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M715 from stock to Ultimate Adventure ready

TIMMAY!

TIMMAY!

MAIL MAN
Joined
Aug 21, 2020
Member Number
2758
Messages
87
Loc
TEXAS
So there I was……

I bought an m715 basketcase one day with no real plan for it. It had an engine in the bed, along with a bunch of other parts to make it go, that seemed like a start, so I started putting it together. It was approximately a chevy 250 engine with either the finest farm fab bellhousing adapter, or the crappiest adapter a real company manufactured. Started the engine on the floor, it ran…. Really good so I put that stuff in. The rest of the stuff is boring stock brakes, clutch linkage, engine mounts etc. so I will fast forward through that. Got the truck running, driving and stopping in a few weeks, it ran as good as it should have, it was cool, but it was also slow, boring and had the ride quality of a dump truck. So I did what anyone would do……..
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So now I had a topless, great running, rough riding old truck… I was happy, isn’t that what every kid dreams of owning? Next thing was a fresh set of NDT’s, I found an original brush guard, built a front bumper and fabbed up a hard top. Spent an afternoon sanding it down and gave it some paint. Now I had a nice looking, great driving old army truck…….
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Here’s where my plans for the truck actually start to take shape…. Although I didn’t know it at the time.

One day, I got an invite to “help” or “wheel” or be a local tour guide for some folks coming to town to wheel at Katemcy rocks….. that group was the Ultimate adventure for 2021. Getting to hang out with them, wheel a bit and see them hit the road in the vehicles they were wheeling pretty hard the days before was an eye opener …. Especially as I strapped my Jeep down on the trailer thinking…. Man, the cool kids drive to and from the trail….I want to do that. That thought actually stuck with me a while, I couldn’t get rid of it. Every once in a while I’d walk through my inventory of shitboxes Id start to envision different builds…. But some of my shitboxes are cool, I’d hate to cut them up and destroy them….. but I don’t want to build another Jeep either.

I put a couple hundred miles on the m715. It drove awesome, like a brand new m715……it was pretty boring…..

So I made a choice…..
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My choice was to build this truck cheap and easy, which consisted of 99-04 super duty axles I had laying around, 5.3, sm465 to a divorced 271. Why divorced case? Because I had it…. Really no other reason. The leaf spring hangers I built were tucked up to keep the ride height reasonable, originally these trucks are spring under front, spring over rear. Made an A-Dapter-kit for the clutch slave cylinder to work with the original pedal. And fancy engine mounts
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Fast forward a bit, the powertrain is mounted, the trans crossmember doubles as a front driveshaft carrier bearing mount, which is due to the divorce case. On the other hand, having the t case further back does help keep the rear driveshaft short and tucked up out of the way, the front shaft stays out of harms way with the help of the carrier bearing. Got some wheels and put the most awesome mock up tires ever on them and I had a roller.
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I guess if my intention is to get rad with this thing, I’d need sliders, so I built some. Truck was actually looking pretty darn cool, It’s rides 3000% better than it did, will go interstate speeds and Gets hot enough in the cab to shut an iPhone down in the summer heat cruising down the highway….
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One day I got a phone call saying I was selected for Ultimate Adventure 2022. I had about 6 weeks to get this thing ready. Some of the stuff like my home built driveshafts, the 271 transfer case, original style seating etc were not gonna cut it. So now I once again start taking off freshly installed parts of this truck.

I had to build a cage, to keep my window cranks functioning with the doors closed I came up with the a pillar of death… which is probably fine. The cage is super simple, and has seats bolted it it.

For a transfer case I went with a divorced magnum box and 205. At this point I was short on time, and had already basically built a truck around a divorced t case. I really have no regrets, it has worked great for this setup. Built a couple of skids as well.

I lizard skinned the floors, then sprayed raptor liner on top of that, It helped with heat quite a bit. As far as helping with noise….. who knows…. It’s a loud truck
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Never really got to wheel the truck before UA, I did put a bunch of road miles on it prior to the event, as that was the only part I was worried about. Truck did good, it’s a big ol truck to be getting through tight trails, which is new to me as Ive only wheeled jeeps or buggies. Even went and hung out with some fullsize invasion folks in Tx last weekend. It’s a fun truck to wheel, but it gets a little more character every time I take it out…
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Love this thing. The cage work where it ties into the dash and the weld porn…. I appreciate you building something different.
 
Badass! Cool truck and hope you enjoyed UA! I was luckily enough to go in 2017 and 2018.

What is the plate bolted to the oil pan?
 
06h3 said:
Badass! Cool truck and hope you enjoyed UA! I was luckily enough to go in 2017 and 2018.

What is the plate bolted to the oil pan?
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I think it has something to do with nvh, some form of noise damper doo dad. Metal plate with rubber on the backside. Some truck pans have em, some don’t
 
TIMMAY! said:
Yeah, I’m gonna take it a little easier on it, I almost feel Guilty every time I dent it….. then I hammer out the dent. It got some character pretty quickly
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I'm sure. It's rad. Always wanted a 715. What's better than a full size jeep truck? A full sized jeep truck with a fold down windshield of course!
 
Very cool. Always love seeing FSJ's represented.
 
so did the engine skid get used?

got any more pics of the tcase to magnum mounting. i think i see how you did it. but....
 
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