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NOHOME
NOHOME PowerDork
6/8/17 7:59 p.m.

When everyone goes high, I gotta go low...You all want to raise this thing sky-high on big tires. I am thinking a FWD like out of an Eldorado or some such and drop the rear deck WAY down low with some trickery so that you can just drive on. That would give you more torque and HP than you have now and still make for decent Hwy driving.

Wait...just had another beer and another vision!

Looking at this piece of demento artwork:

So, keeping the Eldorado FWD under the cab, you could build, not a car "Hauler" but a car "Pusher" where the trailer deck is in front of the Cab!

Hang on...this beer is almost empty also...be right back....

Chadeux
Chadeux Dork
6/8/17 8:29 p.m.

I really liked the eastern European rally rig plan.

mazdeuce
mazdeuce MegaDork
6/8/17 8:43 p.m.

Keep the thoughts coming, I'm considering them all. I'm also thinking.......
I spent about nine hours behind the wheel of my Silverado today. It's no R63, but it does ok. The cabover is a much different. Not only is it 40 years older but you sit over the wheels and the engine instead of behind them. There is no way this doesn't affect ride and NVH, no matter what the powertrain is. At this point I'm guessing wind noise will start to overwhelm engine noise before I hit the speed limit. And then we drove by this:
(fuzzy phone picture from deucekid#1) This is 1 of 3 semi trucks FULL OF BEES! They were covered with mesh, but they were leaking bees all around the edges.
Leaking.
Bees.
It has suddenly become extremely important to add AC the the cabover because I will never drive with the windows down anywhere ever.

Dusterbd13
Dusterbd13 UltimaDork
6/8/17 8:52 p.m.

Being a fat yankee in the south, with a penchant for black vehicles, i can help you with the nvh and hvac stuff. Never done a cabover, but it cant be much different than a 4 door k30, right?

coexist
coexist New Reader
6/8/17 8:57 p.m.

Galvanized cab, so you can run it "raw" to match up with the Airstream. Agree with lowering, but are you considering body swap or staying with IH factory?

mazdeuce
mazdeuce MegaDork
6/8/17 9:06 p.m.

In reply to coexist:

Initially I'm going to make it work. The engine runs if you dump gas down the carb, it "just" needs a gas tank. And brakes. And some other stuff. I don't want to throw things away without first experiencing the glory that is mid 60's MDT technology. Besides, the parts that are already there are free, replacement​ parts cost money.

coexist
coexist New Reader
6/8/17 9:38 p.m.

OK, for the children:

java230
java230 SuperDork
6/8/17 9:41 p.m.

I'm awaiting pics of the inside I'm guessing it's not much different than the 80's models, which I own, and has not nearly enough space between the seat and pedals.

Recon1342
Recon1342 New Reader
6/8/17 11:20 p.m.

Oh, I am soooo in!

Ransom
Ransom PowerDork
6/9/17 12:05 a.m.

I can't help but take this opportunity to note the path that I want to take with a Unimog, which is a rather different truck, but then my intent was never to go very seriously off road: I want to build a nice English pub on the back. Sheetmetal box on the outside, I suppose, oak panelling inside. Nice big windows for looking out at whatever lovely scenery you've parked next to, with a nice pint of ESB pulled from the bar. Maybe some sort of clever telescoping to allow for an inn upstairs when parked.

But car hauler sure makes a lot of sense.

Indy-Guy
Indy-Guy SuperDork
6/9/17 10:42 a.m.

A bit too radical, but this is for extra motivation:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/wfVOFoRgBTU?ecver=2

Indy-Guy
Indy-Guy SuperDork
6/9/17 10:47 a.m.

I agree with NoHome, Go Low:

coexist
coexist New Reader
6/9/17 10:49 a.m.
Indy-Guy wrote: A bit too radical...

Yeah, should have skipped the two tone paint job.

mazdeuce
mazdeuce MegaDork
6/9/17 5:47 p.m.

The two tone might be my favorite part of that.

Bunked down early about 40 miles away from the truck. I'm as excited as I've ever been to lay my eyes on a purchase. 1100 miles in two days is One Lap transit type milage. No track time to tire me out, but none of my four co-drivers can actually drive, so I'm getting tired. Spending time pouring over someone else's stash of cool junk will be a great break.

Sparkydog
Sparkydog New Reader
6/9/17 9:02 p.m.

Mmmmm. I love the smell of welding on 60's IH sheet metal in the morning. It is... intoxicating. Root word toxic. Linky to IH scratch 'n sniff.

sleepyhead
sleepyhead Reader
6/10/17 8:52 a.m.

man, I spend two days watching crazy people in boats (R2AK), and I miss the genesis of this.
oh well, now I get to look forward to today's updates

Stealthtercel
Stealthtercel Dork
6/10/17 11:12 a.m.

Thanks to the excellent CL ad for the blue one (on the previous page), I now have a new performance metric for vehicles I might be considering: Will it U-turn on a fish dock?

mazdeuce
mazdeuce MegaDork
6/10/17 6:31 p.m.

This is so much cooler than you can imagine.

BrokenYugo
BrokenYugo MegaDork
6/10/17 7:33 p.m.

4 on the column! I thought all that medium duty stuff was floor shifted.

oldopelguy
oldopelguy UltraDork
6/10/17 7:40 p.m.

Four on the tree plus two speed rear end.

mndsm
mndsm MegaDork
6/10/17 8:05 p.m.
Keith Tanner wrote:
mazdeuce wrote: I'm driving the truck, but will be recovering an old Airstream instead of the COE. The current owner has a connection with Houston and will be bringing the truck down in a little bit which is part of makes this whole thing possible. The plan is to stop by, take a bunch of pictures, and figure out what else I want him to throw on the trailer. In a bizarre case of "small world" the Airstream is less than a half hour away.
Airstream + COE. BUILD THIS! But, you know, better.

I was just going to say this. Literally was scrolling to the comment box when I saw this post.

mazdeuce
mazdeuce MegaDork
6/10/17 8:32 p.m.

Sitting in a sketchy hotel in Wisconsin with the kids. I think I'm too tired to be clever so I'm just going to throw out a bunch of pictures. They all show things. I have more that I shot with a proper camera that will have to wait until I get back to Texas. It's going to be a loooooooong two months.

mazdeuce
mazdeuce MegaDork
6/10/17 8:36 p.m.

mazdeuce
mazdeuce MegaDork
6/10/17 8:39 p.m.

mazdeuce
mazdeuce MegaDork
6/10/17 8:41 p.m.

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