Gary, If you get over my way, you are required to stop by.......

Your camper project is coming along nicely!

 

Thanks guys. After I got the pressure treated deck installed as low as practical, it needed cutouts in the deck for the inner duals. These I should have covered with steel plate or some old mudflaps, but was in a hurry and still wondering if we wanted to use it with the camper. The camper's weight is all on the two 9' beams running fore and aft about 4' apart. The camper's lift-up sides are about 1/2" above the fire truck bed sides. There is a lot of timber between the truck's frame and the bottom of the camper. Anybody take a stab at what this will get for gas mileage? It has a 292 and a holley 4 barrel. Can I step down to a 2 bbl or would that help? There is a fuel drip at the accelerator pump on the carb, so I'll need to deal with that anyway.

 

Neat rig. My guess is ~12 mpg depending on how the rear axle is geared and how fast you want to go. For not much money you can drop in an axle off a used school bus for cheap and improve your mpg. Not sure what size Holley you have - my limited experience is a small 4 barrel gets better mileage than a large 2 barrel.

 

Awesome truck, as usual

 

Like so many trucks before.... I sold this last year at tax time. Dadgum recession in the building trades. It's getting better now. Friends call my place "Gary's Catch and Release Garage'. When they aren't calling it 'Dysfunction Junction'.....

 

I think 1957-60 F600s are so awesome. Bought a '58 when they retired it from work in 1978 and I loved that truck. Wish I'd have kept it longer but other truck came along later on. When you're young you don't always do the right thing.

 

My '58 F600 with a 4 barrel Holley and a 5.83 rear axle got 10 mpg which I was really shocked. I had F100s with y blocks that did no better. Of course I didn't go on the interstate with it low geared like that.