work that doesn't gain myself a lot. The drivers side of the box will be couch/sleeping area for one person. Below the pad I'll have a piece of plywood that will be able to slide out to span the rear of the box, 3/4" fits perfect. This will also allow the cushion of the back to be used for the pad for the second person. If a 3rd person is along then the aluminum back board that is at the bottom of this can be put up into the stock m1010 bracket and used as a bunk. The idea of having a kitchen table was the motivation of cutting into everything, but by installing a Laugen sailboat table into the mix I think it will work out to have anchored on the passenger side and when not in use swing over the kitchen stuff. At least that's the "theory" for now.
With all the changes there are quite a bit of plans and materials that I need to re purpose or maybe think about selling. I will have my older fridge that I found on craigslist last spring, but since its kind of self contained now it can become a passenger in my trailer, which is a m1101. Yet another awesome Craigslist find that I picked up before I bugged out for the summer. Since a big portion of this truck's life will be a hunting, trapping, or snow machining base camp I thought it would be fitting to find a trailer that kind of matched it.
(generic picture, mines pretty much the same)I couldn't even buy the materials for what I ended up paying for it! So now I can pack some of the other luxurious things that I don't really need when I'm setting up somewhere for a longer length of time. It will give me a spot to throw my craigslist fridge. I've been camped out at some pretty remote spots this summer and its a good reminder of how awesome refrigeration space is! Even being able to keep ice frozen for an extra few days is a luxury that I would love to have when hunting or fishing! The M1101 has 37" humvee tires as well so I swap out tires with it if needed. Plus the trailers clearance and ride height matches perfectly for the M1010 with a 4" lift. I was amazed how well it pulled dragging it from Oregon to Montana with a 1/2 ton Ford. I could cruise 70 mph with no issues. Luckily for me the M1010 only goes about 62 mph tops with 37's.
With rear coolant heat exchanger and the espar coolant heater it made sense to utilize the lines that will be running to the rear of the box for cabin heat to add in a seaward hot water heater. A 36 gallon fresh water tank, seaward water heat exchanger, 12v pump, and the rear cabin heater/blower should all fit underneath the passenger side compartment of the existing compartment in the rear box. That will give me a total of 42 gallons of primary fresh water, plus what ever I have in h20 jerry cans.
Since I will be installing an espar air heater in the rear as well, I'll have the M1010 air heater that will be removed. I haven't had a good chance to test it very much so if anyone is in need of one let me know. It will be out of the truck in October, delicately might I add... I'm sure someone from here or the steel soldiers website could use it in a m1010 project. I just don't want to rely on the 24v converter that I bought for it. Espars are pretty popular and I know that there are a ton of them floating around Montana, Alaska, and everywhere in between. That free's up a lot of room where the ducting used to be for the air heater. I'm going to have to cut out that area since it would be an ideal place for a thetford porta pottie. They make a bunch of different sizes so once I figure out what my clearances will be I can choose the one that matches. It will probably not be used very much at all, but every once in a while one of those could be handy. :elkgrin:
I Just got back tonight from doing some construction/maintenance work on a cabin out on the Alaskan peninsula. It sparked some good ideas since I am aspiring to build a portable cabin. The cabin had a super simple plumbing system that draining petcocks at all the lowest points in the pex piping, simple, but that can be overlooked. I'm going to use a standard sink, mainly for replacement parts should the event ever occur I forget some water in it and it freezes. The sprayer hose in the faucet needs to be able to drain somehow. I now realize that nothing with the faucet will work if that is not up to snuff, at least on the old style of sinks with a separate sprayer. To fill the cabins water systern, which was a 4x4x8 plywood box lined with some new pond liner we hooked up a little gas honda mini 4 stroke pump and threw the suction portion in the creek and ran a really really long garden hose up the hill and in about 45 minutes it filled the systern. I've been tossing around the idea of getting a little marine bilge pump with a roll up hose. I'm not sure how much I would use it and if its worth the extra money/weight (maybe 10 lbs total), but it was sure nice packing a little tiny pump to the creek this time than the buckets and gallons that I used last time I was there! I could see where that would be nice set up hunting or something, but yet another luxurious thing that I don't really need but would be nice to have.
