C60 comes home after 30 years

[Peanutbutter]

Bought this C60 when I was eighteen years old, when I first got it home the clutch was bad. Discovered clutch disc was in backwards, it ground off half the flywheel bolts and couldn't hardly get a socket on them. Put a 396 BB in it and used it to pull my D4 cat around the valley pushing peach orchards. Truck was bought new by Denver and Riogrande Railroad and had a 12,000 winch behind the cab and was used for rail maintenence. I also put a hoist under the bed and built the tilt hood for easier service. Sold it when I was about 24, last fall wife and I spotted it about 100 miles from here sitting in a pasture and bought it back for 300.00 dollars. Its just about used up but has lots of good parts left. Having trouble uploading pics but will keep trying.

[Peanutbutter]

Pics for above thread.

[special-K]

That's a good story. I'd like to buy things back I've sold over the last 30 years. That tilt front end worked out great. Good idea!

[C10 - C90 Bill]

The truck still looks real good to me.

That Tilt Hood is pretty cool.

I would have liked GM to see it back then.

Bill

[alsriv2]

I would love to find one of those in that condition for that price. The wife has given the go ahead to do a "Big Burtha" build to haul our upcoming 5th wheel.

Glad you were able to get it back.

[buggy5872]

It looks like it has a lot of life in her yet.....get her running and in use again. I like the tilt hood. I did the same on Big Bertha. Its a life saver when I have to work on it.

[alabama mike]

From the pictures it still looks pretty good to me, I'd fix it. its not always that you get one of your rides back after 30 years!

[Peanutbutter]

I know, I'm getting bad vibes about using it as a parts truck but I'm C60 poor. I just knew for the money I couldn't pass on the 12,000 lb braden winch with PTO and the new hoist I put under it. I'm glad to get the cute little twin fuel tanks back and when I got the truck the running boards were junk and I fabricated new ones out of deck plate before deck plate was cool. There still isn't any dents in the running boards and you can still see part of my GTM number on the driver side. The tilt hood did work well but it was my secound one as my first was on my 66 K20, in 3 minutes you can have the hood pulled clear off, in 45 minutes you can pull the motor out if need be.

[special-K]

Nice job on the running boards. Yeah,I remember before deck plate was cool and over used (especially aloomya). What was that song? "I was deck plate...when deck plate wasn't cool"

[alabama mike]

Peanutbutter, can you get me a close up pic of your hitch? I'd like to do something like that with mine!

[Peanutbutter]

Yep, I can do that, should have them on here tonight.

[Peanutbutter]

Thanks special-K on the running boards, lot of sentimentel value on the boards alone, can't beleive I was only eighteen when I made them, guess that would make them 42 years old. Sold the truck 2 or 3 years later, guess its been closer to 39 years since I've even seen the truck. Kind of chilling when you step back and wonder where 39 years went. Oh well, I think I'll refinish the boards and put them on my C 80 tractor just for the hell of it. I'm starting to picture my tractor with a tilt hood also. It will look good with the 5.9 cummins in it after I pull the 409 out, no I'm not parting with the 09, just retiring it for a while. I finely found a sae no. 2 flywheel and flywheel housing to fit the 5.9 so I have the spicer 5852 five speed bolted up to the 5.9 now and it looks great, getting close to doing the swap. I want the C 80 to be a user as well as make a couple of truck shows a year.

[C10 - C90 Bill]

I really like the Running Boards too, but I believe you will find them to be a different width than the ones on your C-80. The C-80 will have the heavier front axel which means wider fenders and wider running boards.

....may just have to make a new set!!

Bill

[Peanutbutter]

Mine does have the heavy axle and wide fenders and boards but they are beat to death and cannot save them. Going to run the narrow fenders and boards until I can find a decent set of wide, interesting to see what it looks like that way, keep you posted on that.

[Peanutbutter]

Mike, here's your hitch pics, hope they help.

[Peanutbutter]

Had time to check out my old truck a little better today, winch and new hoist were just like I remembered them. Can't believe that hoist is 42 years old, they must not have used it much. Once I pressure wash it she will look brand new. They must have changed out the rear end because it had 5-10 wheels on it before and now the rear is 6 hole budds and it no longer has the 325 horse 396 in it.

[alabama mike]

Originally Posted by Peanutbutter

Mike, here's your hitch pics, hope they help.

I see everything is attached to the tilting part of the bed, did it pull ok, no problems? I have a Oliver 1755 tractor, its about 11,000 lbs, I would like to do something like this to be able to move it around if needed. I had an old diesel ford (7.3) and a gooseneck, but since I rarely used either I sold them off, I'd like to fix my C60 for a "just in-case" type thing, I don't expect to use it much, my truck is more toy than anything else.

[Peanutbutter]

When the winch was set up new the bed did not have the hoist under it, there is an 18inch by 18 inch hole in the bed with winch fairlead rollers. The cable came up through the hole along with a tail roll on the back of the bed. With a hoist the winch should be mounted on the bed, it needs to be a hydraulic winch with lines running back to the bed hinges, not cheap to do this. For marginal use you can go electric, is easier to install but won't pull with hydraulic or PTO. The way this truck is set up now you are pulling down on the hoist when you are winching somethig with the bed up, this is bad. I needed the hoist real quick to haul haylige for the local dairy, I was spreading and packing haylige in the pit with the D4 cat while my buddy was driving my truck. Never had a real need to correct the winch problem. If you are refering to pulling a trailer with the hitch fastened to the bed instead of to the frame I pulled 16,000 lbs of trailer for 4 years and never had any problems with the hitch or bed hinges, depends how long the truck bed is, you may need to put some type of hold downs from the bed to the frame at the front.

[alabama mike]

Yeah, I was talking about pulling a trailer with a rather large tractor on it, I was wondering did you get any bed movement from just pulling from the bed and not the frame. My truck doesn't have much over hang past the rear axle. I was also thinking about sometype of hold down as well.

[Peanutbutter]

I don't remember any slop when I was pulling, they made some changes to the hitch since I had it, didn't have the pintle on it then. The red 73 I bought for the browne trans in my other thread is the same deal. They put hold downs on it but they were using gin poles which will lift the bed right up if you don't put latchs on it. They took 2 binders and welded the top hook to the bed, it works but is not very cool looking. Go to someone that mounts truck bodies, they have a set thats made for the purpose that are adjustable and snap over center and are professional looking. Maybe cheaper than wasting 2 good binders