Author Topic: 78 Cheyenne K20 Camper special Plow rig / weekend warrior  (Read 3469 times)

Offline Traildust

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78 Cheyenne K20 Camper special Plow rig / weekend warrior
« on: November 30, 2017, 06:44:36 PM »
Heres my 78 K20 I purchased off the original owners family..
78 Cheyenne K20 Camper special
350
TH400
NP205
10bolt/14BFF

It came with a 7.5ft fisher plow as well as 5 aggressive tread tires with chains on them. This truck was used to plow a camp road most of its life however was also daily'd and never actually saw salt, and has had a cap all its life. Miraculously, the frame is super solid with almost no rust. The body has  some rot, but nothing crazy considering its a plow rig. I bought this truck to plow a mile of dirt road that leads to my house, so the tires with chains were really helpful to have, especially since i picked up the whole rig with everything (street tires, plow tires, plow, etc) for $500.

I started out with this truck just being a plow truck, but after realizing the shape its in (and the fact these trucks are dying at an alarming rate) I couldn't bring myself to treat it like a yard truck.  While this truck DOES have to serve its purpose, I also have been continously fixing it up through the summer months and driving it on the weekends to keep things moving.

Just recently I purchased an old 9 foot diamond V plow for it and have been switching over from the fisher setup to this setup. I pulled the whole plow and hydraulics off the old truck for $400. This will start off as a half assed attempt at documenting what ive done thus' far, however i will do my best to continue this thread with all my updates..


Offline Traildust

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Re: 78 Cheyenne K20 Camper special Plow rig / weekend warrior
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2017, 08:29:54 PM »
Heres some photos, somewhat in order of when I got the truck till now  ;D















Offline Traildust

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Re: 78 Cheyenne K20 Camper special Plow rig / weekend warrior
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2017, 08:50:29 PM »
Over the course of the first year, she was a great truck, however needed many things fixed to be driveable on the road for the summer. I ended up replacing a laundy list of things, including;

All the brake lines
spark plugs (one was blown out/stuck in the engine, that was a project in its own)
power steering pump
high and low pressure power steering lines
fuel pump
fuel line from carb to pump
rebuilt the stock quadrajet carb with new filter
new air filter
new front calipers and soft lines
replaced the rear leaf springs and added some springs to the pack, there are currently 11....

replaced a leaky hose under the dash that wasnt allowing the blend door to let air flow to the dash vents. This one sucked, as I ended up taking apart way more than I needed to and it was still almost guess work as far as getting the rubber line on the vaccum diaphram. However it was important as halfway through the winter when it went out, i couldnt get the windsheild to properly defrost.

I then picked up the V plow and that opened a whole new list of things that I had to work out before winter to get the plow done. The scariest part about this was I wasnt entirely sure what this was going to involve, as I was looking to re-use my fisher headgear, The other piece to this was the truck it came off (an 86?) was using threaded rod from the valves to the cab which seemed like a poor setup as opposed to cables..

I removed the push plate that ran between the plow plates mounted to the frame, and with persuasion from the grinder and new hardware i was able to mount the new center push plate to my headgear on the truck. I then had to move the chain mounts on the plow frame itself, as well as some other minor things like drilling spots for the hydraulic fittings to go. Then I had to mount the valve under the hood as my fisher setup the valve was out front with the plow, which sucked. Ice would get to it overnight and make things fun on cold mornings..

Once I got the valve mounted I picked up some controllers off older fisher plows and got them mounted in the cab and the cables run out to the valve. I ended up fabricating (I use the term loosely, I do what I can) a bracket for the cables to sit in and mount to the valve. this allowed me to adjust the cables to get the tension right on the controllers.

To get the pump mounted I had to remove the factory AC and mount the pump in its place but drilling new wholes for the ac bracket and re using that. I also had to space the pump out by 3"  from the AC location to get the pulleys to line up. I was able to do this with 2 1.5" spacers through a 4" bolt..



Offline Traildust

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Re: 78 Cheyenne K20 Camper special Plow rig / weekend warrior
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2017, 08:59:46 PM »




Here it is next to my 83 C10













Not the best pic, but this shows the fisher pump and the factory AC pump...




AC pump removed, diamond plow pump in its place and the valve assembly mounted under the hood.



This is a bad picture, but it shows the bracket I made to hold the controller cables from the cab. No I didnt clean the welds from my flux core for the picture, as it was 12 degrees out and I couldnt feel my hands...



This is how I mounted the controllers in the cab; I have the left one controlling the wing (left/right are in/out) and then this left one controls the raise/lowering ram as well. the right controller just controls the right wing (in/out). Its not the best setup, but its the best I could come up with given my budget and what I had to work with...





Offline 77 Scottsdale

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Re: 78 Cheyenne K20 Camper special Plow rig / weekend warrior
« Reply #4 on: November 30, 2017, 09:17:22 PM »
Very nice truck ya got, love the slow plow but would have no use for it in central California  ;) welcome aboard!

Offline Traildust

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Re: 78 Cheyenne K20 Camper special Plow rig / weekend warrior
« Reply #5 on: December 01, 2017, 05:43:09 AM »
Here's some more pics





















Offline Jason S

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Re: 78 Cheyenne K20 Camper special Plow rig / weekend warrior
« Reply #6 on: December 01, 2017, 09:15:12 AM »
Welcome to the forum
1973 GMC K2500, Super Custom, Camper Special, 350, TH350, NP203, 4.10's
1974 Chevrolet K10, Custom Deluxe, 350, SM465, NP203, 3.73's

"1) Peace through strength; 2) Trust but verify; 3) Beware of evil in the modern world"

Offline Traildust

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Re: 78 Cheyenne K20 Camper special Plow rig / weekend warrior
« Reply #7 on: December 02, 2017, 01:40:45 PM »
Thanks, glad to be here.

Put the cap on today to keep snow out of the bed and made some snow foils out of old rubber conveyor belt from a mill. Should help keep the snow off the windshield a bit!