Trucks Featured in the QUAD 4x4 Web Site
Even before kindergarten, 4x4 vehicles have been the only motor vehicles in my life!  Why play with a race car when you can have an army Jeep and go anywhere?  Years later, when it came time to illustrate this website, we toyed with the idea of using show trucks, but in the end I chose real working 4x4s. Most of these trucks are not pretty, and except for the M715, I doubt if any of them were ever in a show, but they all are hard working 4x4 trucks that get the job done.  Maybe because I have always lived in snow country, I have never, and still don't, understand why anybody would own a 4x2 car, truck, or anything else.  Heck, even our lawn mower is a 4x4!  In any case, here are the stories behind the trucks......
Dan the Gear Man®
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Chevy/GMC Dodge Ford International Jeep  
           
           
           
General Motors
1978 GMC K25 I have often thought of replacing this photo of my Son's first truck, an old '78 GMC with a photo of a newer, "less used" truck.  However, the sentimental attachment a young man carries for his first truck, and the skills acquired in keeping the old girl running is going to give it a place of honor on our website. Purchased at a local ranch retirement auction, the K25 had seen better days, but with lots of patience, she was mechanically restored to a reliable condition.  I don't know how many miles he put on, but from the stories his friends tell, my son and his truck must have traveled about every road and two-track trail in South Central Montana and North Central Wyoming.  I don't think it ever needed to be towed home due to a broken down condition.  He did, however, take it on a remote snow choked road in the winter and stalled it in a deep drift near midnight.  A rescue mission was mounted using the IHC 1600 shown below.  After we dragged it out of the drift, we found the starter wire was ripped off, so I crawled underneath with a screwdriver and jumped the starter contacts to crank it over.  After it started, he wanted to try the snow drift again!  Sorry Son, time to go home!  
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Dodge
1997 Dodge Ram 3500 This 1997 Dodge Ram 3500 is a typical hardworking western ranch truck.  Equipped with a heavy duty bumper/ brush guard combo on the front and a round bale bed on the back, this truck sees hard use just about every day of its life.  In the winter, the hydraulic arms on the bed can pick up two heavy, 6' diameter round bales, keep them in place over the roughest ground, and then unroll them on the feed grounds.  The gooseneck ball hitch located under the bed deck is used throughout the year to pull stock, horse, flatbed, and grain trailers under all types of on and off road conditions.  This truck was the guinea pig for the first NV4500 5 speed to NV5600 6 speed conversion we ever did.  
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Ford
1979 Ford F-250 One of the cleanest vintage trucks you will ever see outside a show. This pristine 1979 Ford F-250 is owned by Beartooth Outfitters, a locally based back country guide service. Despite the showroom new looks, this truck spends a good part of it's life pulling big gooseneck trailers filled with pack and saddle stock across some of the steepest, meanest mountain passes in the 48 states.  It has big block power, but climbing speed is limited by the simple T18 4 speed manual transmission.  However, with an NP205 transfer case, Dana-Spicer Model 60 axles, and lockout hubs, this oldie has one of the most reliable drivetrain’s around.  When it's more modern brethren are broke down in the shop, this old F-250 is at work grinding out those tough miles day after day.  
Loading Bed on Ford F450 This 2008 Ford F-450 has a roll-off bed system, meaning the same truck can be used for multiple jobs just by changing the bed.  In the photo here, a container bed was dropped on the ground, loaded with 3 full cords of fire killed wood, and then winched back onto the truck.  This photo was taken up the West Fork of Rock Creek Canyon, west of Red Lodge, MT in the Beartooth Mountains.  The F-450 is a diesel, 6 speed work truck with a manual shift NV271F transfer case, Tru-Trac equipped Dana S110 rear differential, 19.5" tires, and dual fuel tanks.  The hoist and winch allow bed changeovers in less than 5 minutes. There is also both a gooseneck hitch and a class 5 receiver hitch.  On the front, an aluminum front bumper/grill guard combo is mounted.  
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International
1977 IHC 1600 4x4 Originally purchased by Crook County Schools in Wyoming, this 1977 factory 4x4 International 1600 school bus was used to get kids from remote ranches safely to and from school.  A Red Lodge, Montana, private bus contractor purchased the bus from CCS in the 1980's and used it on drift prone rural routes until the bus flunked a state safety inspection a year before I bought it.  By then it was pretty tired, but I rebuilt the entire drivetrain and used it for many years as a camper.  This was the only dual rear wheel vehicle I ever drove that liked snow.  Once I used it as a base camp while elk hunting at the end of a forest service road.  In the mean time, a major storm moved in while I was struggling to pack an elk out from some pretty steep country. When I finally got the meat back to the bus and ready to return from my hunt; I found places in the road where there were drifted as high as the top of the hood.  I really expected to be marooned, but to my astonishment, the old bus busted through them all!  When I finally got out to the county road, I found it hadn't been plowed, but again the old Binder plowed its way around and through drifts all the way out to the state highway 5 miles away.  At 6 tons empty, the little 345 meant it was underpowered, but with a 5 speed manual transmission, Rockwell T-223 2 speed Transfer Case, Dana 70 front axle, 6.17 axle ratios and 9.00"x22.5" 14 ply tires, it was a pretty impressive drivetrain for the mountains!  
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Jeep
1978 Jeep CJ-7 Versatile and rugged, this 1978 Jeep CJ-7 was my wife's family vehicle until our family out grew it.  After that, it was used for all kinds of jobs from errand runner to substitute tractor until our kids grew up and started taking it to school.  Equipped with a 258 6 cylinder engine, T18 4 speed, Dana 20 transfer case, front Tru-Trac and rear no-spin differentials, Ramsey 8000lb. electric winch, and 26 gallon fuel tank, this great old Jeep served our family well for over 2 decades.  Now owned by one of our nephews back east, the CJ has been reworked into a mud loving trail rig with the addition of a lift kit and big tires. One last note, I never owned a vehicle that was a "chick magnet" in my youth, but my daughters proved to me a topless Jeep CJ with a couple of good looking girls in it is a definite "guy magnet" ...maybe that is why we sold it?  
1968 Jeep M715 The second vehicle I ever owned, I bought this ex U.S. Navy Seabee 1968 Jeep M715, 1-1/4 ton cargo truck, to get me to and from college.  It was the only vehicle I owned for 7 years, being used for everything from taking girls on dates, touring the lower 48 states, and being a feed truck.  Instead of buying another outfit, I just kept modifying the old 5/4 ton for new jobs.  In the end, it had an 8 ton PTO winch, AMC 360 4 barrel V8, and a Ranger 27% 2 speed overdrive mounted in front of the original T98 4 speed giving it 16 forward and 4 reverse speeds. Other features were a modified NP200/205 Transfer Case, a Gleason Torsen gear type limited slip model 60 front differential, a No-Spin differential in the rear Model 70, 5.87 stock axle ratios, axle skid plates, both 12v and 24v alternators, Jackman custom wheels, 14-17.5 tires, a million candlepower of lighting, and 73 gallon fuel capacity. After 32 years, I finally sold my favorite ride to a nephew in Texas who had dreamed about owning it ever since he spent a summer helping us on the ranch in the early '90's.  
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