For those who don't know what a Longhorn is, here's the basic description:
Longhorns have the 3/4-Ton truck chassis rather than a standard pickup truck chassis. As such, it's heavier, made with thicker steel, and with a taller cross section. It's also six inches longer than the pickup truck chassis, which is why they had to put an extension on the front of the bed (so the wheel wells would match up with the wheels) This provides an 8-1/2 foot bed instead of the standard 8 foot bed, and is where the Longhorn name comes in. They gave it a wood bed so they wouldn't have to splice six inches of metal into the floor of it.
These trucks were made only from 1968 through 1972. 1972 was the last year because they changed body style in 1973 and I assume that there were never enough Longhorns sold to warrant the continuation in the new body style. For more information about Longhorns, check out www.longhorntrucks.freeservers.com.
While this Longhorn is usable as is (we still used it occasionally as is up until the day we bought a new Silverado), it does need some work. Actually, if it had 4-wheel drive, we would have kept this truck rather than getting a new one. But here in Arkansas, I've gotten stuck too many times to count, so broke down and got a new 4-wheel drive.
Following is the full history of this one-owner truck.
Purchased new in May, 1972, along with a huge camper.
Rated at 3/4 ton, we put extra springs and larger tires on it to carry that weight. This truck weighs about 5,000 pounds empty, and can easily carry 4,000 pounds (2 tons). I have on occasion hauled 5,000 pounds on it,but it sags pretty good under that load.
When we got rid of the camper and started pulling a 5th wheel trailer with it, the 12:00 x 16.5 tires we put on it would hydroplane too easily without that heavy camper. So we switched back to the stock 9.50 x 16.5 tires which it still has today. The current tires have only about 4,000 or 5,000 miles on them.
This truck was parked outside (in Southern California) for the first 27 years of its life. As such, it sustained the traditional rust that Chevrolet trucks get. Twice in that time, there were rust removal procedures and repainting done.
The drivers floorboard was so bad that we repaired it with fiberglass about 20 years ago.
The most noticeable rust today is inside the cab just above the windshield, and outside on the side just below the end of the drip rail.
The typical rust that gathers around wheel wells in North Easter areas never occurred.
The truck was all white when I bought it new. It has been painted twice since then. The last time it was painted, I had the metal parts on the inside of the bed coated with a bed coating. They, however, didn't do a very good job and light rust is showing on the wheel wells.
It has been re-upholstered several times in the past 30+ years. The seats now are in good shape -not factory, but good shape. The passenger arm rest is warn black in spots, and the driver side arm rest has pieces cracked off and foam is showing -still works, but doesn't look good.
The carpet needs replacing.
It has an AM/FM radio with cassette player. Shows how long it's been since I had that put in.
This truck has had a few scrapes and dings over the years, but never in any major accident. While most of those dings and scrapes have been repaired over the years, it still has a few.
The motor (350CI) and transmission (Turbo Hydro 350) were rebuilt at around 110,000 miles. We lost oil pressure climbing a steep grade pulling the 5th wheel trailer at around 175,000, so had to replace the motor again. The truck now has just over 200,000 original miles on it, so the transmission is getting a little long in the tooth - but still works well, although it does leak a bit.
The front grill has a broken piece, broken by the mechanic that overhauled the motor the first time.
It has a 4.10 rear end. As such it does fairly well on grades even with the small V8 motor. But, that also keeps it from getting good gas mileage. The last time I checked it, it was around 10 m.p.g. around town and 12 on the road. Put a small 5th wheel behind it and it goes down to 10 on the road.
This truck has Factory air. It still generally works, but has spells of not working. Since it will start working again by simply turning it off for a while, I think the last guy who worked on it got some crud in the lines and is choking the expansion value. The crud probably falls away when turned off. It could be from freezing up, but I don't think so.
It has a factory tilt steering wheel.
The factory bed light still works. I replaced the badly yellowed lens about 15 years ago. It still looks good.
The dealer added a sliding rear window for camper access. It's still there, but some of the aluminum frame work has come unglued from the glass. A little work there should make it functional again.
It has a rear step bumper with 2" ball hitch. I recently backed into a tree that bent it (the heaviest accident damage ever done to this truck) . I had the bumper straightened, but you can still tell that it had been bent.
It has a trailer brake controller with wiring to the bumper, and 5th wheel wiring in an electrical box mounted inside the bed up next to the cab on the driver's side.
It has a 5th wheel rack over the tire wells. You can have the rack and 5th wheel hitch that goes with it if you need it. If not, I'll keep it to put in my new truck.
It has two side saddle fuel tanks. The truck holds over 60 gallons total with all three tanks. One side tank has a proper gas cap. Not being able to find that style of cap any more, I use a rubber oil filler cap on the other one. One side still has the key lock for the gas filler door, the other door is held shut with a wire clip.
The truck now has three electric fuel pumps, one on each tank. The switch to switch tanks simply switches which fuel pump works. The home-made check values that keep fuel from bleeding to the other tanks are starting to allow fuel to do that. After running a tank of fuel from the main tank, I simply burn what little bleeds into the other tanks.
We haven't done any traveling with it since moving to Arkansas in 1999, so we don't use the side tanks for anything but catching the bleed.
Like all Longhorns, it has a wood bed. I replaced the entire wood about 15 years ago. One of the boards buckled, which I've subsequently split so I could bolt it down flat to have a flat floor again.
It has a heavy duty alternator that I put on about 25 years ago. The original 55 amp unit kept burning the diodes out because of the dual batteries (with isolator) in the truck, and extra battery in the camper, and then the 5th wheel trailer.
The ignition system has been changed to the electronic type with a Hayse conversion kit. This kit mimicked the Chrysler style of electronic system, so takes Chrysler parts. Most importantly is the ballast resistor. With other electronic systems of that day (1975), the ballast resistor was in the electronic box. Burn the ballast resistor out and you had to buy another box ($lots). But with the Chrysler system, and this one, if the ballast resistor burns out (it's happened twice since putting the system on in 1975), it's only a $3 item - actually a $1.95 item the last time I bought one.
The steering gear got to leaking so bad that I had it replaced about 12 or 13 years ago.
The inside rear-view mirror is off. When I replaced the windshield several years ago, their mirror glue job didn't hold. I've tried gluing it on several times with different brands of mirror glue that claimed it would hold, only to have it fall off again after a year or two.
It has two outside camper style mirrors with bubbles.
Like most old vehicles of this age, the gear shifter doesn't line up with the column markings just right. This is caused by wear in the linkage causing a sloppy fit. Anyone who has been around these trucks much should know all about this.
There are remnants of an alarm system I installed back when the truck was new. Most of it was taken out as it quit working because we quit traveling so much.
This truck has been parked indoors since moving to Arkansas in 1999.
I took the truck in for front-end alignment about four or five years ago. The mechanic aligned the front-end and said that everything is OK and nothing needed to be replaced, even though it's still all original. I have kept it lubed and serviced religiously from day one.
The brakes are good. We've only driven it about 4,000 or 5,000 miles since replacing the rears. Traditionally, this truck gets 25,000 miles on a set of rear brakes, and about 75,000 on front disks.
The last work done on this truck was to replace the torque converter flex plate. It developed a crack which would make strange noises on occasion.
Anyone who's in the market for an old truck to restore is fully aware that they all have problems, unless they've already been restored. The big difference between this truck and most others is that I've told you everything I can think of that's wrong with it, and others don't. This truck is perfect for restoring, with all the stuff that's important in good shape, and most things that need work would be redone anyway.
Contact:
Loy Spurlock
479-456-2887
Loy@loystoys.com |
