Building a tow pig..

Naturally what anyone would do if they are fixing up a house 4 hours away from home right. I mean, everyone needs a tow pig if you have a house in the country. I really wanted a brand new Ram Laramie but my pockets couldn't afford a 88k truck and even if they did I don't I could pull the trigger on something like that with out real deep pockets. Anyways, this all started when I resolved myself to get a truck I could tow with.

And after looking at the "gently" used trucks and the badly beat up trucks at still ridiculous prices, I decided to look for an older vehicle that I could go through and use to pull a trailer. Facebook Marketplace is filled with overpriced vehicles, especially when you are looking for a good diesel truck.

I ended up doing some horse trading with a neighbor to pick up his very old International flatbed stake truck that had been shortened and converted to a sleeper with a flatbed. It had been sitting in his yard for some time but I knew he used it to hotshot to the East Coast. He had bought it from a guy who put some money in it. Added the saddle tanks, sleeper and steps. But I wanted it because of it's simplicity and the fact it was a 93 4700 with a DT360 mechanical pump engine. But it had been sitting for years and needed all new fuel lines and the basics for a truck that age. I spent about a month or so going through that truck, chasing down hard to find parts, expensive parts from the dealer, and bought what I could find to get it running. I replaced the fuel pump, water pump, return lines, hoses belts and wire wheeled the bed, painted it and added clearance lights. I went through the interior and found rust on the floor boards from a cab leak, which I repaired. I repaired some interior nic-nacks and finally got it running.

But when I drove it around the block, it' just dawned on me that this truck was a real pig, a slow pig, a boat anchor from the early 90's. No doubt, that Allison auto trans and rear end could pull a house down, but I wasn't convinced that this was the way I wanted to spend my hot summers driving to the country. And it was over 30 years old... The truck however looks so bad ass and I still plan on getting going. Maybe a turbo for it, some new injectors, and maybe a fuel pin or better yet, installing a p-pump. In the end, I decided to go a different direction with something with modern conveniences, more power and more driving utility. I also didn't like the fact that I would daily driving this thing to the grocery store, and in Houston wouldn't exactly be the least convenient.

I went with a used 2017 Ram 4500 that has previously a tow truck. I found it dirt cheap, without a bed, and no one wanted to touch it because they bobbed the back of the frame to fit the wrecker.

The truck drove literally like a log truck and could bust your appendix on a ripple in the road. I was going to buy a used bed but most of them didn't fit the cab and chassis wheelbase or were so badly beat up and way overpriced for what I was willing the pay.

The new flat beds were about 10 grand so I figured I could build a better one for half the price. I started out by going to the Triple SSS overflow stock yard and resolved to use what ever they had on clearance that day. They had a ton of 3/16th 6 inch flat and some heavy duty 3/16th square tubing, and I found some 3/16 diamond plate. You know God works in mysterious ways. I loaded up...

I had already bought a B&W hitch receiver from a friend and ended up installing two of them! One under the axle and one towards the back like the pipe liners do their beds... Just in case I want to run a welder back there and a trailer but I still wanted the bed to be short. I want to be able to drive this thing anywhere and park just about anywhere. 3/16 plate surrounds the square tubing and let me tell you, the bed is strong.

After building the headache rack, I found a guy on marketplace selling some saddle boxes that I modified to fit underside and I found a diesel tank that I still haven't used. The lights are from eBay and Temu. It kinda looks like CP30 from the back but I think it came out alright.

Here is a video of it running.

It was a hell-of-alot of work in the end but it made the ride much more manageable due to the weight and I'm satisfied.

I'm not sure how much steel I ended up using but the 3/16th plate was a little over 2 grand alone.