That is awesome.

Now it needs the windows mobbed out. Looks evil!!

Ya, believe me I'd like to. I'll probably "go legal" with it and just do 35% sides and rear. My normal mode with tint is 20% sides, 5% rear, but I need to be able to see behind this thing when backing up trucks into the lot at night. And, if it ever sees repo duty (which it might) you really want to be able to see as best as you can, to work quickly without screwups. 35% on the back will be enough hopefully to keep the sunburn off the back of my head during the day but not keep me from seeing at night, with the help of a good pair of worklights out back.

Richard

either way looks killer man

Yes!

What...you WANT me to be the bad guy?

Make way for the bad guy! There's a bad guy comin' through!

Suspense is killin' me, got a couple week wait until my wrecker bud comes over and we start cutting, fabbing, welding...I want this damn wrecker unit on the truck. Yesterday.

Richard

Nothing major, but a couple quick updates. I installed a 3-position LED clearance light my buddy Tim gave me, trying to be a little closer to "all legal." It's obviously temporary on that rear crossmember, but I'll probably use it once the bed is installed, too.

Another temporary modification is the class 5 receiver hitch. It was originally intended for a Suburban, so it's just barely too wide for the HD frame. I solved that by cutting up some thick angle iron (actually a split piece of C-channel) and drilling it to make adapter plates. I might have lost a little of the load rating but I tried to make something that should hold some weight.



The adapter is perpendicular (huh, did I use that big word correctly?) to the frame, as the angle of the hitch is to the adapter - I'm no engineer but I'm hoping it will hold. Also had to make some simple spacers for the taillight brackets so they'd clear the hitch sides. Now I can use the truck to actually pull a trailer, instead of just driving it around.

Richard

Reminds me of my last job. My cheap ass boss wanted to pull his boat and the only thing he had running was an old 60's bronco(the small square awesome ones). He had a newer bronco in the impound lot with a bolt on hitch on it, it was way to wide, he had me cut the ends off, narrow the tubing and the weld the ends back on. If that wasn't scary enough he had me weld it to the frame of the bronco because we couldn't get to the backside of the frame to use bolts, and I can weld but I'm no welder. Then he pulled his 24 ft twin engined boat...







about 75 miles till the tranny let go.

Haw, well I don't think mine is nearly as much of a hack job...at least I hope it isn't!

The channel I used is thick, and the way I positioned the angles I think I've spread the load the same way the hitch install intended. I wish I could have gotten bolts in the very last holes but the spread of the hitch wouldn't allow it; interference with the frame.

Richard

It didn't look to hack, but I sure as heck wouldn't have followed him on the highway.

Now for WHY I needed to put the trailer hitch on. The old '96 reg cab dually donor truck (gave up a lot of parts to my HD build, and some to cantbuytime454's stepside-dually conversion build) is about ready to scrap, and I need to move it out of one of my buildings into the other - then soon after, to the scrapyard.



Only took one stab to back it into the other building, note the trailer's tire tracks! Straight in and right into the 2x4 scraps I left in place as wheel chocks when I pulled the trailer out to load it. Having a short truck for manuevering in my lot = WIN.



I'll do the final stripping of the doors and a few other misc parts before scrapping it. Driveline, interior, and suspension are pretty much totally gutted, all that's really left is a ruined bed, slightly damaged frame, and the lower control arms.

* This is the actual first real "work" the HD has done for me, so I guess it's somewhat of a milestone.

Richard

Looks like your almost as good at backing a trailer as me.

that truck looks cool i guess you got the towingstuff out from under the donor ok .
can hardly wait to see it done

any news yet?

Nope - wrecker unit is still on the '98 crew cab, I'm still using it, although I've cut the bed off, sold the hood and the driver's fender, and misc. other pieces off the truck. It's like a skeleton that refuses to die, although it sure keeps trying to piss me off with daily failures!

A buddy of mine should be coming in to town maybe next week to help me with moving the wrecker unit over. We need to build a new install for it because it's so hacked into the current truck, it would take less time to build a new setup than cut all the hacked pieces off the old one and clean it up to try to re-use them. His idea is to build new slides for it and make a frame to drop the whole thing into the HD. He's got some serious fab and welding skills so I trust his judgement. He's also got real tools...coming up with a Miller 250 mig, band saw, grinders, all kinds of stuff to throw at this job. Hoping to have some real updates by end of next week...maybe?

Richard