Help a newb.

[nsjames]

Thanks to all of the information on this site I managed to make an IDI 7.3 run in a uhaul parking lot. I was told it didn't run, but then talked to the guy that parked it. Bought it at a non running price, spent three hours bleeding the entire fuel system from the tank pickup forward and drove it home.

It was an adventure to buy what was listed as a running truck. I ended up smelling of diesel badly.

 

[nsjames]

it's all fixed up. Ready to roll down the highway. now I can start building the RV stuff in the back.

New Alternator
new batteries
new filters/fluids
new soft fuel lines
added additional grounding/upgraded wiring for the 150A alternator upgrade.


It starts pretty quickly. Does it sound alright to the experts?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9qMmv6qadw

 

[nsjames]

Some stuff happened inside.

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all bolted to the floor/chassis


working plumbing w/ 4 gallon hot water tank
Working 110V RV plug and wiring.
Service box under the cabinets with separate circuits for fridge/water tank/outlets.

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this weekend is door and windows.

16ft of free deck from the end of the counter top to the back door. Should fit my long trail rig with a few inches to spare.

 

[nsjames]

fixed my air leak problem. Turns out it was the valve core in the schrader valve at the filterhead. Thanks oilburners for no more hard starts, it was killing my starter!

Some more photos of the nearly completed truck:

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it's tight in there!

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but the Jeep fits like a glove.

 

[Fordsandguns]

Nice work!

 

[GOOSE]

Thats a killer rig

 

[Knuckledragger]

Nice setup.

I have a few questions: where does the ramp go? How do you get out of the 4x4 after it is in the box? Do you have a pump and tank for the water, or was that external feed to the faucet?

 

[nsjames]

Nice setup.

I have a few questions: where does the ramp go? How do you get out of the 4x4 after it is in the box? Do you have a pump and tank for the water, or was that external feed to the faucet?

The uhaul ramp slides underneath on a nifty draw slide setup. The truck ramps get store alongside the truck.

I'm 5'8" 135lbs, anybody bigger would have to climb out the sunroof.

no pumps, no tanks, it's built to drive to the campgrounds and hookup. The hookup on the outside comes in, is tee'd to the hot water tank and right to the faucet, It's all PEX tubing. maybe eventually I'll do tanks and such to make it more self contained, but I bought it in April and we're wheeling next week, so I didn't have the time.

 

[nsjames]

quick report:

made it to Harlan KY and back. 20 hours of running the IDI on the governor and it did just fine.
We enjoyed the water and fridge for the weekend. I think air conditioning has made the list.

We averaged 10 MPG, probably weighed about 16.5K

I coulnd't find a working scale anyplace I stopped for fuel.

 

[SparkandFire]

Hey man, nice setup!



I've dreamed of taking a medium-duty international chassis and making a motorhome out of it for some time now. Trouble is, my wife wouldn't have anything to do with it!

 

[Diesel_brad]

Looks like the ideal set-up. Please get rid of the u-haul orange and white though

 

[nsjames]

mine rode shotgun, with two dachshunds in the middle.

 

[nsjames]

Looks like the ideal set-up. Please get rid of the u-haul orange and white though

paint is part of phase III.

I'm just now starting Phase II.

I have a buddy that paints commercially, the paintjob is already skectched on a napkin, and the Jeep is getting new fenders/header panel/doors/exo cage. So the tow rig and the Jeep will have matching paint

 

[towcat]

quick report:

made it to Harlan KY and back. 20 hours of running the IDI on the governor and it did just fine.
We enjoyed the water and fridge for the weekend. I think air conditioning has made the list.

We averaged 10 MPG, probably weighed about 16.5K

I coulnd't find a working scale anyplace I stopped for fuel.

no worries on running tight against the governor. i did it all day long for ten years plus on my F450 carrier. with 4.63 gears I was slow out of the box but topped out at 80mph(3800 rpm)

 

[nsjames]

no worries on running tight against the governor. i did it all day long for ten years plus on my F450 carrier. with 4.63 gears I was slow out of the box but topped out at 80mph(3800 rpm)

unfortunately someone blew up the rearend in this truck before it left uhaul. They replaced the 4.30 third member (rare as hen's teeth I'm finding) with a 5.57 rear end. I'm governor limited to 58 MPH. it brings the suck.

My brother and I are researching 7 speed OD units to get us to 65 (72 theoretically) before our cross country trip with 2 jeeps. More gears is better right?
I was happy with the mileage at 10, I think with an OD we might even eeek out another MPG with the lower RPM's, but probably not because of the added wind resistance.

I'll be asking questions once I educate myself enough to know *** I'm asking about when it comes to swapping transmissions around.