Wow! it is amazing what you stumble across on the internet. Allow me to introduce myself. I am "the brother" and I have a view of the 63 GMC out my front window just past the barn across the road. This thread is about hubs, so I'll try to remember to get back to those.
First, let me say I remember having a conversation with my brother back when dad first bought the gmc, which was a replacement for the other 4 wheel drive he had, a 59 willys pickup with 3 spd that ate clutches under the snow load. This mighty new beast was going to be just the ticket to push the 8' manual swing plow to remove the Iowa snow from the 80 or so resident trailer park that our grandparents owned. Lakeside Manor Park. All 1/4 acre lots. The Elysium of trailer parks.
We were used to seeing the faded powder blue Willys with 700x15 mud and snows under the flat fenders and when the mighty gmc showed up, it also was sporting 700x15's under its immense wheel clearance fenders and what seems to be a factory 4" lift. Anyway, I was 8 years old and I just didn't like the look of that huge truck with the huge plow and the huge fenders and the little roller skate tires. We brothers were split at the time over whether it looked good or not. No matter. It was what we had and it could move mountains of snow. Dad always ran chains on all four wheels. Skinny tires with chains in snow is just about unstoppable.
Fast forward a few years, 1974, Grandparents retired, we moved away from Elysium to Utopia, a small 17 acre farm on the edge of the school district. Now the only snow was our own driveway, 1/4 mileish long. It had to snow more than 3" for dad to even fire the gmc up and put her to work. It sat parked year round, but on the snow days, he would put in a hot battery and crank her up. All of the heater knobs were broken off in who knows what position. There was no heat, but the massive holes in the floor kept enough air circulating that our breath wouldn't fog up the windshield.
Occasionally, on real big snows, dad would go plow out the neighbors and a few family friends. Mostly just showing off I think. The old gmc was a legend around western Scott county. I'm thinking that it was 1978 or 9, there was a huge blizzard, the buses weren't running, but school was not cancelled it seemed. Not sure who's idea it was to take both of my big brothers to high school instead of just sitting it out, but dad cranked up the gmc and off they went 14 miles into town when nothing else was moving. He dropped them off and headed home. Before he even got back, the brothers had called from school to tell mom that they had school open just long enough to have it not count as a snow day but they were closing early and dad would have to come back and get them. Dad wasn't a happy camper about that.
Fast forward a few more years and I was in high school and the movie "Take this job and shove it" came out. 1980 or 81. Anyway, that was "Bigfoot's" first movie and all I could think about was putting a set of 44's on the gmc and being the cool kid at school. Well, that didn't happen. The 44's or the cool kid. Dad said "if I sell you the gmc, what am I going to replace it with? It ain't eatin no hay sittin right there until I need her."
Well, I was going to have a gmc one way or another. I found an ad in the wheeler dealer for a 61 3/4 ton v-6 gmc. I had to borrow some money but it was worth the $2000 I paid for it. It was white and was immediately nick named "snowdrift" because of the shape of the hood. It came with 8-17.5 tires. When those wore out, I upgraded to 7.50x17's and gained about 4" of altitude.
Fast forward from early 80's to about 2002??? Dad called me and said the plow hoist had quit on the gmc and some guy had come in the driveway to ask to buy it. He told me if I still wanted it, I could have it because he had found a diesel ford at a farm sale and he wasn't going to fix the gmc. I was hooked up to a trailer within the hour and headed from NW AR. to eastern Iowa before he changed his mind. Now it is here.
Fast forward somemore. I have been accumulating rust free components ever since. Besides the Snowdrift, (which I still have stored in a container) I have a 60 3/4 ton 2x4 (also stored) and several 2 tons. I have too many projects, not enough time. Brother Pilotguy wishes he had a cool old daily driver, problem solved! (Partial assembly required)
Anyway, back to the hubs... My Snowdrift has dualmatic lockouts with the two levers that pivot around. One of them has been cracked ever since I bought it back in the early 80's. Dad's had the same problem. The passenger side hub was broken. He tried taking it off and two or three of the bolts broke off smooth in the hub. He tried drilling one. It went off center. he took the hub to a machine shop and they didn't do any better. He ended up having plates made to lock the axle in full time and that is how it has been ever since.
I know Dualmatic hubs are extinct, but if I could find one somewhere, that would be great, if not, I guess after all these years, I'll be ditching my dualmatics for something modern.
I didn't mean to hijack this thread, but I am very excited that dad's truck will get new life and stay in the family for a while longer. Hopefully the young uns will want to keep the gmc's in the family for a long time. I'll be providing pics to Pilotguy as I begin to tinker with it pretty soon.
