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Shortened 2001 Silverado w/ 40s, Doubler, 14FF, & D60

DMANbluesfreak

Trailers are for Boats
Joined
Jun 26, 2020
Member Number
2185
Messages
231
Loc
Park Ridge, IL
I guess I'll start cross-posting here. I'm WAYYYY too lazy to copy over the whole build thread. I may add some pictures of how the truck developed over the years to the first couple posts, though.

Original thread: https://www.pirate4x4.com/threads/20...f-d60.1093018/


UPDATE for those stumbling into this thread:
I made the Dirty Dozen in 2018. :bounce2: :bounce:
I didn't apply in 2019 since I got married (and it would've been DURING my wedding :laughing
yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
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My new new goal is to make the final cut of the Ultimate Adventure in 2020. :smokin:


Social Medial Platforms:
Instagram: www.instagram.com/dmanbluesfreak
YouTube: www.youtube.com/dmanbluesfreak
Facebook: PM if you don't have the other platforms.


Picture from EJS / Fullsize Invasion in 2019 (one of the multiple 3000+ mile trips I've taken with the truck while doing some hardcore wheeling).

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Photo credit: Owen Rickford

Another from my most-recent outing:
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Last edited:
I was hoping you would drink the kool aide.

Skids look good. Sub'd
 
Flat Belly skids were the latest project. Below is my latest post update for them:

No major updates here, except that the skids are DONE and painted. I sprayed all the contact points with Moly Spray to try and quiet down the creaking. I also torqued the screws properly upon install and got them much tighter than my 3/8" impact could. Not sure which of those (if either or both) helped, but the creaking is nonexistent on the road now.

We'll see if it's any more creaky than before when fully flexed out on the trails - heading to Badlands July 3. I drove around to work and stopped at the grocery store, leaving the truck idling while I went inside for 5 minutes. The floor under the passenger seat is warm, but not too hot to touch (even at the exposed metal areas). The carpet is barely warmer than the carpet elsewhere on the floor. We'll see if I need any more heat shields for the cats - supposed to be 95ish for the Badlands trip.

The ONLY thing left is to cut and drill some angle iron pieces to bolt into the 3 per side unused holes at the back of the skids for extra support between the frame rails. I likely won't get to this before Badlands, but I also don't expect that area to be in contact with much (famous last words).

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Also slapped a heat shield on the trans line going to the ecobox since it's a few inches away from the exhaust.
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I also added a notch for the driveshaft... JUST in case I ever fully droop the suspension. Likely wouldn't have even contacted if it was fully drooped, but I figured now was the time to address this since I hadn't installed them after paint yet.
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damn, I guess Ill have to move my thread over too. Ive been going back and forth to see what platform I prefer. on another note, the skids turned out awesome.
 
damn, I guess Ill have to move my thread over too. Ive been going back and forth to see what platform I prefer. on another note, the skids turned out awesome.

I actually liked the new Pirate format a lot, but it really does seem like there's more active people here.

And thanks, I'm fairly impressed with them, myself. It was so much god damned work and I didn't even cut and countersink the skids myself lol.
 
Very nice truck. The skids are clean looking.

Thanks!


This weekend was productive enough. Last trip out, I noticed one of my welds on my sliders busted, but the gusset was still holding on. Mind you, these sliders were built in a driveway on a buddy's 110v welder FCAW, with a circuit breaker that kept tripping. I'm frankly surprised they lasted this long.

I added a weld-on gusset that should be easy enough to remove next summer when I cut the rockers out and make mini-boatsides (no door modifications). The sliders/boatside structure will be all new, so this is entirely a bandaid. Should work just fine, though.

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The rest of the weekend, I spent cleaning the garage. It was a disaster as it always seems to be after completing a big project.

Heading to Badlands on Friday if anyone else is interested in joining.
 
Also slapped a heat shield on the trans line going to the ecobox since it's a few inches away from the exhaust.
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I'm sure this was talked about in your original build thread. I'm going to be a little lazy and just ask if your ecobox has a seperate cooler or is it plumbed to the trans in some way?
 
Ok I scanned over your thread. some good stuff in there. Anyway I should have noticed in the pic you had an auto. I will be running a nv4500 and was looking to see if anyone had ran a pump setup or if they are just running a catch tank.
 
I'm sure this was talked about in your original build thread. I'm going to be a little lazy and just ask if your ecobox has a seperate cooler or is it plumbed to the trans in some way?

There's a tee on the transmission return line and a .050" orifice on the ecobox side to ensure that ~95% of the cooled fluid still goes back the transmission. No separate cooler and I don't have to replace the fluid every oil change like NWF recommends for sealed applications.
 
Ok I scanned over your thread. some good stuff in there. Anyway I should have noticed in the pic you had an auto. I will be running a nv4500 and was looking to see if anyone had ran a pump setup or if they are just running a catch tank.

It doesn't need to be cooled according to NWF. Just change the fluid out with every engine oil change if it's completely sealed with only a breather.
 
