Valve body mounted, cylinders connected (except two which I need to have new hoses made)


Hydraulic tank and brackets mocked then welded up, system filled/bled and now the unit is working!


Extended pic shows 63" reach from tailboard


Lifted pic is at 31" high.


Now that it's working we were able to see how much clearance needed to be cut from tailboard for full lift. Need to have hoses made for the T-bar (the shop was out of that size fitting), reorganize a couple of the hoses to keep them out of harms' way, and make a gasket for the filter housing on the tank - and the unit will be fully working.

Click here for a short youtube movie of the first test on the unit!

Richard

Flapper (anti-drainback) valve installed to prevent the pump from losing its prime while not being used.


Mudflaps and taillights re-installed so I can drive the truck on the street, and last two hoses crimped and hooked up...


Click here for a short youtube movie of testing all unit functions!
(Sorry for the jumpy camera; it was very windy out today.)

Picking up the rear of a nice heavy Suburban


It's a wrecker again!!!


Still lots of detail work to do like finalizing the hose routing, repairing the ground to my fuel pump, installing in-cab controls, and lots and lots of CLEANUP. Next up - Sneeker-style replacement claws and eventually a bed to cover this thing up, as Nick's time allows!

I haven't really made that big of a deal of it in here as I figure most of you have followed along with who is building what, but this installation framework and the task of putting the framework and unit on the truck would not have happened if it weren't for Nick's (MrBeast) hard work. He measured everything about a million times, designed and built the framework without the truck on hand to refer to, then took time off work and his personal life to come to Houston to help me install it. I don't yet know how to weld so he did the bulk of the install work. We worked out a trade for everything that I believe we're both happy with, so beyond that, all I can add is THANK YOU Nick!

Since the truck isn't 100% finished, maybe it's a little premature to start thanking verybody involved, but other major contributors to this project were my buddy Dan for supplying lots of wrecker parts needed to make it come together; Tim (dually502/cantbuytime454) for buffing out the original crummy paint job and painting another hood; Luis for painting stuff like the bumper, grille, flares, and wheels; and Dennis for bringing his Sneeker over so Nick and I could see some of the hose routing details.

Richard

This is what dreams are made of,lol. Awesome work truck you got there pal.

Thanks; it'll be even more badass once Nick makes up the original type claws for the wrecker unit so it's a self-loader again - then I can take those hacked-on old school spoon receivers off. The bed will have to wait until he gets moved into his new shop. He built that whole framework outside on a slab at his current place and I don't really expect him to put in the work on the bed out there too.

Richard

Had a little setback today:

For the last couple days I've noticed a new leak under the truck, right off the pitman arm. Figured it was steering, grumbled about stuff I can't afford to fix right now, ignored it.

Today I needed to run to the tool supply to grab a manifold spreader to finish the exhaust fix on the extended cab. On the way back, stopped at a left turn light, there's smoke coming from under the hood - I shut the engine off, pop the hood, and see that the whole driver's side of the engine is ON FIRE. An oil cooler hose has split and sprayed down practically the whole engine bay in oil and the driver's side exhaust manifold has lit it on fire. I grab some rags and try to smother it but there's just too much fuel (oil) so I quickly abandon that idea then dash across the street, dodging traffic, run into a shop and grab their fire extinguisher. Only takes a few blasts to put the fire out.

I then risk cranking the truck back up to get it out of the street, because there's already jackasses swerving and almost hitting it and the people trying to go around it. I called my buddy Polo the wrecker driver to come get me, then spent my time waiting worrying about whether or not his 1 ton truck could pick up the HD.



As you can see from the pic, his truck got mine home but not without a lot of frame flex and bad noise from the poor thing. We stopped by the car wash on the way in so I could try washing down the bulk of the oil so it wouldn't just light back up after I get through fixing it. From what I can tell I caught it just in time; I don't see any burnt wiring or any real damage but to be honest I haven't spent much time checking it out. I'm fairly disgusted with it and had to spend my time this afternoon finishing up work on the other truck.

A little embarrassing to have your wrecker towed in, but what are ya gonna do? At least it got towed in by another GM.

Richard

Damn, Dude, that blows. But hey, at least you caught it in time. Would've been a bitch to have it burn to the ground.

...BTW, where's your fire ext?

sorry to hear bout the fire , glad you got to it on time though

next time you see oil on the floor pop the hood and check , mumbling even swearing is alowed but do check

why are there so many 88-01 chevys in your yard?

Awesome truck you have build there kinda sad that you crew cab had to go would have taken it off your hands

That's the thing, before I took off for the tool store I DID check - saw the oil cooler line had some drips coming off it, but anybody that's had a shitbox is used to seeing wet/drippy oil cooler lines. They just suck and that's all there is to it. I figured, it'll be fine for a few mile trip so I can get the other truck put back together, then I can deal with this leak.

Problem is, it wasn't the factory oil cooler hose that was leaking. The cause of the leak was a hose I used to temporarily short the oil cooler lines together because the only radiator I had on hand at the time had screwed-up oil cooler fittings. The doof that had it before me thought he needed to plug them with pipe plugs, so the threads were completely ruined. Anyway the hose I was using split behind the clamp, and also had a bubble in the side like it was ready to burst there as well. I fixed it today and did a lot of degreasing. I've got a radiator in there now that I pulled from the '98 crew cab (the truck I snatched the wrecker unit out of) and while it's not a perfect fit due to the neck height being too low for the HD's core support, it fits fine otherwise, and I have the oil cooler hooked up correctly.

Gotta be big enough to man up to your mistakes. This one could have been avoided if I'd put the radiator in a week ago when I took that truck apart - wouldn't have had to use non-rated hose for a temporary patch.

Campy - my fire extinguisher was right here in the shop where it belongs, right? I've got a small one in the truck now.

Richard

gmtgmt - that crew cab was a pile. It has some decent parts and looks fairly good in pics, but the frame is hosed. If you look back a few pages you can see where I removed the wrecker unit; the rear of the frame is so utterly hacked you'd have to cut it off and backhalf it to make it worth a damn, then you'd have to completely rebuild the front suspension, too. The bed was also complete garbage, lots of holes in it from where the bed supports had been ripped loose and took the spot welds with them, holes cut in it for other reasons, cracks in the sides from some of the holes where the flares mounted, etc.

Anyway the cab/doors/misc. other stuff is for sale in the "Dually Parts" section. I think someone is already getting the cab but you never know.

Richard

Cuz I got issues.

Richard

so..... you done yet ?

Done??? Never be done. but I drive the truck several times a week and even use it as a wrecker a few times a month. Just picked up a '67 Caddy Fleetwood with it yesterday, after towing my ext cab in for what seems like either a failing fuel pump or ignition module (dunno; it cranked up when I went to test it, so I'll have to wait for it to fail again or just shotgun the likely suspects.)

MrBeast is still going to build the hauler bed for it but that'll be some time in the future, we both have a million irons in the fire and even then, once it's done, we'll have to meet somewhere in the middle of a really long trip, or he may come out to FL for a quick visit and bring the bed with him.

Richard

did you finished the truck ? i would love to see some picks of the truck with the wreckerbed on it