Building a Pole Truck

The next transformation for the '79 F150. Turning it into an Alaskan boom truck to use as a wrecker.
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Thanks for watching!
Keep things rusty, except your tools!

[@blackrabbithomestead1466]

Thank you for this. Love from Fairbanks

[@johnberry1107]

Good story. Pretty nice junk pile to be considered nothing. Garage & tools deluxe. Stay safe.

[@ernestdeitz1670]

Need more spacing between the base of the boom and the support chains will make it more safe and stronger

[@dennisbelles9236]

You could always run a chain or a strap from the boom to the bumper or Reese hitch to limit the boom bounce

[@thomaswhitney8097]

You should enter one of your rigs into Matt's offroad recovery wrecker games if it happens again. It would be awesome to see how an Alaskan truck would do on the trails in southern Utah.

[@johnwinden8511]

Howdy! You mentioned putting wood blocks under your truck to lessen the squatting down. What I did was get a big coil spring. I cut it in half and welded a chunk of channel to the bottom of each then I welded it to the axle below the frame. It doesn’t affect anything until a load is added. The frame settles down onto the spring and that’s it, it goes no further down. Works good. I did the same thing on my flatbed trailer with the same results. Just thought I’d let you know what worked for me. Like the videos, thanks!

[@magicman2002]

make a moose catcher like you see on a kenworth, but of rusty iron.

[@philipcollins5440]

Beautiful Job. The welding looks gr8. I think you had to much fun in making your boom😊

[@Awsom47Merc]

* Austin ! You always put a smile on my face ! Dude you could use those poles for double duty. If you put a sparker in the bottom and a bung to load them with ether then put the end plate between the poles you could make an awesome double barrel Potato Gun !!! Also you could hook propane tanks up to the bungs and shoot flames into the sky !!! 🤘😎🤙

[@littlepaddy7444]

I like it and I'm looking forward to the sequel.

[@stephenhenion8304]

Great to follow along on your Truck Escapades!! We did all this stuff in the 80s... i guess you'd call us BackYard Connecticut!! We had Suburbans, Apaches, GMC Utilities, and on....thanks again, buddy!!

[@lonnyjaw]

Hey Brother! I hope 'Ole Ethel' don't get jealous of the the newcomer. You got one big happy family there! Can't wait for the field testing vids, keep 'er goin' brother!

[@captnsquid8151]

Good ideas and presented well and looks factory. Looking forward to that big ass front bumper.. thx for showing this vid.

[@daviddamico4288]

Looks really good, nice job…..

[@rickey5353]

Bad Ass. Great, useful build.

[@dennisolsen4507]

That dog will hunt.

[@donmunro7568]

You can't have functionality without a little funk. 😊

[@nolehopkins1077]

Your creativity is inspiring. I personally would love to see your idea for a huge wrecker style bumper come to fruition. Just my opinion. Rock on young man.

[@jarretpeart2833]

Your enthusiasm is great, and I enjoy the content. Someone will probably give you a hard time over the welding, and fitting, but I think you are doing fine. The only way you get really good at it is by doing it. Just like you are. Stay with the stick welding for the structural stuff, an ugly stick weld is often stronger than a pretty mig. And remember that better fitup makes it much easier to make good welds, especially out of position. Keep up the good work!

[@billyhaddock5540]

BYA, sure will be handy dandy to pull motors and pull-out vehicles in the woods.

[@whitepunch1392]

A friend of mine had his boom truck set up with two 5 ton trailer jacks on a custom rear bumper like out riggers for when he was dragging vehicles up hills .

[@whathappensinmaine5463]

Haha, thats Mainer style my friend. I dig it, i have my own rig of a similar set up, 78 F250 4x4. She gets mauled often snd well used. The boom is off a 61 F350 wrecker, on a 77 flatbed, the boom is held up by round tubing welded in place insyead of the old cable like it had. Takes a licking well

[@Badical69killemall]

You make me want to do stuff to my 76 f150! lol

[@mike-vw1zn]

She’s a beauty

[@jimmybritt9537]

It will work fine for what you are doing 👍👍🇺🇸

[@dickjohnson1158]

A 6010 will help with those big gaps and won’t have all that slag inclution from the 7018 .you may want to consider ( with that rear bracing ) a fifth wheel attachment if possible. Keep up the good work you do , looks like a lot of fun too .

[@gs1100ed]

5th wheel hitch kit is a Great idea!

