T-Bone's Baby Truck Thread

[user 9328330]

I've got a couple of old threads here on my trucks. Those threads probably need some updating as they're from years ago, but anyway. Maybe I'll get to that one day. Here's the other two:

The International: https://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthrea...w-Truck-Thread

The F350: https://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthrea...)-Truck-Thread

So I've got this ongoing job right now that I don't need a whole lot of tools at, and I can leave my Trailblazer onsite and don't need the torch, so last year I bought an old junky '08 Colorado to drive back and forth while saving some gas and not wearing out my real trucks. The International gets 8 mpg, the F350 gets 12, and this one gets about 18. All the parts are smaller and cheaper so it's been working out good.

The Colorado is an old CSX railroad truck. It's a 2WD with the 3.7L 5-cyl, automatic, and the RR ordered it with a version of the Z71 option. By that I mean it has the torsion bar front suspension and the limited-slip rear, but it has the standard 235/75R15 tires on steel wheels instead of the alloys and 265/75R15's. Also no fender flares. It has a steel flatbed which is way too heavy for it; the truck weighs 4350 with me in it and the GVW is only 5300. So 950 lb payload is all it can carry.

It's been handy to squirt around in and the flatbed is pretty useful. But I've got some night jobs coming up and have been thinking about adding a tiny welder to this baby truck, an outfit super basic but still capable of some stick welding work and carrying a set of torches. Well I guess I've been doing more than thinking, I've had a Miller Fusion 160 sitting here for over a year still in it's cardboard box.

Today I finally started eyeballing things. I don't have any pictures right now, but I'll try to add some later when I get a chance. I don't have much payload capacity so lightness is the name of the game. I need to get a new set of leaves under this truck because the originals are squatted out so much that the tires rub the flatbed at 5300 lbs. Anyway. I've got a cheap TSC 56" wide aluminum box for the back, I've been strapping it to the bed and carrying tools with it. Behind that I'm going to mount my oxygen tank horizontally which isn't a problem in VA. Beside the aluminum box I've got just enough room to mount the BBQ tank for the torch, and I already have a set of ex-forklift QD clamps to hold it on with, I'll just orient them vertically and bolt them to the headboard.

The welder will sit facing the driver's side just behind the oxygen tank. That gets it as close to directly over the rear wheels as it'll go. It's the single heaviest thing in the bed, weighing 240 lbs. It's electric start with a backup pull start and has a 30A 240V twist-lock outlet I can use to power my Multimatic 200 which will add FCAW / MIG and TIG capability if needed. I've got a 50' cold-weather twist-lock extension cord and a $20 twist-lock-to-NEMA 6-50R adapter coming for that purpose. You can unplug the Fusion's inverter welder from the engine and plug it into the wall for stick welding if you want to, kind of gimmicky but I can see the draw if a person wants just one welder for light mobile and shop use. It maxes out at 160A, can be plugged into 110V or 240V so I'm guessing it's guts are similar to what's in the Multimatic. I meant to plug it into the wall and weld with it today, see how it does, but I forgot.

The engine on it is a Kohler Command Pro CH440 I think, it's a single-cylinder carbureted engine without an oil filter. Old school...we'll see how long it lasts. There's a fuel shutoff valve so that's good. It has a digital hourmeter. Oh yeah, and it has the same big Tweco receptacles that I put on the Trailblazers, so I can use my existing welding leads with no adapters. I was afraid it was going to come with Dinse receptacles, but thankfully no. Sorry for all the description of this machine, but there's almost zero about it online. I expect it's a slow seller for Miller but I also hope it's just what the Dr ordered for this small truck. 160A is enough to burn 5/32 7018 at a low duty cycle; I think it's gonna be around 80% duty cycle at the typical 1/8 7018 range.

The truck is pretty beat, showing 140k miles on it. When I bought it, it'd been sitting for 2 years and had a flat tire, etc. Took a little work to bring it back to life, and although it's got a healthy oil leak from the valve cover area, that 5-cylinder does run pretty strong. The transmission shifts great, GM had it dialed in well. I've already replaced 2 balljoints and have another squeaking which I'll probably replace tonight. The torsion bars probably need cranked up a little and definitely need rear leaf spring packs as mentioned above. I'll buy the HD packs from General Spring and hopefully that'll get the bed back up in the air. This truck will never be worth anything, so pretty much everything I'm doing to it is just barely redneck-grade, enough to get it on the road and going. I'm not going to put any of my company signs on it, and nobody will really see it because during daylight it's just sitting on a customer's jobsite.

I'm planning to make all of this stuff bolt- or pin-removable so that when I don't have night work, I can pull everything off and have a flatbed for normal uses. The only thing that can't be removed by hand is the welder, and I've got a forklift here for that. Idk if skids are still a thing here, but the reason I'm not going with one is that the skid itself adds a lot of weight and takes a lot of space when it's off the truck. If I build it right, this stuff can just sit along walls and in corners when it's not in use.

I'll update the thread with pictures and info once I get going. Might be next week, might be next year.

[Lis2323]

Cool I'm in. Subscribed!

I love this kinda sh*t!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[M J D]

You could just go to a spring shop and have them make up leaves to go between the leaf with the eye and the next shorter one. And then one between the shortest and it's next closest one. That would save you from having to deal with the shackel and fixed mount bolts, which may or may not be an issue due to rust.

[ronsii]

Have you thought about a set of rear airbags for it... they're light and adjustable I've ran them on a few of my trucks and they work great for when you want extra lifting in the rear!!! I didn't check if they sell em or if they fit on a colorado yet... but I'd guess they would.. maybe not the 5k rated ones like I put on the f250/350's but I've seen skinny ones too...

[ronsii]

I see they do make em' here's a kit on ebay... probably not the cheapest but they exist

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Air-Lift-59...cAAOSw0X5fVCPu