1984 K30 Project Plow Truck

[MTCK]

Thanks guys. Haven't been on here for a bit, but have put a decent amount of miles on the K30 this summer. It's nice having the option to drive it with the summer tires. Last two tanks have averaged over 8mpg! Look out Prius crowd!

[BossH0G]

What does a Prius run on? Strawberry douche no actually I think they run on hippies.

[MTCK]

End of an era - sold the airplane hanger where I used to squat with my plow truck in the winter and complete the occasional project. I had to go grab my lift gate. Dang thing is heavy. I've got the flatbed and lift posted for sale and hope to get a regular fleetside box on before the snow flies. I also have two new gas tanks sitting waiting to be installed. I can double my summer range from 160 to 320 if they both work!

[MTCK]

Guarantee those tops of frame rails haven't seen daylight since 1984. Oh crap I need a bed. It's going to snow pretty soon!

[jhama78]

Lucky for you longbeds are plentiful up there in AK, Glad to see this rig getting some attention. Hope to see ya next year!!

[sweetk30]

nothing like a clean k30 plow truck . . .

mine here in pic to give you motivation .

[MTCK]

I'm looking hard, J-Rod! Figure I've got less than a month. Got a schedule for your work next year yet?

Good looking truck you got there K30. Those lights are serious. I need a beacon.

[sweetk30]

if i took a pic of here now you would freek . . . she is getting replaced with a new build currently . hope by next season . this winter she will stay here at the house only .

[MTCK]

I noticed the pic was 10 years old. Salt doesn't help. Too bad the plow trucks have to be driven in the winter.

[sweetk30]

not the salt so much anymore .

she started going down fast in the last 5 or so years .

liquid de-icer crap there using on the roads now

here is a sneek peak of new one in shop . 1 piece at a time . i will post up a thread sometime on this site .

[BossH0G]

That liquid de-icer crap there using on the roads now is calcium chloride, way more corrosive than salt and way more harmful to the environment. Salt will melt ice but once the ice is melted it will re freeze, calcium chloride won't freeze and will mix with water and ice their for preventing it from re freezing, making it an apply once and done type of thing, plus its is incredibly cheap. When you combine the fact that it needs fewer applications and its so cheap, it saves municipalities hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. As usual if it saves a buck everything else is trivial.

[MTCK]

I have a buddy who works for the DOT and they have a few varieties of products. One is actually based on sugar beets. They call it car-be-gone.

Good news, bed, tailgate and bumper located and deal struck. I was going to buy a whole truck and part it out, but this will be quicker and cheaper. I also have new sending units and straps for the fuel tanks, a selector valve and switch coming so I can use both fuel tanks. The driver tank straps were actually rusted through, so it was just sitting in the plastic tray. Maybe that's another reason the dash sticker says right tank only...

Big dilemma now is do I slap some paint on the bed and tailgate. It's DOT fleet orange. I'm thinking so...

[BossH0G]

That's right I forgot about the sugar beet. Either way it doesn't matter anymore, the steel in vehicles is now so thin or they use beer cans. Body panels are no more than cosmetics now. Razorblade's are thicker. Vehicles are now junk right off the assembly line.

[BossH0G]

In the spring of 2015 I was bringing home a 79 GMC to restore, I had it on the car trailer and on the way I decided to stop at the local restaurant and have supper, as I walked in to sit down a 16 year old kid stops and says, so you taking that old relic to the crusher? I said Na I'm going to restore it, he looked at me and said why? No matter how well you restore it and how nice it looks when your done it's still going to be an old piece of junk, it don't have four wheel disk brakes, abs, air bags or traction control, so it's always going to be an old unsafe piece of junk. We are a dying breed, I have all but given up the oldies and I just might.

[maxx442]

https://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/...A1QSCI17120704

[MTCK]

Those beds don't look too bad! One I'm getting is in pretty drawn good shape. Better than the rest of the truck.

[MTCK]

Time to finally get a little work done. Origins of parts are always interesting.
Tanks - Canada
Sending units - China
Selector valve - USA
Switch - Taiwan ROC
Straps - China

[jhama78]

Originally Posted by MTCK

Time to finally get a little work done. Origins of parts are always interesting.
Tanks - Canada
Sending units - China
Selector valve - USA
Switch - Taiwan ROC
Straps - China

Marcus, where'd you get your tanks and valves from? I gotta do the same thing to my GMC in the near future. Thanks!

[MTCK]

Yo J-Rod! Everything but the tanks came from rock auto. The tanks I will have to go back and look, but it was a small outfit that advertised and actually honored free shipping (even to AK).

The tanks were covered in some sort of shipping and storage goop so I had to spend a good chunk of time cleaning them before paint. The paint was recommended by the auto body supply shop here as good for chassis, preventing rust and easy to apply. Zero Rust is the name of the product. Took 3 cans to do what you see.

[MTCK]

http://www.davesdiscountautoparts.com

Dave's Discount Auto Parts! I would recommend them.

[BossH0G]

Awesome tanks, I'm going to checkout that zero rust

[MTCK]

So now I know why the sticker on the dash says right tank only.

[MTCK]

Pretty much trashed brackets too.

[MTCK]

Look what followed me home today.

[MTCK]

I’ve been living on borrowed time with no plow truck this late into the fall. Luckily we haven’t had a real snow yet that needs to be plowed.

After staring at the stupid plastic stone guards and rusted out remnants of tanks, I elected to take the new tanks in and have them sprayed with heavy arctic grade bed liner that a local company pedals. This will make them easy to clean and won’t allow moisture and soils to be trapped under the tank. This rig doesn’t get a ton of miles so it shouldn’t have too much wear from rock chips.