Posted by W300Joe on Thursday, May 25, 2006 at 10:18AM :
I finally found a nice Sweptline W-100 6-1/2’ stepside. It’s a ’61, slant 6 w/NP420, needs fresh paint and tinkering … paid too much for it, but it took an inspection sticker with no problems and so far goes down the road whenever I turn the key! Once I do the front springs it’ll get the Fisher plow off my ’71 shorty yard truck and the Braden winch I kept from my ’66 W-200.
The plan now is during the next couple years to put together another clean ’61-68 W-100 chassis, ditto for some tin, then swap running gear, plow, and winch from my ’61, and end up with a clean driver to run for another 5-10 years.
Due to the increase in fuel prices I’m selling off most of my W-300s – get better than double the mpg out of a W-100 and no longer need the higher gvw of the 1 tons. I’m running a super two manifold and later ignition w/4.1 gears and 700/750x16 dia. tires – plenty of torque with this setup, in fact enough that I’d planned to switch to 8-19.5 rubber to keep that narrower tread and gain a little ground clearance, but more to drop engine rpm to the equivalent of 3.8/3.9 gears.
The only fly in the ointment is tire availability, as I’ve only found 2 Goodyear mud & snow tread designs, and in an F ply rating at that! I considered going to 900x16s instead since I’ve run them for years on my W-300s, but they’re wider and a little heavier, though Power Kings with new tubes and flaps would be a little cheaper! I have good 8-bolt 8-19.5 rims ready to blast and paint, and plenty of 6-bolt 6.5x16”, but would have to search for 8-bolt 6.5x16”. Years ago I ran factory 900s on an ex-Coast Guard W-200 crew cab and thought it was too much tire then – gotta believe the skinnier 8-19.5 would do better. Anyone aware of any other 8-19.5 traction tires (under $200- ea.) … what happened to all the old favorites?
Thanks, W300Joe (formerly, I guess)
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