Well I'm not going to fawk your thread up but when I bought this thing a couple years ago. Seems like there was some talk about them puking some oil out of the vent tube. If plans dont change again. I may be driving this thing to the west coast and back. Might end up flat towing it. In that case I will pull the dshafts. Hopefully will have it running in a few weeks to see how things go.
 
I know my old rear axle was puking oil, but I fixed that moving the breather to the axle tube. I never had issues with the EcoBox puking fluid.
 
Good to see your build making it over here I was following on pirate from reading your first post this will be the last petersons ultimate adventure. I went to fouwheeler mag web page that's what google came up with and couldn't find any info on it. I clicked on some articles and got error's also the web page showed you could subscribe to peterson's mag which I thought was all done with. I wanted to do the ultimate adventure but never had my shit together oh well. Good luck hope you get accepted
 
Appreciate it. I believe Ultimate Adventure will still go on, only under the 4wheeler name. I think they're still working it out, but I really hope this isn't the last one.
 
Ok so quick recap of the past couple months as I near the end of UA Prep.

July 3rd, I went to the Badlands with a group of people for some new tire shakedown on my buddy Mike's new Mickey Thompson Baja Pro XS tires. Man these things HOOK in every terrain we threw at it.
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I'll keep the recap short for now, but the long and short of it is that the flat belly skids worked great. The truck felt more solid sliding over obstacles and it definitely slid more smoothly. I used them a few times and it was definitely noticeable.
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You can see a few scrape marks in this pic:
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And an action shot of me beating on it pretty good.
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There were no issues with my truck and the AC blew cool all day long (it was ~95 and sunny the whole day). I tried to stress the cooling system but it really had no issues, so I'm glad about that.

I did notice when I got home that there was some fuel weeping from the fuel tank. With some air pressure and soapy water, I found the source.
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I spent a while deciding if I should go with a custom built aluminum tank or just repair this one. With UA looming, I figured it was a safer bet to repair this one, so I contacted RedKote to determine the best plan and they recommended that I remove the old coating with acetone and then re-coat it. Since the coating was stripped, I also re-welded the area that had the leak. It's not pretty, but hey - it does seal now!
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I ended up botching the first coating so I bought another quart and redid it AGAIN. Still, I ended up well under $200 to fix this tank versus the $600-700 I would've been into a custom aluminum tank with a friend doing the TIG welding on the cheap. Repainted the outside for bling factor 😆
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Unrelated, except that the bumper was off to get the fuel tank out - I got tired of taking the license plate off every time I went wheeling, so I built the bumper down a bit further to support the plate when the bumper drags on stuff.
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Even before I got invited to UA, I've wanted a better spare axle shaft storage system. They're so heavy and strangely shaped, that I wanted them down lower than the bed floor too. The 205 is so massive, my original plan to mount them above the belly skids didn't really pan out, but I found that due to the bodylift, I could stuff a 6" sewer pipe and fittings under the bed and above the frame rail. This will allow them to stay protected from the elements and also be easily accessed when needed. I used some cheap sway bar bushings I found on Amazon and some hose clamps to keep them from rattling against each other and eventually probably breaking the somewhat thin PVC pipe.
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There was also room for my spare driveshafts. I figure since all the u-joints are sealed and driveshafts are always exposed anyway, these didn't need such fancy storage. I fit them wherever they'd fit. The front was easy because it spanned both frame rails pretty nicely.
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And then for the rear shafts (since it's a 2-piece), I mounted the front section directly to the front shaft using exhaust clamps welded to each other. Then the rear section I mounted fore-to-aft since it fit better and again used exhaust clamps welded to the crossmembers. Since one u-joint was left in the front section, I stuffed some old u-joint caps in it to keep the journals rust-free and slathered it with grease.
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I also built a non-under-seat sub box to fit in the empty space under the rear wall of the cage that would just clear the fridge mount (which I'll get to in a second).
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The sub is held in place by the crossbar I added and some isolators.
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And the fridge mount was simple. It will be held in place with 2 hose clamps in the front and one in the rear (through the slot):
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Fridge done and mounted (with a ratchet strap that goes underneath the mount):
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Eventually I'll make some adapters to run the fridge sideways behind the driver's seat to make access while camping easier, but for UA I think mounted between the seats makes more sense since we'll be in the truck so much.

Also, got the requisite VHF raido installed (UA requirement) and had a buddy program it with FRS channels (walkie talkie channels) in addition to the UA channels. Keeping the CB for when I wheel with people rocking CB still.
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And then got the transmission skid finished up.
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It was tricky getting it to clear the front driveshaft:
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And then last trip, I forgot to unhook the sway bar for the first half of the day and bent the axle-side mounts, so I beefed them up a bit and put a note on my airdown tool to remind me to unhook the sway bar 😆
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And then (and then and then and then), I tackled something I've been meaning to tackle for a while. Since my axle is offset, the factory spacers between the leaves are offset so the u-bolt plate doesn't center on them anymore. I pull the leaf pack and had some longer spring spacer plate things made, then cleaned up the leaves and put them back together with moly spray. I'm a lot less worried I'll fracture a spring now (but I still do have a spare main leaf, just in case).
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