Build a hypothetical 3500HD.

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Stumpy

Heavy Chevy
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As impressive as this whole trip has been to read about, especially with the ups and downs with the truck. What really blows my mind is, y'all ate Mexican food on a road trip, like it was nothing. Now that's throwing caution to the wind.

Glad y'all made it home, that was a hell of a story.
 

skylark

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As impressive as this whole trip has been to read about, especially with the ups and downs with the truck. What really blows my mind is, y'all ate Mexican food on a road trip, like it was nothing. Now that's throwing caution to the wind.

Glad y'all made it home, that was a hell of a story.
We love Mexican food! If we walk into a place and we're the only gringos there then we know that it'll be awesome.
 

Supercharged111

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As impressive as this whole trip has been to read about, especially with the ups and downs with the truck. What really blows my mind is, y'all ate Mexican food on a road trip, like it was nothing. Now that's throwing caution to the wind.

Glad y'all made it home, that was a hell of a story.

Real Mexican food doesn't wreck your guts. All the time.
 

BNielsen

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Good lord Skylark, you're making me nervous to want to drive my 6.5 to work...and I only live 5 minutes away!
I feel your pain on struggles on road trips, my last big trip to the beach resulted in a truck that wouldn't go faster than 45, a broken leaf spring, and a whole host of other minor disasters.

Now tell me, once you hit your driveway did you unclench and breath a sigh of relief?
 

skylark

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Good lord Skylark, you're making me nervous to want to drive my 6.5 to work...and I only live 5 minutes away!
I feel your pain on struggles on road trips, my last big trip to the beach resulted in a truck that wouldn't go faster than 45, a broken leaf spring, and a whole host of other minor disasters.

Now tell me, once you hit your driveway did you unclench and breath a sigh of relief?
Not trying to scare anyone, it is just the 6.5 life. Every struggle on this trip was 6.5 specific. When we got home it was still a pain because we couldn't park it where we were expecting because of a vehicle that was in the way so we had to ditch it in the front yard. That meant having to blind side back it up between a tree and another flat black truck with less than a foot on either side while approaching at an angle.

The fun continued though because a couple of days later I got the vehicle together that was in the way and I could finally park ithe HD in the driveway. I turned the key and the glow plugs were short cycling. I had to use either which is a no no on a 6.5. I really wanted it moved out of my muddy, doggie landmine front yard when I drilled out the starter bolt.

Once again 6.5 specific problems.
 

Buskinrobbins

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Great story and cool project. 100% making me question using the 6.5l in my future plow truck.

I have a 1968 c30 with the same 5/10 lug pattern and I’d like to do the same axle swap using an f450 Dana 80 and converting the front hubs to 8 lug then 10 lug.
I want to do this for a few reasons. Better brakes, better gear ratio(currently 6.17:1) and modern 10 lug wheel pattern.
 
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