PROJECT HEAVY BETTY. My 5 ton military truck

[Trike_crazy]

Didn't know such a winch existed, that would be neat setup. I always liked having a pto winch with the extended bumper setup to give you a better platform to stand on when working under the hood. A level wind system looks cool too but they're rare I suspect. What's going on the back, box, 5th wheel? Hows your old Ford pickup running, that's a nice rig! I remember seeing it at TF2015.

The old ford is doing pretty well. I need to start buying parts and redoing the brakes and exhaust system.

The plan for the back of the 5 ton is a wood bed for the time being to use as a party deck for mudd boggin events and such.

Another thing that I have failed to update is that the truck is finally 100% registered, insured and titled in my name. I've put a few hundred miles on it so far and its been awesome driving it around with all of the looks I get in it. Yesterday I used it to pull a car on my tilt deck trailer. Before I loaded it I parked the truck half on the car just for kicks. It was headed for the scrap heap anyway lol.

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[big specht]

lol I'm sure your wife was proud of you lol

[Trike_crazy]

lol I'm sure your wife was proud of you lol

When she asked where I was (I was at my aunts) I sent her a picture of the truck parked on the car. Her reply was "WoW". She knew it was coming lol. There will be more car crushing in the near future too

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[coolpool]

You're going to get hung up one day, lol. If we twisted our old 1954 gas powered 5-tons that much the fan would hit the rad! The 1976 diesels were way better. What year is that one again?

[big specht]

I can't blam you if I had one your damn right I would be doing that too

[Trike_crazy]

You're going to get hung up one day, lol. If we twisted our old 1954 gas powered 5-tons that much the fan would hit the rad! The 1976 diesels were way better. What year is that one again?

This one is around a 1968. I say that because I never have found a vin breakdown. What I did was look at other trucks like this with vins lower and higher than mine an seen they were all 1968's.

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[Trike_crazy]

Well I've been making some headway with the bed situation. Picked up a usable flatbed, hydraulic pump and single cylinder lift tonight for $500. The bed is rough shape but the other stuff that comes with should make up for it. It will work until I find a better one. I had to have a bed on it for this weekend . I'm going to the Redneck Rave in Medora, Indiana. It's basically a big mud bog with some tug-of-wars and other events. Hopefully heavy betty will make the trip mostly uneventful.

I did drive it an hour and 20 mins to work a few weeks ago and it was a fun drive home since people could actually see what the hell it was lol. So may thumbs up it was crazy. I also changed the engine, transmission and transfer case oils before taking it to work. I've also added a hitch to it that's low enough for a trailer to be hooked to without a crazy long drop hitch.

I only have a few more things to do for it to be ready for this weekend. The goal is to haul a jeep in the bed and a K5 framed/V8 powered geo tracker on my tilt deck trailer. Wish me luck!

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[tripledog]

Looks like 5 tons of fun to me. Awesome machine you have there!

[ironchop]

.... . I'm going to the Redneck Rave in Medora, Indiana. It's basically a big mud bog with some tug-of-wars and other events.....

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Thanks for the heads-up.

I never heard of it till you mentioned it. Sounds exactly like my kind of fun. I know exactly where Medora is too since we used to bounce around off-roading from Martinsville to Mitchell to Seymour to Bedford to Nashville to Vallonia and everywhere in between back when I was a Hoosier. I'd been going to Haspin in trucks and Jeeps long before Trikefest was a thing too

I might have my 79 SB dentside 460 4x4 ready for next years redneck rave.

Nice work on that truck


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[Trike_crazy]

Thanks for the heads-up.

I never heard of it till you mentioned it. Sounds exactly like my kind of fun. I know exactly where Medora is too since we used to bounce around off-roading from Martinsville to Mitchell to Seymour to Bedford to Nashville to Vallonia and everywhere in between back when I was a Hoosier. I'd been going to Haspin in trucks and Jeeps long before Trikefest was a thing too

I might have my 79 SB dentside 460 4x4 ready for next years redneck rave.

Nice work on that truck


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No need to wait. They have another one planned for the weekend of July 19th at the same place. My only advice is bring TP and don't bring too many big items like a huge trailer or RV. The place was PACKED to say the least. They ended up having people camping in the parking lot because they didn't have anywhere to go and the ground was so soft that guys were getting stuck left and right.

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[Trike_crazy]

Here's a few of the pictures I've collected from the friends that went with me. I got stuck twice with the 2nd time ending with me getting pulled out by 2 jeeps hooked together and a 12,000 pound Badland brand winch. That mud was THICK. The day before I didn't have much problem getting through the same hole.

I had a great time. I also seen a few 3 wheelers there and met with a guy that goes to trikefest so all in all a great weekend. I didn't take any trikes with me because they are all mostly down and being prepped for trikefest. I didn't want to take a chance of something getting torn up and not being able to fix it before then with my Annual training coming up.

The last pic is of my buddy's buggy in the back of a u-haul because in playing with my truck I bent the hitch. So we had to rent something to take it and his brother's K-5 framed tracker back home on the trailer.

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[Trike_crazy]

So just a little update on Heavy Betty. I took her to Redneck Rave #2 and had a little bit more excitement than I should have. I backed up on a car they had in the mud pit area and sliced a sidewall on one of my tires. I swapped the tires around so the the back axle could hold the weight of the trailer, chained up the intermediate axle and drove her 80 miles home. Just outside of where we left the fuel tank started leaking. Once home I took the tank off to find a hole from rust where it had sat on the support rails. It didn't help I was squeezing this truck down trails meant for jeeps or small trucks but Betty held her own! So now I am on the hunt for a driver side fuel tank and I still have to swap my spare tire onto the truck after I fix the valve stem. Other than that she's been a great truck with very few issues.

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[coolpool]

You sure are putting it through it's paces, bravo! That tire bill will suck I'm sure. Ever consider tire chains for the mud? You could probably weld a patch on the tank after a proper steam cleaning, I suspect theres lots of metal to work with.

[big specht]

I second welding it up too. Just clean the sh!t out of the out side and run a car exhaust into the tank for awhile to help get the fumes out of it before you weld it.

[Trike_crazy]

I still have a spare from when I first bought all of the tires. I'm going to buy what's basically a spool. Red barn customs makes what they call the cannonball. It's about $500 but its cheaper than the locker ($1500 which I'll buy later for the front axle). I'll put the cannonball in the intermediate axle so if I have this issue again it'll get power to both wheels. With the one tire up it the power all goes to that tire like any other open diff. I figured with the intermediate and front axle locked it'll be 5 wheel drive with the rear axle open to help with turning.

You sure are putting it through it's paces, bravo! That tire bill will suck I'm sure. Ever consider tire chains for the mud? You could probably weld a patch on the tank after a proper steam cleaning, I suspect theres lots of metal to work with.

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