gas tank crossmember june 2005

Since I had to custom build the brackets that are holding the gas tank in I had to build the one that ran across the middle to support the tank. Instead of just using a flat bar and having it bend or bow in the middle I ran 1/2" round bar down the sides to reinforce it and give it some strength. Then when I came down the side I changed it up to make it a little different. It also gives me a place to tie down tarps and other stuff.

front gas tank may 2005

Since I wanted to build this truck for long hauls across texas I decided I needed another tank for those extended trips. I had a second ramcharger gas tank that I had gotten for free so I figured I'de make it work some how.

front lift march 2005

The front originally had a dana 44HD with drums on it. I've got a dana 60 with disk brakes sitting in my garage getting rebuilt right now. The front lift will consist of a combination of lift springs and drop hangers/extended shackles. For now I cut up my old lift springs and put them into the factory spring pack.

u bolt flip/shock mounts

Once I did the shackle flip I went ahead and did a u bolt flip as well. After you do the u bolt flip you loose that large mounting plate thats under the axle that also bolts onto your shocks as well. Since I needed a place to mount my shocks to now I just made a dual shock setup for the rear end.

rear end lift november 2004

The truck didn't get much of anything done because I had moved 300 miles away and had to go back later on to retrieve it. The frist thing I decided to do to it once I had it back with me was to get started on the rear end lift. I built these drop hangers and shackle flips for the rear. The rear shackles were already fubar so I just went ahead and built me some new ones using polyurathane bushings.

gooseneck mods january 2004

I decided from the beginning that I was going to put a 3 inch body lift on my crewcab. I liked the clearance it gave me when I was working under the truck and how easy it was to access bellhousing bolts. I also decided to keep the original gooseneck mount too. So to accomodate both of these things I had to raise the gooseneck mount up 3 inches. I used a piece of 1/2 plate with a hole punched in the middle and the nut welded on the bottom side. Then I used a piece of 6 inch schedule 40 pipe to raise the plate up another 2 1/2 inches.

Initial modifications january 2004

Once I had the bed off the first thing I did was begin getting rid of the gas tank that was inside the cab. I had a ramcharger gas tank along with all the brackets I needed. I just measured and transferred the measurements over to the crewcab frame and drilled new holes.

Initial teardown december 2003

Not too long after getting it to my storage shop I began the tear down on my crew. The bolt for the bed were too rust on to try and break them loose so I just busted out the torch and cut them off.

Initial impressions november 2003

When I found the truck it was sitting in the back of a drivetrain shop just rusting away. I scored the truck for $288 and hauled it back to my storage shop.