[jlsanborn]

The Crummy….

This is my other build but it’s been about a 15 year deal to date. It’s time will come here soon and it’ll get the lipstick it deserves. I’ve shown some of the more recent dramas on my C10 thread but I feel now that it deserves its own show. I wanna keep the C10 story its own too.

The short story –
I’ve been burning firewood as a sole source of heat for a bunch of my life and my current household is just that, no wood = no heat. In my neck of the woods, good wood ain’t easy to get. It’s hard to find and when you do its way off the road and the terrain is thick and steep. Over the years I’ve accumulated some good rigging and have had a couple killer saws. These days it’s like trophy cutting. We’re looking for the big boys.
Years back I worked in the sawmilling equipment industry with a fabricator that spent the first half of his adult life as an old-growth timber faller. This was one tough dude that worked up the west coast from California to Alaska, cutting blow-over Sequoias, helicopter logging Doug-Firs, giant Cedars, you name it. I never spent a day in the woods with Andy but he for sure taught me a thing or two about cutting trees just from his stories. He was living large, making big dough and always told stories about the boss tossing him keys to some brand new 1 ton 4x4 that they’d use to shuttle men, fuel, food and gear from town to the site each day. They called these rigs “The Crummy” and they’d beat the effin schnot out of them. A good one would last a year he said.
It’s mid 90’s and I’ve had an F250, a C20, and even a K20 Burban and a K5. It’s time for a good wood getting rig and I’ve got my mind set on a 4x4 3+3, not dually, not Chevy Diesel and not automatic. About a year goes by and I’ve looked at quite a few but nothing that fits the bill and is within my budget. One day a dude from work says that he spotted one in the weeds down some road. I go check it out, knock on the door and it’s some old logger dude – “That’s’ the old Crummy I bought off my boss”. Turns out it was bought brand new for a logging outfit in Leavenworth, WA as a Crummy. This dude worked there and bought it when it was deemed “done”. Lemme tell ya, this effer has been to hell and back. I heard one story about them nose diving it off the side of the logging road with 500 gallons of diesel. That’s where the gonk in the roof came from and why it had new glass front and back. Every single conceivable place you could possibly hook a chain to was tweaked and ripped from like a giant can opener. Virtually all the rivets in the chassis were loose. They used this thing to try and pull stuck equipment out of the shat. The interior and dash were peppered with holes from cork boots. It had been sitting where it was for more than five years but had a “20,000k miles” motor in it. Dude wanted the utility-style bumpers off it and I struck a deal for $900. I came the next day with a truck and trailer only to find the dude out there with a gas can and battery charger. He looked shocked that I had planned on trailering it home. I asked “got clutch and brakes?” he sorta giggled. Drove that beotch home, did a full tune up and the story began….
I know I’ve got some older photos but I’ll have to post them as I find them. Between then and now I’ve had a bunch of sheet metal on there. The cab is the only OG piece and I’m ready for a new bed and tailgate again. I’ve been through the brakes, suspension, steering, wiring, trans and motor but most of that needs done again (I’m smarter and better equipped now). This is a working truck, I bash it and use it past it’s design limits. Whenever I do maintenance on it functional/sturdy is priority over pretty. I can’t think of a single screw I haven’t turned, yet I’d bet for sure you could still find a chain file, scaler’s ticket or bottle cap in there somewhere. This thing has already done more work than most any truck will ever see. I will never sell this truck.
The most recent work has been the addition of the old-school Warn 8274 that a good neighbor gave me for being a good neighbor. Went to the scrap yard for some ½” material, 150lbs and some fresh grade-8’s later and I’m ready to yard some shat. I’ll also post up whatever I can find on my photo drive.
This should be an ice-cold thread. I’m supposed to be working on the ’67!!