catboat 7 hauler

[mickeykreg]

Catboat 7 hauler doing what it's meant to do.


Here's catboat 7 loaded for a 12 day trip on the Green River.


Catboat is a river slang name for a cataraft. 7 because I picked this particular one up in 2007. Here are a couple action shots.


my friend Hugh messing it up in the Grand Canyon


I originally wanted a 67-72, but the opportunity presented itself on this so I had to take it. The SRW one ton kinda helped kicked me over the edge on handing the guy his $700 without dickering. I've always had a real soft spot for the look of squares, so I've got no regrets..so far. Sure the new one's are quieter and more comfy, but they haven't got near the style of an old truck humming down the highway.

I bought it in April of 2009 and have slowly been trying to work the bugs out of it and get it cleaned up. It's always run really good, but when I got it everything that could leak, leaked...bad, and I mean everything! I got it from the original owners kid after his dad died. Kid took it to his shop, pulled the 454 out of it and hurried this 350 into so he could sell it asap. As it turns out I ended up with a '79 350 4B main with 194 heads on it. The original owner lived down by Vegas so it's a rare rust free square. Over that first summer those leaks made a real mess out of the undercarriage. I think I'm finally making enough progress on it now to actually have something to say here, hence the long delay on a proper introduction, for which I apologize. Many thanks to everyone here for helping me out on a million things so far. Here's how it looked when I rolled it home.













My goals are to give it a lower stance...maybe a 2/4 drop or so. I think a lower stance rolling down the road with my rafting stuff loaded up would look rad. Prolly replace the TH400 with a 700r4 or a 4L80E to make those long interstate hauls not so bad. Don't wanna make it too nice cause having a nice one will drive my OCD nuts! I kinda dig the beater paint, but wanna keep the rust away by keeping it inside during the salty winters. Most of all I want it to be dependable because of signs like this that seem to come along about when something starts acting weird.



I believe these old trucks can be just as dependable as the new ones as long as a guy knows what he's got. I think it's too expensive to pay to have work done and I like the feeling of doing it myself. If something does go wrong on the side of the road I feel like I have a better grip on how to fix it if I'm familiar with it.

That's it for now. It'll take me a while to find all the photos and such from the past few years, but I'll work on this.