[@JohnShinn1960]

Stayin tuned. 🤠👍

[@brendagaunce8757]

Great fab work glad you showed that all good workmanship does not have to look like it is factory made. Thanks for showing and be proud of your work I would be if I had done it.

[@ft133]

Great video. I see spring is here.

[@danzmitrovich6250]

Earnest Holmes will be proud of you guys that make custom made wreckers and a frame boom trucks for towing and recovery jobs and trees down a cross the atv trails and some people have a deer camp up in Alaskan worldernice and its a winch out call

[@readplanet23]

Good job on the boom truck. Working with what you have. Keep up the good videos. Have A Good Day Sir. 🛻🚚🚛

[@yager4092]

Bolt the boom to your hitchmount linked in the chains. That'll get you a lot more reach and it makes it easier to put it on and off

[@rossfricke2010]

hell yea 👏

[@craigbowley6783]

Nice work. Way to be resourceful 👌

[@AK-DIRECT907]

Hmm needs to test it out. I got the test. There's 2 70s 4door Nova's outside of town I need for RATBIRD 😅

[@Stevespoken]

A descaler might be handy

[@anthonynapier4668]

Heck yeah nothing wrong with that 👍 👍 👍 👍

[@somerandomguy3868]

That's one dubious idea and a wench away from being from getting you into some good story making, nicely done

[@kevinjohnson8758]

Good move. Go deluxe hook up the front diff.

[@timerickson7056]

Old propane tanks bumper you could even fill them with water for weight to prevent whee lstands . Hang a safety red painted propane tank from the boom

[@tjeffjenkins6226]

NICE Rig!

[@richardlucy3822]

Awesome build 😎

[@BushmansAdventures]

I’m literally about to build something similar for my Mazda B2200 so I can lift up Pelican Cases and small logs etc

[@duran4689]

Love this guys content

[@vincenzostagliano5011]

Brooklyn style my friend the early models used a chain like yours later models used a cable to suspend but the 3 pole manley’s had a one piece housing with the cable inside the center housing ..

[@tmscheum]

Noice!

[@billyhill101]

If it works it wort!

[@Booze_Rooster]

So uhh, no tension chain to hold the boom down? Looks like nothing will stop it from swinging forward and crushing the cab if you were to jam the brakes on going down a steep hill or bouncing it down a trail. Its a pity angle grinders are illegal where you are. I get the rough and ready build style but goddamn dude. As for the springs bagging out, look at the old rock crawler trick of the "Zuk mod". compress a few old coil springs and land them on your upper and lower bump stops, then open up the compressor. It will support the center of the leaf pack and can easily be removed with the coil compressor if you need to drive it unloaded. or just get some hefty old chain binders and fab up links that you can swing down and lock to mounts on your rear axle and essentially lock the rear suspension in place. The screw threads will let you adjust for uneven ground. When you're done yanking something heavy, pull the lynch pins, pivot them back up to the crossmember and pin them in a stowage position.

[@seantbr2019]

I'm a heavy equipment welder and your welds are fine I rebuild buckets and you should see some of the booger welds that have been holding them together for 20 years your fine

[@garyeverhart2260]

I like that I like to have 1

[@michaelnault5905]

I thought I saw smoke in the northern sky today :-)

[@jamestefft314]

Here we go!

[@curtisblair7618]

It works 😀👍

[@richardlincoln8438]

👌🏼 Mint !

[@harleydavidson1620]

You can weld that hole on Z bar then re-drill a hole also.

[@MrJanaRobi]

Pick it up ,Pick up truck !

[@danzmitrovich6250]

Plenty of oilfield pipe and winches from the world war two era army trucks with the wire rope from ritchie bros auctioneers from the old logging trucks and there you go back in business

[@diablo3894]

Why did you feel the need for cross bracing ?

[@lolatmyage]

How do you adjust the height?

[@aldoucette5713]

I like to have it

[@jameshuggins4300]

Nothing like building something that sketchy af to get something done 😂😂😂😂

[@nrgate]

Jeez putting all that 'Day Two' crap on that Baret Jackson Alaskan Highboy Ferd really is going to hurt the bidding when your wives are auctioning off your estate. Oh well, they knew what they were getting into.

[@jomomma8291]

So are you retiring the old green pole truck?

[@BackyardAlaskan]

Never

[@craigbowley6783]

Where did you learn how to do all this stuff? I mean you're always working alone so it seems like you might be self taught.

[@BackyardAlaskan]

Pretty much self taught with a lot of things.

[@bobb819]

Kick ass and move on!

[@matrix54190]

❤️👍👍🙃 👋🥖🇫🇷