[Purcell69]

Of course, the weather has turned here and now the project is slowing down until next spring arrives, though I will get done little things here and there as I can.

This week, I got the rear driveshaft taken care of. A couple of summers ago, I shortened the rear driveshaft on my own so I could move the truck around under its own power and to get an idea of how short it would really need to be. I tacked it back together knowing full well that it would go to a driveshaft shop when the time came so it could be cut to final length, trued and balanced. Precision Drive in OKC did a great job and had it ready to go in about a day.

Since I had left it a little long, I had two inches taken out, to allow for extra suspension compression if I load the truck or start dragging a gooseneck. I still have over 3" of spline engagement on the transfer case output shaft with the slip yoke, and 3" of compression available instead of the 1" that I had initially after my handiwork.

Precision will definitely get my business when the time comes to build the longer front driveshaft next year.

I also devised a scheme to attach the bed strip to the hitch cover plate and make a pair of tabs to keep it secured to the bed when not in use. I figured I could use some longer bolts with nylock nuts to hold the strip against the bottom of the hitch cover. The remaining exposed thread below the nylock nuts would be used for the tabs to hold the plate in the opening. A piece of steel with a nut welded on would be attached at the bottom of the bolt. The tab could be threaded up the bolt until it held the plate securely, with red Loctite to keep it in place one it was adjusted.

An allen wrench could be used to turn the tab back and forth, with a locating pin in the hitch plate for a stop.

-Joe