[Bill Beauregard]

Nice. Green was chosen because the truck was originally a Fire/Truck abmulance sosafety green was the original color, bed was painted to match the cab. is not cheap to have a truck painted. If I do repaint id probably keep it green but a neon bright green you see on some of the new big rigs and do a two tone. my roof is white though so i guess its already two tone. may do a strip of bed liner down the bottom of the truck like i did on my dodge.

Yeah, I still have both the 1976 C65 With 427 tall block, Eaton 5 speed, and two speed rear. I regularly tow 22000, and on Vermont's hills it really works both ways, up & down.

I figure the Cat 3208 will have an easier time on hills.

The 1990 GMC was also an E1 Fire truck originally painted safety green. The town I bought it from had it sold to a town in Ohio. Part of the deal was they'd paint it red. Every vehicle I've owned since 1985 has been red, sort of company colors.

I sure would like to have 4 wheel drive!

 

[The_Green_Queen_Machine]

Yeah my truck has a Marmom-Herrington conversion. only downside is they really didnt use easily found componants so you cant really go to a junk yard for 4wd parts and axles if you break something but since it was a county owned vehicle they were atleast smart enough to put all the parts list paperwork in the truck. two pages are attached to drivers side window visor, two pages on passenger side visor and 4 pages in glove box. the truck still has all the old insrance info in it from when it was first purchased. still has the build sheet from gm too. This truck was originally built for Bernalillo County (albuquerque) than was owned by city of Grants. the Bernalillo County metal asset tag is still attached to console and a Cirty of Grants Asset paper tag is attached to drivers door with Unit 818 ettched in door. Id love to find the origianl driver of the truck and see if they had a old photo of the truck when new. I love these old Fietruck/Ambulance converted trucks cause your owning a peice of history and they probably saved a few lives during there time on duty and these trucks are pretty iexpensive to buy after they retire. i do know at some point the transmission was remanifactured just because it has a tag saying it was and the company who did it. the motor idk if it was ever. The motors just a 8.2L DD Turbo. 230hp version but it works great. doesnt burn oil or leak or anything. the transfercase/aux trans leaks from input and output shaft though. the Allision trans dooesnt leak or burn fluid and its fluid is clean. axles dont leak either. the odomotor reads 66K miles and is functional and from all the paperwork i have seems like a legit reading. truck rides like a dump truck. its got self adjusting air bags tha you cannot control. they just stay aired up and it adjust air bag pressure/height by weight over rear axle.

 

[STPETEBLUE]

I bought a 1969 Chevrolet C50, back in January, with the intention of shortening the frame and converting it to a pickup truck. Well, plans changed so I sold it a couple of weeks ago.

Needed to make room for this truck.

It is a 1989 GMC TopKick, with a CAT 3208 and an Eaton-Fuller 6 speed.
When I bought it, 6 weeks ago, it was a box truck. Thanks to my new friend, Mike Powell, it now looks like this.

 

[STPETEBLUE]

Yeah my truck has a Marmom-Herrington conversion. only downside is they really didnt use easily found componants so you cant really go to a junk yard for 4wd parts and axles if you break something but since it was a county owned vehicle they were atleast smart enough to put all the parts list paperwork in the truck. two pages are attached to drivers side window visor, two pages on passenger side visor and 4 pages in glove box. the truck still has all the old insrance info in it from when it was first purchased. still has the build sheet from gm too. This truck was originally built for Bernalillo County (albuquerque) than was owned by city of Grants. the Bernalillo County metal asset tag is still attached to console and a Cirty of Grants Asset paper tag is attached to drivers door with Unit 818 ettched in door. Id love to find the origianl driver of the truck and see if they had a old photo of the truck when new. I love these old Fietruck/Ambulance converted trucks cause your owning a peice of history and they probably saved a few lives during there time on duty and these trucks are pretty iexpensive to buy after they retire. i do know at some point the transmission was remanifactured just because it has a tag saying it was and the company who did it. the motor idk if it was ever. The motors just a 8.2L DD Turbo. 230hp version but it works great. doesnt burn oil or leak or anything. the transfercase/aux trans leaks from input and output shaft though. the Allision trans dooesnt leak or burn fluid and its fluid is clean. axles dont leak either. the odomotor reads 66K miles and is functional and from all the paperwork i have seems like a legit reading. truck rides like a dump truck. its got self adjusting air bags tha you cannot control. they just stay aired up and it adjust air bag pressure/height by weight over rear axle.

That is a fascinating truck. I did not know GM put anything but CAT motors in the tall Kodiak/TopKick trucks.

 

[Bill Beauregard]

Mine is titled '90, but it is 89 style built November 89. 3208 Allison.

 

[The_Green_Queen_Machine]

Mine is titled '90, but it is 89 style built November 89. 3208 Allison. View attachment 167869 View attachment 167870 View attachment 167869 View attachment 167870

Thats normal for Emergency vehicle built trucks. Your date of manifacturing should be 1989 sold as a incomplete chassis then another company like a Coach company compketed the truck and VIN was issued in 1990. My trucks the same way.

 

[The_Green_Queen_Machine]

That is a fascinating truck. I did not know GM put anything but CAT motors in the tall Kodiak/TopKick trucks.

From what i seen the tall hood trucks are all diesels and the shorter ones are gassers. GM used there Detriots and two different CAT diesels in them. Theshort hood ones with gassers i seen with 366 and 427.

 

[Bill Beauregard]

From what i seen the tall hood trucks are all diesels and the shorter ones are gassers. GM used there Detriots and two different CAT diesels in them. Theshort hood ones with gassers i seen with 366 and 427.

I don't know the years it applies to. The 366 was a heavy duty engine with dismal lack of power. I had one in a 1976 C65. I thought it had timing issues, so I rebuilt a 427 tall block to upgrade. It was then I discovered a tiny widget broken in the distributor. The 427 was a better match for the truck, but struggled loaded both uphill & down.

The newer truck with 3208 handles the hills much better, on far less fuel.

 

[STPETEBLUE]

From what i seen the tall hood trucks are all diesels and the shorter ones are gassers. GM used there Detriots and two different CAT diesels in them. Theshort hood ones with gassers i seen with 366 and 427.

From what I understood, the tall hood was designed specifically for the CAT. They put every other type of motor in the short hood trucks, including the 8.2. Here is an example: https://bigasstrux.com/89ChevyC60.html

 

[The_Green_Queen_Machine]

From what I understood, the tall hood was designed specifically for the CAT. They put every other type of motor in the short hood trucks, including the 8.2. Here is an example: big ass trucks - 1989 Chevy C60

Not correct the put the 8.2 in the tall hoods too. My trucks a 8.2L Turbo

 

[Bill Beauregard]

It seems there were numerous reasons they stayed with the tall hood. I recently heard the Cat 3208, a V8 engine needed it for turbo clearance from the firewall. My theory: they had a warehouse of old cabs to use up.

 

[The_Green_Queen_Machine]

It seems there were numerous reasons they stayed with the tall hood. I recently heard the Cat 3208, a V8 engine needed it for turbo clearance from the firewall. My theory: they had a warehouse of old cabs to use up.

That could be but honostly think they built these trucks to how ever you wanted it speced out. There so many variations with these trucks. It seems the tall hoods are all double framed, could be wrong and dont know if the short hood trucks were double framed or not. Maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe its a GVRW thing. Who knows but it seems if you could have these trucks buily anyway you wanted with no real set of rules on how you want it specd.