In all honesty, I fell in love with my truck when I first saw it. 1969 C60, 427, 5+2. I had plans to haul my wife's mud truck with it but plans changed and we sold her truck. Over the past 2-3 years I've been working on it and replacing/improving things as time allows, it gives me something to do and it's a true survivor as I've kept everything I've done true to what it is and not tried to make it into what it never was. My dad called me and he bought a 40' toy hauler/camper but doesn't have a 5th wheel. He asked if I would haul it to my house (100 mile round trip)and he'll figure out how to get it to his house from there.
The truck has been sitting all winter so I got her out the next day, went through everything, and drove her all around town for an hour or so. She never missed a beat. On the day of the haul, I drove her 5 miles and put 25 gallons in my saddle tank (my in-cab tank was empty).
I fired her up and hit the highway, got her up to 60 mph and she started sputtering in less than 2 miles. I was on the side of the expressway!
Luckily my dad was following me in his van just in case something like this happened. As it turned out I had about 5 gallons of water in my saddle tank! I sent him to get 10 gallons of fresh gas and we filled the in-cab tank and I flipped the switch to run off of that instead. I pulled the carb apart, cleaned it (the first picture shows how bad one of the internal screens were and the other I had already cleaned) changed the fuel filter, disconnected the gas line from the carb, and had my dad spin the motor over while I held the empty water bottle until the fuel was clean again. Another filter change and she fired right up.
We were back in business! 65 mph the whole way to his new (to him) camper. We stopped when I got off the expressway about 40 miles up the road, filled the cab tank and our 2 five gallon gas cans just in case.
The camper is only 12,300 pounds but it's the most weight I've hauled with her. She didn't miss a beat, she hauled like there was nothing back there. The only difference is she took off a little bit slower than she does empty. 65 mph the whole way home and never went above 180 degrees.
I will be delivering his camper to him now. Saturday she's going on her first "long" haul since I've owned her, about 270 miles to Southern Ohio. I'm going to leave it down there for my dad. He is going to haul his current 35' bumper pull camper back up here to Michigan when he's ready to and return the truck.
I've fixed how water was getting into my saddle tank now so it will no longer be an issue.
I had to share my little story with people I know would enjoy it, thanks for reading. I do have her posted for sale with almost no interest. I'm beginning to think I may keep it.
Martin '62 Chevy C-10 Stepside Shortbed (Restomod in progress) '47 Chevy 3100 5 Window (long term project) ‘65 Chevy Biscayne (Emily) ‘39 Dodge Business Coupe (Clarence) “I fought the law and the law won" now I are a retired one! Support those brave men/women who stand the "Thin Blue Line"! Hug a cop! USAF 1965-1969 Weather Observation Tech (I got paid to look at the clouds)
I'm just up the road from you, north of Chelsea, I have had some interest in your truck but I can't justify more than what I have, if your wife is interested in a Corvette we could horse trade. Nice job keeping it stock and using it.
1957 Chevrolet 5700 LCF 283 SM420 2 speed rear, 1955 IH 300U T/A, 1978 Corvette 350 auto, 1978 Yamaha DT175, 1999 Harley Davidson Softail Fat Boy
Please take buying, selling and trading to Private Message.
Martin '62 Chevy C-10 Stepside Shortbed (Restomod in progress) '47 Chevy 3100 5 Window (long term project) ‘65 Chevy Biscayne (Emily) ‘39 Dodge Business Coupe (Clarence) “I fought the law and the law won" now I are a retired one! Support those brave men/women who stand the "Thin Blue Line"! Hug a cop! USAF 1965-1969 Weather Observation Tech (I got paid to look at the clouds)
We headed back down Friday, woke up early Saturday and did a bunch of work to the truck. I topped off both tanks and grabbed an extra 5 gallon can of gas then hit the road. The air temps were much warmer last Saturday then when I took the 40' 5er down. This bumper pull weighed in around 9500 pounds. I used all 75 gallons in a 265 mile trip, roughly 3.5 mpg. The truck performed flawlessly as expected. As the air temps dropped my power went up. I was able to do 68 mph with the 40' camper and was limited to 62 when we headed out in the heat of the day, once it started cooling down I was able to hold her at 64-66 mph the rest of the way.
Now that she's home I can see if there's anything I can do to bump the mpg up some.
