What is this brake line junction thing?

[Busboy]

Nice rig. Does your truck have rear shock absorbers? Mine does not, nor does it look like it ever has, no brackets on either the axle or the frame.

[71cc]

I had a 72 crew cab camper special. Dana 70 no rear shocks.

[Busboy]

Thanks for the reply.

[Jim Bathgate]

Yes, my 1968 F350 Camper Special does have rear shocks. I just replaced all the shocks with Monroe Gas-Magnums. Here's the old Gabriel booster shocks that were on the back, followed by a not-very-good shot of the new shock (yellow color) on the rear. I didn't need the extra weight capacity of the booster shocks so just replaced them with regular style. This truck has a GVW rating of 10,000 lb and I have had that much on there with the dual sets of leaf springs on the back nowhere near bottoming out. It looks like standard factory mounts for the shocks but I've been fooled before on this. There is a little interference between the emergency brake cable and the shocks, with some spring mechanism holding the emergency brake cable out of the way. I'll have to look closer today when I get to my shop. Note that somebody had removed the auto brake adjusters from the rear brakes. I put new ones back on when I rebuilt the rear brakes this past week.

[Ranchero50]

Mine had shocks. It was also an RV in a prior life. Should be a nice ride when loaded but a little rough on the ride back. What are you expecting for mileage? My 360'd F250 with 4.10s never did better than 10 mpg loaded or not. Kind of sad our vintage Dana 70's won't take 3.50 gears. My Cummins powered 350 dually gets 18 mpg at 75 mph but I don't think my back could do repeat 600 mile days.

[Jim Bathgate]

I'm only planning about 300 miles per day at about 60 MPH. I'm not in a rush and want to enjoy the towns along the way. Intentionally picking smaller cities I haven't visited before to overnight in just to see more of America. Gas mileage has not been great (8-10) but with the carburetor rebuild and tuneup, should be a little better. We'll see.

Taking out the booster shocks should make the ride a little better and the wooden box I'm building for the back will be about 600 lbs anyway. New all season tires with lots of tread.

For Busboy, here a picture I took today of the rear mounted shock. The emergency brake cable is in the foreground. Looks like factory mounts.

[bluef250]

That is a nice looking truck. Have a safe and uneventful trip!