Something else that I learned, bears don't really care if you dead bolt/lock a steel cabin door. In this case the door lock held, up until the point where the bear decided to bend the bottom of the steel door in over a foot. Then the lock popped out of the door jam. Then there was a bear party in the cabin!:wings: On the helo flight back we passed two other nice cabins that had been ransacked by the brown bruins. Needless to say, I'm now convinced there isn't a camper, or cabin for that matter, that is bear proof!!!
@ krebsatm02, I was debating the whole cummins swap myself and I keep coming up with different ideas and whether or not if its worth it, at least at the moment. The figure I can find is 215 hp for a stock 6bt. The weight of a 6bt is ~1100 lbs vs. the old detriot's dry weight of 700 lbs. From best guess, I'm hoping a banks turbo kit might be able to get the detroit up to 200 hp, with a J code engine. ( I found/bought one on craigslist used for cheap, so its worth a shot at least for the short term) If a guy just looked at with numbers power to weight ratio in this scenario would put the detroit on a pretty good standing .28 hp/lbs for the dd and .195 hp/lbs for the 6bt. But... in the real world the cummins is a terrific motor, better than a 6.2, that runs for ever and you can get parts from combine or something if you need to! I would love to have a cummins and it might happen, but realistically for what the costs are to replace it I am going to have to put the turbo on the 6.2 and run it for a while, the thing only has 23k miles. Then at the point that I decide enough messing around and i need more HP to move 10k lbs of junk then I will probably revisit this! All the donor trucks pricing that I was able to find in MT was leading me to believe that I would be money ahead to get a wrecked dirtymax, power stroke, or even a newer cummins and move into the modern diesel age. Which would have its drawbacks too. The workload is great either way a guy goes. But I'll get some good interior pics of whats in there for sure! I'm was thinking about adding some insulation inside somehow, but it would be tough to be the fire resistance of the aluminum! I don't know how many times that I looked at your truck before I decided to pull the trigger on this one! It gave me confidence that this type of thing could be done to one of these. Now that I'm in it I can see their benefits and their drawbacks. For being 7400 lbs though it did pretty good cruising around Moab and all the mountains back to Montana in winter!
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stevo-mt
Member
One last thing, I forgot to do the HP/weight ratio for the weight of the whole truck...
200hp/7400 lbs = .02702 hp/total weight detroit
215hp/7800 lbs = .02756 hp/total weight 6bt cummins
So in reality a cummins over all has a better hp to total weight ratio than a turbo'd detriot, but it is another 400 lbs to pack. Hmm. I would love to see it done and then I would know a little more before I took the plunge!
Steve
200hp/7400 lbs = .02702 hp/total weight detroit
215hp/7800 lbs = .02756 hp/total weight 6bt cummins
So in reality a cummins over all has a better hp to total weight ratio than a turbo'd detriot, but it is another 400 lbs to pack. Hmm. I would love to see it done and then I would know a little more before I took the plunge!
Steve
CumminAlong
Observer
Nice to see you posting back here Steve! My personal opinion would be to run a 12v Cummins, but I do understand it's pretty cost prohibitive. I'd stay away from the newer diesels, for cost reasons and especially since you'd be straying away from the dirt simplicity this truck offers. To keep costs down you could definitely go with a 1st gen Cummins, those can be had regularly for under $2000 running. A 2nd gen would be better, because you'd get the P-pump, more power, etc. (and possibly a trans you'd want to use if you scored one with a 5spd). But that starts getting expensive!
Good luck with the project no matter which path you take, you've done a very nice job so far! Loving the look of the truck.
Ian
Good luck with the project no matter which path you take, you've done a very nice job so far! Loving the look of the truck.
Ian
Larry
Bigassgas Explorer
WOW, great looking CUCV Steve! I really dig the winch mount where you retained the original bumper and grill guard. Nice! I’ve really had a hankering for a M1009 the last few years and found an 89’ Burb instead. I’m still not giving up on a M1009 though.
Out of curiosity, what is the purpose of going to the hassle and expense of installing the heavy Humvee wheels? They do look great, but that seems like a lot of unsprung weight.
Out of curiosity, what is the purpose of going to the hassle and expense of installing the heavy Humvee wheels? They do look great, but that seems like a lot of unsprung weight.