Ok, first off I'll say that this is not going to be my typical "rebuild
the truck in 3 days with no sleep and eating pop tarts and ramen noodles
three squares a day" projects. This is literally going to be a frame
off rebuild. This is going to be the way I've wanted to go about it
ever since I bought the truck. My plans for Christine have evolved over
the years. First if was going to be my daily driver and snow plow rig.
Then it was going to be the weekend wheeler and mud truck. Each of
those stages has been successfully achieved I believe. Now its time for
a new phase of life for the old gal.
I've had my eyes on a Four Wheel Camper for a long time... the Ranger
model they build is for a mid/mini truck with an 8 foot cargo box. For
those of you who are not familiar with Four Wheel Campers - check out
their web site.
They have historically built pop up campers, and have just recently
expanded to building a hard top version. I still want the pop up unit
due to center of gravity, weight, and overall looks. I honestly think
the full sided hard top truck slide-in models just look horrifically top
heavy.
My pipe dream is to do a Steinbeck Travels With Charlie style expedition
all over the country. Back roads, greasy spoons, no highways, as few
tourist traps as possible, as many baseball games as possible, as much
geocaching as possible :)
Until I become wealthy and can afford to do that, Its going to be
weekend camping trips and the like.
The goal for the truck will be a camping rig that can still handle
trails. Stock suspension, remove the body lift, something in an AT or MT
tire. With some goodies and TerribleTom modifications.
List of desired modifications goes something like this:
front brush guard
front winch
dual alternators
deep cycle batteries
dual fuel tanks
remote mounted oil filter(s)
upgraded windshield washers
upgrades to the suspension to handle added weight
larger drum brakes for the rear or perhaps a disc conversion
poly-coated hard brake lines and fuel lines
some nifty off road lighting
rear selectable locker
perhaps down the line, a solid front axle conversion... not too worried
about that one just yet.
and naturally the camper unit...
Not a complete list but as time goes it will change.
Who knows how long this will take to complete heh. But rather than keep
it under wraps and shrouded with "hmm I wonder what hes working on now"
I think this will stay out in the open with progress updates. I have
a lot of planning to do, and saving to do... and I need to get a frame
first :) But the gears have been churning already!
TerribleTom
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