M1010 box on a M1008

[WalkingToFreedom402]

Hello all.

I have the opportunity to purchase a m1010 roller...well sort of.

The cab is rotten, axles are gone, & the drivetrain has already been removed.
It would come with half ton axles to make it movable.

I currently have two d30s... one of which is a clean m1008a1 that was painted white & has a flatbed courtesy of a small town fire department.

I have been pondering the feasibility of removing the flatbed & replacing it with the m1010 box.

The first obvious issue is the pass through. While a great feature I think that I could live without it.
If I don't go this route I will continue using a slide in style camper which allows no passage to the cab.

How does one seal off the pass through? It appears to have a door of sorts.
This m1010 is 2 hours away so I have only been looking at pics so far.

I actually saw my first m1010 in person at the recent MVPA cross country convoy. I snapped a few pics but wish that I would have looked even closer at it.

I am not super worried about the weight of it as I can add some overloads or rear air bags to the truck.

As far as the build out goes... I am leaning towards completely gutting it & salvaging parts from a conventional camper.

My end goal would be to have a self contained off road capable camping rig that can sleep 2-3 people while providing basic amenities. Nothing too fancy at all... I probably would figure out a basic toilet setup for my daughter to utilize at night while camping.

I snapped a pic of the welded extension on the frame but cannot tell if it is necessary to support the 1010 body?
The last cross section that I see sitting on the frame is right before the normal frame ends???


I would love to hear everyone's thoughts & opinions on this operation.

At this juncture... I am over burdened with vehicles. Selling one of mine & simply buying a m1010 from halfway across the country is not a current option for me.

 

[cruzer747]

While I am by no means an authority I will give my opinions where they may be helpful...

How does one seal off the pass through? It appears to have a door of sorts.

I have not looked at the fasteners too close but imagine they are aluminum rivets. To keep it simple I would imagine that you could drill em out and use the gasket to make a template on some fresh aluminum sheet (profile and hole layout). Remove levers and maybe add a bead of sealant to prevent door from vibrating ...and then use a sealant of choice and re-rivet. Then sheet over the inside in a similar fashion... This way you could always undo it should a good m1010 cab present itself somehow...?

My end goal would be to have a self contained off road capable camping rig that can sleep 2-3 people while providing basic amenities. Nothing too fancy at all... I probably would figure out a basic toilet setup for my daughter to utilize at night while camping.

depending on size of daughter... 3 could be pretty tight. But I fit 2 smallish adults and a large dog in mine so I guess it is doable. You would be hard pressed getting much bigger than a thin double mattress and still be able to have much functionality in the box...

I snapped a pic of the welded extension on the frame but cannot tell if it is necessary to support the 1010 body?
The last cross section that I see sitting on the frame is right before the normal frame ends???

cant help you here, my frame had a bunch of addon stuff for hitches that I never looked too hard at what might be m1010 specific... I am sure someone else can get a more clear view of what you might need to make /acquire here.

At this juncture... I am over burdened with vehicles. Selling one of mine & simply buying a m1010 from halfway across the country is not a current option for me.

If you have the time and energy to do the work yourself then great, if time is tight getting a functioning camping rig for the family and only getting to work every 3rd weekend or so might drag out into not using it for camping any time soon. List out all the projects, map out time frames and available time to work and then triple your time estimate and if it still gets you on the road in the desired time frame then go for it! I dunno... things always take a lot longer than you expect. I found a great base for what I wanted on the opposite coast. It was delivered for a very reasonable price. $2500 for almost 3200 miles (avoiding highways as you can only really go about 50mph stock). 3200 miles at 15mpg lats say $4/g including minor needs is about $850. Leaving $1650... Well, google puts that route at 57 hours.... at 50mph that turns into about 75 hours driving. If you want to retain your sanity you drive 11 hours a day so this puts you on the road for an entire week. No guarantee you do not have a major breakdown. This allows $200 a day and $35 for meals. 7 days you are not at work making $. These are numbers I crunched when I was thinking about if it is worth it to have one shipped. Also what I did was a huge crap shoot but after getting enough pictures and speaking with the seller enough to get a sense that he was a good guy and knew what it was he was selling and also not pawning off a lemon... I rolled the dice. I was still able to go to work and make money while my rig gained 0 miles on the odometer on its trip over. That is 3200 miles more I will be able to spend adventuring before a major engine overhaul becomes necessary. I understand your situation may be totally different from mine but I thought my thought process that I went through may help.

My takeaway on it is if you really can hammer it out and get to camping sooner than later go for it! If it is something you want to invest a ton of time and money into I would advise considering looking for something a little closer to what you are after from the get go.


-edit- I just searched all of craigslist in the states and found 1 for sale.... really good price and from the looks of it condition as well.
https://charlotte.craigslist.org/cto/d/charlotte-cucv-m1010/6989257431.html

If you want to hunt for a while this is a great tool that can crawl craigslist for as far as you set it to: searchtempest.com fast and free. Good luck!

 

[m38inmaine]

The pass through door as I remember does not have a seal it relies on the cab to box seal. The frame has extensions welded on so if you do swap make sure to save them.

 

[Mad Texan]

If not rusted all the way up the back of the cab, cut the back out of the M1010 cab and graft it into the better cab. Then have the pass thru!

That would be the one piece I would want if I ever built a Crew Cab M1010... but I digress...

 

[CrustyM1010]

I’ve thought about sealing off the door to the rear of my M1010 but it’s a feature that’s grown on me over the last year I’ve had it. It’s so convenient. I can easily hop in the back to grab something if need be. So personally, I would advise keeping the walk through.

I can snap a ton of pictures of the weld on portion if you are interested in that. And give you some measurements.

I gotta say the M1010 is the best truck I’ve ever had for camping. I’ve put the stretchers up and had 4 people sleeping in the truck during a Camping trip. And if it’s just my girl and I, I have a piece of plywood that bridges the gap between the two sides to fit a queen blow up mattress back there. And that HVAC IS ICE COLD!

If you did want a complete M1010 I’m downsizing for a possible deployment next year. I have 5 trucks.... and no room to store them. I’ve been in talks with govplanet to list it for sale but they want 15%... so we will see.

 

[Mad Texan]

If you did want a complete M1010 I’m downsizing for a possible deployment next year. I have 5 trucks.... and no room to store them. I’ve been in talks with govplanet to list it for sale but they want 15%... so we will see.

What five trucks?!?!? Asking for a friend...

 

[WalkingToFreedom402]

Thanks for the feedback everyone & especially thank you for those pics of the m1010 with the ambulance body removed. That was helpful to understand how it works.

I had another thought that might make this 'more worth going to all this trouble'.
I recently scored a deal on a 1988 v30 Air Force Crew Cab.

It needs a good bit of TLC but seems like a great platform to add a m1010 body with pass through onto.

 

[TechnoWeenie]

I recently scored a deal on a 1988 v30 Air Force Crew Cab.

It needs a good bit of TLC but seems like a great platform to add a m1010 body with pass through onto.

That sounds awesome.

DRW it if it isn't already...and it sounds like you'd have an awesome rig... Just be aware of the length and ground clearance re:high centering it if you go off road. the XLWB doesn't help in situations like that.