Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Chris, recently new father, welder/fabricator/firefighter/EMT. I kept it short and sweet. I just purchased a 1990 Dodge W250 (gas) not diesel with the truck boxes already on it.
Now your wondering why I chose a gas hog for a overland build. It is a solid truck with all upgraded Dana 60 front and rear. And it has tool boxes fully loaded with all my tools in case I break down or fellow off-roaders get broken also. The top of my tool boxes are a perfect flat 48" across..which should make for an easy install of a pop-up roof tent.
After building numerous bumpers, SAS, sliders, roof racks for other customers, I decided to get my own project. Yes I work part time as a fabricator for Beaty Industries in Elk Grove who still does fantastic 4x4 work. Anyways I only paid $1500 for this truck and it runs awesome. Through the pictures you can see my progress.
My plans for this build include:
Beer Chest
Bottle opener
Beer Holder
1 ton steering
Shocks
Better base radio
Complete custom roof rack
Custom front bumper
Pop-up tent on top
Extra Jerry cans for Fuel and Water
2 Spare tires
Performance Edelbrock Intake upgrade
Shorty headers
4.10 gears
2.5 Fox shocks
It's not a very long list and I'm sure I'll add to it.
Now I'll start with the first time I laid eyes on her.
Impressive huh??
Now you can see the uglyness of this truck. But it's also about how it performs also. First thing I had to is get new wheels and tires. I went with plain Jane steel wheels and a 285/75/16 all terrain tire. The pervious wheels did not have the correct offset which made for some unruly rubbing on every turn.
And boom new wheels and tires plus I added a little skull star to the doors to give it some character.
So with new wheels came new challenges that I knew I might have to face but didn't think so soon. Because of the year of the truck, my front leafs had sagged really bad over the years. I still had a rubbing issue. So after some research I went with skyjacker leafs and a 1 ton tie rod upgrade from Ruffstuff. My tie rods were also completely shot.
Super sad tie rods. With the skyjacker leafs giving me a solid 4" higher now, 2.5" higher than stock but my springs were so wore out I couldn't tell how high the truck was gonna be.
You can see it's not to high, I didn't have to change much for steering, just the 1 ton tie rod upgrade which also requires you to taper the old knuckles which isn't to bad of a job. The whole tie rod replacement took about 2 hours.
Now that my suspension is handling ALOT better, my next move is shocks. Having had Fox and Bilstein mostly, I wanted to maybe change it up and go to Icons or Kings. This is where I leave the comments or questions to the topic, Thanks. God Bless America.
Sent from my iPhone using OB Talk
Now your wondering why I chose a gas hog for a overland build. It is a solid truck with all upgraded Dana 60 front and rear. And it has tool boxes fully loaded with all my tools in case I break down or fellow off-roaders get broken also. The top of my tool boxes are a perfect flat 48" across..which should make for an easy install of a pop-up roof tent.
After building numerous bumpers, SAS, sliders, roof racks for other customers, I decided to get my own project. Yes I work part time as a fabricator for Beaty Industries in Elk Grove who still does fantastic 4x4 work. Anyways I only paid $1500 for this truck and it runs awesome. Through the pictures you can see my progress.
My plans for this build include:
Beer Chest
Bottle opener
Beer Holder
1 ton steering
Shocks
Better base radio
Complete custom roof rack
Custom front bumper
Pop-up tent on top
Extra Jerry cans for Fuel and Water
2 Spare tires
Performance Edelbrock Intake upgrade
Shorty headers
4.10 gears
2.5 Fox shocks
It's not a very long list and I'm sure I'll add to it.
Now I'll start with the first time I laid eyes on her.
Impressive huh??
Now you can see the uglyness of this truck. But it's also about how it performs also. First thing I had to is get new wheels and tires. I went with plain Jane steel wheels and a 285/75/16 all terrain tire. The pervious wheels did not have the correct offset which made for some unruly rubbing on every turn.
And boom new wheels and tires plus I added a little skull star to the doors to give it some character.
So with new wheels came new challenges that I knew I might have to face but didn't think so soon. Because of the year of the truck, my front leafs had sagged really bad over the years. I still had a rubbing issue. So after some research I went with skyjacker leafs and a 1 ton tie rod upgrade from Ruffstuff. My tie rods were also completely shot.
Super sad tie rods. With the skyjacker leafs giving me a solid 4" higher now, 2.5" higher than stock but my springs were so wore out I couldn't tell how high the truck was gonna be.
You can see it's not to high, I didn't have to change much for steering, just the 1 ton tie rod upgrade which also requires you to taper the old knuckles which isn't to bad of a job. The whole tie rod replacement took about 2 hours.
Now that my suspension is handling ALOT better, my next move is shocks. Having had Fox and Bilstein mostly, I wanted to maybe change it up and go to Icons or Kings. This is where I leave the comments or questions to the topic, Thanks. God Bless America.
Sent from my iPhone using OB Talk
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