The Mega Hauler

77GreenMachine

77GreenMachine

Phillip Talton
Joined
Mar 30, 2010
Location
Trinity, NC
If you follow my camper thread, you know the deal. If not, short story is my family outgrew my truck camper on a gooseneck. We decided to get a camper and a flat bed crew cab truck.

I networked up a deal and found one that was for sale but not listed for sale, those are usually good deals. So we agreed to a price and a time and the only thing between us was 500 miles. So I rented a car one way, scooped up @Chris_Keziah and we drove all night to be there in northwest Ohio, nearly Indiana by morning. It was an eventful drive back. We had electrical issues, we accidentally went to a bar in the middle of nowhere, we were several hours into the return trip when we realized I still had the rental car keys in my pocket. So we had to stop and overnight those back.

We were up for 38 hours straight and driving for over 20 of those. It was an epic trip to say the least. I slept for about 12 hours straight when we got back.

I can’t wait to start putting my own touches on this truck, and I’ll keep it updated here if for nothing but my own good.

2004 GMC Topkick 5500
LB7 Duramax/Allison 1000
Both only have 30k
Truck has 225k

It has a 14’ flat bed. I’m looking at having a headache built for it.
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I’ll get some interior pics tomorrow. Before and after.
 
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77GreenMachine said:
If you follow my camper thread, you know the deal. If not, short story is my family outgrew my truck camper on a gooseneck. We decided to get a camper and a flat bed crew cab truck.

I networked up a deal and found one that was for sale but not listed for sale, those are usually good deals. So we agreed to a price and a time and the only thing between us was 500 miles. So I rented a car one way, scooped up @Chris_Keziah and we drove all night to be there in northwest Ohio, nearly Indiana by morning. It was an eventful drive back. We had electrical issues, we accidentally went to a bar in the middle of nowhere, we were several hours into the return trip when we realized I still had the rental car keys in my pocket. So we had to stop and overnight those back.

We were up for 38 hours straight and driving for over 20 of those. It was an epic trip to say the least. I slept for about 12 hours straight when we got back.

I can’t wait to start putting my own touches on this truck, and I’ll keep it updated here if for nothing but my own good.

2004 GMC Topkick 5500
LB7 Duramax/Allison 1000
Both only have 30k
Truck has 225k

It has a 14’ flat bed. I’m looking at having a headache built for it.
View attachment 371935View attachment 371936View attachment 371937View attachment 371938View attachment 371939


I’ll get some interior pics tomorrow. Before and after.
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You'll love the medium duty truck beef.
6el0so.jpg
 
@untchabl Both the Edge Monitor and the math said 10.5

I honestly don’t expect it to go down much with the Jeep on the back and the camper behind it. It tachs 2500 rpm at 70.

But even if it does drop a few mpg, I’m already used to 6-7mpg with my 8.1 truck so I can live with it
 
77GreenMachine said:
You'll love the medium duty truck beef.


I am extremely blown away buy the turning radius of this thing.
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For real. I drove my dad's F150 yesterday and got pissed off because I had to back up and get a second bite to make a turn I easily wheel through in the 5500.
 
77GreenMachine said:
@untchabl Both the Edge Monitor and the math said 10.5

I honestly don’t expect it to go down much with the Jeep on the back and the camper behind it. It tachs 2500 rpm at 70.

But even if it does drop a few mpg, I’m already used to 6-7mpg with my 8.1 truck so I can live with it
Click to expand...
What gears does it have? Probably 4.88s? Putting 285s on my truck really helped calm the RPMs at highway speed compared to the stock 225s. They're 10% bigger diameter, so I run about 2200rpm at 70mph, and 2600 at 80.
 
jeepinmatt said:
What gears does it have? Probably 4.88s? Putting 285s on my truck really helped calm the RPMs at highway speed compared to the stock 225s. They're 10% bigger diameter, so I run about 2200rpm at 70mph, and 2600 at 80.
Click to expand...

I’m not sure honestly. It came with 2 options, 4:88 and 5:13
It has 275s on it now
 
77GreenMachine said:
But even if it does drop a few mpg, I’m already used to 6-7mpg with my 8.1 truck so I can live with it
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Susan gets about 8-9 with full sized sedans, but she's got hard miles on her at 220K+.
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jeepinmatt said:
You'll love the medium duty truck beef.
View attachment 371941
Click to expand...
That was my first time really driving a truck like that and later this year I'll be in the market. Turning radius is straight nutty, far better than my ccsb truck. Gonna be hard to find a lwb truck, really like the spread on this one. Plus the exhaust brake is freaking cool, crazy how much it'll slow that truck down.
 
Happy you didn't get anything with top boxes and wanted a ramp over deck. Sime under body storage would be great on that unit.
 
WARRIORWELDING said:
Happy you didn't get anything with top boxes and wanted a ramp over deck. Sime under body storage would be great on that unit.
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Yes sir. I intend to get some boxes underneath eventually.

I could do some horse trading for a big block Ford if you wanna build a headache rack and some boxes 🤔🤣
 
77GreenMachine said:
I could do some horse trading for a big block Ford if you wanna add a front axle and transfer case, as well as build a headache rack and some boxes
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FTFY
 
So I have no shame in admitting in I’m a Cleetus McFarland fan boy. I like what he’s doing and think he’s living the dream. Anyway I bought some of the wax from that guy Sam he has on the channel these days. Seemed to have worked pretty good. We’ll see how it holds up. But water is beading off it really good and it’s shiny now.

I also put RainX on the windshield, it had apparently never had any or something cause it was awful coming home in the rain. We tried twice to get RainX on the way but had no luck.

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LBarr2002 said:
Out of curiosity, how are these things titled/tagged, assuming non commercial use?
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Good question. I got all excited about this early on and then thought “oh no I bet the insurance will be brutal” but I called my agent with Farm Bureau and gave him the VIN from a truck I found online just for a quote. $280 every 6 months, I have full coverage with theft as well. It is a commercial policy, for private use.
 
77GreenMachine said:
Good question. I got all excited about this early on and then thought “oh no I bet the insurance will be brutal” but I called my agent with Farm Bureau and gave him the VIN from a truck I found online just for a quote. $280 every 6 months, I have full coverage with theft as well. It is a commercial policy, for private use.
Click to expand...
Same here but with State Farm. Allstate wouldn't cover it. State Farm was happy to do a Commercial Policy for Personal Use.
 
77GreenMachine said:
$280 every 6 months, I have full coverage with theft as well. It is a commercial policy, for private use.
Click to expand...
Any chance there being a loop hole/work around for 3/4 tons? I'm paying roughly 450 for a 6mo policy with Progressive on my 03 5.9. Full coverage with collision, and comprehensive.
 
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