Hey 38 love your old rig. Ill see if I can’t let you in on my experience so far with what you have in question.

1. To me personally my front end is not at all brand new but I honestly do not think that the truck handles any worse than any straight axle 4wd truck I’ve driven but I’m also 21 so I can’t say I have a great long lifetimes experience. I have gotten her up to 75 (not with ease) and the truck just takes it no problem. As for the brakes, just yesterday I had to slam on them as I was getting on the offramp and just happened to notice that traffic was halted halfway up. The truck handled that abrupt stop from 60 pretty well. I mean if you think about it, these trucks were designed to stop with a gvw of 14,000 (for my 4400). Seeing that I mostly daily it empty at 8,000 I’m not too worried about having to stop urgently, not saying I don’t pucker up a little bit sometimes coming on some sudden stops. But my truck is also 18 years and a few body styles up so I couldn’t speak on behalf of your truck but I agree with Fox too with as long as everything up front is nice and tight, performance should be decent.

2. In all honesty the overdrive is too much gear for my 235 but ever since I got my two speed rear working it has been great! I mean 5th is only good on flat ground but it still is very nice to have on long trips or through town just to get a little more speed going to not get ran over by traffic. If you keep the nv4500 you always have your 1:1 4th just the extra .73 5th if you ever want it.

3. My kingpins are a hair wobbly and probably should be replaced in the near future but I just keep them well greased and so far they have held up good but that all depends on the exact state of wear on your kingpins.

4. I do have a 261 I plan on building for this truck but I would more like to find a 302 gmc. A 292 would be a good candidate. How did you go about mounting your nv4500 to the 292?

Fox that was a great story and I’m glad that them brakes held up good for you. I understand a lot of this equipment is obsolete but that does not mean that they will not function well, especially well serviced. But I completely agree this old stuff doesn’t perform like the new stuff but it sure does get the job done.