[hgs_notes]

Last year I decided it was time to retire my old plow truck, a 76 K10. I bought it when I bought my house because we are out in the corn fields, in Minnesota, and I have a 1/4 mile long driveway. Plus a big area around the house and garages and sheds that needs to be cleared out when it snows. It was my first snow plow and for the most part it did the job. It really struggled late in the winter when the drifts and piles were big. It didn't always start easy but was okay once it fired up. The wipers worked occasionally, which is a joy when you're pushing a path on a windy day and it's blasting over the hood. It was extremely rusty. But like I said, it did the job most of the time. Until the transmission also started to fail. I used it for more than a year with only low and reverse. It had a TH350.

Anyway, I wanted something better and was shopping for a cheap early 2000s silverado. The EFI and LS motor was a plus. But the cheap ones I looked at all had frame rust or cracks or both. Then this 78 GMC K35 dually came up on FB only 25 miles away. Rebuilt motor, missing the rear dual wheels and with the wrong front axle. Someone swapped out the dually style Dana 60 for a big hub Dana 44. But it was pretty straight and the rust wasn't what I would call terrible. Not for this area.

So I went to check it out. It had been for sale for over a week and the seller was still running it from a little push mower gas tank gravity feeding the carb. ???? Okay, it started. The guy said it had been sitting a couple years and the gas in the tank was bad. I told him I wouldn't even make an offer unless I could test drive it. I asked what we had to do to get it driveable and he said we just had to get the old gas out and put new gas in. I said let's do it. We went to the gas station and filled a jug then ran the engine off the lawn mower tank while the fuel pump sucked the old gas into a bucket. It only took a minute. Put fresh gas in, hooked the pump outlet back to the carb and away I went! Grabby brakes, but they worked. 4wd worked. It didn't seem to be over heating and sounded like it was running good. Oh yeah, no gage cluster. Another bonus was that it had a plow mount but not the blade. The hydraulics had been rebuilt and most of it was powder coated and looked great. And my current plow blade would fit it, same brand and model.

We worked out a deal. $2200 which I think was fair but not exactly a steal with things like the wrong front axle, missing cluster, tires, etc. But it had potential which was something the old plow truck didn't have. Let's see if I can find the pics from when I bought it.